Chapter 2

The dreams had started pretty much that night. Unbidden of course but that didn't mean she kicked them out the door once that had gone to all the trouble to show up. It was probably that she couldn't get that damned smirk out of her head. Every time she closed her eyes, that infuriating pull at the left side of his mouth with those sharp canines peeking through rose to her mind. When did he start smirking like that? What other times did that happen and she never noticed? What would that feel like at her ear or neck? Probably softly tickling when his lips pulled and then a tiny scrape of that tooth hinting at the full set. Her hands in her pants had surprised her at first but they were vacationing there lately. She went through what she thought must be at least close to the human collective of erotic scenarios. But they all featured that smirk.

And his arms. After the declaration of war, she had started noticing infuriatingly distracting things about him all the time. Things like his glorious, pillar-like arms. They weren't overly muscled, just slightly more than average. Enough that she could tell they'd be nice and firm and stable planted beside her head or around her waist or between her legs. That smirk and those arms had brought her to the screaming precipice an alarming number of times the past six months.

As she stared at the baskets of toast in front of her, she could hear the slight dimming of the conversational roar in the pit that signaled Eric had graced them with his presence. Damn, but that boy knows how to look effortlessly edible. The maddening part was he really didn't have a gigantic variety in his wardrobe, none of them really did, he just apparently always looked that fuckable. She could feel her sanity slipping again. She needed to get laid or something or anything, because this was just not working for her mental stability.

"He needs to get laid." She was sure her mind had treacherously supplied that thought until a wry chuckle to her right made it obvious another random table member had.

"Yeah, I've heard he's been so intense with upping the training stuff that Max ordered, that he hasn't had anyone for months."

"You're shitting me! Nah, he's fucking Eric, he doesn't even have to try for that shit, the women just throw themselves at him!"

"Apparently, Max has kept him so busy, he hasn't had time to sleep let alone catch one of them."

"Damn, I'd rough up a bunch of initiates too after a dry spell that long. Hey Z, you've got a vagina, why don't you take one for the team and blow off some of Eric's steam." He chuckled like he'd made the cleverest pun in the universe so she sent him an apathetic glare and flicked him off.

Getting up to deal with her tray before the crazy giddy smiling began. She could do that right? Screw Eric's brains out for the sake of the initiates. It wasn't that crazy an idea was it? Maybe it was her sanity's swan song before it croaked entirely. He had been going abnormally hard on them lately. She practically sauntered through the open maw of the pit with fresh eyes and new determination. If he hadn't had anyone for weeks, being locked up in this place planning new training exercises, figuring out a way to make rankings more accurate, setting up new obstacle courses with those moan-inducing arms of his, he'd be desperate enough to go for her wouldn't he? Of course it wouldn't be normal hook-up, feel better, go home sex. It would have to be angry, dirty, crazy sex that made her eyes roll slightly just at the thought.

He was never good at keeping his temper, except after his little declaration of war. He'd gone into full on guerilla, erudite-in-dauntless-clothing, Operation Break Zenia mode. And she gave back as good as she got, most of the time. It was hard to be ruthless when you wanted your opponents tongue down your throat and couldn't stop imagining his fingers between your legs. It had dropped off the last couple of weeks, probably because they were both running low on ammo. Luckily for her, she knew his trigger point. Her erudite background had kept her from overusing it too, but she thought today would be an excellent time to open that Pandora's box again. With a vengeance. Eric would have been proud of the smirk her sanity made as it finally took its much needed vacation for her brain. She was going to need some special equipment for this...

Eric

When did her lips start shining like that exactly? Because fuck him if he knew the moment she got so damn delectable. And Zenia was nothing if not delectable. Her long luscious hair dangled all the way to brush her glorious ass when she had to redo her ponytail at least three times a day. It had gotten to the point he couldn't even watch that anymore because his resistance to the immediate hard-on that caused was too exhausting to deal with.

If he was completely honest with himself, this was really all his fault. He should have beaten Four back in his initiation training. Then Four wouldn't be such a goddamn soft spot for Zenia to find and exploit that day about six months ago. And then he wouldn't have to gotten in her face about cutting down his authority. And then he would never have known how blue her flaming eyes were or how cock-twitching those goddamn lips of hers were or that ass. He'd held himself back from grabbing her hips and grinding slowly into that perfect ass twice that day and he felt that earned him at least the sweet relief of amnesia from the event.

But apparently God wasn't in dauntless at that time of year. Or anytime since. Fuck, only six months. His sanity frayed a little more at the edges. If he was being more honest with himself, he would say that it shouldn't have even been that big a deal. He was a big boy, he could handle the occasional taunting from his rival. But that secret smile they had shared had driven him temporarily insane for reasons that became very clear that night when he finished powerfully with Zenia's name on his lips. He hated feeling jealous. And hated even more the fact that it was clearly a useless emotion in regards to her. Especially since he'd gone and done the opposite of progress into her pants by upping the ante on their little sniping battle instead of being erudite-ly level headed about the whole thing.

Damn it.

He couldn't even focus on their mutual energy outlet anymore! How the hell was he supposed to plan devious strategic moves when all he could think about was having her screaming his name up against the nearest relatively flat surface? He'd even stopped picking up one-night stands lately. Partly because Max was an even bigger hardass than he was about training recruits but also partly due to the fact that they all turned into her infuriating face when his eyes slid closed. And groaning the wrong name tends to put most people off wanting the round two that always followed thoughts of Z in his bed. Even now as she sauntered out of the dining hall his eyes focused on her toned legs. He bit down a groan at the image of those wrapped luxuriously around his thrusting hips, that long chestnut hair spread out all over his sheets. Then his grip on the sanity rope slipped again and he shut eyes, willing the erection away.

"Damn, I would hit that so hard if it didn't threaten to kill me so much" That was too loud to be one of his thoughts.

"Hell yeah. I heard she's got these power kinks. Likes it rough and dirty. Just imagine a high class rack like that-" Eric couldn't listen to the rest as he got up after one bite of tasteless toast.

He was 9000% done with today and breakfast wasn't even technically over. Maybe he could make it back to his apartment to deal with his not-so-little problem. Goddamn it, the initiates were already filtering into the training area. Putting back on his hardass mask he marched into the arena and became a little more grounded in the looks of terror on a couple of little ex-Candors. Yeah, fear, loathing and definitely no Zenia-ass-grabbing. Damn it, today was going to be fucking interminable.

PS this was supposed to be two chapters but you're welcome, I combined it. ;D