12. Thea
12
Thea
T he lecture theater was half empty when I arrived for my scintillating class on ethics. If I could have skipped it, I would have, but I’d been warned I needed to act like a legitimate student. Which meant attending classes and submitting work on time.
Why couldn’t he have signed me up for an English Literature degree? Even history would have been better than this bullshit.
More people strolled in and the seats around the cavernous room started to fill up. I sat back in my corner and concentrated on doodling in my notepad, not wanting to appear friendly in the hope everyone gave me a wide berth.
Once the lecture began, I planned to snooze for a bit. It had been a long night, and I hadn’t slept well, thanks to all the adrenaline in my system. Torrance’s early morning wake-up call hadn’t helped either.
It was his way of reminding me I was here to do a job. Dad still hadn’t given me any details of what he expected. Whenever I asked, all he said was ‘get close to Cassian Forsyth’, whatever that meant.
I was hoping to bump into him this morning, as he had the same classes as me.
By the time the lecturer coughed and introduced himself, the room was full and there was no sign of Cassian. Great. I’d dragged myself out of bed for nothing. I could have downloaded the lesson plan from the online portal and gone back to bed if I’d known he wasn’t coming.
Just as the lecturer began to drone on about a topic I cared little about, the door swung open and Cassian Forsyth strolled in. My mouth fell open in surprise.
I’d seen Cassian at the party, but only in passing. He didn’t look as polished this morning as he usually was in the photos I’d spent hours staring at, but my god, he was gorgeous.
Wavy strands of caramel hair curled over his collar as he scanned the room, searching for a seat.
“So glad you could join us, Mr. Forsyth,” the lecturer sniped, but Cassian showed no signs of being embarrassed about his lateness. He ignored the man and moved toward the steps, sweeping past a brunette girl who leaped up to indicate she had a spare seat next to her.
Silly bitch.
When he reached the top tier of seats, his eyes fell on me. To my surprise, he headed in my direction. What the fuck? Sure, I had hoped for a meetcute, but I’d have preferred it on my terms. The thought of sitting next to him for two hours made me deeply uncomfortable. But it seemed that choice had been taken away from me.
Rather than asking whether I minded if he sat next to me, Cassian dropped into the adjacent chair and pulled out a tablet to make notes on. He didn’t spare me a second glance, and after a few tense moments, I relaxed.
Maybe he preferred sitting at the back of the lecture theater. Plenty of students did. In the week since my arrival, I’d learned that only the students sitting in the front half of lectures were called on to provide answers to questions.
Which was good since I had no answers to give, not having studied the syllabus or completed any of the required reading.
I half-listened to the professor drone on, but it wasn’t long before my eyelids started drooping. This guy was so boring. He could build a brilliant career as a content creator for people with insomnia. I felt tempted to record the lecture for the next time I had trouble sleeping.
A husky voice in my ear roused me from a pleasant daydream involving a naked Cassian Forsyth. If the real-life Cassian was half as delicious as my dream, I was in big trouble.
“Do business ethics bore you, Miss Ricci?”
I jolted awake, quickly brushing my sleeve across my mouth in case I’d been drooling.
“What?”
“You seem to have trouble focusing.” He chuckled with amusement as the professor scrawled some bullet points on the large whiteboard.
“I didn’t sleep well,” I huffed, unsure of why I needed to explain myself to him. It was really none of his business.
“Here, drink some of this.” Cassian reached into his bag and pulled out a large travel mug. “It’s black coffee with a shot of vanilla,” he explained when I hesitated. “You look like you could do with some caffeine.”
A girl sitting in the row in front turned around and scowled at me, obviously offended that Cassian was offering to share his coffee with me, so I scowled back. She huffed and turned away.
“Thanks.” Refusing his offer would be a dick move when he was being nice, and I desperately needed a pick-me-up. One sip of hot coffee and I was in heaven. A faint moan of appreciation slipped from my lips as the complex flavors hit my taste buds.
Lord, this was nothing like the cheap blended coffee the cafeteria served. No, this was high-quality, freshly ground coffee. Delicious and just what I needed to lift my energy levels.
Cassian smirked as I guzzled more than my fair share.
“It’s good, isn’t it?” he whispered as the professor finally noticed we weren’t paying attention to his boring-as-fuck lecture.
“Do you have something useful to contribute, Mr. Forsyth?”
I watched as Cassian turned and fixed the man with a hard stare. For several long seconds, Professor Ryan stared back at him. But then, to my surprise, instead of calling Cassian out on his disrespectful attitude, the professor dropped his eyes, coughed, and continued with the lesson.
What the fuck?
Not wishing to draw any more attention to myself, I passed the coffee mug back to Cassian with a murmur of thanks and started making notes. The rest of the lecture passed in a blur of monotony. By the time it ended with instructions given for an essay we needed to write before next week, I’d woken up a bit.
I’d love to say it was purely down to the caffeine hit, but in truth, it was more the fact Cassian’s delicious citrus scent kept me squirming in my seat the entire time.
None of the notes I’d written made sense. If the professor had called on me to answer a question, it would have ended badly. Luckily for me, after his little stare-off with Cassian, he didn’t look in our direction again.
Thank heavens for small mercies.
The minute the professor left, Cassian glanced at his phone and jumped up. I’d half expected him to make conversation, but it seemed like he’d forgotten I existed. Part of me slumped with disappointment. It was nice to feel noticed by an attractive guy, even if that guy was someone I needed to fuck over at some point soon.
But, as I reminded myself, I wasn’t here to hook up with anyone. Least of all the target of my father’s dastardly dealings.
It was better for me if Cassian didn’t become my friend. While I needed to get to know him a little, I couldn’t afford to forget why I was here.
“He’s not interested in you,” my new best friend from the row in front of me sneered.
“Nor in you, it would seem,” I remarked, enjoying the way she flushed red at my words.
“He only looks at rich girls, and that’s definitely not you.” The way she cast a dismissive glance at my generic jeans and faded hoodie told me all I needed to know about her opinion of my fashion sense.
Not that I gave a fuck what she thought.
Since I wasn’t in the mood to argue with a grade-A bitch, I shoved my notebook into my bag and walked away. It was lunchtime, and I needed some carbs.
Eden was waiting for me in the cafeteria. Unlike me, she had a perky smile fixed firmly in place. I caught myself smiling back as I walked across the room toward her, then reined it in.
Smiling wasn’t me. I didn’t do happy smiles. Ever.
Eden’s smile faltered and turned into a frown when I got closer. “You look tired. Is everything OK?”
My smile dropped away completely. Was she saying I looked like shit? Well, fuck. No wonder Cassian Forsyth took pity on me and shared his delicious coffee.
“Didn’t sleep well,” I muttered.
Her forehead smoothed, and she grinned. “Not surprised,” she laughed. “Good to know you’re not a psycho robot.”
“My poor sleep isn’t because of that, it’s because there was too much adrenaline in my system.” I didn’t mention the early morning call from Torrance.
“Oh a chara , that sucks. Declan gets like that after a fight. He usually disappears with one of the ring girls, and when he reappears in the pub, he’s much calmer.”
“Well…” I wasn’t sure what to say. Was she suggesting I should have fucked someone?
“Next time you want to take down a few grown men, line up a hookup for after.” She patted my hand sympathetically while I inwardly cringed.
Now would be a good time to admit I was a virgin, but our friendship wasn’t at that point yet. Despite my best intentions, I liked Eden. She was fun. A girl like me needed a friend like that in my life.
I definitely didn’t need a mean-bitch friend like Olivia.
Speaking of…
“Incoming,” Eden said, sounding worried.
“I hear you’ve been flirting with my boyfriend!” Olivia leaned down and got all in my face, riling me up immediately.
For one, the perfume she must have showered in was strong enough to make my eyes water, and two, I had a thing about people in my personal space. Those who got in my face without permission rarely made the same mistake again.
But it was obvious Olivia wasn’t that bright. Fuck knows how she’d ended up at college. If I had to guess, it was because she’d given the admissions tutor a blow job.
“Boyfriend?” I repeated, grabbing Eden’s coffee and taking a deep slurp. She narrowed her eyes at me but said nothing.
“Cassian.” Olivia’s face was so close to mine I could see her pores. The girl needed to exfoliate more. Or use less makeup. She’d troweled it on this morning.
“Cassian?” I pasted a dumb expression on my face while gripping Eden’s coffee cup.
Olivia’s lips pursed with annoyance. “Yes, Cassian! Don’t talk to him again. He’s mine.”
My mouth fell open before I clocked who’d walked into the cafeteria and was heading this way with a scowl on his face.
“So let me get this straight. You’re saying Cassian can’t talk to anyone without your permission?” The man himself stood a few feet away from Olivia, listening to the conversation.
“That’s right, bitch, so stay away from him or you’ll be sorry!”
Laughter burst from me like lava. I laughed so hard that I almost snorted coffee all over the table. Eden grinned, well aware now that Olivia was no threat to me. From the way she sat back with her arms folded, she was waiting for things to escalate.
“Am I yours, Olivia?” Cassian asked in a smooth-as-chocolate voice. He moved in behind her and she shivered, but I strongly suspected it was from fear, not pleasure. I didn’t know the guy, but I was good at reading body language.
Cassian’s ticking jaw told me he was furious.
“Cassian!” She took a big step sideways and half-turned before his hand snaked out and gripped her skinny arm. From the way she inhaled sharply, she realized she’d overstepped.
“Olivia,” he purred. “I’m not yours and I never will be. I talk to who I want and I fuck who I want. You mean nothing to me. Less than nothing. Are we clear?”
“But Cassian! I thought—”
“I don’t give a fuck what you thought.” He shoved her forward so hard that she stumbled, almost falling into my lap.
“Cassian! I’m sorry!”
Her eyes shone with unshed tears and I almost felt sorry for her. Having a man like Cassian Forsyth rip you a new asshole couldn’t be pleasant. But then I recalled the way she stormed over here, probably hoping to embarrass me in front of my peers, and my sympathy disappeared.
“I meant what I said,” she whispered, rage swirling behind her fake tears.
I grinned back at her as Cassian stalked away.
“Bring it on, bitch.”