Oh, holy fucking saints above.
The top cookie in the tin isn’t one of my sigil-decorated ornaments. It’s a horrible blob of a cookie that a certain other omega heiress with more talent with a pastry bag than I have iced.
And it’s a very, ahem, proud dick. With a very bulbous and red knot.
“That’s not mine!”
I snatch the cookie from the tin, and shove it in my mouth, trying desperately to destroy the evidence.
But it isn’t one of Alyssa’s perfect sugar cookies. It’s one of mine. I chew. And I chew, my face getting redder and redder. I finally swallow down the dry, floury lump with a wince and look up at Ian, beseeching every saint in the world for the ground to open and swallow me up whole. “That wasn’t mine,” I say again. “I made the ones with the sigils.”
He cocks his head as he stares down at the cookies and I wonder whatelseBitsy could have snuck in the tin when I wasn’t looking. “Oh. Is that what those are? At any rate, I knew that… other one wasn’t yours. Your line work is noticeably more… unrestrained. The other one was very smoothly iced… except for the, ahem, bits at the… tip.”
Now Ian looks for all the world like he’s wishing the ground to open up for him too, and I laugh. I laugh like I haven’t laughed all week.
And then he’s laughing too and the look we share—our guards down, joy rushing through us like champagne bubbles—is the best Yule gift I never thought to ask for.
* * *
I findthe offending cookie decorator innocently perched on a stool in Ciel’s seating area.
“Soooo, what did Professor Panty-Melter think of my cookie?” Bitsy asks, all innocence.
My hackles go up at the nickname she uses so casually because, despite every reason Ishouldn’t, I think of Ian asmine. “I panicked and shoved the whole thing in my mouth right in front of him.”
Bitsy cackles.
“Only to find out that you iced one of my horrible reject cookies. It was inedible. And he knew it wasn’t mine because the icing job didn’t totally suck.”
“Bet he enjoyed watching you suck that dick cookie down, though. Knot and all,” she snickers.
“Bits, he gave me homework.”
“That’s practically foreplay for you nerds. Bet you’re banging by Beltane!”
“Oh Saints, Bitsy. He’s aprofessor.”
“Doesn’t stop you from slicking for him. Anyway, Ellie and I have a bet going. She thinks it’ll be by the Feast of Marmora next year. I’ve got $50 riding on this, so let me know.”
CHAPTER14
Bity’s antics make me late for Peer Advising, and I shouldn’t have expected Cassian to be any more lenient since it’s our last session.
“You’re irresponsible!” he fumes, slamming his fists down on the table between us.
“I got held up after visiting Professor Reinhardt’s office. I wanted to thank him for the extra lessons.”
“Your whereabouts mustalwaysbe accounted for,” he growls.
“Marcus was with me,” he protests.
“That isn’t enough, Juniper. Not anymore. Don’t you see? I told you you had a timetable for a reason. You’re expected to adhere to it.”
“Stop treating me like a misbehaving child, Cassian,” I utter, my voice low. A warning.
“Then stop acting like one!”
He lectures me at length, voice hard, until he catches a too-familiar face peering into the study room.
