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When I started the year, I didn’t realize threatening my students would be such a routine part of my job, but the method has been effective.
I turn on my heel and walk into the building without waiting for her confirmation. I retrieve both of our coats and head to the valet service that was hired for tonight’s event. I have a black town car organized for Bellamy within moments and am pleased to see her still standing exactly where I left her when I return. I wait next to her for the five minutes it takes for the car to get there.
“Thank you for helping me.”
She’s still crying quietly, so focused on whatever’s causing her pain that she doesn’t notice the state of my trousers or the fact that I’m holding her friend’s coat and shoes.
She drops down to sit on the stone steps, her ballgown billowing dramatically around her. I join her, sitting a few feet away so I can keep watch but not close enough that she’ll feel uncomfortable. I know she’s dating Rogue, the last thing I need is his psychotic ass coming after me for interacting too closely with his girl.
Something tells me threatening his grades won’t have quite the same effect on him.
I wonder where he is tonight, why he’s not with her.
We sit silently, the only sound disturbing the quiet night the ragged inhales she takes as the tears continue rolling down her cheeks.
When the car is there, I open her door and wait for her to get in the back. Leaning over, I look down at her.
“Are you going to be okay?”
She nods, suddenly awkward and self-conscious. She’s calming down and what I recognize as embarrassment is seeping through. It’s unwarranted, but I don’t bother saying it. “Yeah, I have my friends. Thanks again.”
I give her an imperceptible nod and shut the door, tapping the roof twice as a signal to the driver.
My mind is torn between telling Nera or not. She’ll definitely want to know that her friend isn’t doing well but the selfish part of me doesn’t want to give her up for the night. Not yet at least.
Especially not when I walk back up to my car and find her fast asleep, head resting adorably against the window. She looks innocent and untroubled, her chest moving up and down softly with every breath. Her lips are relaxed and puffy and I resist the urge to rip the door open and claim them with mine. I find myself looking at her for a couple of minutes, just watching her sleep peacefully.
I get in and drive, looking over at her every so often. She’s curled into a ball against the window, completely knackered. She’s still only in my dress shirt, her legs bare and exposed. At a red light, I reach into the backseat, grab her coat and lay it over her. It slips off because of how she’s seated, so I hold it up with one hand and continue driving with the other until I pull into the parking lot.
I’m loathe to wake her up when she looks so peaceful but she’ll be much more comfortable inside.
“Hey,” I say, palming her cheek. “Wake up, pretty girl.”
I stroke the side of her face down one way with the tips of my fingers and up the other with my knuckles as she wakes. She looks at me with bleary eyes and this time, I can’t resist. I lean down and claim her mouth in a needy kiss, using two fingers under her chin to keep her in place.
She pulls back after a couple of minutes and blinks the sleep from her eyes. Her gaze turns surprised and skittish when she peers out of the window.
“I thought you were taking me to your place,” she says, mistrustingly. She looks away from me and up at The Pen, speaking into the window. “You changed your mind?”
“No.”
She turns back around to face me.
“Bellamy needs you,” I say through gritted teeth. Selfish me from a few months ago would have put myself first without even thinking about it. I don’t know why I let what I think Nera would want guide me instead.
“What?” She says, alarmed. Her eyes are wide and her hand is on the door, ready to run out. I hit the automatic lock button on my side and keep her here.
“I ran into her when I went back to RCA and she was crying. She said she needed her friends,” I tell her, before adding, “I’m giving you one hour and not a second longer with her and then you’re mine. I’ll be back here parked in this exact spot in fifty-eight minutes and I expect you to come down and meet me so I can take you to my place.”
“Like I said, it’s not necessary.”
“And like I said, it’s non-negotiable. Do we understand each other?”
She nods quickly and I hit the button again, unlocking the doors.
She opens it, then pauses. She seems to be weighing something, but then makes a decision. She flips around and reaches over to kiss me, her mouth coming shyly down on mine. I groan and grab her waist, but she’s out of the car in the next breath. I track her through the windshield and then my window as she runs up the front stairs, rips open the door and disappears into the building.
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