Page 18 of Soulless Rivalry

The conversation with Lewis back at the village wouldn’t leave my mind, no matter how many times I tossed and turned,even three days after. Tomorrow was Tuesday and I had early classes, but I knew nothing would put me to sleep quite like baking cookies.

Not wanting to bring attention to me in case someone from admin or a teacher was roaming the halls, I only lit a few candles in order to see what I was doing. It gave the whole thing an even more special vibe, which I didn’t hate at all.

“What on earth are you doing?”

I yelped at the voice coming from the doorway, jumping back and nearly knocking the dough bowl off the counter.

When I looked up at the voice, I felt myself tense again.

I was finally starting to relax and, of course, he had to spoil it for me.

“What the hell is wrong with you, Korolov!” I hissed.

“With me? I’m not the one playing Cinderella in the castle’s kitchens at one in the morning.”

“I’m making cookies.”

Konstantin looked at me like I’d grown a second head. He stood in a white t-shirt and some grey sweatpants, clearly straight out of bed, leaning against the doorjamb and staring at me.

“Oh! Sorry, I forgot you probably didn’t have those back in the hellhole you crawled out of. They’re sweet biscuits made of??—”

Clearly not appreciating my humor, he cut me off with gritted teeth, “I know what cookies are.”

I rolled my eyes but couldn’t help the little smirk playing on my lips. My dirty secret? I loved getting on his nerves. In class, I did it innocently, so much so that many people were oblivious to it. Konstantin had gotten a few reprimands over the years by our professor, for his aggressiveness towards me. All the while, I watched from behind them with a little smile on my face and they had no clue.

But Konstantin did, because he saw my satisfied air, and he knew I wasn’t as clueless as I made out to be. He knew I disliked him almost as much as he seemed to hate me.

“It’s like you’re trying to get in trouble,” he stated, squinting at me.

“Because I’m baking cookies?”

“Because you’re deliberately breaking the rules. You’re making it too easy for me to have you tossed out.”

I felt my eyebrow lift in mock surprise. “Need I remind you you’re here with me? What are you, my guardian?”

“No, that title belonged to that useless grandfather of yours.”

My mouth opened but no words would come out. How the hell would he know that? It wasn’t public knowledge. Nobody knew that my grandfather had been the one person responsible for me until I turned eighteen.

The fact that Konstantin of all people did, gave me pause. What else did he know? Was he familiar with the circumstances that led to Gustavo becoming my guardian?

Did he know that although I was twenty now he still had a hold on me?

Deciding not to say anything, I turned my attention back to my dough, hoping against hope that my ignoring him would cause him to disappear.

Spoiler alert: it didn’t.

The annoying Russian stayed right where he was and stared at me the whole time, no matter how many times I sighed in frustration.

After ten minutes had passed and I was forming my cookies into small balls, I’d had enough.

“Okay, what the fuck. Why are you still here?”

“Why not?”

“Don’t you need to sleep? Maybe call up a fuck buddy and exhaust yourself a little?” He blinked at me, clearly bored. “Lord knows you’d need it,” I added under my breath.

But of course, demon that he was, he heard me.

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