I look up sharply and stare into his gray-green eyes. I want to believe I can confide in Marcus, but my honor guard sees the world in a way I no longer can. Marcus believes that good will win out, that doing the just and honorable thing will be rewarded.
But I’ve seen how the world rewards people like Andrew Radcliffe. Like my father.
If I had told Marcus about what I’d found in Luca’s room, Luca would have been hauled off by the cops that very night, not the next day.
“If you don’t want to talk to me, at least talk to Simon or Alyssa, all right? I hate seeing you suffer like this. It tears me apart.”
Saints, those earnest words make me want to crawl across the hallway and into his arms.
I don’t.
I can’t.
Simon finally pops his head out into the hallway. “All right. Blanket fort ready. Marcus, you can join us if you want. It’s a roomy blanket fort.” He shoots my honor guard a beaming smile and Marcus clears his throat awkwardly.
“I’m good out here.”
“Let us order you some food at least. I’m the reason you didn’t get dinner,” I insist. “Though, I’m guessing you’re not much of a pizza fan?”
“Michelangelo’s makes a mean antipasto salad,” Simon offers.
“Yeah, that works.” Marcus digs out his wallet, but I wave him off.
“Don’t worry, Father’s paying for this one. Let him lecture me for ordering pizza.”
“Like literally every academy student ever,” Simon says, rolling his eyes. “Junes, your father’s done a lot of shady shit, but denying you any kind of junk food might just be his greatest crime.”
I elbow him lightly and then let him pull me into his dorm room.
Summer sunshine and salty sea air hit me the moment I step into the room, and I take a quick step back, shaking my head to clear it. The scent is too familiar, now forever steeped in heartbreak.
“You okay?”
I hesitate. “Yeah. I just thought…” What did I think? That I’d picked up Cassian Leclerc’s scent in Simon’s room? It’s possible Cassian’s been here. They’re both juniors, after all, and likely share a number of classes they might study for together. “It’s nothing.”
It isn’t nothing, but I refuse to let another alpha’s betrayal drag me down tonight, not when my beta tutor is being as sweet as chocolate-covered marshmallows.
Not when he’s built me more than a blanket fort. Saints, it’s practically a nest, and when I step beneath the twinkle lights, I let the pure wonder overtake me.
Sheets drape from the tall posts at the end of his bed, and he’s pulled the mattress onto the floor along with a flannel duvet and every last pillow in the room.
He sheepishly hands me a stack of blankets. “It helps Ellie out sometimes,” he says.
Nesting, he means. Simon Monroe knows how to make a blanket fort that’s more nest than fort because he’s done it for his younger sister.
“You do your thing and I’ll order us some dinner. What do you like on your pizza?”
“Everything,” I tell him, digging the credit card my father gave me out of my bag and handing it over to him.
“Everything it is.”
I bury my face in the soft blankets and can’t help the way my lips turn upward in a smile, the way my cheeks heat. I should feel self-conscious nesting in front of Simon, but I don’t. I kneel on the soft mattress, the scent of summer sunshine filling my senses. For now, I let it be a much-needed comfort. I carefully arrange pillows and blankets until I’m satisfied, and then sit cross-legged, a wash-worn patchwork quilt wrapped around my shoulders.
Simon smiles at me, his hazel eyes crinkling. “That one’s always been my favorite. Our mom made it for me. Well, Ellie’s mom. Long story. May I come into your nest?”
“Yes, please,” I say, reaching for him.
He sits beside me, leaning back against the pillows and nods in approval. “It’s a lovely nest, Junes.”
