Page 51 of Glass Omega

But that was beside the point. There had been several times during the day when I was trying to talk to a classmate and as soon as they saw Mr. Tall-Dark-And-Scary they ran for the hills.

“Because I’m here to protect you,” was Rhodes’ only answer. The same one he’d given me several times when I tried to scold him for hovering too close.

With a grumble, I pulled out my phone and tried to call Edison again. My new husband had made himself scarce after that first night and I hadn’t seen him since, not even for mealtimes.

I was trying not to let it hurt my feelings, but after all of the touching we’d done, it was growing increasingly harder the longer he was absent.

My call to him earlier hadn’t been answered and I fully expected this one to go unanswered as well, so when the line clicked on and I heard his voice I nearly tripped over my own feet.

“Perrie?”

Rhodes’ arm wrapped around my waist, keeping me from completely eating shit in public and he released me almost as fast as he’d touched me, like I was some kind of leper.

“Perrie, did you mean to call me?” Edison’s voice prodded in my ear again.

I shot Rhodes a withering look over my shoulder before turning to focus on the phone call. “I did. I’m sorry to bother you when you are clearly busy, but we need to talk about Rhodes.”

There was a pause. “What about him?”

“He’s too close! All day people have been avoiding me like the plague because he looks scary as fuck. How am I supposed to go to school and make friends when I’m being followed around by the damnTerminator?”

Edison huffed out a gravelly laugh that sounded rusty, like he hadn’t done it for a few days. “Perrie, he’s there for your protection. Be lucky I don’t have an entire team following you around.”

I gaped at the idea of being surrounded by the suited security guards that frequented the estate. I’d have to quit school entirely.

“Isn’t there anything I can do about him? He sticks out like a sore thumb.”

There was a sigh of exasperation and I could hear someone on the other end calling his name. “You can make him change if you like.”

“Ican make him? I’ve been trying to tell him to leave me alone all day and he won’t.”

“Hand him the phone.”

“What’s that going to do—”

“Hand him the phone, pet.”

Grumbling under my breath, I turned and held the phone out to Rhodes who looked less than pleased with me as he put the phone up to his ear. “Yeah?”

I watched him listen to whatever Edison had to say, his lips pulling down into a grimace. “You’re serious? Fine, but you owe me.”

He hung up the phone and handed it back to me, his dark eyes a bit thunderous as he took my hand and started to pull me in the direction of the student store.

I sped up, trying to keep up with his long-legged strides. “Where are we going?”

“You want me to look less conspicuous? Fine. But you have fifteen minutes to do it before your next class.”

The student store was packed full of hoodies and other university merch and Rhodes looked at it all with distaste.

I, on the other hand, was excited to make the alpha blend in at least a little bit more.

I started flipping through the hoodies on the rack, but Rhodes stopped me. “It has to have a zipper for this,” he said, lifting his jacket to show me his gun.

“I don’t suppose I can get you to forgo that entirely?” I asked with a hopeful smile.

“Not a chance.”

My smile dropped and I muttered insults under my breath about scary mobsters and their need to have guns at all times as I moved away from the sweatshirts. “Go wait in the changing room and I’ll bring your new clothes to you.”

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