Page 61 of The Cruelty of Thorns

Anastacia’s laughter echoed around me, following me straight to Hell.

CHAPTER 26

MYRA

Palate cleanser

RON WAS RELEASED from the hospital on Monday. I knew because Kristin told me over lunch in the cafeteria.

“Are you going to go see him?” she asked.

“Why would I? He made his position quite clear.”

“Yeah, but maybe it was just the effect of the attack–”

I cut her off. “I don’t want to talk about it. I’ve got to go to class.”

I stood up and grabbed my tray, suddenly wanting to get away from her. I’d managed to push Ron’s betrayal out of my mind and I had no desire to revisit it. I was moving on with my life, though I was still worried about what would happen when he returned to class. Maybe someone would swap seats with me.

“Your next class isn’t for another hour,” Kristin called after me.

I ignored her and dropped off my tray and kept going, out of the cafeteria and across campus, not even sure where I was headed as long as it was away from people who insisted they knew what was best for me.

Well, except for one person. Him I actually wanted to see. I couldn’t get my last encounter with Julianus out of my mind. I didn’t know how to contact him; he just seemed to show up wherever I was, and I wondered if I wandered into town would he find me?

The thought preyed on my mind all afternoon, until, when my last class ended, instead of going back to the dorm, I decided to pay a visit to the coffee shop where I’d first talked to him. Because it was the middle of the afternoon when I got there, it was all but empty. I grabbed a cup of coffee and found a table in the front near the window where I would be in full view, then pulled out my laptop to work on my psychology homework.

I knocked out my week’s assignments for two classes and had decided to work on a story I had been playing around with when I realized I was starving. The coffee shop only sold muffins and bagels, but it was better than nothing. I stood up to go to the counter when a hand closed around my arm and a deep buttery voice slid over me.

“What are you doing out here?”

I inhaled slowly to steady my heart rate, marveling that for the first time my body hadn’t warned me he was near, and looked up at him. He was back in his customary suit, his long hair pulled back away from his chiseled face, his gray eyes watching me intently.

“I was looking for you,” I answered truthfully.

“Me?” He seemed to consider that for a moment, then shook his head. “I told you not to go out after dark.”

I glanced past him to the window. “It wasn’t dark when I got here. Besides, I figured you’d find me. You always do.”

His frown relaxed into a reluctant smile. “Grab your stuff. I’ll walk you back to your dorm.”

“I’m hungry. I was going to get something to eat.”

He looked over at the counter and shook his head. “Not here. Come on, I’ll take you to get some real food.”

I slid my laptop into my bag and shouldered it, looking up at him expectantly. “Is this like a dinner date?”

His brows shot up. “I don’t…date.”

I resisted the urge to laugh at his reaction. “It’s the least you can do after what you did to me the last time I saw you.”

I turned and walked out of the shop, mentally patting myself on the back for being bold enough to say that to him.

“What I did?” he called after me, catching up as I turned down the sidewalk. He fell into step beside me, veering me toward the corner, where he stopped to wait for the light to change. He leaned over, his lips brushing against my ear. “Don’t pretend you didn’t enjoy it as much as I did, cuore mio.”

I felt my cheeks heat up and a tightness gather between my legs. To distract myself, I asked, “Where are we going?”

“You’ll see. Trust me, it’s better than a stale muffin.”

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