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“Really?” I tipped my head back to see him. “I thought you were leaving that to Cato, Wilder, and Lucien because there was nothing in it for you.”
“I’m holding out hope that’ll change now you called it off with Wilson. No ring on that finger, you’re fair— Dammit,” he cried, glancing at my hand. “What the hell, woman? Who proposed to you in the last twelve hours?”
I giggled. “It would serve you right if someone did. But no. This is a gift Cato slipped on my finger sometime last night. It’ll pair well with the necklace.” I shimmied out of his hold, heading for the kettle. “Be straight with me—these are all stolen, aren’t they?”
“Stolen? Of course not.” Rafael got busy with breakfast again. “He found it. Finds all that stuff.”
“You don’t find a ring with an emerald the size of an eyeball. You’re going to have me walk out there and get tackled by the real owner.”
Rafael grinned, standing there as the star of every woman’s fantasy, and said, “They wouldn’t get close, darling. No one will hurt you while I’m around.”
“When you put it like that,” I mumbled, “you can walk with me to class today.”
“Sweet. What’s my payment for services rendered?”
He loaded that with so much innuendo, my mind automatically summoned images of all the things I could do to thank him.
My voice did me proud and remained steady. “Once again, absolutely nothing.”
Winking, he took his food and headed out. “Eh, I’ll still do it. ’Cause you’re cute.”
This guy is going to be a problem. They all are, I thought, thinking of Lucien’s lips on mine and my night in Cato’s bed. They’re wearing away my defenses faster than I can build them back up.
Pulling myself together, I finished making my tea and grabbed a quick breakfast. Rafael was dressed and ready to go by the time I finished my semiprivate shower and got dressed in my closet. We set off across campus, not saying much on the walk.
My mind went to Winter as it always did. Holding my hand over the letter, I listened to it crinkle as I thought for the first time of what it didn’t say.
You said you wrote this letter to tell us the truth, Winter. The reasons why you did what you did. Why did you say it started with turning down Owen, if there was truly some secret you stumbled over?
“Luna.” Something in his voice brought me back.
“What is it?”
“Look.”
Scanning around, I noted groups of students huddled together. One group opened up and I spotted a piece of paper clutched in the guy’s hands. He saw me, and laughed.
“Be careful in class today,” Rafael said, voice tight. “Sit up front. In your professor’s face if you need to. If someone’s going to pull some shit, let them get caught doing it. Damn, I wish we were in the same class. I wish even more Regalia was like other colleges and you didn’t have to see the same people in every class, all day.”
“I’ll be fine, Rafael.” I rubbed his arm. “My veins pump pure spite and vengeance now. Like Lucien, I cannot be killed, taken out, or stopped. Not until I do what I came here to do for Winter.”
“You’re an odd one, Sinclair, but I like you.”
“I’m odd? Have you met your best friends?”
He laughed. “Best friends? You make us sound like a sewing circle. They’re cool. They know how to have fun. They’re not like anyone else around here. That’s good enough to hang with me.”
“Ooooh,” I drew out. “Didn’t realize there were requirements.”
“I’m a picky guy. You should hear my must-haves for sleeping with me.”
I looked that teasing grin full in the face. “Maybe I should.”
Surprise popped one brow up, then a smirk followed on its heels. “There’s only two: Be. You.”
My pulse galloped out of control, doing funny things to my head. Victor wanted nothing to do with me, and I wanted nothing to do with crying over a guy I never got the chance to fall for. The heat between me and Rafael had been there since I first saw him dance in the cafeteria, and I was very interested to know how those moves translated between the sheets.
If that’s going to happen, this is the part where you say something flirty back.
“That’s um... okay.” Smooth, Sinclair.
I blushed harder when he laughed. “Definitely odd,” he said, taking my hand as we stopped in front of the English building. He pressed a kiss to my fingertips. “And I definitely like you.
“Pick you up after class, Cloud Girl. Maybe then I’ll hear your requirements.”
He rounded a corner and released me from his hold, leaving me free to speed walk into the building, and run into Professor Anthony’s class like Rafael was coming for those requirements now.
I skidded to a stop just inside, nearly running into Iris, Cynthia, and Rose—the Royals. Iris held a sheet of paper in her hands. The glee on her face was terrible to see.
