Page 15 of Taken By My Guardian's Fangs

Gaël's lips pressed together in a straight line.

Fuck!

He realized all at once that he should have seen this coming, considering what yesterday's class had been all about.

Fuck, fuck, fuck!

It was just like his Juliette to go to the extremes. She was always so damn eager to please him, and he remembered how in the first few months of his guardianship, Juliette would stay up late at night to study Caro cookbooks and wake up early in the day to personally make Gaël's breakfast.

While that side of hers was adorable as hell, Gaël's conscience had been uncomfortable with such treatment, and so he had taken pains to make his ward realize that he was no god for her to worship. It had taken almost an entire year before he had been able to convince Juliette to act less like a slave and more like the pampered ward that she should have been, but even to this day, Juliette continued to look at him with stars in her eyes.

She truly did seem to think he could do no wrong, but what if Jean Luc's words were now coming true? What if one wrong word from him could make his ward change in a snap?

"Let's talk about this privately, shall we?"

Her guardian's curtly spoken words made Juliette belatedly remember where they were, and it was only then that she noticed how the sight of them together had attracted the attention of hospital staff and visitors alike.

"Fang o'clock," she heard a female nurse whisper, and as the latter's friend giggled and blushed upon taking a peek at Gaël, Juliette wanted to do some blushing herself. Fang o'clock was a term coined for Caro-and-human couples, and she couldn't help feeling giddy that other people apparently saw them that way.

But when she glanced at Gaël, her heart sank, and her smile faded. The chiseled edges of his gorgeous face were so much harsher, and she couldn't help but wonder if it was because of how those nurses had described them. Could her guardian dislike the idea of people mistaking her as his girlfriend?

Jean Luc was right, after all, Gaël thought broodingly as he waited for his ward to get inside the limo before following behind her. Juliette might have once been the most charmingly sweet ward any guardian could ask for, but girls inevitably grew up to be young, headstrong ladies, and that was when the trouble started.

Juliette's heart sank when her guardian opted to sit across her instead of taking his usual seat next to her. Although the distance between them was no more than a few feet, it somehow seemed daunting and uncrossable, and the shuttered expression on his strikingly beautiful face only made her feel more miserable and isolated.

She just wasn't used to seeing Gaël look at her so disapprovingly, and it made her want to beg for his forgiveness. She didn't even know why those words had come out of her mouth, but they had. She was tempted, really, really tempted to take those words back, but when she thought about how those same words could be her one and only chance to be with him before he married someone better—-

Juliette lifted her chin, and her voice only quavered ever so slightly as she asked, "May we speak about it now?"

"About what?"

Juliette couldn't help feeling hurt. "Stop pretending to be dense about this, Gaël. It's not like you—-"

"Neither is it like you to speak of such things!"

It was Juliette's first time to hear such an icy bite in her guardian's voice, and she couldn't help feeling hurt even though she knew she was partially to blame for provoking him.

Gaël was starting to feel increasingly on edge. He was no fucking prude - no self-respecting Caro was - but it just wasn't like his ward to talk about these things in his presence. "Why do you wish to speak of such matters all of a sudden?"

Juliette, recalling Aprilynne's words, was able to answer her guardian's question truthfully. "Because of something I learned."

Gaël's lips tightened. As expected, it was that damn professor's fault that his ward was acting out of character. That man definitely had some explaining to do, but in the meantime, he must do what he could to undo the corrupting damage the former had caused.

"Whatever it is you've learned—-"

Juliette blinked at the note of distaste in her guardian's voice.

"You should first consider whether your source is trustworthy."

"It is," Juliette assured him. If anything, Aprilynne could be a little too honest, and the older girl tended to get into trouble because of her lack of tact.

Gaël's irritation grew at how quickly his ward had responded to his question. Yesterday was only the first day of school, so why was Juliette vouching for her professor's trustworthiness with such confidence? Did she really know the man that well or was she being influenced by other factors? Professor What's-His-Name might not be that bad to look at, but Gaël had expected more from his ward, dammit!

"Let me ask you this then..."

Her guardian's frigid tone threw her off, and Juliette wondered uneasily if she had caught Gaël in a bad mood.

"Between your source and me, who do you consider more trustworthy?"

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