Lucca’s never-subtle hints about apologizing to Mariya. Our friends, looking between the two of us like they’re waiting for some inevitable explosion the size of Mt. Vesuvius. The Academy’s buzzing gossip network still working overtime, spreading the word that my fiancee would rather stab herself than speak to me.
All of what has brought women out of the woodwork and attempting to get into my pants. Some not-so-subtle invitations to “Spend some time together.” A few are offered by students I’ve slept with before. Several I haven’t. Despite whatever some poisoned tongue whispered in Mariya’s ear; I did not fuck my way through the female student body in my two years at the Academy before she was accepted here.
“Hey, Kon! Wait up.”
I smother a groan. Tansey Marchand comes click-clacking up to me, her heels making a staccato rhythm on the stone paths.Why the hell is she wearing heels? Winter swept eagerly onto Inis Mor early and the groundskeepers are constantly shoveling snow drifts off the walkways.
She trots alongside me, face red from exertion. “How you been, honey?”
“I’m fine, Tansey.” I walk a little faster, hoping she’ll lose interest. My mother’s insistence on good manners forces me to ask, “How are you?”
“I’m good, I’m good… Oh, my goodness, this path is so slippery! What do they pay those men for?” Tansey purrs, fluttering her lashes at me like a deranged lunar moth. “Could I just hold your arm? It would be just like me to break my leg.” Her southern belle accent thickens to an almost unintelligible level. I suspect she thinks it sounds sexy.
“I’m heading for the library,” I lie, since it’s the closest building to us.
“Oh, that will be fine,” she says, pretending to slip a bit so she can tighten her talons into my jacket. “I hear y’all have hit a rough patch?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said blandly, lengthening my stride to the point that I’m nearly dragging her along. “But I don’t discuss my personal life.”
“Well, I’m always here if you need someone to talk to.” Tansey tries to run one of her blood-red nails down my jacket, “I am a very good listener.” Her hand suddenly slides down to grab at my crotch.
Then, of course, the huge library doors open and out walks Mala, Tatiana, and… my fiancée. They stop on the stairs as their chatter abruptly cuts off.
Tansey tightens her grip on my dick and grins, lips curling back, baring her teeth like something rabid. “Hey, y’all!” she calls cheerfully. I slap her hand away from my crotch and she yelps dramatically.
Time seems to slow to a crawl for a moment and I see the acute pain in Mariya’s gaze before it goes completely blank. Then time speeds up, too fast and they’ve passed us without a word before I can remove Tansey’s claws from my arm.
Gripping her wrist harshly, I pull her loose and shove her into a snowbank. “Was that what you were looking for?” I snarled. “It won’t have the desired effect. There’s not a soul on campus who would believe I’d stick my dick in you, including my fiancée. Do not make the mistake of fucking with her. And if you ever try to grope me again, I’ll break your wrist.”
“How dare you!” She’s working up a round of tears as I shove past her, heading after Mariya.
Goddamnit. This is my fault. I should have made peace with Mariya long ago. I’d underestimated her ability to hold a grudge, not to mention how fucking stupid my stubborn pride was. What the hell was I waiting for? For her to admit she was wrong for saving my life? The misery in her eyes for that moment gutted me. She does care about me, more than I understood. Otherwise, she would have just stabbed me.
I would have deserved it.
Standing on the icy path while the falling snow covers me, I scan the three paths that branch off from this one. Mariya’s gone.
She was right. I am such an asshole.
“You’re such an asshole.” Lucca’s pouring me a drink, though from his expression it looks like he wants to dump it on my head.
“I already know that,” I sighed, rubbing the back of my neck.
“It bears repeating,” he snorts, setting the glass in front of me with a thump. The vodka slops over the rim of the glass and splashes on my jeans. “You should be embarrassed. Fucking Tansey Marchand trying to give you a hand job in front of your fiancée? You were too stupid to sidestep that swamp rat? Shit. I’m embarrassed for you, you fucking idiot.”
“Don’t hold back, tell me how you really feel,” I said, making no move toward the glass, though at this point, the entire bottle couldn’t make any of this look better.
Settling next to me on the couch, Lucca eyes me over his glass. “I have to say, for someone who usually self-medicates like an 80’s rock star, you’re handling this rather calmly.”
“Kissing ass is best done on sober,” I said, “and I’m sure I’ve got a fuck ton of it to do, as soon as I work out what to say to Mariya.”
“You know the - what did Tati call them? - the catty bitches in the Academy gossip network are going to be all over this shit,” he says, taking my drink and pouring it into his glass. “This is good. A present from your parents?”
“Yeah, the same parents who are likely going to send me to Siberia to manage the Turgenev mines there,” I said. “Part of me doesn’t understand why this is a big fucking deal. I didn’t have my dick in any part of her-” I shudder, and Lucca gets a queasy expression.
“What makes you want to hurl more, Tansey’s charming personality or that her family traffics women and kids throughtheir ports in New Orleans?” he asks. “Why did you let her touch you?”
“She was wearing these giant stripper heels,” I groaned, pressing the heels of my hands against my eyes like I could wipe out the memory. “She kept slipping and grabbed my arm.”
