Chapter 5
“He’s moved camp,” Lyris announced breathlessly at lunch.
“Gone? No!” Cleery exclaimed.
Giss moved closer. She couldn’t sit, so she’d been standing at one of the tall tables to have her meal. It put her near the table where the popular girls held court.
“Not gone! He rented a room in Juni town. My maid’s friend in town took a peek through a crack in the wall to get a good look at him and said he’s built like a stallion, beautifully muscled and—well,” she said with a swooning gesture and a blush.
Giss gritted her teeth, trying hard not to snap at them, struggling to stay silent about exactly how beautiful his large cock was and what precisely it tasted like when it was in one’s mouth.
She felt her own cheeks flame at the memory and reminded herself that she hated Larsinc.
“If he could afford a room in town, whatever was he doing making camp on the frozen lake?”
“Wait! Wait!” Lyris said, pausing for effect, taking a bite of food to draw out the suspense. “She says he paid up front with funds from a flush account that’s brimming with currency.Andhis image on the account without a beard? So handsome it would take your breath away, she says!”
“Who is he!” Cleery demanded. “Our own mystery man!” She took a breath and exhaled in a rush. “That’s it. We’re going to town.”
All the girls squealed in excited agreement.
“Whoever he is, do you really think he wants schoolgirls spying on him?” Giss snapped before forcing down a juice she’d ground pain-relieving herbs into. The throbbing reminder of Larsinc’s illicit visit made her want to shed her clothes, put more gel on her ass, and lie on her stomach for the rest of her damned life.
The girls looked at her, frowned, and then turned back to each other to plot their trip to town.
She swallowed the last of her juice, telling herself Larsinc wouldn’t care about a group of silly young women coming to town to ogle him. Then she remembered that he’d been interested in her, and she was just the same age, and just as innocent until he’d gotten hold of her. Maybe he’d bed them all. At the same time.
He won’t if he’s dead. Another excellent reason to kill him.
* * *
Gissandre skipped class for two days because it was too excruciating to sit. She’d made excuses, saying she’d pulled a muscle while exercising and, as a good student who never caused trouble, no one raised a brow. She’d half hoped a nurse would insist on examining her, so she could tell the whole sordid story to someone.
Dead worlds, where was her sister?
She slid into a soft skin suit and snuck out of her room.
“What are you doing here?” Cleery hissed when Giss arrived at the rendezvous point just after dark.
“I’m coming with you.”
“You aren’t,” snapped Cleery.
Giss responded in a cool tone. “I am if you don’t want your mission revealed to the headmistress.” No one, she’d decided, was going to see Larsinc without her.
Lyris, her roommate Faura, an exotic girl with round eyes, glossy red hair and enormous breasts, and Lyris’s maid with mousy hair and an overbite all looked at Gissandre with incredulous shock.
“Yes, I’m a villain. It’s shocking. Let’s go,” Giss said.
Cleery leaned forward. “I will make your life a misery after this, new girl.”
“Trembling to my toes.” Cleery had no idea what a life of misery was, so couldn’t possibly inflict the pain it would take to cow Gissandre.
She fell into step with them as they all trooped out to the school’s glider platform. They had to put in illicit codes to get the glider to start, and Giss didn’t bother to ask how they’d gotten them.
In the glider carriage, Giss shifted constantly in her seat. She still could not sit comfortably. Dead realms, he was obscenely strong.
“If you had to pee, why didn’t you go before we left!” Cleery said.
