Page 22 of Teach Me to Fly

My first day at Imperium is over—a miracle in itself—but all I can think about is the lunch break. More specifically, Reign, and the stupid, humiliating thing I said, and the look on his face after. It’s been hours, but the mortification still clings to my skin like sweat. I said he was nothing to me, as if we hadn’t been teetering on the precipice of love before I moved away. What was going through his mind after he heard me?

Lando chuckles, his voice light as he shifts the car into reverse and backs out of the lot. “Babe, it’s been hours.Reign probably doesn’t even remember.”

“I wish I could forget,” I mumble, letting my head thump gently against the cool glass.

As we drive up the estate driveway moments later, I nearly grab the wheel and turn us right back around after Ispot Reign sitting just outside the guesthouse, a cigarette burning between his fingers, one elbow resting on his knee.

He looks up locking eyes with me, and I make a strangled noise, something between a gasp and a whimper, before dropping to the floor of the car.

“Oh my God.Turn around,” I beg, panicking. “Turn around.”

Lando snorts. “I hate to break it to you, but he definitely saw you.”

“Take me back to the airport.”

He laughs like I’m kidding, but I’m not. “And where would you even go?”

“I don’t know. Canada, maybe?” I peek up at him from behind my hands, face burning.

Lando barks out a laugh. “And do what? Hide in an igloo?”

“I’ll live in the forest, befriend the wildlife, build a cottage, be one with the trees.”

“Okay, Snow White,” he deadpans. “Except instead of dwarves, you’ll have bears.”

“Better than facing your brother.”

Lando parks the car and steps out, circling around to open my door. “Alright, princess. Time to face the big bad wolf.”

I step out with reluctance, still wrapped in my hoodie. “That’s Red Riding Hood, not Snow White,” I correct, but my breath is siphoned right out of my lungs when I come face to face with Reign.

He raises a brow while looking between Lando and me. “Sounds like I interrupted an intriguing conversation.”

He brings the cigarette to his lips, taking one last pull before dropping it to the ground and putting it out with his boot.

“When did you start smoking?” Lando asks, his brows knitted together.

Reign shrugs. “Does it matter?”

“I guess not,” Lando says, but his face says differently.

Reign turns to look at me and my face burns hotter as I hold his gaze, noticing the subtle way one corner of his mouth tips up in an amused smirk. I feel my nipples pebble under the soft cotton of my hoodie, and I thank six a.m. me for deciding to wear a hoodie today.

Oh, for fucks sake, Angelique. Start moving!

I give him a nervous smile. “I’ll, um…get going.”

I slip past him, trying not to brush his arm, but I can feel his eyes on my back as I walk down the path to the guesthouse, and when I look back, both him and Lando are following me. He’s watching me with that same smirk, but Lando is watching him with a confused expression.

They’re just walking you to the house,I think to myself, facing forward again.Stop overthinking it.

I dig through my bag for the key as I reach the front door, but before I can fish it out, a large hand reaches around me. Reign turns the knob and pushes the door open.

“I thought I locked it,” I murmur, stepping inside with a frown.

“You did,” he says casually, following me in.

Lando halts in the doorway, his voice snapping. “Okay. What the hell is going on here?”

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