The Hidden Princess At All-Boys Alpha Academy



The next thing I know, Jackson and I are cliffside and he is snatching me close to him with a wicked snarl, surprising a laugh out of me that he quickly silences with a proper kiss - the long, deep, knee-jellying kind that quickly has me rather desperate, pressing my body tight against him and winding my arms around his neck.

The growl that builds in Jackson's chest is satisfyingly hungry as he pulls me to the ground with him, my legs finding their place on either side of his hips as he settles me on his lap, deepening the kiss and letting one hand get lost in my hair while the other traces down the line of my back.

I'm basically panting a few minutes later when he breaks the kiss, looking at me with his gorgeous sapphire eyes lazy and half-lidded. "Hi," he whispers.

I ignore the word, emitting a little desperate huff and lifting my chin, wanting more, but Jackson just laughs again and turns us, laying me out on the soft grass by the cliff of our dreamscape, cradling my head gently in his hand. "Trust me, I want nothing more than to kiss you all night," he murmurs, dropping his lips to my neck and tracing long, lingering kisses there.

"So do it," I whine, desperately unhappy that he apparently wants to talk when things were getting so good.

Jackson just laughs and presses one final kiss to my mouth before he shakes his head at me. I sigh, tracing my fingers along his cheek and staring up at his face, noting and not at all displeased that Jackson doesn't make any move to lift his body from where it presses deliciously all along the length of mine.

He grins at me, sensing my emotions, and I just bite my lip. "It's your fault," I whisper. "For being so hot."

Jackson laughs, grinning at me, shaking his head. "I didn't choose to be so devastatingly good looking, Ariel," he murmurs. "Can't blame me for that." "Yes I can," I whine, covering my face with my hands, unable to look at him without wanting to grab his shirt and pull him down further on top of me and kiss him until I pass out or die or whatever comes next. "Unfair."

"You have the same effect on me, you know," he murmurs, tracing his hand achingly down the length of my torso.noveldrama

"I so don't," I growl, lowering my hands enough to glare at him. "Or else we'd definitely be naked right now -"

He laughs at me, I think entertained and pleased. "It's just discipline, Clark."

"Well then quit that, McClintock," I snap, sitting up a little, grinning at him. "Give in - it's a magical dream state! There are no rules here, no one to impress with how stoic you can be!" But this just makes him laugh, and kiss me again, before taking a deep breath and relaxing against me.

"I want to check in with you," he says, calm and even. "Make sure you're okay."

"I'm all right," I say, relaxing back

against the grass, pleased and warm and perfectly at peace - even if just mildly sexually frustrated. I raise my hand and rake my fingers through his hair.

"You're worried, after everything that happened today," Jackson murmurs, even as his eyes go half-shut with the pleasure of having his head scratched. "I can tell and I want to help."

"You know

-

say quietly, even as ! study his perfect face, "I'm allowed to be worried it's a very natural emotion. You don't always have to fix it. Sometimes things are worrying - and so I worry."

"I know," he says, his full lips curving at the corners. "I just want to make it all easy and good, even if I can't."

"Because you are so sweet," I whisper, continuing to trace my fingers through his hair.

"No, I'm very tough and scary," he says, his voice pitching deeper, more threatening. But I just laugh. “Nobody needs to reminded of how sweet they are the night before battle."

"Don't worry, I won't tell the enemies” I say softly. “Your secret is safe with me.”

He nods once, dropping a kiss to my cheek.

"What about you?" I whisper, my eyes moving slowly over his face – his long lashes, his straight nose. "How are you feeling about what happened this afternoon, all the news we got?"

"It's weird, isn't it?" Jackson sighs, rolling away from me so that he's laying on his back, staring up at the stairs. I prop myself up at his side so that I can look down at his face, listening closely, wanting to help in turn ifI can. "I never...thought about where my magic came from before I came to this Academy -it was always just mine. And now I have so many questions." Content belongs

"Does it upset you?" I ask quietly, slipping a hand across his hard stomach, kind of unable to not touch him. "That your magic is not a Goddess-given gift? That it's from someone else?"

"No," he says, turning his head to look at me. "Especially if it opens the possibility that I don't have a second mate - someone I met earlier in my life who made the magic start."