Page 28 of Just One Bite
With a stuttering breath, I still at Parker leaning into my chest and sniffing at the top of my head and shoulder.
“Um, do I need to give you two a minute?” Emma pops her lip gloss from her pocket, beaming while she smothers her lips.
“I’m just checking her scent. Making sure it’s right.”
“Tell me what this fake dating entails.”
I can't imagine another run-in with Barrett, let alone any of the others. If I can guarantee my sisters’ safety now, I’m going to do it.
Parker sniffs me, not saying anything.
“It can’t be that hard, right? We just need to be seen together … like at the Noxx House party on Sunday. Can you guarantee your pack leader, Gavin, can help protect us?”
He nods, and with every second that passes, more of the cool blue returns to his eyes. “Yes, as long as we can convince him we’re a couple.”
“I don’t think that will be a problem.” Emma smiles from ear to ear. This is her being tame. As soon as Parker leaves, she’s going to shriek into my ear about this, and I won’t get a moment of peace for the rest of the day.
“I think we should. I mean … if you still want to,” I say.
Parker is staring a hole through me, moving my hair from my shoulders to survey me.
“Parker, what?”
“I won’t let that happen again. I promise. I’ll protect you and your sisters. I mean it.”
He reaches like he wants to touch my cheek but drops his hand. The tendons in his neck are tight as his jaw hardens.
Maybe it’s too soon to trust Parker, but he’s shown more than once he’s someone who’s willing to fight for me. The anger in his eyes and the spilling of blood a few minutes earlier aren’t things that would be easy to fake, and I trust that more than I care about the length of time. Parker isn’t eloquent with his words, but his actions speak for themselves. This is who he is.
“I believe you.”
Chapter Ten
Parker
I didn’t expect Barrett to accept my challenge, but that didn’t keep me from being disappointed when he didn’t.
There’s no way Barrett would risk losing status in a challenge. Maybe that will be enough to get them to leave Olivia alone for good. After the house round table, I spent the rest of the weekend showing her and her sisters the campus. Since the fake dating is new, me physically going everywhere they go is the only way I know they’re safe. Emma and Eva were both mortified when Olivia and I escorted them to their rooms.
But that’s all going to change tonight. It has to or I’m going to spend our first week of classes running around the campus accompanying them everywhere. Coach would not be happy.
“How do you want to handle PDA?” I lean to whisper in Olivia’s ear as we enter the common room.
Noxx House is alive with movement. It’s Bonding Night. In Noxx House, that means all of us argue till we agree on an activity both the introverts and the extroverts like. Last year, the introverts settled on watching and judging the extroverts from the sideline as we played rugby out on the lawn. It oddly worked for me; they only praised wins they thought were worthy, then degraded us the other half. It was pretty great.
Olivia has her eyes locked on Darien and isn’t listening. I don’t blame her.Darien is an asshole, but he’s small fish compared to the rest of them. Zant and Darien are two of the four vampires on the council, and Zant tells me he is a selfish lover of chaos but not inherently corrupt like some of the others.
With a hand on her shoulder, I bring her to my hip and away from him and his friends. He’s not the only annoying asshole in Noxx House. There are plenty to go around. Cane and Aster are here too with their buddies, sitting on a couch by the far fireplace. When we walk in, their scowls disappear into the violet lights. Our common room stays dimly lit most of the time due to the stained-glass windows.
“You’re safe next to me. Now back to the PDA talk.”
She sighs. “Is it necessary?”
Yep. She probably thinks I’m being a creep.
“No one is going to believe I’m going to take you as my mate if we look like acquaintances. We don’t need to kiss, just look friendly. We already have the quick timing working against us here.”
Her eyes glaze over as she analyzes the room. Noxx House has the largest common room. There is an area for chess, two fireplaces, and a large glass room that overlooks the lawn and the trees. It’s set up for the painters and sculptors in our house. It pales in comparison to Luxxia’s common room that has an area for every creative endeavor you could think of.
