Page 31 of Vengeful Princess

Unlike Eden, who loved to wear girly shit, I was more comfortable in jeans and baggy sweaters. That made me invisible most of the time, which suited me perfectly. The last thing I needed was to draw too much attention to myself.

I strolled toward the local history section, my book in hand. The hoodie he wore obscured his face, but when he looked up as I passed, I glimpsed dark hair and glasses as his fingers danced over a laptop keyboard.

He was cute. Very cute. And also, vaguely familiar.

Was there something in the water in this country? A disproportionate number of the men I’d come across were unsettlingly good-looking. Not that men were ugly where I came from. Far from it. The boy I’d fallen hard for when I was growing up had been beautiful: all dark hair and tanned skin.

He’d been my friend - and eventually more. I still had no clue what happened to him. But Dar was in my past. Knowing my father, he was probably dead. The thought of it made my heart twist painfully in my chest, but I refused to get sucked down into such toxic memories.

16

Milo

Thea brushed past me on her way to one of the smaller rooms at the back of the library, a paperback novel in her hand. She smelled divine. A hint of vanilla, coconut, and something floral. My mouth watered as I wondered what her skin would taste like.

Salty or sweet?

My reaction to Thea Ricci surprised me. Unlike my friends, who devoted a lot of time to pursuing sexual encounters, I didn’t socialize unless forced.

Landon was well-known for his womanizing habits, and Cassian wasn’t much better. Kyril wasn’t quite as bad, mostly because he carried a heavy burden of unresolved trauma around women, but the three of them used and discarded women on the regular.

The thought of casual sex didn’t appeal to me. I wasn’t asexual. My body had urges, and I fulfilled them. It was more that I rarely felt attraction to anyone.

There had been a few girls over the years, but other than becoming obsessed with them for a while, I’d never pursued a physical relationship.

The last time I met someone who appealed to me, it had ended badly. She hadn’t felt the same way, and when she discovered I liked to spend hours watching her at night while she slept, her parents called the police.

My father deleted all the evidence of my nocturnal activities and it came down to her word against mine, so the CPS dropped the case. Dad paid the family off and they moved away not long after, although not before Haley’s father insisted on me being sent to a clinic for therapy.

Eventually, I forgot about Haley, and things went back to normal.

Thea was different, though. I could feel it. She wasn’t a delicate little flower like those other girls. She wouldn’t scream with terror if she caught me in her bedroom while she slept. Based on what I’d seen of her so far, she’d probably attack me.

I knew where her room was. I knew she liked to sleep in an old tee shirt. Her bedside lamp stayed on all night and she kept a knife under her pillow.

She didn’t need to worry about intruders in her room. The college was very secure. Or it would have been under normal circumstances, but I had ways and means of getting around the internal security systems. I also had a master keycard, which I’d filched from the Dean’s office when I first arrived. The moron kept several of them in a locked drawer in his desk, which took me all of 5 seconds to break into.

For a man paid an obscene amount of money to manage this place, he really was dumb.

Thea disappeared out of sight, so I spent some time finishing an assignment due tomorrow. I could have completed it in the apartment, but I enjoyed the peace of the library. When the guys were around, our shared space was noisy.

Landon liked to bring girls back and Cassian had the TV on as background noise most of the time. Kyril wasn’t so bad, but heoften had nightmares that woke us all up. There was still a fifth empty bedroom, but the guy hadn’t shown up. Once he did, our apartment would be even noisier.

No doubt one or all of them would bring a girl back tonight, so I figured I might as well enjoy the peace while it lasted.

Once I’d finished my assignment and submitted it via the online portal, I switched back to the software program running in the background.

I frowned when I saw no new information had come in.

Who was this girl?

Then the faint sound of Thea talking caught my attention. Since the library was empty apart from the two of us, she had to be on the phone. I shoved my laptop away before jumping up. Pretending to be searching for a book, I wandered toward the back of the library, where Thea was.

I’d seen her in the Local History room before, curled up in the window seat with a book in hand. She was standing this time, her shoulders tense as she stared out of the window.

“I’ll be back soon, pumpkin,” she said in a low voice as I stood in a pocket of shadow just outside the doorway. Unless she turned round and walked this way, she wouldn’t see me. “I miss you too.”

Was she talking to a boyfriend? It had to be someone she cared about. Although the pet name ‘pumpkin’ didn’t sound like a boyfriend kinda name. I almost snorted and gave myself away at the thought of any woman calling Cassian ‘pumpkin’. He’d legit have a coronary.

---