After another quick kiss, Alex headed off in the direction of the tutorial suites, leaving me standing in front of a frowning American prince.
“What?” I demanded when Jordan continued to stare.
He arched a brow, wiping his frown away. “What do you even see in that douche, Violet?”
He started walking, and I hurried to follow, my jaw slightly unhinged at his blunt words. “Uh, he’s nice, handsome, and funny. Why shouldn’t I like him?”
Jordan scoffed slightly. “Oh, I don’t know. Maybe because he murdered his fiancée almost three years ago?”
What?!I ground to a halt.
“That wasn’t murder, bro,” Nolan chimed in, joining us. We were right near our usual table. “Jasminefell, remember?” His heavy sarcasm told me all I needed to know on whether he believed that line. “But you know Dean Morgan will have your balls if you’re caught talking about it. Hey, new girl. ’Sup?” He gave me a narrow-eyed glare that implied far too many things all at once. “How was your weekend? We need to do another movie night soon.” Pretty sure he’d deliberately used those words. But I couldn’t tell if he was warning me or letting me know there would be another fight soon.
Glaring back at him, I took my time to sit down and arrange my skirt.
“Oh yeah, you had a movie night with the twins?” Jordan was the picture of fucking innocence. Like he hadn’t just dropped a fucking bombshell about my sort-of boyfriendandthat he hadn’t been sneaking into my room during said “movie night” to wake Nolan for their super secret nighttime activities.
I cleared my throat and gave Jordan a plastic smile. “Uh-huh, sure did. What were you up to over the weekend?”
Jordan—poor darling—had no clue that I knew where he’d been. Where they’d all been.
“Just studying,” the American prince lied, glancing up as his brooding, bad-tempered Swiss friend pulled out the chair next to him.
Rafe’s stare lingered on me way too long. Long enough that the silence grew awkward, and I made a mental choice. Fuck him and his attempt to conceal his identity, and seriously fuck his bad attitude toward me. Clearly his friends saw something in me worthwhile of their friendship, so seriously. Screw. Him.
“Hey, Jordan?” I placed my hand on his forearm and pitched my voice low, inviting him to lean in like I wanted to speak privately. He did exactly that because I was no slouch in the flirting department. Just because I had planned not to get mixed up with the royals didn’t mean Icouldn’thave.
Jordan’s dark brown eyes lit with curiosity as he angled toward me, his unanswered question to Rafe already forgotten. “What’s up, Violet?”
“I wanted to say thank you,” I said quietly—but not so quietly that Rafe couldn’t hear me. Jordan blinked at me in clear confusion, and I swallowed my urge to laugh. “For Friday night,” I continued with my act, “I really appreciate your help getting out of those tunnels.”
Nolan groaned, but the American prince’s eyes widened, and he shot a lightning fast glance at his friends. I pretended not to notice, all the while laughing my ass off inside my head. From the corner of my eye, I could see Rafe’s knuckles turning white where he clenched the side of the table as he listened to our conversation.
“I have to say, you’re really good,” I turned up the gushing to a point where I wanted to cringe just hearing myself. “Maybe you could teach me some things?” Jordan’s eyes were now wide and his jaw slightly unhinged, and Rafe was like a fucking storm cloud. Nolan looked resigned. Whatever, I was tired enough that I deserved a little fun.
“Um… yeah?” Jordan nodded slowly, and when Rafe made an outraged noise, I needed to cough to hide a laugh. “I’d love to, um, teach you things. All the things.”
Jordan had zero clue what I was talking about, but was playing along anyway. What a champ.
Fuck it, time to hammer it home.
“Awesome! You’re the best, Jordan. And since we’re being so honest now, I just want to say you don’t have to worry.” I dropped my voice to a stage whisper that Rafe would have no trouble listening in on. “I won’t tell anyone that you’re Fallen Angel.”
Nolan sprayed his juice all over the tablecloth and something cracked.
Holy shit, did Rafe just break the table?
Points to Jordan, though, the dude maintained a carefully neutral expression as I smiled innocently and batted my lashes at him.
“Cool,” he murmured. “Best we keep that… between us. Now tell me again how great I am?”
“Jordan,” Rafe damn near barked, scraping his chair back from the table. “A word.”
The American prince sighed and gave me an apologetic look. “Sorry, Violet. Some people have no manners. Hold that thought?”
Again, I smiled and batted my lashes, as Rafe practically dragged his friend away from our breakfast table.
“Uh…” Nolan reminded me that he was still there, even while he mopped up spilled juice. “You know Jordanisn’tFallen Angel, right?”
