I felt a burning heat course its way up my neck and onto my face.Come on, cheeks, this is HQ. You’re about to blow our fucking cover…
I resisted the urge to tuck a loose strand of hair behind my ear as I looked up at him.
“So,Curls,do you wanna be my partner or what?”
I fought the grin that tugged at the corner of my mouth and failed miserably. “That depends. What can you offer me by way of snacks?” The lift opened a moment later, and I stepped inside.
He took a step toward me, holding open the door to the lift as my breath hitched in my throat. Likely somewhere between my ribs and common sense. I wasn’t sure if it was Jude or just being that close to another person (I wasn’t sure I cared either). He was hot. And I was partner-less. And that seemed like a match made in heaven to me.
“I’ll make you a deal,” he said as his eyes travelled up my body, leaving me feeling a little breathless all over again. “I promise to bring snacks to the library tomorrow evening. You just have to turn up to find out what they are."
“Okay.”
Once the doors closed and I was alone, I whipped out my phone.
Quincey: You will never guess who just asked to be my partner for our paired essay?
Ezzy: Clark motherfucking Kent?!
Quincey: His name is Jude Watlings
Ezzy: Wait, I need to vet him on social media.
Ezzy: Okay, no photo of him holding a fish, that’s a good start.
Ezzy: He is really hot!
Quincey: Andkind of tall.
Although ever since I’d met Thallor, I wasn’t sure if I considered anyone to be all that tall anymore. Even in his human form, he towered over me at 6’5. I shook the image of him and his infuriating red hair, the same hair that seemed to taunt me every time I closed my eyes, from my head. I resolved to hold all human males tohumanstandards. Not everyone needed to be two hundred and ten pounds of muscle, devastatingly attractive with the misleadingly innocent freckles, and have a gold earring that had me questioning my own intelligence.
Ezzy: Does this mean a double date is on the cards?
Quincey: This is just studying.
Ezzy: Ah yes, sometimes Isaac and I “just study” too ;)
Quincey: We are studying in the library
Ezzy: I didn’t realise you were such an exhibitionist. Let me know how it goes ;)
CHAPTER TEN
“Kiss me, out of the bearded barley…” I sang quietly as I walked around the grocery store. I was mentally picturing Laney Boggs descending the stairs in her stunning, little red dress. As I walked down the fresh produce aisle, forcing myself to pick up various vegetables for health, I imagined what it would be like to have someone look at me like that—stunned to silence and utterly enthralled by me. And even though it had been Jude who had shown any actual interest in me, the more I thought about it, the more I considered what it would be like to haveThallorlook at me like that.
Instead of him looking at me like he wanted to kill me…
I imagined the way his red eyes would darken as they settled over the exposed bits of my skin and the way the dress hugged my figure in all the right places. It would be predatory and intense, but I wouldn’t mind because I washis.I pictured the way he would take a step closer, struggling to restrain himself as I smirked at him. He would hate it and love it. Hate the way I never failed to frustrate him but love the wayI knew I was his. Hisgaze would narrow on every detail, the ringlets in my hair and the beauty mark on my neck.
Maybe in the haze of my own cynicism, I’d forgotten what it was like to feel desired. What it felt like to have someone study me. Want me. Despite having just stepped down a refrigerated aisle, I could feel myself getting hotter. I didn’t dare step closer toward the cartons of milk in case I ended up curdling them as I passed. As quickly as they had come, I was shaking the thoughts from my head. As much as he was attractive, daydreaming about Thallor and casting him as my very own Freddie Prince Jr was a sure-fire way to mess up the already tumultuous situation we found ourselves in.
Not to mention the fact that he hates you.
That evening, I had found it increasingly difficult to be in Thallor’s presence. My mind had run amok, and now I was reaping the consequences of my own lustful actions. I continued to focus on pulling items of food out of carrier bags and placing them on the counter. Mort meowed softly at my side; his eyes laser-focused on the cans of tuna I had just placed next to a box ofPizza Bites.
Thallor inspected everything I put down with a strange sort of attention that I hadn’t expected. When I thought about it, though, his interest and lingering confusion made sense given that I’d somehow managed to combine my inability to “properly” adult with an uncanny talent at solely shopping for processed foods. With my own humiliation woven into the box of Uncrustables and three boxes ofFroot Loopsthat sat behind me on the counter, I turned to look up at Thallor.
“So, I wasn’t sure what type of jam you liked,” I mused as I moved over to my third shopping bag. “Stupid of me for not asking…but… Um…I grabbed raspberry, blueberry, strawberrywithout bits,and marmalade.”
