Chapter 35 Annalise
Chapter thirty-five
Annalise
Idon’t know what time it is when I wake up to the gentle sound of my bedroom door shutting.
For a second, I stare at the ceiling, a knot in my stomach growing.
He's gone.
I shouldn’t even be surprised after everything I unloaded on him last night.
The sex was incredible—not a surprise after our first night together—but I’m sure that in the light of day, he realized being with me is more than he bargained for, more drama than I’m worth.
“Sorry, Sweetheart, I didn’t mean to wake you up.”
I whip over so fast, both startled by the noise and shocked he’s here. He’s standing by the door in his uniform, hair damp from a shower, holding two coffees from the dining hall.
“You’re here.” The words barely make it out, my voice shaking before I even realize I was on the edge of tears.
“I just got back. I know you meet your friends for breakfast, but I thought you’d earned some coffee while you get ready after all the hard work you put in this morning.” He teases before noticing the single tear that broke free.
Setting the cups down on my nightstand, he crouches beside the bed. “What’s wrong? Did you have a nightmare? I’m sorry, I didn’t even think—”
I shake my head, trying and failing to pull myself together. “I thought you left. I thought you realized…”
His expression softens instantly. “Ana.” He reaches up, brushing his thumb across my cheek, catching the tear that betrayed me. “The only thing I realized is that you like your coffee way too sweet. The barista looked at me like I was insane for asking for six pumps of brown sugar syrup.”
“You learned how I like my coffee?”
“It only took the one time of seeing you add more syrup after I made it in Seabrim to know. I didn’t do anything cosmic.”
“Thank you,” I finally whisper.
“It’s only a drink, Honey.”
“Not only for my drink, but for staying.”
He reaches over, his hand finding mine on the blanket. “That’s the easiest thing I’ve done in a long time.”
“Well,” I say, trying for lightness even though my voice still trembles, “I guess you kinda do owe me for hogging the bed all night.”
He exhales a small laugh, relief flickering across his face. “If we were in my room…”
“Nope, forget I said anything,” I rush out, my voice still softer than usual, before taking the biggest gulp of coffee and climbing out of bed.
“I told the crew we would meet them at the dining hall for breakfast. I’m actually kind of surprised you didn’t pass Matt.
He’s usually there early to make sure we get our table if he isn’t meeting us here. ”
“Did Matt have to claim a table as yours because you couldn’t pick where to sit?” He teases, but I ignore him as I walk to the bathroom to get ready.
“So,” I start as we leave my room fifteen minutes later, “since I basically trauma-dumped my entire childhood and psychiatric file on you—”
“You didn’t dump anything—”
“—I think it’s only fair,” I cut him off, lifting my chin, “that you tell me something real about you. You don’t get to be mysterious while I tell you my deepest, darkest secrets. That’s not how this relationship’s going to work.”
He shoots me a sideways glance. “You want the dark secrets?”
“I want all of it,” I correct. “Embarrassing baby pictures, how terrible your first kiss was, and all about the summer you ran around the house naked, other than the towel tied around your neck as you pretended to be Superman.”
He laughs softly, shaking his head. “You’re unbelievable.”
“And, you didn’t answer my questions,” I say, smirking.
We turn the corner toward the castle entrance and pause. Lucas is leaning up against the wall with one foot kicked up behind him as his friends circle him, hanging on his every word. If I didn’t know smoking is prohibited, I would think they were out here taking a cigarette break.
My spine stiffens, but I keep walking. Ignore. Don’t engage.
The second he sees me and Aiden walking side by side, a smirk stretches across his face.
“Well, well, well,” Lucas drawls as he steps toward us, looking smug as hell. “So that’s who you were doing all weekend; I’m surprised you’d want that a second time.”
I try to keep walking, but Aiden’s abrupt stop jerks me back.
“Come on! He’s not worth it,” I whisper, only loud enough for Aiden to hear me as I try to get him walking again.
Not noticing the tension rolling off of Aiden, he must think his ‘friend’ stopped to join him in whatever humiliation he has planned, and continues, “Shit, man. I didn’t know you liked it rough like that, but at least you got her again before she’s too loose.”
Aiden releases my hand and decks him.
It’s not a wild punch. Not sloppy or explosive.
It’s perfect. One clean hit to his cheek, knocking Lucas back against the wall with a sharp exhale and a stunned look, like he genuinely can’t believe Aiden isn’t laughing with him.
His friends grab him before he can fall, their mouths gaping at the fourth member of their group.
“Aiden,” I say sharply, stepping between them, my palm pressed against his chest, feeling his heart pounding under my hand.
He doesn’t take his eyes off Lucas. “Keep her name out of your mouth, you fucking piece of shit.”
Lucas spits blood on the floor, glaring. “One weekend of her sucking your dick and you’re already pussy whipped, she must have gotten better.”
Aiden tries to step towards him again, but I don’t move, “Please, Ace.”
He relaxes slightly at my plea, and I look straight at Lucas, my voice turning sickeningly sweet, “He’s just jealous you made it further with me over and over this weekend than he has in the last six years.”
The little moan I let slip in there seems to hit as hard as I hoped it would.
“I’d never lower myself to fucking you,” Lucas scoffs, holding his face
“Of course you wouldn’t,” I laugh, “you couldn’t even last long enough to even get your dick out of your pants.”
His cheeks instantly darken, his emotions battling between embarrassment and rage. “Whatever. He’ll be done with you soon enough, the same as everyone else.”
“Can’t be as fast as I was done with you,” I say before turning back to Aiden, begging him with my eyes to walk away.
He lets out a deep breath through his nose and then gives a slight nod.
“You know that’s going to get you written up if someone reports it,” I whisper up to him.
“Worth it.”
I raise an eyebrow. “You’re ridiculous.”
“And you’re ruthless,” he counters, a grin pulling at his mouth. “Remind me never to piss you off.”
“You’ll be top of my hit list if I don’t eat soon,” I say, bumping his arm as we start walking again.
He laughs, rubbing the knuckles that made contact. “Fed wife, happy life.”
“Not your wife,” I sing back to his absurd nickname, and he dares to say, ‘Yet,’ under his breath as we push through the doors toward the dining hall.
We’re both still a little tense, but we fall back into the routine that we seem to have fallen into over the weekend.
When we get to the table with an overflowing tray of food and another coffee for me, everyone else is already waiting.
As we settle into our seats, I fill a napkin with ice for Aiden’s hand as he starts laying out our breakfast buffet.
“What happened?” James asks between bites.
I shoot a quick glance at Aiden before teasingly answering, “Somebody here doesn’t believe in the old ‘Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me’ mantra and decided to punch Lucas for spewing his normal bullshit.”
Matt’s mouth drops in disbelief, “What? You let him punch him after you’ve been telling me ‘He’s not worth it,' for years.”
Aiden snorts, “Oh, trust me, she tried that on me too. Didn’t work.”
“That’s because you don’t listen,” I mutter, as I press the makeshift icepack against his knuckles. He hisses but doesn’t pull away.
Aiden shrugs, picking up his fork with his good hand like decking someone before breakfast is normal Tuesday behavior. “Call my wife a whore, get punched. Seems pretty straightforward to me.”
“Not your wife,” I cough out, heat flooding my face. I can’t believe he said that in front of everyone! He doesn’t even look at me, though, just spears another bite of pancake and pops it into his mouth.
At the same time, Matt’s eyebrows shoot up. “Wife?” and Josh leans forward, a wicked grin forming as he asks, “When were you planning on telling us about that development?”
Aiden smirks at his plate. “She’s still working on the ‘acceptance’ step.”
I give him a scandalized look, but he simply shrugs one shoulder as if saying, “Facts are facts.”
“You can’t promote me to wife without asking,” I say, like it’s the not asking that’s absurd, not that we just started dating yesterday.
Aiden finally glances up, eyes catching mine with that infuriating, simmering calm. “Sure, I can. I say it, you get embarrassed, but still smile at me; everyone sees it's inevitable. Works out nicely, I’d say.”
I swat his shoulder. “Aiden.”
“What?” he says with mock innocence.
Matt groans and mumbles to himself in a mocking tone, “Be a good friend. Don’t hit him. She’ll get mad at you. You never like it when she’s mad at you.”
I laugh, taking a big bite of my B.L.T. and ignoring the banter going on around me.