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“But if you and Micah were in a relationship,” Cecilia explains, “it would mean that they’re not off limits after all.”
I narrow my eyes, reading between the lines. “You into one of them?”
Her whole body sags with relief that I said it and she didn’t have to. She pulls out a chair and plops down into it. My eyes fly to the chair and then back at her. Usually, the forbidding air around me would thicken, but I feel a strange kinship with her.
Cecilia glances over her shoulder again, but the door is firmly shut.
“I don’t want to take up too much of your time, Professor, and I wouldn’t do it if I wasn’t desperate.”
Now I’m intrigued. It takes serious willpower to keep my back a straight plank and not to lean in. Cecilia pushes her hair behind her ear again in what I realize is a nervous gesture.
“A few months ago, I started talking to a guy online. We really hit it off, philosophy and such.” She looks at me, waiting for a sign that I understand so far.
“Yes,” I say flatly.
She fidgets in her seat, clutching her notepad. “Yes, well, one thing led to another, and I ended up sending him, well—” Another tuck of her hair. When she speaks again, I have to strain to hear the words. “I sent him nudes. Then I found out that guy was a King.”
A cold trail runs down my spine.
“Which one?”
Her thin eyebrows quiver, her face pink. I reach out over the table. “You can give me his name. Your secret is perfectly safe with me.”
“It was Chase Daytona,” she says in a shaky whisper.
My jaw drops. “Wow. Heavy hitter.” Somehow I’d hoped it was that sleazy Dogg Wilson, and that it was months ago. It would have been easier to deal with. It would have made sense too, he strung many girls along, but Chase Daytona...This is huge.
She nods and bites her lower lip. “I had no idea when I sent him those pictures. It took a while until he sent me one of himself. Believe me, I wanted to die when I realized who he was.”
“I can imagine,” I say under my breath.
“Anyway, I was thinking that maybe you could talk to Micah, and he could persuade Chase not to share those pictures of me in some nasty group chats. I heard that’s happened before. I know that Micah would listen to you. He’s obviously so crazy about you that he went against his family and broke off his engagement. He let the world see the two of you together, and made it clear for us all he’d take on the whole world for you.”
And there it goes again, that shiver of pleasure. I shake my head to clear it of those stupid thoughts.
“I’ll talk to him. I promise.”
Cecilia’s face brightens up with relief, and her eyes fill with gratitude as they meet mine. But when she smiles, there’s something else in there, too.
“You don’t believe me.”
I raise my eyebrows. “Pardon?”
“You don’t believe Micah is crazy about you. I can tell. You dismissed it when I said it.”
“Things are complicated with the Kings.”
“And yet yours kisses you in front of the whole world.” She leans in, her eyes wide with fascination. “Professor, this is Micah Royales, the wild card of the Kings. Everyone on campus knows how savage he is. I mean, that manic control in his eyes? One doesn’t want to be around when it snaps. And quite frankly? I always thought he was incapable of ever falling for a woman. He used them like c—cc—” she coughs and swallows back the words, but I know what she meant to say—cum holes. The term goes around quite a lot when it comes to the Kings and the girls they use.
Still, I sure am surprised. I thought my thing with Micah destroyed my image in front of my students, that it was his intention all along to accomplish my degradation, but it seems the exact opposite happened.
A knock on the door startles Cecilia.
“The others are getting impatient,” she says with a glance over her shoulder, then her pleading eyes hang on mine again. “Please, Professor, help me. If you don’t, I’m screwed—forgive my choice of words. But it’s what it is. Micah would never let anything like that happen to you. But I don’t have the protection of a King. On the contrary, it seems like I have one hellbent on destroying me.”
And oh, don’t I know what it means to be the focus of their fucked-up fantasies.
I don’t think Cecilia understands how special she is in that way. The Kings’ attention always comes in twisted forms, and once you get it, there’s no un-getting it.
