Chapter 8
EIGHT
After a chaotic weekend attempting to study with Avery and the guys, I’m almost relieved to be back in class.
Not that I enjoy being around the other students, and the teachers here are all average at best, but it’s far easier to focus on my work here.
I thought, at most, I’d spend my weekends tutoring Blaise with a little refereeing on the side, because even Avery is contentious and competitive at the best of times.
Instead, by Sunday afternoon I had my headphones in to drown them all out and here I was thinking I’d have an easier time with my assignments this year.
Sitting in our last class for the day, I’m keeping a careful eye on Blaise’s blushing desk buddy from across the room when my phone vibrates silently against my leg. Harley feels it and glances around before frowning at me when it’s clear the text has come from outside our little family.
With a shrug, I wait for the teacher to turn his back before checking the text.
Heads up, little Wolf, I’m making a house call. School call? Whatever. I’ve got intel for you. The kind that can’t wait and needs to be delivered personally. The O’Cronin kid can get you into the pool, right? Meet me there at 11pm.
I groan; just what I need. Harley quirks an eyebrow at me, and when I flash him the screen to show him Illi’s text, his frown deepens. He glances up to meet my eyes before giving me a curt nod, turning back to scowl as he works on the equations in front of him.
The swirling pit in my stomach makes it impossible to do the same, my mind running through a hundred different scenarios, so instead I glare at the back of the blushing girl’s head like this is all her fault.
Harley bumps me gently to get my attention and asks me what the hell my problem is using just his eyebrows. Yep, I’m fluent now. I know exactly what the golden god is saying, only I’m not sure I can get my eyebrows to say what I need them to in return, so I shrug instead.
After class, Avery laughs at me as I eyeball the fuck out of the blushing girl. I tuck my arm into hers and stomp to the dining hall for an early dinner, ignoring the guys as they gloat at each other over last night’s fight club.
I already know Ash won.
If the bruised and split skin on his knuckles didn’t give it away, then the looks of begrudging awe and sheer terror he gets from the other students would have clued me in.
I hear Blaise joking about sending Harley the video of a particularly brutal fight with one of Joey’s ex-flunkies and I make a note to get a copy myself.
For… research purposes.
Ahem.
Avery grimaces at her phone before murmuring, “I don’t know why you’re glaring at that poor little sheep. He barely noticed her existence, and she was too shy to even try to speak to him.”
With a groan, I roll my eyes at her. “Exactly. So, if he needs help with his workbook she’s not going to be able to do shit if she can’t even speak to him. She didn’t take a single note the entire class.”
Avery chuckles. “Neither did you.”
“Difference is, the Mounty has already finished the entire algebra unit and is now working on the geometry workbook that the class won’t move to for another eight weeks. She’s so far ahead, even Harley’s extra special tutoring can’t get close to her,” Ash interrupts, and Avery cuts me a look.
“Are you sleeping at night? How much coffee are you drinking? Do I need to give up ballet and start stalking you to make sure you’re taking care of yourself?” she hisses, and I laugh at her.
We push into the dining hall, and I try to ignore the looks I get.
It’s not so bad, thanks to the time and the fact that I’m surrounded by the others.
I’ve only attempted to eat here at a normal time by myself once since we got back; but no thanks, not again.
It was unbearable, like being stuck in one of the Jackal’s sick ploys with everyone watching me and barely even pretending to whisper all the crap they were saying about me.
None of them dare to say a word now, though, not with Avery’s arm tucked in mine and the guys surrounding us both.
The students here seem to think they’re the dangerous ones.
Fucking rich idiots.
I grab a tray for myself and Avery, ignoring three sets of glares at my independent move.
I make it two steps before Ash wrestles it from me.
Chivalrous dickhead. “I’m sleeping just fine.
Things are calmer this year, at school at least. I’m not worried about Joey choking you or Harlow fucking poisoning you.
I’m not stressing about hot assholes sitting on my couch glaring at me all day.
” Avery gags at me dramatically, and I smirk back.
“I’m just getting ahead before everything turns to shit like it always does. ”
The smirk slides off my face as a voice in the back of my mind oh-so-helpfully whispers, famous last words, and it’s hard to ignore the unease that begins to build in my stomach.
Harley arrives at our door at ten.
After dinner, Ash and Blaise headed back to their room to change for basketball training, and Harley gave me a long look before going with them to get ready.
I had no idea what it meant, and honestly, I wasn’t paying enough attention to the conversation going on to even guess, distracted by Illi’s impending arrival.
The sound of keys in the door startles me as he lets himself in and I frown, confused about his early appearance, but he only smirks back at me, his eyes a little too… sparkley for my liking. He’s up to something and, goddammit, my thighs are already clenching at the possibilities.
Avery stomps out of the bathroom, wrapped in a fluffy towel, and snaps at him, “The keys are for an emergency! If you don’t stop letting yourself in, I’m going to start walking around naked!”
Harley snorts at her. “You’ll only be risking Morrison’s life. I don’t wanna see my cousin’s tits, but it’s not going to scar me for life. Morrison’s the one who’ll get stabbed for looking at you.”
Avery loosens the hold on her towel so it slips a little to call his bluff but he doesn’t falter for a second. Seriously. Even as I’m groaning and slapping a hand over my face, the two of them just glare each other down like some sort of fucked-up game of chicken.
Clearing my throat, they both ignore the attempt to interrupt them, until I’m groaning again. “Can we just go, Harley? Please? Or is there something else you wanna do while we wait?”
He reluctantly looks away, and Avery crows in victory. “Grab a bathing suit, we can go for a swim before the Butcher gets here.”
Any relief I might’ve felt at breaking their stand-off dies instantly, and I’m desperately trying not to show how I really feel about his suggestion. “I’m shit at swimming.”
There’s that fucking sparkle in his eyes again, and the smirk is back, too. “Well, I’m not. I’ll keep you afloat.”
I’m not proud to admit it, but the deciding factor is the very thought of being pressed up against his wet, naked chest.
Yes fucking please.
One small problem.
“I don’t have a bathing suit.”
Harley’s eyebrow quirks before he can smother it, like I’ve shocked him but he’s trying not to make a big deal out of it. “You’re from the Bay, how do you not have a suit?”
I don’t have a good answer for that, at least not one I want to hash out right now.
Being the expert that she is at reading loaded silences, especially from me, Avery breezes her way over to grab me and tugs me into her closet as she pulls her bathrobe on.
Once she’s tucked firmly into it, she starts rummaging through her drawers until she finds a tiny scrap of fabric and holds it out to me.
I blink at it before scoffing, shooting her a look.
There is no way it will cover even my small tits.
When I finally reach out to take it and start pulling it on with a sigh, she smirks at me. “I knew it would suit you, Mounty. Honestly, that asshole should be kissing my feet.”
A glance in the mirror is all it takes to confirm what I knew when she held it out to me.
It’s obscene. It’s truly fucking obscene.
I mean, I’ve worn worse to parties in the Bay but I needed to blend in, I didn’t do it because I wanted to.
I definitely wasn’t trying to impress anyone, and I suddenly can’t ignore Harley’s presence in our room, a piece of wall between us so thin I heard him huff at Avery’s snide jab.
My entire body flushes as she looks me over, clinically approving like I’m her own personal model, and somehow it’s so much worse than being naked.
It’s technically a bandage-style one-piece.
Heavy on the technically, though, because micro bikinis have more coverage over the important parts and I’m certain that I’m one deep breath away from a lip slip.
I have underboob cleavage in this thing for fuck’s sake!
I turn around in the mirror and, oh look, there’s eighty-five percent of my butt-cheeks.
“Perfect! Now, let me find you something to cover up with for the walk down there,” Avery mutters as she moves to a different drawer.
Harley lets out an exasperated sigh and calls out, “We’re not going to get the chance to go for a swim if you turn this into a fashion parade, Floss. Just grab a sweater to wear once our… friend gets here.”
Avery ignores him and winds a silky, shimmery wrap dress around me, tying and buttoning and tucking me in until I’m positive Harley is going to have to bundle me back into it when we’re finished.
When she nudges me out of the closet, she snarks at him, “You have no idea of the gift I’ve just given you.
If you ran into anyone on the way down and someone else saw it, you’d stab them. You’re welcome, cousin dearest.”