Chapter 13
GALINA
“So, he’s kind of a creep, huh?”
It’s Bella's second to last word that drags me out of my floaty little fantasy. It’s the same one I’ve been having on repeat since last night, after I found the spy camera in my room.
…After I touched myself while replaying the events of the evening before the pepper spraying.
It’s a fantasy involving The Ghost Prince being pissed that I broke his stupid spy camera and then climbing into my bedroom window to teach me a lesson just as I'm burying my fingers between my legs.
I blink rapidly as I drag my gaze to Bella’s.
“Hmm?” I ask as innocently as possible, swallowing the shame from my face.
“That dude.”
Heat seeps into my cheeks and my pulse skips a beat. How does she know?
I must be staring at Bella like a total freak, because she knits her dark brows and peers at me like I’ve grown a second nose.
“The douchey looking dude who was just hovering over you.”
My Ghost Prince-induced haze of horniness scatters in a nonexistent wind.
Trevor. She’s talking about Trevor Cohen, who was just trying his damnedest to flirt with me before Bella charged into the classroom and to my rescue, sending Trevor scurrying back to his new assigned seat near the back.
…As opposed to the creep I was just thinking of.
The one who watched me.
Who’s invaded my every thought and fantasy.
Who made me shatter all over his tongue, and whose high-def dick pic is still on my phone.
…A creep who I might not actually be that upset about creeping on me.
Just the same, I’ve stopped all communication with him after that stupidly flirtatious exchange yesterday.
Ugh, I need professional help.
I shoot a glance over my shoulder, catching a glimpse of Trevor scowling at his phone before I twist back to Bella with a grin.
“Seriously, thank you for the rescue,” I groan. “Again.”
Her brows knit. “Any time. I don’t tolerate creeps.” Her dark, manicured brows furrow a little deeper. “Does he do more than just try to flirt with you in class?”
I shrug. “Nah. Not really.”
Her mouth purses. “Seriously. Do you ever feel, like, unsafe, or—”
“Oh no.” I shake my head with a roll of my eyes. “Nothing like that. He just can’t take the hint.”
“Hmm.” Bella is absently sketching in the margin of her notebook as she nods at my reply. “Well, let me know if he ever escalates.”
My throat bobs as I see what she’s been doodling on her notebook: a slightly cartoony knife, dripping with blood.
Ooookay then.
We both whirl as the door bangs open and a gorgeous menace strides in like he owns the classroom and everyone in it.
…By which I mean Lochlan. Obviously.
He’s wearing the same dark blue, black, and charcoal gray school uniform as the rest of us. But when he gets to Professor McGrath’s desk, he shrugs his jacket off his broad shoulders, and my throat bobs involuntarily.
His shoulders roll, straining the crisp white dress shirt stretched across his chest. He folds the jacket over the back of Professor McGrath’s chair, loosens his tie, and then undoes the top two buttons of his shirt.
It’s disgusting how good-looking he is. I’m offended by what a boring, douchey jock he is under all of that wasted win of the genetic lottery.
“I cannot believe he’s actually teaching this class,” Bella mutters under her breath next to me, making me bite back a grin. “Such a tool.”
I’m about to joke that he probably exclusively has sex in the missionary position, lights on just enough for him to watch his own reflection in a mirror. But then I remember that we’re talking about Bella’s cousin here, and I zip it.
He starts to roll the sleeves of his dress shirt up to the elbows, revealing the rippling muscles of his forearms adorned with a few tattoos.
Seriously, what a waste. This guy would kill it on MaskTok.
Oh, who am I kidding. I would bet every dollar I have that Lochlan Kildare has read as many romance books as I’ve had trips to Mars.
“You can put your books away,” Lochlan says in that smooth, whiskey and honey voice of his. I mean seriously, it’s like a tone he’s practiced for the sole purposes of charming brainless football groupies.
Which explains why YOU are turned on how, exactly?
Oh, shut up, self.
“We’re going to be starting a new project.”
“Professor Kildare?”
My teeth grind as Lochlan turns his attention to Kendrick Walsh.
He’s not a professor.
“Yes, Mr. Walsh.”
“Will there still be a quiz next week on last week’s material?”
“There will not. We’re doing this instead.”
“Sorry, Professor Kildare, I have a question, too.”
A vein ticks in my temple when another student calls him that.
He is NOT a fucking professor.
“Yes, Anna?”
“Is there any update on Professor McGrath?”
Lochlan’s infuriatingly handsome brows knit slightly. “You can address any personal questions regarding Professor McGrath to his staff email, which I believe he’s checking during his sabbatical. Now—”
“Actually, professor?”
Motherfucking fuckwad fuck.
My annoyance breaks free before I can reign it back in.
“He’s not a professor.”
Shit.
Bella bites back a snort and shoots me a look of pure amusement.
Her cousin, meanwhile, looks at me with the exact opposite expression on his face as the room goes silent. The moment drags on, second by agonizing second, until I find myself exhaling a chuckle as I turn to Kim Ionesco, who was just about to ask Lochlan a question.
“Like, he’s just our TA,” I hear myself say in a not-quite-steady voice.
“I am your Acting Professor,” Lochlan says tightly, jerking my attention back to the front of the room.
I swallow heavily and shiver when his ice-blue eyes land right on me and narrow with a glint that makes my skin tingle.
Lochlan lets it go and turns his back to the class as he starts to write on the whiteboard.
I jolt when I feel a flick on my shoulder. I turn my head and see a paper airplane lying on the floor right beside my chair. I quietly pick it up, peering at what looks like writing underneath all the folds.
I start to peel it open, then a small groan sighs in my chest.
You + Me tonight? - Trev :)
Fuck.
Another romantic overture from the guy I have zero interest in.
“Mr. Cohen.”
I flinch at the sound of Lochlan’s barked tone from the front of the room. He’s still facing the board, but then he slowly turns to face the rest of us and his gaze turns steely as it falls on Trevor sitting in the back of the room.
“How old are you?” Lochlan growls quietly.
Trevor frowns. “What?”
“Your age, Trevor.”
“Uh…” Trevor’s brow cocks. “Nineteen?”
“You seem a little unsure about that.”
The class titters in light laughter.
“You’re sure you’re not ten?”
Trevor smiles curiously. “I—”
“The next time you want to flirt with a woman, Trevor,” Lochlan says in a bored tone, “try aiming higher than whatever the fuck worked for you at recess in the fourth grade.”
The titters grow louder. Trevor starts to grin. “No problem, Professor—”
“By the way, the next time you throw a paper airplane at Ms. Nikitin, I’ll shove it up your ass.”
The laughter comes to a screeching halt as Trevor’s grin drops and my eyes dart to Lochlan.
Trevor clears his throat as Lochlan starts to turn back to the whiteboard.
“With respect, I don’t think professors can speak to students like that, sir,” he says, glaring at Lochlan.
A thin smile ghosts over Lochlan’s lips.
“Good thing I’m not really a professor, then, isn't it?” he says as his gaze swivels to land right on me.
I squirm under the coolness of that icy blue gaze before he turns back to the white board and underlines the words “Hidden Identities” he’s already written on it.
“All of us—you, me, everyone—hides behind a mask of some kind.”
Heat creeps up my neck as a chill snakes up my spine.
“Carl Jung wrote about the concept of the Persona being the mask people wear for the outside world. In fact, persona comes from the Greek word prósopo, meaning face or mask. Jung also talked about the concept of the Shadow, which is the hidden and often repressed aspects of the self that exist beneath the Persona. You might remember learning earlier in the semester about R.D. Laing’s writings on the divided self being the result of people constructing a false identity to protect their vulnerable true self from the eyes of the world. ”
I'm sorry, what?
When Lochlan told us he was going to be taking over teaching this class, I expected the narcissistic jock to make us watch highlights reels of his football exploits and somehow try to tie it in with Professor McGrath’s lesson plan outline.
Instead, he’s talking like a tenured professor with forty years of experience.
“Now, to hidden identities…”
My heart lurches into the back of my throat when Lochlan taps the words on the board and turns to level a stony gaze right at me.
My face pales.
How does he know. How the FUCK does he know about—
“Dirty little secrets…”
Lochlan’s gaze slides over to the girl sitting two seats away from me.
“Secret agendas…”
This time, he’s looking at Andrew Kim, near the back of the room, and the nervous pulse inside me returns to normal.
“You’re going to pair up. The purpose of this assignment is to allow those masks that we all wear to come down, just a little, and to let your partner see the real you.”
My chest tightens.
Fat fucking chance…
“I understand that this might feel awkward,” Lochlan continues with an easy shrug, “but focus on the process. You’re not going to be revealing your dark dirty secrets to each other just like that.
You’ll have to tease and coax it out of your partner, use the right language to disarm them and put them at ease enough to let that inner Shadow out from behind the Persona. ”
I glance nervously around the room and then let my gaze land on Bella. She gives me a skeptical, confused look and shrugs.
“I’ll be pairing you up now. We’ll take the remainder of this period for you to get to know your partner on a surface level.
Please make sure you have their contact information before you leave today.
You need to have at least two interactions with this partner, and make notes of these interactions, before class next week. ”
I blow air through my lips.
Yes, “baring my true self” to a classmate might sound like a terrifying prospect. I'm sure it would be, if I had any plans whatsoever to actually bare my “true self”.
Spoiler alert: I don’t.
At this point, I’m a master of hiding those parts of me. I mean, if I can keep my Villainess life hidden from Papa?
I’ll be fine when it comes to sophomore Psychology majors.
Lochlan begins to pair up the class. Each matchup seems to be the last one anybody involved wants, and Lochlan is clearly amused at the rounds of groans that follow each two names.
“Bella Drakos…” Lochlan’s lips curl at the corners as he looks right at his cousin. “You’ll be with Trevor Cohen.”
Bella shoots him a murderous glare, which only makes him grin a little wider as he exhales and turns his gaze to me.
“And since there’s an odd number of students in the class…”
Fuck, no.
Fuck fuck fuckity FUCK—
“You’ll be with me, Galina.”
Shit fuck.
Lochlan tells us to rearrange our seats so we can spend the rest of the class one-on-one with our new partners. Bella gives me a rueful look and a heavy sigh as she trudges over to a scowling Trevor.
A chair scrapes across the floor. I wince at the sound and look up to see Lochlan dragging the heavy wooden chair from behind Professor McGrath’s desk over to me.
He turns it around and sits astride it backward, facing me.
He plants his elbows on the small desk between us, and grins smugly as he levels his gaze right at mine.
“Well then, Ms. Nikitin,” he murmurs over the humming din of everyone's conversation. “Time to tell me all your dirty little secrets.”