29. Brylee
29
brYLEE
“Are you even listening to me? An Eros professor— PROFESSOR— broke into your room and stole your panties! Even if he’s that scent match you’ve been avoiding, this is unheard of!” Harper leans over and grabs one of my pillows off my bed. She lobs it at me when I don’t drop my jaw enough for her liking. “Brylee! This is a scandal!”
“Is it?” I squeak as I catch the pillow. My toes curl inside my slippers where I stand next to my dresser, my heavy backpack hidden just behind the side.
I was hardly able to sneak back here after the assembly, make it up the tree, into my room, and toss on pajamas before my lovely roommate burst in with wild eyes and a four-inch red heel brandished in her hand like a weapon.
At first, I panicked, thinking that Darling Academy had also been attacked.
But then, Harper lowered the shoe and proceeded to tell me in excruciating detail about every second of Kylian’s dastardly entry into my room. It’s obviously him based on her description and his ridiculous statement as he tossed the panties back at her. Of all the men in Alpha Team X, he’s always the most happy-go-lucky, though that’s kind of like saying he’s the friendliest of a group of sharks.
After the night I’ve had, Harper’s story hardly merits more than a raised brow.
Panty thieves just can’t compare to cold-blooded killers.
My reactions are completely unacceptable, and Harper reaches up to pull on her hair before she remembers that it’s twisted into one of those heatless curl headbands. Instead, she clenches her fists and shakes them at me in frustration. “I cannot believe you! This is huge!”
“Yeah. He really shouldn’t have done that,” I agree, trying to soothe her. “Dick move.”
“Giant dick move.”
“Well…we don’t know if he has a giant dick,” I counter, wagging a finger. “Let’s not be hasty.”
That makes her dissolve into giggles and fling herself back on my bed, laughs wracking her entire body.
“That man is so fine I can’t imagine he’s not packing,” she says after she gets herself under control.
“Let’s hope so,” I state, though I know for a fact that he fills out a pair of exercise pants in a way that forces me to avert my eyes in class. Just picturing him shirtless and in some of those loose-fitting black sweats as he runs makes my entire body buzz with awareness. That dark skin of his and those delicious tattoos…he’s definitely an Adonis in terms of looks.
Attitude is a different story.
But Harper catches me mooning, and she gasps. “Is there something going on between you two? Am I out of the loop? Should I be expecting more panty raids?”
Oh boy, she’s veering off in the wrong direction. I don’t want her imagining Kylian in my room because then I start imagining him in my room—looming over me, using that bossy tone that pisses me off at Eros. Getting in my face and making me back up until my calves hit the side of the bed. Using those big, strong hands to clamp down on my wrists, not to correct my punching form, but to hold me as he leans in for a kiss…
“No. Definitely not.” I scrunch my nose.
“Methinks you doth protest too much,” she chirps in a sing-song voice.
“No. He’s so arrogant.”
“Isn’t every alpha?”
I shrug.
She pffts and tosses out a dismissive wave of her hand. “Modesty is for betas. Alphas are rough around the edges, but then when they like you…complete cinnamon rolls. It’s the best of both worlds.”
Another shrug from me because that’s the complete opposite of my experience. I don’t think I ever got to experience that gooey center. After my initial whirlwind attraction, there was only their constant disappointment. Harsh criticism. Jumping through hoops to try to bend to their every command. Of course, the alphas I was with were using me and never truly cared.
They never showed me tenderness the way Colter did tonight.
I walk over and join her, sinking down right next to my remaining pillows and hugging the one I caught to my chest. My thoughts are with the big, mostly silent, scary brute of a man…but Harper has no clue, and she’s already circled back to scandal.
“Can you imagine what Madam Ellora would say if she knew an alpha was in here?”
My eyes roll so far up in my head they’re in danger of getting stuck. “She’d probably find some way to blame me for it. ‘A good omega doesn’t tempt alphas, who have trouble denying their instincts.’” I use a nasal lecturing voice.
Harper pipes up and expands. “‘Good omegas are modest and virtuous.’ You must have enticed him with your promiscuous blinking.”
“Yup. That’s it. I need to blink less.”
“So much less. It even tempts me when you blink.” She giggles again, and a tiny snort erupts from her nose.
“What was that? Are you part elephant?” I tease.
“Stop!” She laughs and another snort erupts, and it’s so utterly adorable to realize that this woman, whom I’d assumed was perfect when we first met, is as delightfully silly and flawed as anyone else.
“I think there might be a circus going on in there. Should I pay admission?”
She smacks my arm, but we both dissolve into late night giggles as she deliberately makes another trumpet blast escape. I laugh so hard my ribs start to ache, and I have to lean back against the wall behind my bed to catch my breath.
“God, I needed this after the night I’ve had,” I murmur, once our chuckles have settled.
“What night? Where were you?” Harper’s tone is soft and her eyes remain focused on the ceiling, a small blush creeping over her cheeks as she realizes she might have overstepped. “Shoot. Sorry. Not trying to pry?—”
This is the opening I need. But tight little knots form all the way up and down my throat as I search for the right words to tell her.
With Sam and Colter, there was no choice. I had to confess. But somehow, telling Harper in an unprompted manner seems much more intimidating. It’s the gift of trust—which is one I haven’t bestowed in a very long time.
I clear my throat, which suddenly feels coated in broken glass. Then I knot my fingers together and squeeze the pillow on my lap as I debate putting this off until morning because every bone in my body is aching for sleep. But that would be a bad idea. It’s better if she has some time to adjust.
And honestly? I’m afraid if I don’t do it now, I’ll never end up doing it. Morning will bring with it a thousand different reasons why telling Harper is a bad, bad idea.
“Listen,” I start slowly, staring at the knobs on my dresser instead of at her as my neck flares red with warm embarrassment. “I have to tell you something that you cannot, under any circumstances, share with anyone—not for as long as you live. Never. It’s a royal secret. Are you willing to commit to something like that?”
For a second, it feels as if all the air is sucked out of the room as Harper inhales in shocked surprise. But then she sits up on the bed, crisscrossing her legs and reaching for my arm. Her warm palm lands gently on it, and I turn to see her gazing solemnly at me as she says, “I swear fealty on my life, Princess Brylee.”
Some of the shards inside my throat seem to soften as I swallow because I think I believe her. She seems sincere.
I close my eyes and press my lips together and take one final breath to brace myself for what I’m about to say.
“My brother is…dealing with top secret matters right now. But no one can know about those. So…I’ve been posing as him at Eros Academy.”
Harper reacts slowly, withdrawing her hand, her brows rising. There’s a look on her face that’s half slack-jawed shock and half disbelief that kind of resembles the face people get when they walk through the cloud of someone else’s noxious fart.
I can see her teetering on the brink of skepticism, so I toss the pillow aside and rise, going over to the dresser and grabbing my backpack by the strap, yanking it out. I unzip the top and heave the bodysuit into my arms so she can see it.
She springs to her feet and immediately comes over, running her hand down the arm of the suit the same way she would a ball gown, her eyes wide as an owl’s.
“Holyyyyyy…” She looks up at me, but this time, there’s zero doubt in her expression. “But…oh man, there are about eighty billion questions zooming through my head right now. Scent blockers?”
I nod.
“But…don’t they beat each other up over there?”
I nod again.
Harper gives a little shriek and jumps backward as if she just got an electric shock. “No!”
I put the suit back into the bag, giving her time to process. By the time I’m done, I turn to find her back on the bed.
She puts her fists on her hips and tilts her head before she exclaims, “Lucy, you’ve got some ’splaining to do!”
“What are you? Ninety?” I groan.
She chuckles. “Get over here, bitch. You’ve been holding out, and I wants the tea.”
So, as the moon glides across the sky and the sun starts to rise, I spill it.