XIII
Tori
“Y ou’re late. I said an hour.” Syn scowls at me as he folds his arms.
Gemini uses his foot to push himself off the wall he’s leaning against, joining my side to drape his arm over my shoulder. “Does the professor suffer from performance issues?”
My nose wrinkles as I look up at Gemini. “Huh?”
“He’s old. Did it take him a while to get hard?”
“Fuck off,” I mutter as I shove my elbow into his side. Ignoring his cry of pain, I walk off.
My head is spinning, and much as I would love to blame the small amount of alcohol I had drank, that isn’t the case. I had not gone to Payne’s office with the intention of any of that happening, and what I need is some time to process my thoughts. Without Syn, Royal or Gemini within five feet of me.
“Where are you going?” There’s the sound of hurried, crunchy steps, and then Royal is beside me. “Gemini is being Gemini. He’s a dick at the best of times, but you know he doesn’t really mean anything by it, right?”
I wasn’t really paying attention to the direction I’d chosen to storm off, but when I realize that it’s in the opposite direction of Denali House, I decide that my subconscious is telling me something. “To see Penny.”
“You saw her yesterday,” Syn points out, sounding irritated.
“Says the guy who can’t seem to go longer than an hour without Tweedledee or Tweedledum by his side. If I want to see my friend, I’ll see my friend.”
“Hang on a minute.” Gemini runs in front of me. When it’s obvious I’m not going to stop, he walks backwards, matching my pace. “Am I Tweedledee, or am I Tweedledum?”
“More like Tweedle Dickhead,” Royal mutters.
“You want to put her at risk?” Syn asks me.
I whirl around. Syn is close enough behind me that he stumbles to avoid crashing into me. “I thought the whole point of the theatrics at breakfast this morning were to make sure that nothing was going to happen to either me or Penny. Either you have the power that you say you do, or you don’t. Which is it, Syn?”
Syn’s cheeks are already red from the cold air, but I swear, the color gets brighter.
I don’t give him the chance to respond. “You’re the one who decided I needed accompanying everywhere. If it’s that much of an inconvenience, go home.”
“Have her come to the house instead,” Syn tells me.
“Even if I wanted to, I can’t without going to see her. She has my phone.”
Syn’s jaw moves like he’s grinding his teeth, but he doesn’t say anything.
Turning on my heel, I take a deep breath and then continue walking in the direction of Penny’s dorm. Even if his motives are questionable, I know I’m the one in the wrong. I don’t want to walk around campus by myself, and even if it does feel like I’m being accompanied by a bad-tempered snake, I do appreciate them being here.
The problem is that I can’t seem to go ten minutes without being irritated by Syn, and I still need to unpack everything that just happened with Payne.
Thankfully, despite my suggestion, the three of them continue to accompany me all the way to Penny’s room. The corridor is the quietest it’s been for a while, with only a handful of doors propped open.
The speed at which Penny opens the door after my knock has me thinking she was right beside it. “Tori? Am I glad to see you.” Her eyes narrow as she looks at the three guys behind me. “You, not so much.”
Penny grabs the front of my coat and tugs me into the room before quickly slamming the door shut in Syn’s face. Almost at once, there’s loud banging on the door, and Penny opens it.
“We stay with her,” Syn tells her.
“Of course you do,” Penny says, with a nod of her head. “And as Royal will tell you, given we’re on the first floor, and neither of us have any plans of jumping out the window, the only way in or out of this room is through this door. Which you will remain on the other side of.”
Syn starts to respond, but Penny slams the door in his face and locks it.
With a long sigh, I move to her hot pink bed and sit down before flopping back onto my back. “They won’t go anywhere.”
“Meaning you’re going to put that to the test by staying here tonight, to see if they camp in the hallway—because hilarious as that would be, we both know that Synclair Keyingham would never sleep on the floor.” The bed dips as Penny sits down beside me. “Or, you mean you’re not staying long.”
“I—”
Penny holds up a hand. “Before you say anything, just know that the correct answer is the first option, because I’ve got a driver coming to collect me first thing tomorrow morning.”
“Penny—”
“—and this is probably going to be the last time we’ll see each other for ages,” she says, dragging out the last word.
I push myself up off the bed and walk the short distance to the door, opening it. Syn, Royal, and Gemini are still on the other side. Only now, there are a couple of girls lingering in one of the doorways, desperately trying to get the attention of the three guys.
“Let’s go,” Syn says, shortly.
“You three can go. It’s Penny’s last night, and I’m spending it here with her.”
Syn’s eyes narrow. “We’ve already had this discussion.”
“I have no intention of leaving this room until tomorrow morning. If you want to camp out here, you can. In fact, I’m sure there are some willing volunteers who will let you share their bed if you ask them nicely.” I nod my chin in the direction of the girls. “You probably don’t even need to ask them nicely.”
Gemini glances over his shoulder. Both girls smile, and one gives him a finger wave.
“I realize that you mean with the three of us, it’s an unusual relationship dynamic, but I’m still a one-woman guy. Now, if you really want to bring another woman into this, we can, but my standards are you, and there might be someone out there who comes close, but they sure as fuck aren’t those skanks.” Gemini doesn’t bother to lower his voice, and as he returns the finger wave, one girl flips him off before she pulls her friend into her room.
“Even if this is pretend, you don’t need to be that mean,” I tell Gemini.
“Who’s pretending?” Gemini tilts his head.
“Enough,” Syn snaps. “We’re leaving.”
Under his frown, Syn’s eyes look like tarnished gold as he glares at me. When he doesn’t move, I raise my arm to waft him away. “Leave then.”
“We agreed that for the foreseeable future, you are to stay with us,” Syn says through gritted teeth.
“As I’ve just said, I have no intention of leaving this room. If you want to stay with me, you can make yourself comfortable out here in the corridor.” I fold my arms and glare back at him.
Before Syn can say anything else, Royal places a hand on his shoulder. “Come on. She’ll be safe here for one night. We can keep an eye on her from back at the house.” Royal points up at the camera aimed at my door, and by default, Penny’s door.
“There we go; everyone is happy. See you tomorrow.” I step back and close the door on them, making sure to lock it again.
“Tor… What the hell was that? I heard that Syn had basically declared that you and him were a thing at breakfast, and someone else was trying to say that it wasn’t just him, but Royal and Gemini too…” Penny wrinkles her nose as she cocks her head. “Look, as someone who loves two other people, and is in a committed relationship with them, there’s no judging on how many people you choose to be with, but if you’re really dating Royal, Gemini, and—” she shudders. “ Syn , then I am going to judge you harder than I judge people who drive Cybertrucks.”
I finally shake off my coat and hang it on the back of the door before I go and join her on the bed. Taking her hand in mine, I look her directly in the eyes. “They’re just doing what they think they need to, to make sure nobody else comes for me for these last few days.”
“Just know, if that becomes reality, your name won’t be Tori anymore, because the only thing I will be calling you is Taurus,” Penny tells me, solemnly.
“Taurus?”
Penny nods. “Because only bulls are attracted to red flags.”
I let go of her hand and snatch up one of her pillows, using it to hit her.
“Rude,” Penny declares, and then bursts out laughing.
Ignoring her cackles, I put the pillow back and then lean back into it. “But maybe not completely unwarranted.” I let out a deep sigh. “What color flag is Dr. Wright?”
The laughter instantly dies, and Penny turns to face me, crossing the legs beneath her. “Dr. Wright, Dr. Wright?”
“No, the other Dr. Wright.”
Penny’s eyes flicked back and forth as she stares intently at my face. “Are you dating a professor?”
“Not exactly.” I bring my hands together and focus my attention on my thumbnails as I press the edges against each other. “It was just a kiss.”
It wasn’t just a kiss.
If Payne hadn’t put the brakes on, we would have had sex on his desk.
“I need more details than that. Did he kiss you, or did you kiss him? And when you say kiss, are we saying a friendly peck goodbye on the cheek, or were your tongues replaying a scene from a tentacle porno?”
“Penny!”
With wide, innocent eyes, Penny holds her hands up on either side of her head. “We listen, and we don’t judge, okay?”
Tentacle porn isn’t my jam, but remembering how Payne’s tongue dominated my mouth is making me feel uncomfortably hot.
Penny lets out a squeal as she starts excitedly hitting my thigh. “Oh my God! You had a hot make out session with a professor. That’s a completely different category of porn.”
“Ow.” I bat her hands away. “It wasn’t porn, and given that I already have my own category, you can trust me that I would know that. It was just a kiss.”
Instantly, Penny sobers up. “Shit. I’m sorry, Tori. I didn’t think.”
With a sigh, I sit upright. “I know. It’s okay.”
Penny turns round and shuffles backwards so that she’s sitting beside me. She turns, frowning slightly. “In all seriousness, what happened? Do you like him?”
“He told me to leave here, we kissed, he started undressing me, and before it could get any further, he saw what Declan did to me.”
Slowly, Penny’s mouth falls open. “So, you would have…?”
We absolutely would have. I told him that I wanted to, I wanted to leave this place with a good memory, but I also wanted to remember what it felt like to be with someone who wasn’t just fucking me because he had to, or worse, out of spite.
Did I like Payne? Maybe…? But now that I was finally getting the chance to get my thoughts together, I was beginning to think him stopping things wasn’t the worst thing.
“Wow,” Penny mutters.
“He wants to wait for me to leave here, and we can be together.”
I didn’t think Penny’s eyes could get wider, but somehow, they do. “I had no idea you liked him, much less that things were serious between you. I mean, considering he’s your teacher, he probably is a red flag, but maybe a pin-sized flag—like, what the president wears.”
“Gee, thank you,” I tell her, dryly.
I did like Payne, and even if he is a bit old, he’s still kinda hot…
But truthfully, my intentions weren’t much more than sex. I haven’t thought much about life after this place, and the only person I wanted to keep in my life was Penny.
Or, at least, not until today…