Chapter 168 Chapter 168

Chapter 168 Chapter 168
Amber

And the fact that the thought didn’t even cross his mind, that it didn’t bother him in the slightest annoyed me to no end.
Yes, I knew he promised there would be nothing except physical relationship between us, just give and take but fuck I wanted to take tonight and he wasn’t giving.
Damian only observed me but said nothing so I tried to hit him again with an open palm, aimed at his shoulder.
He caught both of my wrists in one smooth motion and walked me backward until my spine met the cold stone wall of the building behind me. 
He pinned my hands lightly against the wall on either side of my head, body bracketing mine without quite pressing close. 
The heat of him still reached me. The scent of him filled my head and my breath hitched hard.
Even then I couldn’t stop.
“You’re mine,” I bit out with my chin lifted in defiance, the words coming out rougher and far more older than sober me would have ever said out loud.
Something dark and dangerous flared in his silver eyes when I said that and Soren’s words of how Damian wasn’t as unaffected as he showed rang in my ears.
But then he hadn’t wanted to yank Soren’s arm off my body did he? 
He was here, almost letting Amy climb him like a tree.
“Don’t you dare touch another girl. Don’t you dare let them touch you. I don’t care about tradition or partners or any of it.”
The air between us went tight and electric. For a second the indifferent mask slipped again, and what looked out at me was pure, undiluted intensity.
“Red!” He warned but I was done with playing by his rules.
I wanted him badly and I wanted him now, the hunt could go to hell and the academy could be on fire for all I cared.
So I kept going, voice lower now, rough with alcohol and want and leftover jealousy. 
“I can see it on your face. You’re not as unaffected as you pretend. You want this too. You…want me”
I jabbed a finger at him and then pointed it at me.
“You’re just too much of a control freak to admit it while I’m standing here like this, while I’m fighting you to give us what we both clearly want.”
His gaze narrowed. “You’re drunk. You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
The drinks made me braver than I had any right to be. I twisted one hand free of his loose hold, grabbed the front of his collar again, and pulled myself up to his height until our faces were inches apart. 
And he let me. His breath mingled with mine. The scent of him, the warmth and hunger radiating off him with something darker and more dangerous underneath filled every thought.
“Why?” I whispered. The word came out almost like a challenge. “Are you afraid of what I’ll do to you if you let me?”
His eyes flared like glowing pits of silver.
“Amber….stop.”
He rarely called me Amber but that wasn’t enough to make me stop.
I pushed closer, lips nearly brushing his, heart slamming against my ribs so hard I was certain he could feel it. 
“Make me. Or are you worried you’ll actually break that perfect control if I keep going?”
I raised my index finger, trailing it along his jawline. “Are you worried you’ll stop pretending you don’t want the same thing I do?”
A muscle jumped in his jaw. He was either very angry or very turned on. Probably both.
For a long second he stayed frozen, eyes locked on mine, the battle between restraint and something far hungrier playing out across his face in subtle shifts that my drunken brain was too messed up to process properly.
The night air suddenly felt insufficient to fill my lungs and the cold stone at my back was the only thing grounding me against the heat of him.
Then the last of his patience snapped.
“Enough!”
One second I was pinned against the wall. The next the world tilted hard as strong arms hooked behind my knees and around my back. 
He plucked me off the ground like I weighed nothing, hauled me up and over his shoulder in one powerful motion. 
The air left my lungs in a startled rush. My hair swung down toward the grass and the crimson dress rode high on my thighs, cool air rushing against newly exposed skin.
“Damian, put me down!”
“Not before I put you to bed”
I hit his back with my fists, tried to wriggle out of his hold but a traitorous part of me loved having him so close and the friction of his skin against mine.
He took long strides to carry me away from the building and the fading music, toward the dorms.
I feared he was going to dump me right over a snoring Ellie but then he changed directions and started walking toward his room, not mine. 
Raw hope flared inside of me even as every step jostled me against the hard muscle of his shoulder. 
One of his hands stayed locked across the backs of my thighs, holding me in place like I was a mere gunny bag. The other braced my hip. 
The heat of his palm seeped through the thin fabric of the dress and into my skin and I arched into his touch.
I should have kept fighting, I should have demanded he put me down and leave me alone and remembered how the four Alphas who had already judged me along with the cryptic warning Soren had left in my head.
Instead I went still, heart racing, and heat began pooling low in my stomach. 
His voice was low and rough as he climbed the first set of stairs.
“You want to pick a fight while you’re this far gone? Fine. We’ll finish it somewhere without an audience.”
I closed my eyes, fingers curling into the back of his jacket, and let him carry me into his room, my nerves tingling in anticipation.