“I’m coming. There’s no need to hold on to me, you know. I’m quite capable of walking on my own.”
“Okay.” He dropped my arm, and I rubbed it.
“You do realise that’ll leave a bruise? You really need to be more careful.”
He stared at my arm, and, to my surprise, a remorseful expression crossed his face. “Sorry,” he muttered, leading me down a long corridor and pushing open a large door. “After you.”
We entered the lecture hall, which had tiered seating, the seats around two-thirds full. I climbed the stairs to the top, preferring to sit near the back. I slumped down into an empty seat, and Cassius swung his large body into the chair next to mine. The seats were close together, and he was huge. Our legs were touching, and I won’t lie, I kind of liked it. I mean, yeah, he was Caiden’s friend, and Caiden had decided to make me public enemy number one, but he was sexy. As were his asshole friends.
An idea hit me, and I chewed my lip, deep in thought. Maybe Caiden’s orders to keep an eye on me, despite being completely ridiculous, could work in my favour. Since it was clear that the Four were the kings of campus, it made sense that they would be the most likely to have information out of anyone at the university. And if they were insisting on shadowing me, maybe I could use that to my advantage. If I could get one of them to drop their guard, they might have answers for me. Something, anything, no matter how small, that could help me put the pieces of the puzzle together, to find out what had happened to my dad.
Mind made up, I studied Cassius, noting the way his shirt stretched across his muscles as he leaned back in his seat, raking his hand through his hair. Getting closer to him wouldn’t be a chore, at all.
“See something you like?” he smirked, noticing me checking him out.
“Maybe.”
“You’re easy on the eyes, too, sweetheart. Shame Caiden has decreed you off limits.”
What the fuck?
Oh, I said that aloud.
“Yeah. None of us are allowed to touch you.” He sighed sadly. “Such a waste.”
“But why?”
He shrugged. “You’ll have to speak to him about that.”
Like that would happen. “Right. I know he hates my mother, but I can’t work out why or what that has to do with me.”
“I know why he hates your mother, and I can understand why he hates you.” He thought for a moment, then added, “Kind of, anyway. It’s not my place to say. And if he wants me to stop being friendly around you, I’m afraid that I’ll have to comply. My boys come first, always.”
“Stop being friendly? I must have missed the part where you started being friendly with me.”
“I just complimented your looks, didn’t I?”
I huffed and turned away from him, busying myself with getting my laptop from my bag in preparation to take notes. I was already in a bad mood, and the morning had barely begun.
Cassius didn’t speak to me for the rest of the lecture, and I was glad of that. Somehow, I managed to concentrate on what the lecturer was saying. As soon as it was over, I shoved my laptop into my large messenger bag and stepped over Cassius’ legs, ready to hightail it out of there.
“Not so fast.” Rising out of his seat, he grabbed my arm and pulled me back against him. He held me in place, bending his head to speak into my ear. “Walk with me.” I shivered involuntarily at his proximity. It was nothing like the way my body had reacted to the asshole Caiden, but it still reacted. And he noticed.
“You smell good enough to eat.” He leaned even closer, trailing his nose down my cheek, and my breath hitched.
He suddenly released me without warning, scrubbing a hand over his face. “Caiden would kill me if I did anything with you.”
I stayed silent, my head spinning. What had I ended up being involved in? I hadn’t anticipated anything like this at all when I’d made my plans to come here to investigate my dad’s unexplained death.
The best thing to do was to keep my head down and stay focused on my goals. I only had two: find out what had happened to my dad, and get my degree. Then I was getting as far away from Alstone as I could.
Mind made up, I walked slowly down the steps, Cassius a silent presence next to me. Several girls tried to get his attention, waving and calling his name, but other than giving a few of them blinding smiles and others salacious winks, he shook the attention off and didn’t pause in his stride.
We crossed the large square of grass to the Student Union building, and he left me at the door.
“I’ll see you around.”
“I thought you needed to keep an eye on me?”
“You can’t get into any trouble here. I’ll see you soon.” He raised his hand in a wave and jogged away from me.
Shaking my head, I went to walk into the SU but realised I was almost an hour early to meet Kinslee. I glanced around me. Ah. The library. I headed over to the tall modern structure, which somehow fit in with the old stone buildings, even though it was completely different in design. The doors swooshed open gently as I neared the entrance, students hurrying past me in both directions. I entered the large, cool foyer and swiped my student ID card to get into the library itself.
Once inside, I found myself immediately relaxing. There was something about a library that always made me feel so at home. Maybe it was because I’d spent countless hours in libraries with my dad. Being a professor, his entire life had involved being surrounded by books. I had vivid memories of being left in a cosy corner of a library, a pile of books in front of me, while he lost himself in hours of research.
I spent the next half an hour familiarising myself with the layout of the library and decided the top floor was my favourite. It was so quiet up here—most students seemed to be staying on the busier lower levels, and I could see over the entire campus all the way to my apartment building from the floor-to-ceiling windows that spanned one wall.
When it neared twelve o’clock, I made my way into the SU, stopping for a moment to check the sign-up lists for the university clubs and societies. As Alstone was a small specialist business school, there wasn’t a huge range of choices, but I noticed a couple that caught my eye, and I snapped some photos with my phone camera so I could look at them in more detail once I was back at the apartment.
Making my way into the large cafeteria, I scanned the room for Kinslee but couldn’t see her anywhere. I grabbed a tray and loaded it up with a plate of lasagne, salad, and a bottle of water. I spied an empty table in front of the windows and quickly walked over to it before someone else could get there first.
“Is this seat taken?” I glanced up from my plate to see Cassius and Zayde drop into a chair either side of me.
“Be my guest,” I muttered sullenly. “More orders from His Highness?”
Cassius snorted in amusement. “I dare you to say that to his face.”
“Maybe I will.”
Zayde stared at me silently, his sharp gaze unnerving me. Fuck, he freaked me out. There was something about him…something unhinged, almost. As if there was a monster lurking behind his eyes, just waiting to be unleashed. Cassius, I could handle. Zayde, on the other hand, I did not want to cross.
I felt hot, jealous stares boring into me as girls seated around us took in the fact that I, the new girl, was sitting with two of the Four. Like I’d had a say in the matter.