Page 5 of Nidev and Lyric

She shot off the chair and paced before it. He felt like he was watching porn as his gaze followed every curve, stamping each angle with a boldPerfection.

“It’s Zack,” she finally said.

His eyes rose at hearing theproblemweighing. “What about Zack?”

She stopped pacing and faced him with both hands up, fingers spread wide as she seemed to hold her breath. “He has a crush on me,” she gushed. “I see it and I think he thinks I don’t see it and… I don’t know how to handle it and need your help.” She quickly sat now, holding his gaze.

Zack having a crush on her was not a shock. What was more interesting was why that was hard for her to tell him. “Are you sure it’s a crush?”

She nodded a lot. “I have experience with them. I know what they look like.”

Interesting. How did she have experience? “Why was that so hard for you to tell me?” he decided to ask first.

“Because I think he needs another mentor, and I don’t want you to think I’m just quitting something.”

He threw out the necessary, “And why do you think this?”

“Because it’s only going to get worse. The more kind I am to him, the more he’ll fall in love and the harder it’ll be for him. I just don’t want to hurt him, he was one of my first friends when I got here and I found out he was hurt he wasn’t picked for my prodigy pairing,” she added with a wide-eyed nod.

He was stuck on her knowing so well how those things worked. “What sort of experience do you have with this?”

Her brows furrowed with a weird smile as she wagged him off. “Just… normal schoolgirl crush stuff.”

Had she liked Lore? “This school?” he asked, realizing it could have been prior.

She smacked her hands in her lap, chastising him with her gaze. “It’s irrelevant. Besides,everygirl in this school has crushes onallof the Kings.”

Which King? And why was this information life and death to him suddenly? “I’m entirely unfamiliar with this concept.”

“You’re unfamiliar with the concept of acrush,” she clearly highly doubted.

“Not the term, just the experience.”

She nodded. “That makes sense. You have that hard-ass shield blocking such nonsense from the earliest of ages.”

“Really,” he said, mildly surprised. “And how do you know this?”

The sly smile she gave wrapped itself around his cock. “Because I did a report on you. We had to pick a King and since you were my Mentor, I picked you. Two birds with one stone.”

A report on him. “How did you come by your information?” he asked, ready to have a discussion with whoever gave it.

“Several of the Kings were happy to help.”

“I’m sure,” he said, already guessing exactly which ones.

“But it was just basic information. Backstory type stuff. Place of birth, family, major life events, standard stuff. I know you trained your ass off and earned every single thing you’ve accomplished. Hence, you’re my hero.”

Cute. But what was this strained nonchalance she displayed trying to tell him? Why did shereallypick him? Now he also wanted to know why she’d picked him for her Mentor. They weren’t permitted to ask but he was permitted to obtain information in other ways. “So, you picked the boring King for a quick assignment.”

This time when she laughed, it brought a new label. Lust with a heat signature. And what did that mean? He couldn’t find out fast enough. “There is nothing boring about you Mr. Nidev. And I never pick easy assignments. I found you to be the most interesting.”

“And that alone is interesting.”

Another heat signature laugh. “You’re the quietest. And mysterious. I guess call me nosy.”

She was withholding so much it was nearly lying. “Sorry to disappoint,” he murmured, opening his water, and taking a swig.

“Thatyou didnotdo. You didn’t know I did a report?” she asked, surprised. Fishing.

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