Page 310 of A University of Betrayal

Had that unsettled him?

I didn’t want to grin. Instead, I inhaled slightly again, creating a tiny gap between my lips. Miles looked right at that spot again.

And in that moment, I understood the best way to distract him. With my femininity.

A triumphant grin spread across my lips, and he looked me straight in the eye again, seeming to pull himself out of his thoughts.

I wonder what he had been thinking about?

Confused heat traveled through my middle, but I pushed that feeling aside and reached for the book instead without stopping my grin. This seemed to confuse and annoy Miles, because he reached for the folder in the same way and started flipping through it again hastily.

I was amused. How couldI,aSenseque,distract aRuisangorwith mybody?

If I had known this earlier...

Living in the Dark

Myuu

“Is it relevant that the DeLoughreys bought an entire neighborhood in 1999?” it came from Larissa.

Miles listened and got up to go to the table.

I was a little frustrated by that, even though I should have been happy. But I had enjoyed our little staring gametoo much.

“That’s a year later,” Bayla sighed, as if it was nothing important.

“The DeLoughreys buy up whole neighborhoods every few years,” I said with a dry laugh, looking at Julie. “Because the Quatura need money and can be bought. Because ofyourCircle selling everything they have, the balance is shifting.”

I hadn’t intended to accuseher,because it wasn’t her fault. Still, everyone should know how things worked in Blairville.

“Why is it the Quatura’s fault if you’re not faster?” she asked, more indifferent.

“Or if you just don’t have any money,” Miles remarked with a grin, and I put the book aside for good.

Buddy jumped off the couch so that I instantly felt the cold where he had been lying.

I gave Miles the middle finger, and he formed a duck’s beak with his hands before he started to open and close it again and again. I wanted to throw something at him. Then I noticed Julian’s observant gaze on me.

“What about this?” Larissa asked, waving a newspaper snippet in the air.“October 20th, 1998, a dead man in his mid-twenties found in the woods near Waterfall Street. Multiple gunshots to the head. His family is missing.”

“What the...” Bayla said with widened eyes, taking the paper from Larissa’s hand.

I was aware that murders happened from time to time, but in Blairville people either disappeared or were found with bite marks on their necks rather than gunshots.

I looked at Miles, who was standing next to Larissa, who had already picked up the next newspaper. He must have noticed my gaze because he turned his head toward me.

I decided to get up and take a look at the table. And maybe also to show Miles that his presence couldn’t get me down, even if it pushed me to my limits inwardly.

I joined the others, Miles looking me up and down.

There wasn’t much to see that the hoodie and sweatpants didn’t hide. At least I had washed my hair an hour ago.

I reached for a newspaper and immediately everyone looked up as if I was trying to steal something.

“Relax,I just want to have a look,” I lied boldly and everyone except Miles seemed to buy the lie.

He raised one of his elegant eyebrows.

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