“No, you weren’t. I mean, I heard you. I think we’re ready,” I rambled as I angled my neck and gave him more room.
“If youthinkwe’re ready then we’re not,” he countered… Even as he ran his fingers gently along my shoulder and upper arm. “I can wait. I can wait as long as my girlfriend needs.”
I leaned into him, snuggled up to his strong chest and buried my face against his neck.
“Hey, hey, what’s this? What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” I admitted. “That’s what scares me so much. We haven’t had any hiccups or—nothing’s gone wrong. Even Sergey and I have tripped. I feel—something keeps telling me that we’re going to have problems if we take that last step.”
“Then we won’t yet,” he whispered, kissing my hair. “Not until you’re sure I won’t be an idiot like them.” He ran his hands down my back and then back up before back down again to cup my ass. “But until then, I want to do some dirty things with you and hear you moan my name. You game?”
Yes, yes, I was.
Very much so, and it was amazing because it was with Winter.
Everything with him was… So why was I hesitant to take that last step when I embraced being bold with the others?
18
Monday morning, I handed in my History of Magic I project well before it was due. The professor was in his class about to hold a different midterm, but I handed in my project much to his shock. I could practically see the questions in his eyes, but I couldn’t really have been the first person to turn a midterm or final in early and just get it off their plate, right?
I asked Sergey at breakfast and he said most would just email it then.
Right, but we couldn’t email them because the professor wanted it in color and didn’t want to waste his ink. So again… Was this me?
Maybe. Oh well.
Latin III was going to be a breeze and I was ready for it before lunch. I was glad to get two off my plate on the first day and then I could handle the rest as needed.
“Oh, the princess actually shows for once,” someone mocked as I took my seat.
I almost looked around, but this time caught myself. I let out a long breath and glanced in the direction the voice had come from. I wasn’t sure who had said it, but the rage coming off a guy when I went past him made it clear he thought I shouldn’t have been confused.
Then I did it again just to mess with him.
“Here, princess,” he snapped.
“Who are you?” I drawled, but then blinked at him and smirked. “Oh, one of the clowns from yesterday.”
Yeah, thatreallypissed him off.
“I find it more than hypocritical that you lay into all of us that we use our names and prestige to get exceptions or pretend to be better than others but yet—” he blasted, clearly intending to make a stink about my missing classes.
I couldn’t hide how bored the conversation made me before focusing on Professor Daly and speaking to her in perfect Latin.“If he gives you any trouble—any of them—please let me know. I’ll handle it. The headmaster knows of this. So does Mrs. Reid. This isn’t some hidden backroom deal. It’s a valid exception now—”
“I know, Ms. Millen. Don’t worry, I can handle any pushback and issues just fine. I know your level and now hopefully they will as well.”
I snickered.“This won’t be enough, but I could do this all day. We both know your hesitation of pushing me up even more was you hadn’t heard more of my pronunciation and now you have. I should actually place out of all the Latin classes, but the refresher was nice, and I did want more focused teaching since my tutors could be flippant given they thought I didn’t have magic.
“More than that, I should know the level of my classmates for the Wicked Challenges if nothing else. Yes, they’re a few years ahead of me, but what I’ve seen from the upperclassmen hasn’t been all that impressive. I apologize if that sounded judgmental, but it wasn’t meant as a slight against you, simply the laziness and attitude of too many of the students.”
I was glad when a few people snickered, clearly understanding enough to keep up with the conversation.Professor Daly and I talked another few minutes about the test and a couple of other things before I focused back on the guy.
“Right, what was your name? I never thought it important enough to catch, but you’re probably going to try and make a big stink next because whatever this plan was didn’t work, right? Or do you just want me to give you my attorney’s business card and she can just talk directly to your family to tell you it’s stupid?”
“Damn, girl,” a witch chuckled, shaking her head at me. “You’re learning fast. He’s Adam.”
I thanked her and focused back on Adam, the British douche who referred to non-top-tier families as “low-born.”
