Page 85 of Havenfall Harbor
“Okay, you win,” I concede, allowing her to take the smaller of the bags from me. While she’s busy with that one, I grab the second and have it dumped into the basket before she can even unzip hers.
Quinn lets out a little growl of frustration, and my dick gets hard when she glares at me, still bent over her bag.
“What?” I try to look innocent, but that’s something I’ve never been, so I’m probably not very successful.
Evan makes a throat clearing sound, and when Quinn looks over at him, the grin he was sporting is gone, vanishing as quickly as it came. “Ready?” he questions, overly somber.
I have the urge to roll my eyes, a new experience for me too.
“I suppose.” Quinn shoves her stuff on top of the clothes I already put in the basket, cramming them down with her hand.
I reach for the basket, lifting it up to my chest. There’s a pair of pink polka dot cotton panties peeking out that she tried to hide. If I didn’t know how completely naïve she was to supernaturals, I would think she perfected the art of foreplay. It’s as if she’s teasing me.
I lower the basket a bit, no need for everyone in the hall to see my hard-on. Hell, I’m putting off enough pheromones that the entire first floor probably knows I’m desperate to fuck her.
Evan leads us to the basement laundry. It’s near several other utility and maintenance rooms. I don’t often come down here. We’re near the back of the building, close to where we found her this morning.
Someone could have easily exited and entered through one of these hidden doors to get to her outside. I wrinkle my nose when we enter the laundry room. It’s bright and very much not empty. Schooling my features, I note the looks sent in my direction.
I guess seeing me lugging around a basket of laundry is a strange sight, but do they need to fucking stare?
“Headmaster!” Millie exclaims, rushing to my side. She stops just in front of me with a stricken look on her face. “I’m sorry, let me take care of this.” She reaches for Quinn’s clothes. I make one small move of rebuke, and that’s all it takes to have her jerking her arms back into her body and stepping away from me.
Quinn is near a bank of washers, but her eyes keep darting to me every few seconds, even as she starts pretending to pay attention to Evan as he shoves his entire bag into one machine.
I almost forget Millie is in front of me and take a step in Quinn’s direction. Having her eyes on me, like she needs to know where I am, is almost drugging. It makes me feel more powerful than the lineage bestowed upon me.
She’s not giving me coy glances or trying to get my attention. Hell, it’s like she’s fighting not to look.
“Headmaster?” I furrow my brow, bothered that Millie is keeping me from going over to Quinn. At my glower, she lifts her hands again like she wants to take what’s in my arms but knows not to. “Is there anything I can do for you?” she inquires in a pleading tone.
“No.” I take a step forward, assuming that would be it, but Millie doesn’t let up, she turns her body to follow me.
“But...” She bites the corner of her lip, and her eyes cut to Quinn and Evan.
I pause for the barest second, giving her a chance to say whatever she thinks is so important, but when she doesn’t add anything, I walk past her, heading toward Quinn and Evan.
I forget about her faster than I dismissed her. Quinn watches me walk over, her eyes flowing over me as if she’s assessing me. It makes me want to drop the basket and offer her a much closer inspection.
“Here, I got those.” Her fingers brush over mine as she attempts to take the load from me. I cock my brow and she narrows her eyes. That really shouldn’t be so enticing, but fuck all, it is.
“This one is empty.” Evan closes the door to his machine and opens the one next to it. Quinn shakes her head slowly and starts grabbing items out of the basket. I win this round.
Quinn
Now that ourlaundry is done and we’re fed, we’re heading back outside. I expect to feel nervous or a little frightened about returning to the place where I was attacked, but I don’t. That might have more to do with the two giant bodyguards I’ve inherited, though, and not my inner strength.
“How is this going to help?” I gaze around. It’s early afternoon, and the sun has warmed up the walkway, making it feel like a completely different place.
“When we found you, we were focused on you. There might be something we missed.” Evan is staring at the ground as he makes a large circle around the area where I presume they found me.
A peal of laugher catches my attention. Up ahead I see a group of kids coming our way, and they pause when they spot us. Evan doesn’t even look up, he and Griffin probably heard them well before I did.
The kids backpedal, half of them turning around to head back in the direction they came from. Strange. Why would just seeing us have them retreating?
Griffin tilts his head to the side. “Come here,” he orders, not even raising his voice.
The entire group pauses before doing as Griffin asks, a few moving slower, ensuring that they’re herded to the back of the group.
