Glisser (Ironside Academy Book 5), page 1
Glisser
THE IRONSIDE SERIES
BOOK FIVE
JANE WASHINGTON
Copyright © 2024 Jane Washington
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Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author. Any products or copyrighted works featured are used only for reference and are assumed to be the property of their respective owners.
Washington, Jane
Glisser
www.janewashington.com
Contents
Trigger Warnings
Ironside Academy Map
Ironside Academy Playlist
Ironside Academy Cheat Sheet
Main Character List
1. Too Soon
2. Ironside Speaks
3. Not Funny, Moses
4. Remnants
5. Dear Pervert
6. Kisses And Misses
7. The Iron Fist Of Novikov
8. Safe
9. Cupcakes And Casualties
10. The Screaming Didn’t Give It Away?
11. I Am Not For Sale
12. Twisted
13. Yes, Sir
14. Injured Or Fucked
15. The Cockroach
16. Her Choice
17. I Think You’re Grounded
18. The Sadist Asshole
19. When You Need Me
20. The Boyfriend Experience
21. Braun’s Boys
22. Three Two One, Action
Bonus Scene
Connect With Jane Washington
Also By Jane Washington
Ironside Academy
Book 1: Plier
Book 2: Tourner
Book 3: Sauter
Book 4: Relever
Book 5: Glisser
Book 6: Elancer
A Tempest of Shadows
Book 1: A Tempest of Shadows
Book 2: A City of Whispers
Book 3: Dream of Embers
Book 4: A Castle of Ash
Book 5: A World of Lost Words
Bastan Hollow
Standalone: Charming
Standalone: Disobedience
Standalone Books
I Am Grey
Curse of the Gods
Book 1: Trickery
Book 2: Persuasion
Book 3: Seduction
Book 4: Strength
Novella: Neutral
Book 5: Pain
Seraph Black
Book 1: Charcoal Tears
Book 2: Watercolour Smile
Book 3: Lead Heart
Book 4: A Portrait of Pain
Beatrice Harrow
Book 1: Hereditary
Book 2: The Soulstoy Inheritance
Oh, the horror of this gold, ornate and cold,
Framing stars plucked and clipped and sold.
The painting cracks and fades, bleeding glitter,
While little men ask, “Why isn’t it any fitter?”
Trigger Warnings
sexual harrassment
references and instances of child sex trafficking
sexual assault
gore and death
Please take these warnings seriously and look after your own mental health.
If you or anyone you know needs support, please visit lifeline.org.au.
Ironside Academy Map
To view the map of Ironside, please scan the QR code below or click HERE.
Ironside Academy Playlist
To listen to the playlist for the Ironside series, please scan the QR code below or click HERE.
Ironside Academy Cheat Sheet
To view the character cheat sheet for the Ironside series, please scan the QR code below or click HERE.
Main Character List
Isobel Carter
Moses Kane
Theodore Kane
Elijah Reed
Gabriel Spade
Kilian Gray
Niko Hart
Cian Ashford
Oscar Sato
Mikel Easton
Kalen West
1
Too Soon
“Isobel.”
Her name was a gentle croon of sound in a voice she was intimately familiar with. It was a voice as soft and silky as the glide of fingertips against her thigh, as light and teasing as the touch that skirted where the seam of her panties hugged the curve of her ass. Her leg had crept out of the sheets to hook around a soft, plump pillow while she slept, but there was now a body on the other side of the pillow. Whoever it was, they must have only just joined her, otherwise her leg would have been hooked around him instead. Her sleep-heavy mind stalled, forgetting everything except the heat of a big male hand pushing up her shirt and cupping her hip, fingers digging into her spine, thumb pressing into her stomach. She arched into the touch, waiting for him to yank away the pillow and hook her leg over his hip.
Sweet, tangy bergamot coated her throat, spraying her tongue with the slightest burn of citrus. She loved it when their scents were strong enough for her to taste. She arched forward, pushing her suddenly aching, cotton-covered breasts to a hard chest. A low, distinctly male chuckle fell against her cheek, and the grip on her hip flexed.
Kilian.
“Time for a …” He trailed off, his nose brushing across her cheek, her jaw, before burrowing into her warm neck. “Hmm,” he groaned, his voice muffled, “a group meeting.” He pushed her suddenly to her back, his beautiful face appearing above hers in the dark as her eyes flew open.
His eyes were a stunning, soft meld of pale green and yellow. Sometimes, they reminded her of a snake—not a real one, but the sly, cartoon snakes with narrowed, glowing pale eyes. Those beautiful eyes were currently heavy-lidded, pupils dilated, brows lowered in concentration. His tongue ran along his lush lower lip, making the light pink flesh shimmer, and his chest began to rumble.
“Huh?” she slurred sleepily, her nails running lightly over the soft T-shirt covering his chest.
That was what she wanted to wear today.
“Meeting,” he murmured, his perfect, symmetrical features barely illuminated by the light sneaking into her room through the open bedroom door, a glazed, distracted look falling over his face.
Wait … open door?
His pale eyes crawled slowly down over her flushed neck to her rumpled shirt—well, Theodore’s rumpled shirt that she had stolen—to the stretch of toned stomach he had bared by pushing up the faded blue cotton, and then to her matching blue panties.
“Can we dye these green?” he asked, pinching the elastic waist of her panties and snapping them back against her skin.
She grinned at him. “I’m always green for you.”
It was true. They hadn’t had time for any moments like these in a few weeks, and she missed him. She missed the way he took her gently but firmly, thrusting into her with ownership while kissing her with such tender care.
He groaned, his thoughts likely travelling in a similar direction, his forehead falling to hers. His erection dug insistently into the soft skin of her thigh as he lowered his weight over her, forcing her legs to part as he pressed her deliciously down into the mattress. Taking his full weight made it hard to breathe, and she loved it.
“I swear I came in here for a reason,” he whispered, his soft lips lowering to hers, his sweet breath fanning her mouth.
For a brief, beautiful moment, it was easy to believe this was her life. This beautiful room, with the giant, carved bed and the fluttering silken canopy, moonlight slanting over the shadowed edges of a velvet chaise and gleaming softly from the marble floors. This warm body, so sweet-smelling, so heavy and hard and comforting, so safe and familiar.
This could be her life.
This bliss, this sweetness.
“Group meeting,” Elijah snapped loudly, passing by the doorway, a tight edge of annoyance to his voice.
Kilian’s growled sound of frustration was so fierce, it had her body flushing with heat. He dropped a quick kiss to her lips, making her skin tingle, before he rolled off the bed and held out his hand to help her up.
It took her a few moments to regain her composure and clear away the hazy remnants of sleep before she allowed him to pull her out of bed and back to reality.
Her life was not bliss and sweetness. It was forced smiles and aching muscles, with stolen moments snatched from closets and bathrooms. There was a type of sweetness and softness in those secret, hidden moments, but they could also be as painful as they were pleasant and, as soon as they were over, she felt the sting of wondering when she would be able to snatch another.
They congregated in the lounge room, where most of the other Alphas were already waiting. Elijah, Gabriel, and Niko wore dark workout clothes; it had been their turn to guard the dorm. They always took turns in groups of three so that one person could watch the Ironside feeds Elijah had hacked into while the other two were stationed in blind spots along the outside of Dorm A. During the day, Mikel and Kalen kept an eye on the cameras. Nobody would be getting near the dorm without one of them witnessing it.
The two weeks since receiving Teak’s message had been chaos. The bond specialist had warned them that the officials planned to kill them, urging them to announce their bonded status, and it had derailed everything. It felt like they were all stretched too thin, hanging off the edge of a cliff with t
They spent every night paranoid and hyper-vigilant. They survived on very little sleep while acting carefree and unbothered by the cameras during the day. The situation was growing rapidly unsustainable, but they had to be sure that the tip Teak had sent them was real.
Mikel and Kalen had debated the best course of action for a week, pulling in favours with their contacts to determine if there was a credible threat. It was a painfully slow process, especially since they were adamant they shouldn’t expose Teak with their probing. After confirming the threat as best they could, they spent another few sleepless nights exploring every available course of action before finally devising a plan.
The lingering vestiges of Isobel’s lust cooled as the reality of their situation settled back into her restless mind like a fog slowly creeping through her thoughts, but it didn’t cool completely. She was surrounded by partially undressed and rumpled Alphas with adorable pillow marks on their stern faces, their hair so silky and dishevelled it made her fingers itch to reach up and touch the strands. She was sure she had never seen Kalen so disordered.
Gabriel looked like he slept standing upright, with a comb in his hand just in case a strand of hair fell out of place. He looked like wrinkles apologised to him, like night terrors were careful to respect his boundaries. She was convinced that if she checked behind his door right now, she would find a photo studio instead of a bedroom, outfitted with a camera crew and bedroom props that were never actually used. She desperately wanted to peek in there, just to see if he had made his bed even though he would be returning to it in an hour. Maybe he had done a little light dusting as well.
Cian was only wearing black sweatpants, though he had decided to pair them with teal slippers and a matching teal headband to keep the tousle of his golden hair from his face. The outfit was at complete odds with his inked chest, arms, hands, and neck—not to mention the nipple piercing, the brow piercing, or the lip piercing. Or the cock piercing—not that she could currently see it, but her imagination was never not seeing it. That was Cian. A beautiful contradiction of dangerous hard edges and lazy, flirty softness.
Theodore was in boxers, stretching his neck from side to side, a hazy look in his stormy eyes. He was struggling to wake up. His frown was etched deep, making his square jaw flex as he swallowed. Mikel was also in boxers, and she felt like she had to avert her attention from him completely, her cheeks pinking when their eyes caught for a moment.
Kilian, Kalen, and Moses all wore actual pyjama pants, though Kalen’s looked suspiciously like he pressed them after he washed them, and Kilian’s looked just perfect enough for her to want to steal, even though they would slide right off her.
“Absolutely not,” Kilian said, a smile in his voice, his gaze on her face, reading whatever expression was there. “The day you start wearing pants to bed is the day I stop letting you borrow my clothes.”
She bit her lip to hold back her laugh because he was obviously joking.
“She can wear whatever she wants,” Niko snapped, his face twisted with annoyance.
The rest of her soul pieces still hadn’t been located despite Oscar going back to the Stone Dahlia every night in search of them. Niko’s aggression problem had grown steadily worse. The sickness that had taken up residence in his mind fed off chaos and discord wherever he could find it. He had begun sleepwalking, the restless belligerence inside him persisting even while he slept. Both Moses and Theodore had gotten into violent fights with him as he tried to escape the dorm while they were on guard duty.
“Oscar isn’t back yet?” Isobel asked, peering around the room.
“He got back a few minutes ago,” Mikel answered. “He needed to stop by his room.”
“He was bleeding all over the foyer,” Niko added carelessly.
Isobel stiffened and tried to flee the room, but Elijah gripped her shoulder, gently turning her back to the group. “He’ll be out in a minute. It wasn’t that bad.” He gestured to one of the plush armchairs. "You’re going to want to sit down for this.”
“For what?” she asked, frowning at their closed-off expressions. She couldn’t feel them—either through the bond or with her Sigma ability.
She had learned to become immediately suspicious when they all unanimously shielded themselves from her.
She glanced at the watch she wore even when she was sleeping so that any security alerts would wake her up. It was their scheduled meeting time. Their video was about to go live, and they were supposed to be watching it together. There was nothing else on the agenda, but the guys were acting like something else had happened.
She dropped into the chair just as Oscar strode into the room. He had a bandage strapped low on his torso and a fresh slew of cuts—both old and new—scattered about his bare chest, arms, and face. She was too busy tracing every inch of his skin with her eyes in an attempt to make sure he wasn’t seriously injured to notice what he was holding. When she did, she froze.
His fist was clenched around a handful of braided necklaces.
“You found them,” she croaked, suddenly faint.
She understood why the others were shielding now. So much time had passed. Reassimilating the pieces of her stolen bond had worked the first two times, but even though they hadn’t discussed it, they were all unsure if it would work the third time.
Maybe it was too late.
“Actually, it was Gabriel,” Oscar answered, stopping a few paces from her, his knuckles turning white as his grip around the necklaces tightened. “He made a trade with a well-connected client and found out which room they kept them in. I purposely lost my fight because it was right by their emergency medical room.”
She frowned, upset that Oscar had intentionally hurt himself, but then his words registered.
“What kind of trade?” she asked, her attention snapping straight to Gabriel.
“Private dance. No big deal.” He didn’t even try to look nonchalant. He was as blank as a brick wall.
“That’s a very big fucking deal,” she shot back, jumping out of the armchair, bile spilling across the back of her tongue. “I can’t believe you did that without talking to me.” She felt nauseous and horrified, the note Gabriel had left on the back of his door at the previous dorm swimming back to her with dizzying clarity. He hadn’t invited her into his room in this dorm, and since he was so particular about his space and his things, she had stayed out … but now she wondered if the notes had been put back up on the door.
I am not for sale.
Because of her, he had sold himself.
“It’s not just your bond, Isobel,” he responded calmly.
“It’s n-not just yours either.” She stumbled over the words, her eyes growing blurry.
His face collapsed just a little. “Please don’t cry.” He took two steps toward her before Niko suddenly jumped in front of him, shoving him back hard enough to almost send him tumbling over a marble side table. Elijah managed to catch him, and they both straightened, eyeing Niko.
“Don’t touch her,” Niko snarled. “Don’t even look at her. You made her cry.”
Isobel quickly scrubbed her cheeks with the sleeves of Theodore’s stolen T-shirt, desperately bidding her tears to dry.
Nobody tried to talk any reason into Niko.
They knew better than to try at this point.
Gabriel gave her a look that said we’ll talk about this later, and the tears welled up again, spilling free from the net of her lashes. Luckily, Niko had his back to her—guarding her—so he didn’t see the fresh outpouring of emotion.
She nodded at Gabriel because fighting around Niko was just a bad idea—his particular brand of madness grew infinitely worse in environments of conflict.
“Niko,” she said gently.
He tensed but refused to turn and look at her.
“The pieces of our bond,” she prompted him, hovering her hand over the middle of his tense, broad back, not quite daring to touch him. “Can I try to fix them?”
