Chapter 202 [Bonus – ] A Little Lesson
Aria braced herself, already certain this was about to be the most mind-blowing intimacy they’d shared yet. They were outside, for God’s sake, hidden among the trees but nowhere near far enough that someone couldn’t stumble upon them.
She had never considered herself the kind of woman who would find the possibility of getting caught exciting. Yet Maverick was introducing her to all sorts of things about herself tonight.
He didn’t make the move Aria expected. Instead, Maverick lifted his head and began murmuring beneath his breath in a language she didn’t understand.
“What are you—”
Her question was cut short by a sudden creak behind her.
Aria barely had time to look before the tree came alive. The bark shifted against her back as two slender vines emerged from either side of the trunk, curling around her wrists before she could react. With one swift tug, they lifted her arms above her head and wound securely around them, binding her against the tree.
“Maverick!” Aria exclaimed, instinctively pulling against them. The vines didn’t budge. If anything, they tightened.
“Fae magic,” he explained, looking far too pleased with himself. “I’m nowhere near perfect at it, but I did pick up a trick or two.”
“A trick or two specifically for tying your mate to a tree in the middle of the woods?” Aria tried to sound scandalized, but the breathlessness in her voice ruined the effect entirely.
Maverick chuckled. “Can’t help that I’m creative, Aria. How do you think I became a professor at my age?”
“Oh, yeah?” She lifted a brow despite the increasingly dangerous flutter in her stomach. “And how many other women have you tied up like this, Professor?”
The question had been meant as a tease. Unfortunately, Maverick’s amusement disappeared. Aria realized how stupid it had been. If he couldn’t stand women touching him, then of course there had been no one.
She had accidentally brushed against the part of his past he still refused to share with her. Guilt washed over her. Aria was already opening her mouth to apologize when Maverick spoke.
“No one, Aria.” His voice was quiet now. “Only you. My mate, for as long as I live.”
Just like that, Aria wasn’t sure she was breathing anymore. Something in her chest cracked open at the simplicity of it, and she understood, with sudden, terrifying clarity, that she had fallen for this man completely. There was no walking this back now.
Maverick’s mouth slowly curved, turning the tenderness between them dangerous once more.
“But now…” He rose to his feet, his body pressing against hers as his eyes traveled deliberately over the position he’d put her in. “I think it’s time for a little lesson, dearest mate.”
Somehow, she found the audacity to lift her chin and whisper, “Teach me, Mr. Professor.”
Maverick’s chest nearly burst with satisfaction. His mate was actually playing along.
“So here’s how it goes,” he said, his voice slipping effortlessly into the calm authority he used in class. “I’m going to teach you what happens when extreme cold meets heated skin.”
Aria swallowed hard as her stomach tightened.
Maverick lifted one hand between them, and frost spread across his fingers before gathering in his palm, thickening into a small block of ice.
She stared at it, fascinated and nervous as hell.
Maverick lowered his hand. “Lesson one. Cold causes the blood vessels near the surface of the skin to constrict.” He pressed the ice lightly against the inside of her knee.
Aria gasped.
“And that,” he continued as if she hadn’t made a sound, “is your body’s first reaction. Shock.”
The ice began traveling upward, and Aria sucked in another breath. The cold was almost painful at first, a sharp contrast against her already overheated skin. But as Maverick drew it along the inside of her thigh, the initial sting transformed into something else entirely.
Her fingers curled against the vines.
“Lesson two,” Maverick continued in that insufferably calm voice of his. “Your nerves become considerably more sensitive to every change in temperature.”
He traced the ice farther up her thigh, drawing a helpless mewl from her. As it climbed higher, Aria’s legs instinctively pressed together.
“Ah.” Maverick sounded intrigued. “And now we have an involuntary response.”
“Maverick—” His name came out strangled as he circled the ice teasingly close to the apex of her thigh, never quite touching where she wanted him most.
“I’m teaching, my love,” he said with infuriating innocence.
Fucking bastard. He was enjoying this. Unfortunately, Aria had asked for the lesson.
Instead of giving her what she wanted, Maverick changed course, trailing the ice over her hip and across the bare skin of her stomach. Aria whimpered, squirming against the vines as goosebumps followed in its wake.
“Patience,” he murmured, amused by her frustration, as he finally brought the ice back down. He dragged it past her waistband, until the ice hovered directly over her clit through the fabric of her panties.
“Another lesson,” Maverick continued, pressing the ice firmly against the sensitive bud.
Aria’s whole body jolted violently, a broken cry tearing from her throat as the shock of cold hit her exactly where she’d been aching for him. Her hips rolled forward on instinct, grinding against the sensation, chasing it even as her thighs tried to clamp shut around his hand.
Maverick held the ice steady, circling it in slow, deliberate motions right over her clit. Aria’s moans came faster now, unrestrained, her head falling back against the tree as she tugged hard against the vines, not to escape, but because her body needed somewhere to put the overwhelming sensation building low in her belly.
“Final lesson here,” Maverick rasped, watching her fall apart with open fascination, grinding the rapidly melting ice harder against her, “is watching you decide whether you want to get away from this, or closer to it.”
“Closer…” Aria cried out.
“I didn’t quite hear you.” Maverick was punishing her now.
Aria glared at him. “Fucking closer!”
A pleased rumble rolled through Maverick’s chest at how easily he’d broken through his mate’s shy defenses.
It only frustrated Aria more.
What the hell had ever made her think Maverick would be shy and innocent? The man had no experience, yet he handled her like he’d spent years studying her body instead of teaching classes.