Page 31 of Nine Inch Nasty
It would be pretty damn embarrassing to trip right about now, so I take careful steps even though I want to just rush over to him.
He stands when I get to him, kissing me on the cheek. “Subtle, huh?”
I can't help but laugh, wrapping an arm around his waist as I look at the beautifully painted banner. “Who did all this?”
He scratches the back of his head as my bodyguards grab the cake and flowers from him, completely betraying his guilt. “There was an office memo sent out to other faculty, alerting them of the situation. I got a bit of pushback from some of them, as well as threats to let the parents of some of our more affluent students know about the inappropriate conduct of their dean, and I was asked to keep it under wraps for a little while, but that was not going to happen. I'm damn proud to be yours, damn proud that you claimed to me, and I wanted everyone to know that I'm celebrating. I'm not hiding.”
“Good man,” Jackson says as he pats him on the shoulder. “Lean on us if you need to, you know we got your back. This is sweet though. Good work.”
“Yes, thank you. It's beautiful.” And it is. I dip a finger into the luscious white frosting and sigh in happiness. You’d think I’d be turned off by buttercream after everything, but that is so not the case.
I can't even dislike the fact that all this is set up in the middle of campus, or that some people have picked up roses here and there to take with them. I kind of like the idea of us spreading love, of something that represents my union with Zac going to somebody else to show affection. It's a good example to set, to not be ashamed of the unconventional dynamic in our relationship.
“I guess that explains why everybody's been staring at me today. You sure you're not worried about them trying to take away your job or something? Because I get why you might want to keep this between us for now.”
He shakes his head and steps close to me, pulling me in with a hand on my lower back. I know there are dozens of students watching this out of the corner of their eye, and Zac must knowthis as well, but he doesn't seem to care. Or rather, he's doing itbecausethere are so many people watching. He dips me and kisses me. And it's not a hurried kiss, either. Oh no. He takes his time. He waits until I'm really feeling the kiss to pull away, until I'm flustered and warm, wanting more. Which is exactly when he stops, of course.
“Well, that was rude of you,” I say as I dab the side of my mouth, drying the skin there.
“Nothing and no one have a good enough reason for me not to be with my mate every second I can be. If it makes somebody uncomfortable, they can deal with it.”
“Well said,” Jackson declares as he tucks me under his arm again. Leo is just silently watching around us, also getting lots of stares. Half of me is tempted to put out some sort of stupid memorandum to the student body about how evil Shelly was, and how they've been walking beneath a sentient gargoyle all this time, but I don't owe them that.
“You want to come grab some food with us? Need to feed her before her next class.”
Zac shakes his head at Jackson's question, kissing me on the cheek one more time. “I think I've caused enough ruckus for one afternoon. Besides, I have a meeting in about a half hour, so I’ve got to make sure I have all my notes ready. I'll see you guys for dinner?”
Now it's my turn to kiss him. Now that I know he doesn't care about people seeing us together, I guess I don't have to be shy either. When I pull away, he's panting a little bit and his eyes are dilated, and I love it. “See you at dinner.”
Jackson tugs me towards the cafeteria, but I see a much better opportunity. Leo's back looks far too unburdened right now. So I hop on that and grab the pretty bouquet of lavender and purpleroses from his hand so I can smell it, and he catches me without missing a step. I know he thrives on having a lot of physical contact with me, and I feel like if I was turned to stone and stuck on the side of a building for as long as he was, I would probably be touch starved as well. So, I try and give it to him as often as I can. Sure, his wings kind of get in the way, but they're also comfy to lay on and he's made sure I know that it doesn't bother him when I do this. He tucks his wings around me, and it’s a little bit like tucking me into a cocoon, using the strength in his arms to keep me aloft.
The cafeteria is noisy as usual, everybody squeezing in some socializing between classes. All students pretty much have lunch at the same time here, so the cafeteria tends to be pretty busy. It looks like Adam and Cory beat me here though because they've got a table ready.
I think everybody else has something going on right now, so it's just us, but I feel pretty spoiled I don't have to get up and stand in line to get food. Adam's got that handled, so after setting my gifts on the table, Leo and Jackson get in line to get a sandwich while I start eating.
“It's cute you think you're sitting in your own chair,” Adam says as he stomps over to me and yanks me up, wrestling me down onto his lap. I don't complain, because now I'm in kissing distance of Cory.
“That was quite the display outside,” they announce, nodding their head to the courtyard we can see from our table. They’re greedily eyeing the cake, so I feed them a bite before snagging one myself. Oh gods, it’s delightful.
There are still people outside, looking around at the display and smiling, some people taking pictures, others still picking up roses and handing them to other people. “Yeah, I wasn'texpecting that. It's kind of nice everything's falling into place. For having this many mates, we haven't even had that much drama. I've heard tales of some conduits takingyearsto find their mates, and they don't even have half as many as I do.”
After a few more bites of cake, I dig into the salad and sandwich Adam picked up for me, having fun people watching between bites.
Adam snorts. “You consider being kidnapped to a different realm and forced to dance like a monkey not very dramatic? Okay, Delaney.”
“Well, none of you even had other people you were involved with when I met you. Except you, Adam, but I took them on, too just to be fair.” I smack a kiss onto Cory’s cheek. “And sure, maybe a lot of you guys resisted me a bit at first, but I feel like we’re falling into a nice rhythm.”
“Not to stir anything up,” Cory says as they take a sip of their water, “but I think we're all moving along so smoothly, because we're ignoring the bigger problems. What's going to happen after the school year’s over? There're only a couple of months left, and some of us are graduating, some aren’t. How's that going to work? Some of us just go off and find jobs, and we'll meet up every other weekend?”
They’re right, of course. I have been ignoring that. Suddenly, I'm not very hungry anymore. It's naive to think I could just keep everybody with me indefinitely, but I know there's going to have to be some separation while we finish up school.
Adem squeezes Cory's hand and then wraps it firmly around my waist again. “What did your parents do, Delaney? I doubt they all graduated at the same time. They had to take over the entire council. That feels pretty complicated to me. Fuck, that’s good cake.”
“Some switched to distance learning, some just stopped altogether. With my mom being who she is, it's not like they needed a degree to get a spot at HQ. Nepotism does have its perks, you know.”
Cory laughs, rolling their eyes before making Adam feed them another bite of cake. “I didn't mean to sober the mood. I just think we need to start figuring out our options though. It's going to come up sooner than you think. And it's not like we can just ignore the need for an income forever, either. If we want to get a place that's big enough for all of us to live in, at least a few of us are going to need pretty good jobs. Plus, there's the whole grocery bill thing. Do you know how much food 12 adults eat? It'd be nice to get somewhere with a kitchen big enough to make that happen.”
“Yeah, we've got a lot to figure out.” And now I feel depressed. I know it's not logical to feel like I'm the one that put us in this position, but I'm also not sure there's sense worrying over something that hasn't happened yet. “For now, I feel like the only thing I can really focus on is just getting closer to everybody and getting through the rest of this semester. There have been a lot of changes in a short period in my life, I'm not ready to think about what the next step is.”
