CHAPTER 157: A CRAZY THING LIKE THAT

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-Two Days Later-

It was the first day of the new school week.

Caius arrived at Lochxen even earlier than ever. There was about one hour before his classmates made their way to the Cafeteria for breakfast.

He arrived earlier than normal because he had an appointment to honor.

He walked across the grounds leaving the Carriage that ferried him to school far behind him as he entered one of the many halls that ran the length of the first year area of the Academy, walking neither briskly nor slowly until he was at the door to the Alchemy classroom.

He pulled it open and walked in, pulling it close behind himself as he raised his head toward the seats. He almost expected to have arrived first and have had to wait, but when his eyes fell on that impossibly beautiful face, he realized how silly that thought was.

Of course, Aylin Khione got here first.

"Morning," Caius said lightly as he walked up the aisle and took the partner seat beside her.

"Morning," Aylin replied with a smile that showed off her perfect teeth.

She stared at Caius for a second or two before she grabbed his arm and pulled it against her chest. Nestling it between her large breasts as she pulled herself closer to him and nuzzled her face against his shirt taking sniffs of his scent and letting out what were unmistakably moans.

Caius frowned.

The past week had seen a development in how Aylin was acting due to their one-time... entanglement. The Ice Mage was starting to clash more and more with Kaya and it was only a matter of time before it became an all-out duel.

Caius had no interest in seeing that happen. Besides how silly the idea of the two fighting because of him sounded to him, he had also so far tempered Kaya’s anger by telling her to ignore Aylin and that he’d handle it.

It was time he did that.

"Aylin, loosen your grip on me for a second," he said, "We have to talk."

"Ugh, all we do is talk," Aylin said, frowning and wrinkling her nose.

"We’ve hardly ever had a conversation," Caius said.

Aylin shrugged.

"And the few times we did, we spent it all on words. Besides that one time in the corner," she said and her smile was back as she looked up at Caius’s face,

"I liked that time. I miss that time."

"I don’t think you did or do, actually," Caius said.

"Psh-uh. Of course I do. Here, I’ll show you," Aylin said and raised her head then, pushing her lips closer to Caius’s.

He pulled back just in time and before she could inch forward to close the distance between them, he placed his index finger on her lips.

"No, I don’t think you do. If you did, you’d have been able to tell that being problematic won’t help make that happen again anytime soon. Or maybe ever," Caius said.

Aylin stopped trying to push against his finger now and pulled her head back to furrow her perfect brows in confusion.

"What?" She asked.

"Think about it? You antagonize those I’ve surrounded myself with and call friends or something deeper... How could you possibly get yourself into my circle then?" Caius asked.

Aylin’s lips twitched a bit. It looked like a facial tic but her perfect beauty made it just quirky and fun-looking.

"I just have to win..." she started to say with a smirk.

"That’s stupid," Caius interrupted her to say.

"What?" Aylin said and pulled her chest away from his arm as her eyebrows flew up on her head in her incredulity.

"I said it’s stupid. This isn’t a war. I told you before, I’m not some prize to be won. I’ll be with whoever I want to be with. The most you’re doing by hanging around, whispering in Kaya’s ears, and shooting her killing glares and icy chills, is constituting a nuisance. And that, my dear, is pathetic.

How appealing could I possibly find you when you act like that?"

Aylin’s mouth fell open now as she let out a gasp.

"So what? You ask to meet up without my friends with me just so you can insult me?"

"Yeah," Caius answered and then raised a taunting brow as he asked, "Are you going to leave?"

Aylin said nothing and stared at him for a minute. Then her fingers dug deeper into Caius’s arm as she reinforced her grip on him.

"Ah, I see what you’re doing. You’re trying to get me upset so I leave. Ha, like that’s going to work. I told you already, didn’t I? We two are perfect for each other. You’re supposed to be mine. You can’t chase me with false harshness. I’ll see right through it."

Caius rolled his eyes.

He had known Aylin wouldn’t leave. He doubted anything he said could actually shrug her off. She was clingy like that. And he didn’t even mind it. That wasn’t really the problem he had with her, after all.

It was her possessive nature that he needed to be tempered.

"Say I ignore your advances..." he started to say.

"You wouldn’t," Aylin said confidently and let a few breaths out in silence before she continued,

"You taught me to kiss. Grabbed me so passionately with my friends mere feet away. You like me too. You just don’t want to admit it because of the other girls hanging around you."

As she said the last sentence, Aylin had her face raised with her eyes staring into Caius’s, searching. For as confident as she was, she still sought confirmation of her theory in the look in his eyes.

Caius stared back into her icy-blue eyes and decided to throw her a bone.

"You’re right."

"Ha—" Aylin started to rejoice but Caius cut her off.

"But let’s say, that despite my liking you, I reject your advances, what then?" He asked.

He pulled Aylin’s hand away from his arm and, now free, wrapped it around her waist and pulled her closer to him. So close she was an inch from being lifted onto his thighs.

He leaned in closer, his eyes holding Aylin’s and unleashing the full might of their passive effect of holding the attention of his target and locking them in place with no hope of disengaging. To be fair though, the thought of disengaging never came to Aylin’s mind.

Caius leaned forward and let his lips be an inch from hers. Every time Aylin inched forward to close the gap, he leaned back. Never too consumed by some desire to kiss her as she seemed to be with him.

Caius didn’t have to say anything. This had proven his point on possibly ignoring her advances despite liking her. After all, here they were. His arm around her waist. His lips were so close to hers and yet, he was capable of holding back.

Aylin even pushed forward to touch her large breasts against his chest if she couldn’t get that kiss and as arousing as that had to have been, he just continued to tease her.

"Now, I’m no expert in matters of the heart but might I suggest a different approach? It may seem so wild and ’out there’ but, how about trying for amicability?"

Aylin momentarily paused being preoccupied with trying to get that kiss he kept denying her to raise her eyebrows at his suggestion.

Caius smiled.

"Think about it. You could go on a long drought where I hardly ever touch you. Where I sigh at your antics but ultimately ignore you because at the end of the day, I care about Kaya and Eloise and am incapable of being ’stolen’ from them.

So you can continue with that frankly futile attempt of ’getting me’ or..."

Calus let his words trail off suggestively here and touched his lips lightly to Aylin’s, causing an instant spike in the pulsing of her blood through her body before her heart sank in disappointment when he pulled away and didn’t take it further.

Still, she hoped he’d try again.

Caius kept his smile as he continued.

"Or, you could try to please the one who matters in the decision of whether you get another kiss from me or not; Me.

Imagine how much easier it would be to get me to do this..."

Caius connected their lips then in a hard kiss that Aylin immediately sought to deepen by raising one of her hands to the back of his head and holding him against her lips.

But Caius pulled away still to continue like he had never stopped.

"... when you’re not constantly trying to drive a wedge in the stable relationships I’ve built for myself so far in Lochxen and aren’t making my time in the Academy very uncomfortable.

Just... Imagine if you did such a crazy thing like that."