Learning to fight, to defend myself … it had given me all of it back—a sense of self and sense of worth, a sense of safety in this fucked-up world.
And I could admit it. I was addicted.
Chapter 16
The weekend passed in a blur, and I spent most of it either studying or trying to wrap my head around everything that’d happened on Friday night. The fight club … it was really the best discovery I could have made here. But would it continue on now that the guards had found them? I’d be devastated to lose it before I had a chance to fight.
I’d have to ask Nolan when we got a second alone.
On Monday morning, I dragged my exhausted ass out of bed and cranked my shower to cold. Short of a damn miracle, that was my best hope for making it through the day.
Once I’d dressed in a clean uniform, I scraped my hair into a messy French braid and grabbed my damn near empty backpack. Without the need for all my physical books, my back would be thanking me, which reminded me to do something nice for Mattie.
Yanking open my bedroom door, I almost collided with Alex’s raised fist.
“Uh, hey,” I greeted him, taking in his slightly dazed expression. “Did we make breakfast plans?” It was entirely possible that had happened while I was nodding and smiling and not really listening on Friday.
Alex smiled and lowered his hand. He’d clearly been about to knock on my door when I’d pulled it open. “No, I just haven’t seen you all weekend and thought maybe I could walk with you to breakfast.” I’d made excuses all weekend not to do anything. Alex had been so sweet in his messages, but I’d been caught up in my own head.
“Might be nice to have a few minutes alone before Mattie steals you away again,” he finished. There was an edge to his voice that said he was still a bit pissed about how last time had worked out.
Whatever, their issues were their own to work out. Right now I was too busy wondering why I’d been ignoring him all weekend. I mean, the boy was damned sexy, and all I could think about was our last kiss.
I stepped into him. “Well, I’m glad you stopped by. I didn’t sleep very well, so this is a pretty great way to start my day.” Acting on instinct, I raised up on my toes and gave him a quick kiss on the lips. A quick kiss that quickly turned into a longer, heated kiss as Alex reciprocated with enthusiasm, cupping my face with his large, tanned hands.
When we separated, we were both breathing heavily, and the look in Alex’s ocean-blue eyes was making my whole body flush with heat.
“We should probably get to breakfast,” Alex murmured, his gaze locked on my mouth like he wanted to keep kissing me.
“Sorry,” I murmured, feeling anything but. “Just wanted to say good morning.”
A wide grin spread across his face. “If that’s how you say good morning, I need to escort you to breakfast every day.”
I laughed, letting him take my hand and lead me down the hall toward the dining room. It was weird how quickly we’d fallen into this… thing. Relationship? It felt all kinds of wrong to say I was dating a crown prince, but Alex wasn’t exactly treating me like his dirty little secret.
“So, how was your movie date on Friday?” he asked as we walked together, our hands still joined.
My mind flashed back to the hidden passageways, the illegal fight setup, the Swiss guards…Rafe.
“Mattie has a thing for old movies,” Alex continued, totally unaware of where my brain had wandered off to. “She probably made you watch a bunch with her favorite old Hollywood actors, huh?”
I couldn’t even remember what movies the twins had brought. Too much had happened since then. But it made me wonder…
“You seem to know a lot about Mattie and Nolan, considering you guys dislike each other so much.” It was a statement, but the question was pretty clear.
Alex’s nose wrinkled slightly, and he gave a small shrug. “We all used to be friends ages ago. I guess so many of the royal houses having kids around the same time gave them some crazy idea that we could all hang out and make alliances and shit.”
That idea wasn’t totally shocking, but trying to imagine Alex actually friends with the twins… or Alex, Rafe, and Jordan… Come to think of it, yeah, Icouldsee that. Something bad must have happened to push him so far on the outs with their crew, though.
“Anyway, it’s old news,” Alex continued, clearly not planning on explaining any further. “What classes do you have today?”
Letting the subject slide, I let go of his hand to bring up my schedule on my new palm reader.
“Morning, Violet,” someone called out, and I glanced away from my display to see Jordan wandering down the hall looking half-asleep. “Alex still hanging around like a bad smell, huh? Need me to take care of him for you?” He spoke like the blond prince wasn’t standing right there, and it was awkward as all fuck.
“As if youcould,” Alex sneered back at him. “But there’s no need for your posturing, Jordy. I was only walking Violet to breakfast. I have an early tutorial with Professor Langley, anyway.” Deliberately giving his back to Jordan, he turned to me. “I’ll see you in the library after classes?” His eyes were so full of nervous hope that it made my belly flip, and I nodded.
“Can’t wait,” I told him.
