Page 32 of Chaos Crown

No, my time with Jacques was limited to short conversations in the morning while we made breakfast side by side. The rest of the time, he closed himself in his room doing homework or helping Roan narrow down the list of Cavendish’s recruits.

That left only Roan’s and Arsenio’s beds open to me. Both of my guys were recovering and very interested in the healing power of my pussy—as Roan put it. It was like nothing changed between the three of us— No, it was like things were even better between me and Arsenio, and me and Roan.

Arsenio said a lot of things to me that still didn’t make sense. That he’d been trying to find me for weeks, and he rewarded my loyalty with more orgasms than I could stand. Whereas Roan said it all in the hospital. I was still the same person to him, but now even more delectable because I’d finally bared my pain to him. Knowing all the ways I was fucked up was an aphrodisiac going by the way that man was always on my ass.

Not that I was complaining. If I was in Roan’s bed, Legend wasn’t. There’d been no threesomes. No lessons from Roan on how to please him. No waking up sandwiched between my favorite couple.

My love and sex life had taken a serious hit, and having Arsenio and Roan by my side was the thing keeping me sane.

“No, we’re not fighting,” I said, plastering on a smile. I did that so much easier when I thought I was Rainey. No wonder my friends thought I was too intense lately. None of my smiles reached my eyes. “Everything’s good between us, which is why I can’t stand the idea that those guys are going to restart the war. Hisfrat brothersattacked Paris, blew up Arsenio’s car, poisoned Jacques’s mother, and beat Roan half to death.

“I just want the people I love to be safe. After everything I’ve lost...” I dropped my gaze. “I just want you guys safe.”

“Oh, Rainey.” Amy threw her arms around me. “Of course you do. Ugh, I’ve been such an insensitive idiot. Who wouldn’t be stressed after all you’ve been through? I’d hate anyone with a damn crow tattoo too.”

Paris hugged me from the other side. “I am safe, Rainey. I swear. Whatever those guys are planning, they will not catch me off guard again. We know how they operate and what they’re after. They won’t get Bedlam, and if they try, my brother and your boyfriends know how to get the garbage to blow back out of town.”

“Thanks, guys.”

We traded more hugs, then I let them change the subject. We could talk about other, happier things for now because I’d be spending the rest of my day figuring out Adriel’s play. He said he wasn’t expending his energy on the fate of a town he didn’t give a crap about, but I had a feeling a big enough check from Ellis made them care.

Whatever they were up to, I had Mass Media Law, American Legal History I, and Logic and the Law that day to spend thinking about it. Becoming a lawyer wasn’t Rainey’s dream. It was the mission she adopted after we lost the farm and envisioned one day having the power to get it back.

Now that the contract with Steven Ellis was signed, I had the farm. I didn’t need to pretend like this degree was what either of us wanted. At this point, I was going through the motions until I figured out how to tell the world I was Ivy, and switch back to her major.

After breakfast, I walked into Mass Media Law and fell on a tall, handsome figure sipping water in the third row. How like my bespectacled love to not bother telling me we were in the same class. Marching up the steps, I dropped my butt in the seat right next to his. Jacques didn’t look up from his textbook.

“Mass Media Law.” I bumped his shoulder and didn’t pull away. “I wouldn’t have thought you were interested in a class like this. I’m only taking it because it’s as close to marketing as I can get.”

“What about this subject isn’t interesting? Media lawyers mostly deal with copyright infringement, defamation, and privacy. As a child, my name and face were plastered in newspapers and on television as the boy genius who won another academic contest against people twice his age.

“Despite my objections, journalists were allowed to violate my privacy again and again because my parents gave them permission. That’s one of the many issues I would address during my career. Privacy is an individual right. No one else should be able to decide whether or not you have it.”

“Hmm,” I said, thinking deeper as every conversation with Jacques made me do. “You’re right. Having half the world knowing your name should’ve been something you and you alone said yes or no too.” I rested my hand over his. “Especially because I know people treated you like an oddity. Bad enough from classmates, teachers, and neighbors. You didn’t need it from thousands of strangers too.”

Jacques eyed our hands. “Are you attempting to reestablish our relationship through feigning empathy and interest in my field?”

The corner of my mouth curled up. “Did you read a few books on relationships so you could anticipate my next moves and block them? No, baby. I’m not feigning anything. You and I just happen to think alike. It’s what makes us perfect for each other.”

“Hm. I don’t believe in the concept of a soulmate. Neither do you,” he dropped. “Or you wouldn’t have five.”

“I do believe in soulmates, actually. I just don’t believe in the idea that you have to find one single person to be all things for you all the time. The six of us connect in different ways, but just because you’ve broken my soul into five pieces, doesn’t mean I can live without a single one of them.”

His response was another noncommittal noise and pulling his hand free. In Jacques speak, that was far from a rejection. We had an actual conversation about us. This was the first real progress we made since Cairo caught us on the couch.

One after the other, I was getting my guys back.

“You have two hours free after this class,” Jacques said. I didn’t know his schedule, but of course he knew mine. “You’ll help me with something.”

“I will?”

“You will.”

“Can I get a hint?”

Jacques pointedly looked around the filling classroom. “After class.”

I accepted this, leaning back. Eventually a man in dress pants and a blue blazer walked in, introduced himself as Professor Clarence, and the lesson got under way. As promised, I spent it scribbling in my notebook, jotting down every legal and illegal method Steven Ellis and Adriel could bring about the return of Crystal Canyon.

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