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He even packed the lunch.
My favorite date, by far, was the art gallery, and Maywood Heights had several. I recalled Ares saying his dad owned a few of them, and Dorian confirmed the one we went to was established by Mallick Enterprises. We didn’t run into Ares’s dad or anything, but Dorian said the gallery was his. It was huge, and I loved it. I also liked that I got to show Dorian a part of myself and my interests. He asked about them a lot, and though I told him things, I found myself guarded.
It was still hard for me after everything that had happened, and I wasn’t so sure I was ready for all this. I cared about Dorian, sure.
I mean, I really fucking cared.
I found him in my thoughts during my very first breaths in the morning, and hell, he appeared at the last breaths too. He circulated my thoughts constantly, and if that wasn’t more than care, I didn’t know what was. It wasn’t a question of whether I had feelings for him or not. It was if I was ready to have them. He’d screwed with my heart something crazy, and the last time I’d been vulnerable with him had kicked me in the ass. I was still sore from our last fall together.
Fear was something else, wasn’t it?
If Dorian had picked up on my reservations, he never mentioned them. He simply took me on dates, and not once did things get physical. I mean, he touched me. He held my hand, and we kissed (a lot) in his car both before and after school.
Sometimes even during.
Yes, there was a lot of kissing, but no fucking. He surprisingly hadn’t pushed for that, and I found myself wondering every day if he really had changed. I wondered if he was truly putting himself out there and not rushing things. Maybe he actually was serious about this, about us.
Maybe he won’t hurt me again.
This thought was also a constant in my mind and something I thought about before meeting him at his locker that day. Sometimes he met me at mine, but today, he’d said he wanted to take me on another date after school.
I found myself rushing just to get to him after last period, and I knew right away how that sounded. Again, I pushed myself past the thoughts. I had to in order to remain sane.
He wasn’t by himself at his locker, his back to me. Ares had a shoulder lounged against the lockers with him, and I barely saw the two at all in the crowded hallway. People were rushing around to get out of school.
“It’s time, don’t you think?” I heard Ares say as I strode up, and I hadn’t been seeing a lot of him these days. At least, not as much as we had been. Since our project had wrapped up, I typically only saw him and the rest of Legacy at lunch. I’d recently started eating there with them and Bow, and my brother joined us too when he wasn’t trying to catch up on school work in the library. Ares sighed. “We need to rope her in. It’s time.”
Dorian braced his big arms, his head shaking. He still had his back to me when I stopped behind him. I frowned. “Rope who in?”
Dorian swung around, an easy smile gracing his lips. He’d started doing that, smiling whenever he saw me. It was as if the lazy grin was instinctual, and its presence gave me more butterflies than I’d readily admit.
“Snooping on me, little fighter?” Framing my face, he angled my mouth in his direction. “Why you always so bad?”
He growled before sealing our lips and biting mine. His teeth embedded in my flesh tingled down to my toes and had Ares rolling his eyes by the time the dark prince let go of me.
“She’s always good for that,” Ares announced. He hooked one of his long arms over his open locker. I recalled he had caught me snooping before, so I let him get away with that. He tipped his chin. “Sup, little?”
As well as that. I shook my head. “Nothing, Wolf,” I countered. This made him chuckle, so I obviously got away with that. I smiled. “And what are you guys talking about? Bring who in?”
The pair exchanged a glance before Ares closed his locker.
Ares bunched his jacket sleeves up. “Imma see you two around, then,” he said, but then pointed at Dorian. “I’m assuming you’re still ditching practice today.”
Dorian’s brawny arm hooked around my waist, which apparently gave Wolf his answer. I didn’t know he was ditching practice for whatever we were going to do today.
Wolf nodded. “Have fun, then.”
His statement accompanied a look in Dorian’s direction. Ares started to pass us, but stopped. He frowned. “Your hair always like that?”
It took me a second to realize he was talking to me and another to figure out what the fuck he was talking about.
I supposed I had worn my hair differently today, curly. Thick and frizzy curls hadn’t held up today, and I shrugged. “I’m naturally curly. I just usually straighten it.”
I’d been running late this morning, which was the only reason I hadn’t. I guessed the only reason he hadn’t seen it in all its frizzy glory was because I’d worn a messy bun at lunch. I’d tugged my hair free toward the end of the day.
Ares opened his mouth, as if to say something, but in the end, he didn’t. He simply told Dorian he’d catch him later, and after I texted Bru he could go on home without me, I joined Dorian in his car. My brother and I had been driving to school together since he didn’t have his football obligation anymore.
“So, uh, you going to keep pretending like I didn’t ask you guys a question?”
