“What is going on?” I mumble as Nolan moves past Dimitri and Gavin, who argue in hushed tones right outside the door.
“Oh shit, you don’t know?” Julian asks from the spot he’s taken on the couch.
“Don’t know what?” I ask, feeling like my head is going to explode, and not from a headache this time.
“You’ve been kissing my Pookie and didn’t think to tell her you're related to the guy who has been treating her like shit?”
Whoa, what?
Titus?
“You’ve been kissing her!?” Gavin’s voice is about seven octaves higher than usual, his eyes wide and…
Oh my god!
“You two are related?”
“Shit.”
As if I didn’t have enough bullshit in my life, my rival's older brother is not only my professor but the guy I’ve been kissing… or one of them at least.
“D! What the hell? I tell you I can’t stand her, and your first instinct is to fuck her?” Gavin roars, his face red as he points an accusatory finger damn near in my face.
“Don’t talk about her like that!” he snaps back. “And it’s none of your business what we're doing, but I’m notfuckingher.” His face is serious, and his posture rigid, as if daring Gavin to keep going.
He doesn’t, but he sure as hell looks like he wants to. He silently fumes, clenching his jaw so hard I worry he might crack a tooth in his attempt to keep his mouth shut.
Does that mean Gavin knows everything I’ve ever told Dimitri? I know if it were me and Jordan, I probably would have told him, but I also can’t imagine us ever being like these two are; they look one wrong word away from an actual fistfight.
Maybe it’s a boy thing, or that’s just how they are together.
Either way, Gavin doesn’t hide how much he dislikes me, something he clearly told Dimitri about…
I look to Dimitri to find him already looking my way, a pleading look on his face that I’ve never seen before. Dimitri is always sure and confident, but not right now. No, right now he’s looking to me for an answer to a question I don’t even know.
I’m so far removed from this that I don’t even feel like we're in the same book, let alone on the same page. Not with the fear of what my aunt might do looming over me like impending doom.
“Wren needs help with her hair,” Julian says, bringing the conversation back to what really matters.
“What kind of help?”
“Theget the purple outkind,” Felix grumbles from beside Nolan, where I can’t see him. A second later, I feel his nowfamiliar touch as he runs a gloved finger over my cheek, and when I look up, all I see is concern in his eyes.
“And what is he doing here? I thought the point was to keep him away?”
I turn back to Dimitri so fast my neck cracks, but I ignore it.
“You were a part of that?” I demand, curling my hands into fists to keep from shaking, tears burning the back of my eyes at each new thing I learn about this man I thought was perfect just hours ago.
His face answers my question even if he doesn't, and it doesn’t take long for me to think back and see it. The questions, wondering where Julian was, keeping me back in class.
Things I thought he was doing because he wanted to talk to me or steal time together.
I should have known better.
“Whatever you’re thinking, it’s not like that, Wren. I was just trying to help keep you safe.” He takes a step toward me, and I look away, down at my hands where they rest in my lap.
“Can you help or not?” I hate the way my voice trembles, hate that I need his help, but here we are.
