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I roll my eyes and glance at Cain. “He deserved it.”
I’m rewarded by the tiniest quirk of one corner of his lips. He turns a cocky smirk on Sloane, who just huffs and takes a bite of his green bean casserole. We devolve into easy small talk, but it’s better than the awkward silence from before. I eat everything Zane and Sloane put on my plate and accept a slice of apple pie with vanilla ice cream when Nox offers it.
When we’re all finished and done with dinner, we gather in the living room where Cain lights a fire in the fireplace. Nox passes me a fuzzy blanket to wrap around myself in the draftier room. Everyoneturns their attention to Cain, who sits there stiffly, like he doesn’t notice the attention. “Caniac,” Zane taunts him.
Cain’s jaw clenches tight as he looks away. An incoherent grumble leaves him before he gets stiffly to his feet and walks out of the room. “What’s going on?” I whisper after he’s already thumping up the stairs.
Nox leans in. “We’re about to figure out who won our bet.”
I grin at him. “Where can we get good sushi around here?”
Nox rolls his eyes. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.”
We go silent as Cain’s footsteps start back down the stairs. He walks into the room with a small notebook in his hand. Walking over, he stops right in front of me. He holds it out to me. Carefully, I reach out and take it from him. The book is small and much lighter than I expected it to be. I place it carefully in my lap and open the cover. The inside page is a list of cases, and the first one stares back out at me.Moretti Crime Family. It’s plain to see and I grin at Nox. “We’re getting sushi.”
He reaches over and snatches the book from my hand, groaning when he sees the list. “Fine. We’ll go this weekend.”
I dance in my seat and stick my tongue out at him in a much more mature way than Sloane did to me earlier. “Why are you getting sushi with my girlfriend?” Zane growls.
“Not your girlfriend,” Sloane cuts in but narrows his eyes on Nox, “but seconded on that question.”
Nox gives them both an unbothered stare before he graces them with an answer. “We made a bet on which journal Cain would give her. She won, so now I owe her dinner.”
Zane continues to glare at him, but Sloane just accepts that with a shrug. Cain scoffs indignantly at that and rolls his shoulders. He heads out of the room without a backward glance, and when he returns, it’s with a new glass full of eggnog. I wrinkle my nose at it as he takes a deep drink. I’ve never liked the taste of eggnog and no number of hot professors drinking it suggestively will change my mind. Not that he’s really drinking it suggestively. He’s just always hot, so everything he does looks suggestive. God, watching him lecture during class is ridiculously distracting.
Snapping in front of my face catches my attention and I turn to find Zane glaring at Cain, who didn’t even notice either of our attention on him. “You’re drooling,” Zane tells me with his bottom lips pushed out into a pout.
I reach my hand up and glare at him when I find that I am not drooling. The asshole. He’s lucky I love him or I’d stab him. I might do it anyway, just not anywhere fatal. Nox saves Zane when he stands up and announces that it’s time.
Time for what, I have absolutely no clue, until he turns the TV on and sets up an old Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer cartoon to play. We sit there watching it and I smile. The animation leaves a lot to be desired, but it’s so cute that I don’t mind when we watch all of them. I remember watching them with my mom when I was little, since they were her favorite. It’s been years since I’ve seen the old cartoons, so they bring a wistful smile to my face as I snuggle between Zane and Sloane on the couch.
Zane
Iplace the novel down on my nightstand and blink at the wall. I don’t remember orderingObsessionby Cassie Hargrove and Story Brooks when I was researching the smutty books of TikTok. Now that I finished the first book, I kind of want to read the next one even though I’m not a huge fan of reading. Maybe it’s just because I never gave book porn a chance.
I pick up my phone to do some research, but that just leaves more questions when I put it back down. Apparently, reverse harem is a romance trope that has an occult following to the point that some people won’t read books without it. I’ve never considered polyandry, but the mechanics have me curious. How would a relationship like that work? Glancing down at the book, I lean over and grab it before hopping to my feet and shoving it into my backpack. I’ve made my decision on which book to give Viv.
I hurry down the stairs, finding the guys moseying around with pouty expressions. They’re all disappointed about going back to class today. Even Cain, who should be ecstatic to mold young impressionable minds and whatnot. He’s the one who scowls at me. “What are you so cheerful about?”
I give him a smile, hopping onto one of the stools at the island. “I get to go back to school and see Viv between classes. I picked out a book for her to read and I can barely wait to give it to her.”
None of them look impressed, and I’m not offended. It’s Monday morning. Only a psychologically divergent person could be this chipper. I lean across the counter and snatch Sloane’s cup of coffee as he’s reaching for it. “Hey!” he snaps and tries to lunge for it.
I hold it out of his reach and shrug. “We share now.” His lips roll in but he doesn’t say anything and I turn to look at Nox and Cain suspiciously. “So have either of you had sex with my girlfriend or just Sloane?”
“Not your girlfriend,” Sloane says automatically.
“Shit.” Nox frowns.
Reaching into his back pocket, he pulls out his wallet and riffles through it before handing Cain a twenty-dollar bill. Cain smiles smugly as he puts it into his own wallet. “Seriously, you took bets on whether or not I’d sleep with her?” Sloane says, finding his voice before I could find my own.
Nox shakes his head. “No, we bet on whether or not you would try. Succeeding wasn’t a requirement.”
I huff, “Because that makes it so much better. Maybe I could have Enzo teach me how to castrate a man properly. I’ve got three roommates to practice on, after all.”
It would be funny when they all simultaneously cover their junk if I wasn’t so irritated with them all. “To answer your question, no. We haven’t had inappropriate relations with our student,” Cain cuts in before the conversation can devolve further.
“Your student. I’m not a TA anymore,” Nox interjects.
