I hear Athena come in, stomping around the main room and then, the low murmur of a man and a drunken chuckle.Oh, please go into your room,I groan silently,please don’t make me hear this. Not tonight.
Thankfully, her bedroom door slams but it’s not enough. My roommate is a screamer. She ramps up quickly and extends far beyond what is surely normal.
Putting my pillow over my head, I try to block out her wailing, “Yes Christos, like that! Just like that!”
Probably Christos Gataki. He’s in my Bitcoin and bank fraud class. Sort of a lumbering, hulking kind of guy but pleasant enough. Also, apparently blessed with impressive stamina because they are not finished.
“Yes! Just like that, youpanémorfo gamiméno,you gorgeous fucker!”
“Please let it stop,” I moan.
Even though Athena’s orgasmic screaming didn’t stop until she kicked Christos out at around 4 a.m., I still wake up when the sun rises. After staring at the ceiling for a while, I drag myself out of bed to put on some leggings and a fleece-lined hoodie. I may as well go for a run before my training with Lucca.
My fingers get tangled in my shoelaces as I ponder that. Will he pretend it never happened? Will he throw me down on the mat and give me a replay? What the hell was wrong with me for hoping it’s the second option?
It’s freezing outside, any pretense of lingering summer is gone. Zipping up my hoodie, I head for the rock-paved path that circles the outer rim of the campus. I always make a point of waving to the guards when I pass them. They never wave back, but I know a lot of the students here act like they’re servants, which seems like a deeply ill-advised way to treat someone who carries weapons.
This running path is safer than most of other ones laced through the campus. There are no hidden spots, no trees, or boulders where predator scum like Mateo can hide themselves. I suspect this path is kept clear for a reason, so that the guards can spot any potential threats from outside the college. Still, there are dangerous spots where the rock crumbles close to the sheer cliffside. I always wondered why Dean Christie didn’t insist on putting up fencing, but I’m sure it goes back to the unofficial school motto, “If you let it happen to you, it’s your fault.”
By lunchtime, I’m a mess, thinking about training with Lucca in less than an hour.
“What’s going on with you?” Mariya asks, eyeing me suspiciously as she digs into her stroganoff.
“Nothing,” I try for a breezy response and end up more in the range of an anxious croak. Pretending to cough, I drink half a glass of water. “Just a little stressed. I have a long afternoon of training ahead of me.”
“That’s right, your big combat test is on Monday, isn’t it?” she says, looking genuinely concerned. She’s the only one of my friends here who knows just how crucial this performance for Professor Zimmerman is going to be. “Hey, you’ve got this, I know you do!” Giving me a hug, she nods reassuringly.
Anxious to change the subject before my anxiety turns into nausea, I ask, “How was last night? Did you have fun?”
Mariya instantly scowls. “No. Konstantin was being a creeper again and dragged me off the dance floor.”
“Why?” I feel terribly guilty because, of course, I know why but I can’t tell her without admitting what I was up to out there behind the lighthouse.
“I was dancing with Ronan and that idiot Kon came charging across the room and acted like we were dry humping, or something,” she says angrily. “Etot glupyy zasranets, that stupid asshole is determined to ruin my social life! He can have sex with half the female population of this school and I’m not allowed to dance? I know everything about this arrangement is the Bratva at its misogynistic best, but this is ridiculous!”
“I’m sorry,” I said. As angry as she is, I know Konstantin’s rudeness is hurting Mariya. Their marriage was arranged between the Morozov and the Turgenev Bratvas when she was only fourteen, and she and Kon have bickered ever since. But this aggressive meanness from him is new. “If it’s any comfort, I don’t think he’s sleeping with anyone else.”
“How do you know?”
“Lucca mentioned it,” I admit, “I’d asked him why Konstantin was being such a dick to you.” Seeing Lucca nod at me across the dining room, I put down my napkin. “I have to go,moy drug, my friend. If anyone can straighten Kon out, it will be you.”
Lucca’s expressionless face doesn’t give me any comfort as we head into the training room. I’m guessing he’s going with pretending it never happened. Then he insists on making this worse by pulling off his shirt, something he’s never done in front of me.
Damn him, he has a six-pack that I would have believed could only be achieved with some serious photoshopping. He’s all hard, sculpted muscle and suddenly, I wonder what it would be like to trace every one of those colorful tattoos with my tongue. Abruptly yanking my gaze from his chest, I flush.
Then his mouth is on mine in a hard, hungry kiss and when he pulls back, I’m weak-kneed and panting. “Well, that blows my theory out of the water,” I wheeze.
“What theory?”
“That you were just going to pretend last night didn’t happen,” I said, loving the feel of his bare skin against mine.
Raising a brow, he asks, “Did you want me to?”
“God, no!” I blurted, wanting to smack that cocky grin right off his face.
“Good,” he said hoarsely, kissing me again, one hand sliding down to the small of my back, pushing me harder against him. Resting my hands on the sides of his neck, I raise on tiptoe to get closer to him.
For the first time I walked through the gates of the Ares Academy, I feel safe.
