She rolled her eyes.
"You're insufferable," she muttered, though I caught the smile tugging at the corner of her mouth. “Fine, we’ll got through the rest ofthe flash cards, but you have to write them next time. My hands are still killing me."
“Your handwriting is so much neater though. And I liked watching you write them.” I grinned appreciatively. She’d made the flash cards on the floor of my room. Textbook open in front of her, on her knees in little athletic shorts, legs crossed at the ankles as she supported her upper body with one arm while she neatly wrote the questions and answers on opposite sides of pastel index cards.
“Flattery will get you nowhere,” she said, before picking a card. “Okay, ready?”
“I was born ready,” I said, but pitching my tone in a way that implied the opposite. She rewarded me with a dramatic eye roll before moving forward. “Coulomb’s Law.”
I mimed deep concentration, reaching into the bag of candy and popping another watermelon gummy into my mouth. I tilted my head back and forth, looked at the ceiling, down at the carpet, and then finally pretended to have an ah-ha moment.
“Is this the one about gravitational pull?” I asked.
“Nope.”
“Darn,” I snapped my fingers and scrunched my lips, acting like I was disappointed in myself.
“Is this the guy with the three laws that describe the whole planets moving around the sun thing?” I hesitated between words as I asked the new question, scratching the back of my neck.
“Tray, focus,” she urged me.
“Okay, just give me a minute.” I closed my eyes. Of course, I wasn’t thinking about Coulomb’s Law. I’d memorized that the first time the professor had mentioned it in class. “Oh! Electrostatic force between charged objects!” I shouted it, pretending hard-won triumph.
“Good!” A wide smile brightened her face.God, the entire room felt warmer now. She made it that way. Sunnier. Happier. The way she made me feel was like… every attraction I’d experienced with every random person over the years, had been rolled into one person then multiplied by infinity.
Before I could register what she was doing, Tessa closed the gap between us, leaning in with a suddenness that made my breath stutter. She pressed a quick, soft kiss against my cheek, just at the hinge of my jaw. Her hair fell against my neck, the scent of mango shampoo and her own Omega perfume hitting me hard. When she pulled away, my skin tingled where she’d gently kissed. I felt the gravity of her being here in the mansion, the promise of our future as a pack, and something in my chest tried to turn inside out. Damn, I never thought I’d want to belong exclusively to anyone. But here she was, challenging my long-set game plan for life.
Oblivion Haze forever.
My pack, and best friends, always with me.
Dixon at my side with whatever was between us eternally simmering but never boiling over.
“See? You don’t even need me. You could ace this easily all by yourself.”
I pretended to scowl. “I absolutely do need you. I’m highly reward motivated. If a right answer gets a kiss, I’ll study nonstop.”
She scoffed, scooting closer so her thigh pressed against mine. “You’re incorrigible. Has anyone ever told you that?”
“Every single one of my high school teachers,” I said. “Most of them, less nicely. They couldn’t give me too much crap though. My grades were good.”
“How good?” She quirked an eyebrow, suspicious of me.
“Good enough.” I sidestepped. “We should keep going. The old brain’s not going to learn all this without practice.”
She hesitated, still studying me as if she could figure out the game I was playing if she just waited a heartbeat longer. Eventually, she gave up.
Tessa rolled her neck a little and then pulled a pillow under one arm so she could lean more comfortably. She looked so beautiful, dark hair framing her face, the curls especially glossy today. She’d done something to her eyebrows, and I even thought there might be a touch of blush on her cheeks.
“Can you tell me more about Coulomb’s Law?” She stared at me, those blue eyes of hers sparkling. My heart thudded. My mouth felt drysuddenly. I felt completely disarmed, and I forgot to keep up my ruse of being academically defunct.
“It’s got four basic principles,” I began rattling off, “Opposite charges attract, same charges repel. The action happens at the line between charges. The force size basically has to do with the inverse of the square distance. And its size is proportional to charge value.”
Her smile wavered, and I realized what I’d done.
“I don’t get it, Tray. You know this stuff. Why are you acting like you need help?” She pouted a little.Had I lied to her? Was me playing around like this tantamount to a lie?
I gave her a sheepish grin, caught red-handed. There was no point in maintaining the charade when she'd seen right through me.
