Chapter 12
EVE
What the hell was going on with Connor tonight?
Was he drunk or something? Because he sure as hell wasn’t acting like himself and it was freaking me out.
That moment he demonstrated the defensive move and had held me there long enough to make his erection perfectly clear between us…
and then the dirty little comments in my ear?
He really wasn’t taking the break-up with Lacey well if he thought he could make her jealous by aggressively flirting with me of all people?
With the clarity of understanding that he was just putting on an act for Lacey’s benefit, I ignored him the rest of the session.
When he called for me to pair with him again, I very firmly declined and pushed Clarissa—an Algerian heiress with gorgeous curves and sultry green eyes—forward in my place.
She was more than happy to swap, and he couldn’t disagree without making a scene, but I felt the heat of his frustrated glare, nonetheless.
When the session ended, I snatched up my water and sweatshirt, then basically fled the gym before Connor could pull any more performative bullshit.
Surely he could see that it wasn’t having an impact on Lacey?
From the way she’d lit up while talking about her new guy earlier, she’d well and truly moved on already.
I had no idea what his deal was with thanking her and making it seem like he was relieved, but tonight’s defense class was not the way to go about moving on.
“Wait up, Eve!” Lacey called out, hurrying out of the gym after me with Nina at her shoulder. “I’ll walk with you.”
“I’m going to meet Ursa and Sven for dinner,” Nina told us, then looked down at her shirt and grimaced. “Maybe I’ll shower first. But do you wanna join us?”
I shook my head. “Nah, I’m good. I’ve got a ton of classwork to catch up on. Thanks, though.”
Nina shrugged and air kissed us both before skipping off to her dorm, which was closer than Lacey’s or Bluebell House.
“She’s fun,” Lacey murmured, slinging her bag over her shoulder as we started walking across the lawns. “But I’m kind of glad to talk with you alone for a minute. Uh, it’s about Connie…”
My stomach dropped out my ass. So she had noticed after all? She’d given no indication, but then maybe…fuck, was she mad? Ugh, I was so bad at girl friendships and I was fucking it all up.
“He’s an idiot,” I said firmly, shaking my head. “An emotionally stunted immature idiot who thinks he can make you jealous and it’s embarrassing to be honest.”
Lacey laughed so abruptly she snorted. “Oh my God, I wish he was here to hear that. No, that’s not…
I mean, you do actually have a good point.
But that’s not what I was going to say. I know you know how close me and Connie are, and by extension the other guys…
but I’ve never really had any girlfriends that I felt like I could really trust. With how our families are, the girls I knew growing up just saw me as a stepping stone, but with you things are different.
God, I sound so sappy right now, don’t I? ”
Tears pricked at my eyes. “No, you…okay yes, but it’s okay.
I get it.” And now I felt like dirt for not turning around and kneeing Connor right in his erect dick during the self-defense class.
I should have made it crystal fucking clear that my loyalty was to Lacey first, and his silly little jealousy games could get fucked.
Lacey shot me a watery smile. “Okay, cool. I just wanted to make sure you and I are on totally the same page so things don’t get weird.
Because I know we’ve only known each other a short minute, but sometimes you just know, right?
That you’re meant to be together in some way, and for a long time.
I feel like you and I are meant to be friends…
and I feel like maybe…maybe…you and Con are meant to be more than friends. ”
I tripped over my own feet and would have faceplanted the grass if Lacey hadn’t caught me.
“What?” I squeaked out as she steadied me. “Sorry, I think I heard you wrong.”
“Mmm, pretty sure you didn’t,” she replied with an easy smile, tucking her arm through mine as we continued toward her dorm.
“Look, I know you have your bed plenty full with Eth and Brodester, but all I’m saying is that I think there’s something between you and Con, and I don’t want you ignoring it just because you think I’ll be upset.
Because I won’t. Connor is the closest thing I have to family, and nothing would make me happier than seeing him with someone he cares so deeply for. ”
Words totally failed me because what?
“Something to think about,” Lacey continued with a small laugh. “Obviously, it’d mean some pretty major bridge mending between him and Eth for them to actually be cool sharing their girl, but—”
“Whoa, Lacey,” I cut her off in a panic, my voice raising unnecessarily as my head spun like the inside of a washing machine.
“No. That’s not…just no! You’ve got it all wrong, me and Connor…
no. Nope. I would rather chew glass than ever consider sleeping with Connor Sullivan, let alone actually dating him! ”
Lacey’s startled eyes met mine for a moment, then shifted past me and my heart sank. Of course that motherfucker had been following us. When did any of them ever let me go places after dark without a shadow? Lacey had been speaking quietly enough, but oh no, not me.
“Noted, brat,” Connor commented in a dark growl, “and for the record, the feeling is mutual. The last thing I’d want to rebound onto would be my brother’s sloppy seconds.
” He brushed past us, stalked off into the darkness without another glance, and it was like he’d ripped my heart clean out of my chest in the process.
Lacey scowled at me with actual frustration, shaking her head.
“Seriously, Eve? We both know that’s not true, but now you’ve taken ten steps backward.
” She threw her hands up with exasperation, then turned toward her building, ascending the first couple steps before pausing.
“Are you okay to get home or should I—?”
“I’m fine,” I quickly insisted. “The gunman is dead, remember? You killed him. I’ll see you tomorrow!
” I waved, forcing a bright smile even while dying on the inside, and hurried in the direction Connor had disappeared.
He was probably lurking somewhere around the corner, waiting to give me crap about being a brat, so I doubted I’d be walking alone anyway.
Except it wasn’t Connor who popped out of the shadows when I entered the forest path that led back to Bluebell House.
“Oh, hi, Haze,” I greeted the big guy with a touch of disappointment. “I thought you were Connor. What are you doing out here?”
He frowned at me slightly, his eyes raking down me like he was checking I hadn’t been hurt in the self-defense class. “I just finished in the chemistry lab and wanted to walk home with you.”
My smile warmed at his admission. Not a bullshit excuse about being in the same place at the same time, just that he wanted to walk with me. I liked that more than I should.
“Cool. How is the temporary chemistry lab, anyway? Does it have everything you need?” I started along the path and he fell into step with me as he murmured a few complaints about the lab he was working in.
Then again, seeing as he was the one responsible for blowing up the old one, there wasn’t too much he could really grumble about.
As we walked and talked, my hand bumped his entirely by accident, and before I could move away he grabbed on to it, holding my fingers in a tight, slightly desperate kind of grip.
“Are you good, Haze?” I asked gently when he stopped talking, frowning down at his own hand wrapped around mine. “Is this okay for you?”
He didn’t immediately respond, really thinking that question over for a moment before raising his eyes to mine.
“Yeah,” he said in a husky voice, threaded with confusion and relief both.
“Yes, this is fine for me. Are you…sorry, I shouldn’t—” He dropped my hand faster than a hot potato, taking a step backward like I’d burned him.
It took me a moment to realize he thought somehow I didn’t want him touching me? “Haze, I was just checking on you. I’m fine. More than fine. You’re making me all fluttery with a simple hand hold, but I don’t want you feeling pressured to cross your own lines for my sake.”
He shook his head, frowning again. “No, that’s not what I’m doing. I want…more.”
“Same,” I whispered, ignoring the hypocrite in my head telling me to stop being so fucking greedy.
Haze drew a deep breath, then in one smooth moment he stepped back close and cupped my face with a shaking hand, lowering his lips to brush mine ever so softly.
Like an experiment. He seemed to freeze at that point though, and I bravely pushed us across the line and rose up on my toes to kiss him properly.
For a second, he stiffened, and a heady spike of fear ran through me at the idea that maybe I’d pushed him too far, but then he strengthened his tentative hold on my face and kissed me back with a low moan.
That sound did filthy things to me, and I nearly forgot all sense of self preservation and climbed him like a tree. But this was a huge first step for Haze. I couldn’t ruin it all now just because I was feral-level horny. This was all Connor’s fault.
All things considered, we only kissed for a minute or so before my feet got sore from standing on tip-toes, and I shifted back with a wide smile.
“I think maybe I need the name of your therapist, Haze,” I said with a teasing laugh, my whole body nearly vibrating with arousal. “So I can send a fruit basket.”
He huffed a laugh of his own, reclaiming my hand in his as we walked the remainder of the way home.
“You’re very respectful and careful around my issues, Evelyn,” he murmured when the house came into view, “which is admirable. But I do wonder why you don’t offer the same understanding to Andrew? Not to his face, anyway.”
I drew up short, not remotely prepared for that question. “Uhh…how do you mean?”
Haze quirked a brow at me. “You joked about him ironing his underwear this morning and deliberately pushed his buttons by double-dipping food into sauces, when his impulses are just as beyond his control as mine. None of us were born like this, and none of us enjoy it. You’re in a unique position, Evelyn, to help him heal from his past just like you’ve been helping me. Something to think about.”
Like a goddamn gentleman, he raised my hand to his lips and kissed my knuckles, then headed into the house ahead of me.
Almost like he knew I needed a minute to process what he’d just dropped on me like a bucket of ice water.
Haze had a way of really making his words hit hard when he wanted to get a point across.
Now where the hell did it leave us all within Bluebell House? Could I seriously have developed feelings—beyond just surface-level sexual attraction—for all five of my housemates? Surely that was just overactive hormones at work? Maybe I should get my thyroid checked.