“Precisely. You can’t. It’s far too similar.” He gestured at the door to the room. “I checked and your suite is at the far end of the hall and around the corner to the right. Have a good first night settling in.”
He strode back to the balcony, past one of the several glowing blue orbs softly lighting the space, then picked my duffel bags off the onyx polished stone tiles. He sucked in an unsteady breath and then turned and handed them out to me.
“Okay,” I said, taking them from him. “I get it.”
“Yeah?”
I nodded. “And I’m sorry, Winter. I really am.”
“Don’t be. I thoroughly enjoyed it.”
“Me too.”
His striking amethyst eyes glinted, then he walked me to the door.
As he turned and went to open it, his back to me, he stilled. “Was it… was that night more than just the physicality of—”
“Of course it was.”
“Yeah?”
“It stayed with me, too. It always will, lovely.”
He hung his head for a moment, then he opened the door and turned to me with a plastered-on smile. “I’ll see you around and in classes.”
I walked to the threshold and looked up at him. “I…”
Intensity rolled off him as he waited for what I was about to say.
But… I couldn’t. I couldn’t go there. He was already hurting.
I swallowed. “I mean… yeah, I’ll see you around campus.”
The light in his eyes dimmed. “Perfect.”
I stepped out into the corridor and gave him a chin lift.
He did the same.
And then he shut the door.
I winced and took a moment to steady myself, trying to bury the ache in my chest.
I needed to focus on… anything but that.
Maybe the actual fucking reason I was here—to expand my life, to explore, to be free.
Fuck, woman. Get a hold of yourself.
And I did.
I held my head high as I made my way down the corridor.
A few students were milling about, some entering their rooms, some with friends already inside and unpacking and talking.
I exchanged a smile with two sorceresses walking hand-in-hand dressed in complementing pastel sundresses and glittering spiked heels.
I located my suite right at the far end, my name emblazoned on it in gold script, like the rest of the dorms.
