I gave a nervous laugh. “Probably should have asked thatbeforesticking that thing inside me, huh?” Long pause. No response. Wow, tough crowd. “Uh, not right now, no. But I’m not a virgin.”
Nurse Reller muttered something under her breath that I didn’t catch, but my face flamed with embarrassment nonetheless. Was she judging me? I hardly thought the royals of Arbon Academy were exactly saving themselves for marriage. Or maybe they were. Maybe that’s why they all got married so young.
“I’m inserting an IUD for you,” she said louder, reaching for something on the instrument tray beside her. “It’ll prevent anyunwantedpregnancies.”
Panic rose up in me, and I shook my head. “Whoa, wait, what? What if I don’t want an IUD?” Really I should be thankful of the contraception, seeing as it was damn near impossible to get ahold of where I was from. If you were conscientious enough, and had enough spare money, you bought condoms. If not… well… pulling out was the best most could aim for.
Nurse Reller made an annoyed sound but continued with what she was doing in my downstairs area. “You don’t get to pick and choose, Ms. Spencer,” she advised me just a second before I felt a sharp sting deep inside me. It only lasted a moment, but it was enough to make me suck in a sharp breath. “When you signed your admissions paper, you handed over total control of your healthcare to myself and Dean Morgan.”
She finished up what she was doing, then stood up and stripped off her rubber gloves.
“All done,” she said with a cold smile.
I frowned, tucking my legs back down and sitting up with an uncomfortable wince. “Shouldn’t the school be advisingagainstsexual relationships? Not providing contraception?”
Nurse Reller gave a shrug and a wry smile. “Why on Earth would we advise against that sort of thing? We actively encourage all our students to mix, regardless of where they come from.” The way her lip curled and her gaze ran over me, I suspected she didn’t totally agree that where I came from counted in that statement, but whatever.
“I’ll see you again in three months, Ms. Spencer, unless you have any pressing medical issues in the meantime.”
She was gone before I could ask anything else. Not that I had any other questions, aside fromwhat the fuck just happened here?
A heavy, icky feeling of violation settled over me as I cleaned myself up and pulled my uniform back on. I needed to hurry if I wanted to get any of my assignments done before dinner. I didn’t want to fall behind before the semester had even really begun.
Groaning and uncomfortably sore between my legs, I slung my heavy backpack back on and left Nurse Reller’s clinic.
I’d only made it a few steps down the hall when I heard my name.
“Wait up!” Alex called out, hurrying to catch up with me when I paused. “I’ve been looking for you all week. Where’ve you been?” His brow was furrowed with something bordering on annoyance.
“Classes?” I offered, confused. “And Nurse Reller made me do this whole… thing.” I shuddered, and Alex nodded knowingly.
“Quarterly physicals? Yeah, those suck. Sorry, I thought you knew about them, otherwise I would have warned you.” He tucked his hands into the pockets of his suit pants and gave me a sheepish smile. “But I was trying to find you so I could apologize for the other day.”
“Okay…?” I pursed my lips, waiting.
He stared back at me a moment, then must have understood what I was waiting for.
“So, sorry. It won’t happen again.” His apology was so vague that I narrowed my eyes with suspicion.
“Alex, do you even know what you’re apologizing for?”
“Uh…” he hedged, running a hand through his sun-bleached blond hair. Who even had hair like that when it was snowing and dreary outside? “For… being an ass?”
Wow. He had no clue.
Sucking in a deep breath, I counted to five in my head so that I didn’t end up junk-punching him or something. “Alex,” I said on a heavy exhale. “You were totally rude, entitled, and arrogant, and you scared that poor kid half to death in the library. What happened to the whole idea that everyone was on equal footing here? Or is that just a bullshit line the dean feeds to new students?”
Alex’s eyes had widened at my tirade, and he shook his head. “What? No! That’s not…” He trailed off, frowning. “I guess I was pretty rude. I didn’t mean to be; I’m just…” He waved a hand, grimacing. He’d clearly come to the realization that he had no good defense for his actions.
I had to cut him some slack, though. “You’re used to acting a certain way and having people treat you a certain way.”
Helplessly, he nodded.
“I really am sorry, Violet. No one has ever pointed that out to me before. Can I, uh, I mean, would you let me try again?” He looked so hopeful with those big blue eyes pleading. “I really can help you study, and I promise I’m not as entitled as you think.”
I bit my cheek to keep from scoffing. He was a fuckingprinceand one of the richest to boot. Yeah, I was pretty sure he wasmoreentitled than I thought, but I was also kind of willing to find out for myself.
Was it terrible that Nurse Reller’s invasive questions about my sex life, and her unasked for contraception, had me thinking about what sex with Alex would be like?
