I snickered a laugh, clicking the cap back on my old-school ink pen and closing my workbook over it. Accessing eBooks on my palm reader was a blessing for my aching shoulders, but now that I had access to paper and pens, I was a little bit in love with writing my homework out by hand.
“I can’t imagine why,” I replied with heavy sarcasm. “But you are aware that kittens are already baby cats, right? There’s no such thing as a baby kitten.”
Mattie tore her eyes away from the players just long enough to give me a confused frown. “What?”
I sighed. “Never mind. How come you’re here, anyway? I thought you had debate meetings on Fridays.” It’d been five days since Alex had kissed me in the dining room, and we’d been the hot topic around the academy since. While I loved the fact that he wasn’t afraid to be seen with me, that he wasn’t sneaking around with the scholarship student like I was a dirty secret, it kind of made me uneasy. I felt like it had been less of a spontaneous expression of his feelings and more of a political move. Claiming ownership.
Mattie shrugged. “Yeah, I didn’t feel like going. Figured you might like some company out here.”
I laughed and arched a brow at her, but she wasn’t even looking at me. Her gaze was back on the field where the guys were splitting up into two teams for a practice match. They had a big game tomorrow against Tsinghua—a rival school from the kingdom of Beijing.
Apparently the players had warmed up enough—and the arena was kept at a pleasant enough temperature—that instead of marking one team with a tag, they’d opted for something far more eye-popping. Shirts vs skins. Yep. There were eleven delicious, ripped royals stripping their shirts off just twenty yards from us.
“Holy shit,” I muttered, forcing my jaw to maintain its correct positiononmy face and not drop to the ground.
Mattie snickered a laugh. “See, I knew you liked the bad boys.”
My cheeks heated because she knew exactly where I was staring. Rafe. Or more specifically, Rafe’s myriad of colorful tattoos that seemed to hug his defined muscles in a way that should be illegal. He was so far removed from the refined prince, and I fucking loved that about him. If only his personality was better...
“Oh, I wouldn’t call Nolan abadboy. He’s just misunderstood.” I said it so innocently, shifting my gaze to Mattie’s twin quickly enough that when she spun around to glare at me, I was staring in the right direction.
Actually, come to think of it, Nolan had a seriously banging body. Fucking hell, was this a requirement of being rich? Be uber sexy and possess the ability to melt a girls panties at five hundred feet?
“Gross, girl,” Mattie objected, wrinkling her nose, “Don’t ogle my twin unless you’re willing to ogle me, too.” She shot me a teasing wink so I knew she was at least partly joking. Still. Nolan washot.
“Whatever, I’m not here to perv on the guys,” I informed her with a superior tone. “I need to get this economics paper finished to turn in this afternoon.”
Mattie screwed up her face at me. “That’s not due until Monday, overachiever.”
I laughed. “Yes, I know. But with the game tomorrow, then Alex asked me if I’d keep Sunday free for him…” I trailed off with a small shrug.
Mattie coughed a sound. “Uh, he asked you to do what? Why?”
My cheeks flamed, and I dodged her scrutinizing gaze. “If youmustknow… he wants to go to a hotel.”
Her jaw dropped as she read between the not-so-subtle lines. “Hescheduleda time to fuck you?” she snorted with laughter. “Oh my god, that’s so Alex.”
I had to hand it to her, since Alex had spent so much time caring for me and my injuries last weekend, she’s seriously mellowed on the whole Alex-is-a-murderer thing. No one else had, but fuck it. Mattie’s opinion was the only one I really cared about.
Lies.
I sighed, squashing that flicker of unease in my gut as I tracked Rafe across the field. The way he handled the ball, fucking dancing with it, was totally magnetic. I shouldn’t have been watching him. I shouldn’t even acknowledge his existence, seeing how he’d treated me all week, but… I was helpless to resist.
“He doesn’t actually mean it, you know?” Mattie’s tone was serious, and I shot her a look. “Rafe.” She nodded to the Swiss prince, who’d just scored a goal and was basking under his team’s cheers.
I scoffed, forcing my attention to the other team. The shirts team. The one mycaring boyfriendwas captaining, and the one that was currently seething at the loss of a goal to skins.
“If you’re trying to defend Rafe damn nearbullyingme this week, you can save it. There is no acceptable excuse for his behavior, short of a brain aneurysm. Even then I probably wouldn’t buy it.” I tried to keep my tone flat and emotionless, but just discussing it made my stomach churn.
All. Fucking. Week. Rafe had takeneveryopportunity to cut me down with verbal barbs and casually cruel comments. What the fuck I’d done to turn him so severely against me when I’d thought we were making such progress, I had no idea.
“It’s complicated,” Mattie murmured, her lips tight. She had that frustrated, angry expression that told me all I needed to know. There was more going on, and only royals were permitted insight. I, as Rafe had pointed out numerous times over the week, was quite assuredlynota royal.
Prick.
“Okay, well, whenever he wants to uncomplicate it, I’ll be sure to forgive and forget.” I muttered this, totally expressionless, and flipped open my economics workbook again.
“Really?” Mattie asked, completely misreading me.
