Page 149 of They Break Beauty

He was smitten with her.

Hell, we all were.

And she was with us.

When she’d gone back to her apartment, she’d been basically texting us all night in the group text we’d set up.

One night, we’d even been on video call and each of us had taken turns reading lines from one of her stories in her fairytale book that Lev had told us helped her to sleep. We’d watched her fall asleep over video, and it had been the cutest thing ever. Just like her with her pink, Barbiecore thing and that soft heart of hers.

“Right, yeah,” I said. “I forgot. So, you two are in the same class this morning? Operationals?”

Bree chuckled.

Lev grinned. “Operating Systems, cupcake.”

“Boring as fuck. I don’t know how you guys do it.”

Mason spun and gestured at himself as he walked backward. “Hey, no one has drier classes than me. I’m the king there.”

“No argument here,” Lev agreed.

“Glad you can finally joke about it, brother,” I pointed out.

He shrugged. Shrugged? Mason fucking Hall. Like, all casual and relaxed. I caught Lev’s eye and he was as shocked as me.

“So, we’re all still on for tonight at Nirvana, yeah? My first live show test thingy without those fucker former bandmates of mine?”

“Of course we’re gonna be there, brother,” Lev said.

“Locked down,” Mason confirmed.

Bree kissed my cheek. “Absolutely, cupcake.”

I burst out laughing and so did Lev.

Even Mason grinned from ear-to-ear. “That’s about right.”

“Fine with me,” I told them. “I’ll be the sweet one, Mason will be the hot hardass, Lev will be the smoldering dangerous one, and Bree will be the edgy Barbie.”

She looked down at herself dressed in one of the outfits I liked best on her, a gray mini-skirt with pastel-pink knee-high boots that matched her long coat, and a white tank with butterflies across the bust that really made her all-seeing eye blue pendant pop.

“Where’s the edgy part?” she asked me.

“Your grit and determination, your fearsome attitude, your headstrong thing.”

“He’s right on, Wildflower.”

Unfortunately, we reached her class in the next couple of seconds and it was time to say goodbye and get on with our days.

As we were doing just that, I felt a squeeze to my ass.

It wasn’t from her and I spun to see Mason right there winking at me.

Holy. Hell.

He’d just grabbed my ass in public!

I couldn’t believe it.

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