Page 10 of Scorpio Dragon

“Get away from me, dude,” he muttered instead, serving himself another generous helping of punch instead. Warning bells were going off in the part of his mind he usually relied on to help him pace himself, but he ignored it. Right now, he didn’t want to pace himself.

“Did I do something to offend you?”

“That outfit offends me,” he snapped, barely looking up from his drink. He didn’t want to leave the bar, because that would make it clear that he’d only come here to talk to Morgan… which would intensify the humiliation of her leaving without saying so much as a word to him. “Your boring conversation offends me, too.”

“We’re friends,” Callan said, moving a little closer to Archer and making a point of seeking eye contact. “Morgan and I? We’ve known each other our whole lives.”

Another burst of anger, and he wheeled on Callan, almost ready to explode. “So what? Are you telling me to stay away from her?”

“I’m telling you that she and I aren’t soulmates,” Callan said, lifting his hands and taking a step back. “That’s all. You’ve got nothing to worry about with me, Archer.”

Somehow, even the fact that this asshole knew his name was annoying. Archer knew he was being unreasonable, knew that the only reason this perfectly pleasant man was aggravating him so much was that Archer had screwed up his chance of having a decent conversation with Morgan and wanted to blame someone else… but he couldn’t let on, could he? Not with his friends not far away, not with curious ears listening in to the conversation on all sides. So he affected confusion, turning with exaggerated puzzlement to one of the people who’d been drawn to the confrontation.

“That’s so weird,” he said, loudly enough for the group to hear. “I don’t seem to remember asking to hear your life story?”

The laughter that went up among his friends had the tinny ring of falseness to it, but it was enough to get him out of the situation, and that was all he really cared about. He left Callan behind at the bar and strode down the beach towards the dance floor, not sure where he was going and not caring much, either. Whether Morgan was still here or not, it didn’t matter—he couldn’t talk to her now, not after how badly that conversation had gone. The anger, never far away, pooled in his belly again. What kind of game was she playing, anyway? Turning up to his party in a dress like that, then walking away from him?

She was playing hard to get, that was all. Well, she should have known better than to try to outplay him.

Chapter 9 - Morgan

Morgan was surprised that she managed to actually have a good time at the party after the disastrous conversation with Archer. She’d found her friends, told them about what happened, and though they were sympathetic, none of them looked surprised. Keli explained Archer was almost more well-known as a playboy than he was as the heir to a billion-dollar fortune… he had a habit of treating women like they were prizes to be won, and if that meant getting into fights with the men they were with, he’d do it. She’d have happily spent the rest of the night stewing about it, but instead, Keli dragged them all onto the dance floor, and before too long, she’d managed to put Archer out of her mind.

She didn’t see him again until their astronomy class the following week. She tried to pretend she hadn’t been thinking about seeing him, wondering how he’d greet her—would he apologize, she wondered? Or just avoid her completely? From what Callan had told her when she’d found him later, nothing had really come out of the confrontation once she’d left. He put the whole situation down to too much alcohol. But Morgan wasn’t quite as happy to handwave it. If that was the kind of guy Archer turned into when he drank, then he shouldn’t drink that much. That much seemed obvious to her.

He was in class already when she arrived, sitting in his usual seat with his crowd of admirers around him. He looked none the worse for wear after the big night he’d had, and when his eyes met hers, he did an admirable job of hiding the flicker of discomfort that crossed his face. If she hadn’t been tuned into his aura, she wouldn’t have realized that her presence had sent a shock of embarrassment and uneasiness through him.

“Do you need something?” he asked, raising an eyebrow. A titter of laughter went up among the friends hanging around him, and she rolled her eyes, ignoring the habitual urge to flee the situation immediately.

“I’ve been expecting an apology,” she said, keeping her tone level. Archer’s expression flickered, but before he could speak, his chorus of idiot friends broke in, elbowing each other and hooting with mockery. Morgan grimaced, then headed back for her seat, annoyed with herself for engaging. Of course he wasn’t going to talk to her properly in front of his idiot brigade of dumb jocks…

But days went by, and Archer made no effort to apologize. If anything, he was going out of his way to aggravate her. They only had one class together, but for some reason she seemed to be seeing him more and more often, in the dining hall, in the hallways between classes. She even saw him one afternoon on her walk down to the beach for her weekly session with her magic teacher. There was absolutely no reason for him to be out here, she thought crossly, hurrying past and ignoring the mocking laughter of his friends. He had to be doing this on purpose.

“You’re in a mood,” professor Reine said the moment she arrived. Morgan straightened her back, an apology springing to her lips, but the professor waved her hand impatiently. “Stay in it! Stay in the mood! What happened?”

“Nothing.”

“Not nothing!” She couldn’t remember seeing the slight woman this animated. She’d be thrilled about this new stage in their student-teacher relationship, if she wasn’t so frustratingly preoccupied with Archer’s crap. “Something’s woken you up. What is it?”

“I just ran into someone I don’t get on with,” she said, grimacing at how childish it felt. “That’s all. I won’t let it interfere with my focus.”

“Morgan, your focus is not a problem in the way you think it is,” professor Reine said with an impatient little shake of her head. “Indulge me, would you? Unfocus for a moment.”

Morgan hesitated. “How … do I do that?”

“Tell me about this someone. Tell me why you don’t get on.”

She bit her lip. She’d vented to her housemates about Archer’s crappy behavior plenty of times, but surely professor Reine wouldn’t want to hear that kind of juvenile nonsense. “He… has an attitude that I don’t appreciate,” she said carefully. “We’re just not—compatible people. He’s a Leo,” she added.

“Fire and water,” professor Reine said thoughtfully, her pale eyes fixed on Morgan’s face. “He bothers you. Gets under your skin.”

“Yes,” she admitted, gritting her teeth. “I shouldn’t let him get to me, but—”

“Is he an asshole?”

Morgan’s shock at hearing her teacher swear was all that stopped her from bursting into surprised laughter at the woman’s frank tone. “Oh, absolutely.”

“Then why shouldn’t he get to you? The question is, what are you going to do with it?”

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