Page 21 of Defiant Beta

The next morning,I linger outside the faculty building, raking leaves as the sun rises in the distance.

Classes start soon, which doesn’t leave me long to snoop in the faculty office.

Usually, the teachers leave the dorms, stop by the dining room for breakfast, and pick up supplies from the faculty building before heading to their classes.

I’ve spent thirty minutes here, more than enough time to rake the few leaves beneath a towering oak. The head gardener briefly pulled me away to deal with a fallen branch before I returned to drag out this task.

After casting a subtle glance at the quad, I deliver a solid kick to the oak.

Orange leaves flutter to the ground, buying me more time to linger.

My pile of leaves grows as I nod at a teacher leaving the building, the door slamming shut behind them. I keep raking until I’ve lost sight of him.

I give my tree another solid kick. A woman yelps as leaves shower down on me, and I look up, dropping my rake in time to catch a petite redhead with a black sooty mark on her cheek.

Delilah Farrow.

I grin at her. “Ah, I thought you might be a squirrel.”

“Well, I’m not a squirrel.” She wriggles in my arms, her slim, freckled legs distracting me in her short plaid skirt. “I appreciate the catch, but you can let me down now.”

She smells good, but I’m not interested in her perfume. I want to know what she really smells like.

Making sure the coast is clear, I move around the tree to keep us out of sight while we carry on with this conversation. “And what if I don’t want to put you down?"

“I have class.” She peers over my shoulder.

“Surely you can miss class….” I pretend I don’t know her name.

“Della,” she says, distracted. Her mouth snaps shut and her eyes dart to me as she flashes me an insincere smile. “Delilah. Some people call me Della, but it’s Delilah.”

I hide my smile. Something tells me she just slipped up and gave me a real name instead of a fake. Interesting. What is she doing here, and why does she need a fake name to do it?

“How about we get out of here?” I purr.

Vincent and Levi have struck out in convincing her to leave.

My turn.

She’s too busy peering over my shoulder to notice my hooded eyes. “Can you put me down? I have class now.”

“Or you could have dinner with me, maybe even dessert?”

She wrenches her gaze back to me. “Dinner?”

I wink. “A date.”

Her brows knit together. “But I’m a student.”

Alarm rocks through me. “You’re over eighteen, right?”

She’s a senior, so she has to be, but it doesn’t hurt to double-check these things. Fuck. I should have checked it before I mentioned wanting to take her to dinner.

“I’m nineteen,” she says, peeking over her shoulder.

Something small and hard pokes me in the chest. Before I can figure out what it is, she’s wriggling again.

“No reason we can’t get to know each other a little better.”

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