Page 176 of The Villain We Tempt

“Then I will consider it.” She grins, a rare blush on her face as she lifts a shoulder, then nods toward the fight ring. “Wanna go watch boys beat the shit out of each other?”

“Um,yes?” I laugh as we both head over in that direction.

Bella glances at me as we pass the huge bonfire roaring in the middle of the ruins, sending sparks and smoke curling up to the stars as shadowy trees loom over the jagged remnants of the old fort. “I feel I haven’t seen you all week. And when I have, you’ve been…”

I groan. “I know, I know.”

Bella pretty much only sees me during our Psychology of Deception and Performance class. I spend the time staring at Lochlan, trying to decide if that jawline is the one I touched and kissed. If those hands are the ones that pin me down and spank me before he fucks my ass and plays with my clit until I lose control.

If that mouth is the one that I’ve never kissed, but which devours my pussy until I can’t stand.

When I’mnotin Lochlan’s presence, I’m either thinking about him or The Ghost Prince, or else I’m actuallywithGhost, having so many orgasms that I’m starting to worry about my hydration and electrolyte levels.

“I’ve just been...” I frown. “Distracted, I guess.”

“Anything you wanna talk about?” She grins. “That’s what friends do, right?”

I snicker. “See? You’re getting the hang of it.” I sigh. “Thanks, but… It’s complicated. And boring.”

Such a lie. Nothing about what’s been going on with The Ghost Prince is boring. Nor is thereanythingboring about figuring out if my TA is also the mystery man who finds me in the dark and shatters me into millions of pieces.

“It’s not my cousin, is it?”

My eyes rip around to stare at her.

“W-what?” I stammer.

She frowns. “I mean, it’s not Lochlan being a douchebag, is it? It’s already complete bullshit that he made you partner up with him in class.”

I let out a shuddery sigh of relief.

His “Hidden Identities” project in our Psychology of Deception and Performance class, where we pair up and “peel back the layers through targeted questioning” to read our opposite number's Shadow vs. Persona, is still a thing.

…With the same partner.

Which means I’mstillspending one class a week face-to-face with Lochlan, trying to keep a neutral expression while he asks me about my “dark secrets”.

I shrug as casually as I can. “No, your cousin is fine.”

Even though I think he's a masked content creator with a laundry list of kinks that match my own.

I know it’s insane, just like I know no one would believe me if I said it out loud. EvenIdon’t believe it half the time.

Lochlan Kildare is, on the surface, a locker-room high five personified. A smug, cocky golden boy with a trust fund smile and a gaggle of girls mooning over him.

He isnotsupposed to be a masked man who shatters me to pieces.

For weeks, I’ve told myself I was wrong. That my brain had just decided to slap Lochlan’s face onto the fantasy because he’s the one sitting in front of me twice a week, asking me inappropriate questions about my “Shadow self”.

But I’ve started to notice small things that have been starting to make me wonder if Lochlan reallyisthat frat boy jock he wants the whole world to view him as. For one, I kind of assumed he’d gone out of his way that first day he was teaching our class to sound professional. Like he’d memorized some lines from a book to sound more authoritative and “professorial”.

But any time I’ve tried to throw him off by asking him really difficult questions about the subject matter, hestaysin that ultra-knowledgeable mindset.

So much for my theory of him being Professor McGrath’s TA due to his charm and campus celebrity status.

Lochlan Kildare is really, reallysmart.

I would know. Because now, I’ve checked his transcript.