Mr. Wainwright seemed confused, his eyebrows drawing together. "Rafe already spoke with him, I believe. You should have your new schedule by now."
"Rafe overstepped," I shot back. "He thinks I'm weak."
The confusion faded, and the older man shook his head. "You should consider that the prince's actions had very little to do with thinking you weak and everything to do with caring about you. When you care about someone, you want them to be happy and successful. He wants you to live your best life and graduate from school as you planned."
His words hit me hard, and I swallowed. Alex had talked only of knocking me up and locking me in his Australasian palace. Rafe, on the other hand, had gone out of his way to ensure I could stay in school.
He'd been trying to give me whatIwanted. And I'd basically thrown it in his face.
Fuck. I was a piece of work sometimes.
Chapter 21
Ididn't end up going to Dean Morgan's office. After my reality check with Wainwright, I took a closer look at the new schedule and assignment info that had been sent to me. It wasn't hard to see that, although it would allow me to catch up and stay at the Academy, it wasn't a free pass.
Rafe hadn't transferred me to bullshit, cakewalk classes. Quite the opposite, everything he'd lined up in my new schedule was going to require some hard work and focus. More importantly, lots of the assignments had to be delivered in person as oral presentations... meaning there was no viable way for me to skate through on my friends doing the work for me.
"Violet!" Jordan called out from down the corridor. I'd stopped halfway to the Dean's office and sat against the wall as I read through my new course load, so I hadn't seen him coming. "You can't just do that," he scolded as he drew closer, his brow creased in a frown. "Now more than ever, you can't just run off alone. What if Uriel has guys here? What if they took you and we had no idea? He could have you halfway around the world before we even noticed you hadn't reappeared."
He was ranting, but there was some very real panic shining through his eyes. Instantly, I felt like a total shithead. It had been a selfish move, taking off like that. My friends—and my lovers—weren't trying to smother me for the fucking fun of it. They were trying to keep mesafe. Because theycared.
Yeah, it was a foreign concept for me. But I needed to start getting used to it because they weren't going anywhere soon. Or I certainly hoped not.
Pushing myself back to my feet, I looped my arms around Jordan's neck and pulled him close, standing on tiptoes to touch my forehead to his.
"I'm sorry," I told him with total sincerity. "I let my temper get the best of me and didn't think shit through. I never meant to worry you, I promise."
His brow was still drawn tight, and his coffee-colored eyes swimming with concern, but I suspect he'd been preparing for me to argue with him, not admit fault and apologize. What could I say? I was turning over a new, more considerate leaf.
"Jordy," I coaxed, "I'm sorry. It'll just take a while to remember other people give a damn what happens to me." I touched my lips to his in a gentle kiss, praying no one was around to see us. But the corridor had been empty the whole time I'd sat there, so it'd be pretty shitty luck if that changed now.
Tension still radiated through his body, and I pressed myself closer, trying to kiss the worry away. I’d taken off and scared him too damn soon after he'd spent a month being tortured, trying to keep me safe in his own way. He must have gone into automatic panic mode, and it was taking a whole lot of effort to let it go.
Eventually, he pushed me away just a fraction of an inch and released a heavy sigh. Some tension melted from his shoulders as he did so.
"I'm sorry, too," he murmured. "I totally overreacted. I just—"
"Shh." I cut him off with another kiss. I knew why he’d reacted like that; he didn't need to explain. I used to think Rafe and I got each other on an emotional level, in the sense that he and I both punched first and asked questions later. We were both driven by hot tempers and a total disregard for consequences. But more and more, Jordy and I were clicking. Despite what Nolan had teased, Jordan really was the yang to my yin. He brought out a softer, more caring and considerate side of me that I hadn't even known existed. I'd thought everything good in me had been crushed to dust years ago... but every minute with Jordy showed me it wasn't crushed, just dented.
His hand cupped the back of my head, his fingers threading into my loose curls, and our kiss turned heated. Scorching-level heated. Before I fully realized what we were doing, he'd relocated us into an empty classroom and kicked the door shut without taking his lips from mine for even a second.
"Have I told you how beautiful you are, Violet Spencer?" Jordan asked in a husky voice as his hands found my waist and he lifted me onto the teacher’s desk.
I grinned, bubbles of affection and lust tickling through me. "You tell me that pretty often, actually," I replied between kisses, "but I love it."
He kissed me harder, his tongue meeting mine in a desperate tangle and his hands parting my knees to make space for him to press closer. "Well," he said after some time, shifting his lips to my jaw, then my neck, "have I told you how great you make this uniform look?"
I couldn't formulate any kind of response except for a breathy moan as he sucked at my neck, probably leaving a mark. That kind of thing used to seemsotrashy, but god damn, it felt good. Like he was sucking somewhere else at the same time... somewhere much lower.
Jordan's hands slid up my outer thighs, pushing my skirt up as he went and letting it bunch around my waist to expose the navy-blue satin panties I was wearing. Not even the dark color could have hidden how turned on I suddenly was, though.
I groaned when his fingers brushed over the satin, teasing me through the thin fabric.
"Jordy, you'd better stop before we get caught." But I didn't want him to. There was something so incredibly sexy about a quick make-out on a teacher's desk while in our academy uniforms. But... he was the crown prince of New America. He didn't need the drama if our unconventional relationship went public.
He nipped my neck with his teeth and brought another gasp of arousal from my throat. Damn him. He was really learning my cuesfast,and he knew perfectly well that I didn't want him to stop.
"We should be quick then," he whispered in my ear, his breath sending shudders through me, "and we should bequiet." He pulled away long enough to give me a teasing look with his finger across his lips, then he was on his knees.
