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It was all intimate
Different.
I couldn’t help feeling we’d turned a corner, and instead of looking into a whole new world with terrified eyes, it felt right.
I felt like I was home for the first time since I’d moved back.
It wasn’t the home I’d imagined by any stretch—but it was the kind of home I could get used to.I popped a chicken nugget from the school cafeteria in my mouth and chewed. It was getting late enough in winter that we were starting to get some pleasant weather, and today was particularly nice. Zoe and Marne sat with me in the courtyard beneath a tree.
“What’s that face for?” Zoe pointed at me, smiling.
I inspected one of the chicken nuggets from my tray. “It’s like they’re not bad, but they’re not good, either. Somehow, they taste depressing?”
Marne nodded, as if I’d just stated a scientific fact. “It’s because they don’t use real chicken in any US school cafeterias. It’s all synthetic powders. Tree bark ground up and fertilizer shaped into various things.”
Zoe rolled her eyes. “They’d never pass any kind of health regulations if that was true.”
“Unless they owned the regulatory system, too.” Marne waited with raised eyebrows.
Zoe and I both shared an amused look. I took another bite of my chicken nugget. “Well, my compliments go to the chefs then for what they’ve done with poop and tree bark. Given the circumstances, they did amazing.”
I didn’t hear what either of them said, because I saw Cassian heading towards us. I hadn’t seen him at the house this morning—probably because I opted to walk to school extra early and do a little training before class started. I still wasn’t sure where we stood, exactly. Yesterday had been eventful, to make the understatement of the century. But knowing Cassian, I couldn’t take anything for granted. I was halfway expecting him to walk up to me and say something that was going to bring me to tears, so I mentally braced for it.
He stopped beside me, looking down. “Come sit with us.”
I swallowed. “I’m eating with my friends right now. I’m not going to just ditch them.”
Cassian gave Zoe and Marne a passing look, as if they were bugs that had just splattered on his windshield. “Then bring your friends.”
None of us seemed to know what to say, but Marne was the first to speak. “Sounds good. I’ve been curious what goes on at your super-secret table for some time now. Let’s go.”
Zoe and I grabbed our things and stood.
Cassian surprised me by planting a kiss on my mouth as soon as I stood and grabbing my ass. I felt my cheeks blazing red hot with embarrassment, because there were at least a hundred kids in the courtyard and more still who could probably see us through the windows of the cafeteria. I also knew none of the Greeks could so much as walk through a hall without drawing almost every pair of eyes.
In other words, Cassian had just made it abundantly clear that I was his, whether I liked it or not.
I let him lead me into the cafeteria, grateful he had his arm around me because my legs felt suddenly weak.
Gage, Logan, Tristan, and Kennedy were all sitting at a table that was only made to be big enough for four people.
Cassian stopped beside the table behind it and glared at two freshmen girls, who apparently figured out they were supposed to get up and go just from the look on his face. He gestured for us to all sit.
I was painfully aware of how awkward it all felt as we scooted in to sit—Marne and Zoe with their back to the others and me and Cassian facing them.
Gage and Logan turned around in their seats to face us, hanging their arms over Marne and Zoe’s backrest.
Logan flicked his fingers up. “So we finally get a formal introduction to the girl who has had Cassian’s balls in a vice grip? I have to say, bravo. I’ve never seen him so pussy whipped.”
Kennedy threw a balled-up napkin at the back of his head, then smiled at me. “You’ll get used to them all. Even Cassian can be nice when he puts his mind to it.”
Up close, I was startled by how attractive they all were. Logan had a wild sort of careless beauty, with dark hair that bunched into soft curls around his tanned face. He had light brown eyes with strikingly thick eyelashes that I imagined more than a few girls had let themselves be seduced by.
Gage looked like he had come straight out of the starring role of some 60s movie, with that clean shave and dirty blond hair he wore in a neat style. But just behind his classic good looks, there seemed to be the same hint of darkness I saw in all the Greeks. It was like walking through a beautiful park and seeing a cave hidden in the distance—one where the mouth gaped open in a black promise of something deeper and more disturbing.
