Page 142 of A University of Betrayal

I followed Miles’ gaze to the other, plainer ring.

“Let me put it this way,” I sighed and took a sip. “I’d like to be.”

I don’t know if I had inherited it from my mother or my father, or if it was simply J that had turned me into a helpless romantic. It was a weakness that got human beings somewhere, but not people like me.

“To keep all those women off your back who’ve been staring in your direction the whole time?”

Miles, who had obviously misunderstood me, pointed his gaze across the bar, where I spotted a bunch of girls staring at us. As I looked at them, some of their cheeks reddened, some giggled and others quickly looked away.

I suppressed an exhausted sigh and wished, not for the first time, that I looked like a homeless grandpa.

Just earlier, Amber Smith had crossed my path to hand in some extra work for her internship application. She had already sent me two of them, and I was starting to feel harassed.

What did this girl want from me? Meaningless forbidden sex? Couldn’t she find someone for that who didn’t want to kill her?

“Be glad you metmehere,” Miles continued. “I know how to deal with problems like that.” He grinned mischievously. “Unless you don’t want to leave this bar alone tonight...”

I laughed, but when nothing changed in his expression, my amused expression turned to one of disbelief.

“You want me to hook up with a woman?”

He looked around as if he was already looking for a suitable match. But as long as it wasn’t J that he presented to me out of nowhere, I wasn’t going to let a Ruisangor set me up with one of those horny girls.No, thanks,he could find another victim for that.

What did he want? Maybe a threesome before he sucked us dry? That thought wasn’t so far-fetched. Ruisangors lived long lives, they got bored quickly, and these rich immortals had the strangest kinks anyway.

“Someone like you should enjoy the benefits of being good-looking,” Miles continued, but then looked at me with narrowed eyes. “Oristhere someone?” He stared at me, but I avoided his brash gaze. And unfortunately, I made the mistake of pressing my lips together. “Uh-huh,” Miles said.“Gotcha!”I looked at him with a tense jaw, and his annoying grin widened. “Which, considering the fact, makes this ring even more mysterious.”

He pointed at the ring on my finger.

It was as if he had hit some sore spot inside me. And he had no fucking right to.

“I have to go,” I grumbled and got up to leave the bar as quickly as possible.

But,of course,he got up too and followed me out of the door.

Night Walk

DOLKINS

I was sure he wanted my blood. But did he have to poke through my privacy for that?

“Are you two friends?” he asked after he had caught up. “Then I’ll buy you a drink.” He strolled alongside me and just kept talking. “Because the friend zone is not a nice zone to survive in, believe me.”

J had returned my kiss and fucked me. If there wasonething we’d gotten over, it was the friendship phase.

“I am fine,” I sighed, frustrated that I was so easy for this stranger to read.

“I see. That’s why the ring there is screaming loudly:Quentin, get the girl,”he said in a playfully fake voice, and my inner tension grew.

“She’s out of reach,” I confessed, looking at the dark path in front of me. It was already evening and the cold fall wind was blowing through my clothes, creeping under my vest and into my shirt. I should have brought my coat.

“Is she a student at Vanderwood?” Miles asked, reminding me of the Vanderwood law that forbade professors from having intimate relationships with the students they taught.

“No,” I sighed.

“Promised to someone else?”

“No…”

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