Page 9 of Her Devil

“Right, come on you,” I say, pulling Tamsin from the two guys and the drunken antics they’re likely planning. “Let’s go find the library in this place.”

“It’s in the main office building,” Jacob replies as I peel Tamsin away, an amused smile on his face. “The double doors at the end of the main corridor.”

“You’d better not be sending us on a wild goose chase,” Tamsin replies light-heartedly, her gaze tracking their movements even as we walk in a different direction.

“I would never,” he replies as I give them my back, more than done with listening to the guy flirting with my friend.

I don’t know why it irks me, why it’s under my skin, but I could practically feel the heat of his intense gaze locked in that elevator with them yesterday, and today, nothing. I know there were other people there but I couldn’t tell you a single thing about them, it was him I could feel. The energy vibrating from him was something else entirely. And now he’s laughing and flirting with Tamsin like he didn’t feel it, and it’s irritating.

I’m sure women fall to their knees in his presence, but I won’t be one of them.

FOUR

NICK

“You’re a lifesaver.” I sigh, dropping into the seat opposite my brother and wrapping my hands around the steaming hot mug. “I don’t know what he did to piss off the Gods of heating, but that hall was fucking freezing.”

“Yikes,” Emmerson comments.

“Here’s hoping it’s fixed next week because I could barely feel my fingers to make notes. Not that he said much of anything that needs to be remembered, but still…”

The warmth of the coffee starts to thaw through my frozen digits, heat pooling around me in the warmth of the little coffee shop. Signs and posters with silly sayings cover the dark green walls, where you can see them, hidden behind shelves of tiny ceramic houses painted in various bright colours.

The barista bangs the coffee behind me as a steady stream of customers enter and leave, my brain finally thawing out enough to be able to take in my surroundings.

“Hopefully your morning went better than mine?” I ask.

“Yeah, actually, it did,” Jacob replies with an interesting smirk.

“We invited a dozen or so people for Friday night,” Emmerson interrupts, placing his mug down on the table and leaning back in the chair. “Including some girl you met yesterday, apparently.”

My eyebrows raise as Jacob continues. “Apparently, Ivy and Tamsin are in our Monday morning Sociology class, and we’ll be seeing quite a bit of them.” My interest piques. But which one is which?

“Very nice,” I comment.Lucky fucker.

“What about you?” Taylor asks. “Anyone worth inviting at yours?”

“Not that I noticed, but it was hard to tell over the chattering of teeth. I guess we’ll have better luck tonight anyway,” I reply.

“Shit,” Emmerson blurts out. “Taylor, we’re going to be late.” He throws the rest of his drink back, grabs his bags and says a swift goodbye as the two of them race out and to their next class.

“You got anything this afternoon?” Jacob asks, despite knowing my timetable as well as his own.

“Nothing but getting the feeling back in my fingers and toes.”

“Let’s go back to the house and grab some lunch,” he says. “I think Oliver’s got a class this afternoon, so my room is free if you want to chill without the rest of the house eavesdropping.”

“Whatever.” I shrug. “Wyatt wouldn’t care if you wanted to hang in ours.”

It’s not the same. Not what I expected.

But I guess we should have considered this would happen. Unfortunately, the details Francesca Barrett had regarding the all-boys club we’d been requested for were minimal, unsurprisingly.

“Cheer up, man. Those girls yesterday… well, Tamsin seems like she’s down for some fun.”

“Which one’s that?” I ask, finishing the coffee as we grab our bags and head to the car.

“The dark-haired one.”

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