Sauter (Ironside Academy, #3)(61)

“You can handle this. You can do this. You’ve dealt with worse. Nothing has even happened yet. Get a hold of yourself.”

She felt alone.

Didn’t she realise nobody would ever hurt her again?

They couldn’t control every variable in the known world, but the girl had ten half-bonded mates. It was as close as she could get to complete and utter protection.

Except they had already failed once, hadn’t they?

She sank onto the tiled ledge, her head tipping back to stare at the water pouring down from the giant rainfall shower head.

“Think of literally anything else,” she instructed herself strictly.

Gabriel contained a smirk, leaning heavily against the wall—since the sensation of being inside two bodies was so disorientating. He hadn’t pegged her for a person who talked to herself, but maybe it was the stress getting to her.

She suddenly looked down, and he froze, getting an eyeful of nipples the exact same shade as her soft lips, and long, pale legs stretching out to catch the spray of water.

Shit. He managed to push away from the wall, feeling his way out of the shower and cringing at the water that sluiced all over the floor as he felt for his phone.

He made it back to the bench, probably drenching his phone as he tried to focus on the screen. Isobel’s tired sigh travelled through him, and he fought off a pounding headache as he focussed just long enough to navigate into a secure message screen.

He snapped straight back into her head as soon as he stopped fighting it, watching as she rested her hands against her thighs, rubbing up and down in an attempt to calm herself. It took several rounds of deep breathing to fight off the sick feeling that threatened to make him black out from his brief rebellion against the side effect.

The bond did not fuck around, apparently. He would have to make note of that later.

Gabriel raised his phone to his mouth, knowing intuitively where the text-to-speech button was.

“I’m in your head.”

She looked up when she heard her phone, leaning out of the shower to snatch it off the counter.

Hidden member: Preview unavailable.

She tapped on the message.

Unknown: I’m in your head.

She swore softly, clicking on the “unknown” contact. It gave her the standard error when secured messaging was turned on.

This feature is currently hidden.

Her fingers flew over the screen. Isobel: Who is this?

“You have ten guesses.” He spoke the message, hearing her slight chuckle as it popped up on her screen.

She started typing again, before stopping, fixing her gaze to the wall. “Why am I typing?” She shook her head, another tired sigh slipping out. “Will you text me when you’re out of my head, please?”

“Yes.” He kept his finger on the button, pausing. “Are you okay?”

“I just want to think about something other than death or disaster for a second,” she huffed out. “Is this a professor?”

“No.”

“Are you telling the truth?”

“Yes.”

She waited, before whispering, “Then why? Is it—”

“Isobel.” He sent the message, cutting her off as she glanced at her screen.

He swallowed. She didn’t realise she had dropped the hand holding her phone, and he got another goddamn eyeful as she glanced down at her screen.

He couldn’t close his eyes, couldn’t block her out.

“Call Isobel,” he grumbled, raising his phone to his ear.

“Gabe-Gabriel?” She saw his name flash across her screen before she answered.

“Yeah.”

“Are you okay?” she asked, fixing her eyes back to the wall after she clicked the speakerphone button and set the phone onto a small shelf behind her head—probably so that she wouldn’t keep accidentally looking down at her lap. “I’m … sorry—”

Why was her pussy completely shaved? Must have been a rich girl thing, because he highly doubted it was to keep herself tidy for a sexual partner. He had never even met a more obvious virgin.

“For something you can’t control? I’m fine. Are you okay?”

“Of course.” She lowered her voice as though it might prevent him from detecting her lie.

He was starting to feel the pressure of needing everything to go right, but he pushed back his own agitation, working hard to gentle his tone.

“Something has been happening to you all day. Do you want to tell me what it is?”

“Just this weird feeling.” She was holding her stomach again. He couldn’t see it, but he could feel it. Soft skin wrapping subtle muscle, smooth as silk beneath her touch, water dripping from her fingertips. She had a beautiful body. It was like it had been created specifically to dance. It didn’t seem to matter what she wore or what she was doing, clothes fit her figure like they were made just for her, even when they were five sizes too big.

“Describe it?” he prompted.

“Just … hollow pain. Sharp. I don’t know. There’s just this emptiness inside my stomach.”

“Like hunger?”

“I guess, but different.”

“Longing?”

She paused, but her soft stroking across the gentle muscles of her stomach continued. She must not have realised that he could feel what she was doing.