Chapter 40
“What, you’re not going to show me!?” Luca presses, laughing and reaching
again for my schedule.
my
“No way!” I shout, turning so that my back is to the arm of the couchand I’ve got
feet between us, ready to kick him away if I need to. I grew up with brothers and
cousins, after all I know how to do a couch war. “I didn’t even get a look at it yet!”
“Well, then just tell me what your track is =”
“I cannot,” I say, holding my paper close so that it mysteriously covers half my
face. “Itis…a state secret.”
Luca laughs again, leaning forward. “You spy,” he hisses, and then quick as a
snake he snatches the paper from my face, immediately leaning away and
holding the paper far out of my reach.
“Give it back!” I demand, laughing, and throw myself after him, landing half in his
lap as I reach for it. Luca laughs hard, but holds his long arm even across Rafe’s
body. Rafe, grinning and obliging, snatches the paper out of Luca’s hand and
gives it to Jesse.
“Not fair!” I shout, glaring at my brother and my cousin, even though I’m still
laughing. “I didn’t even get to look at it yet —”
“Well you’re a shit spy, Ari,” Jesse says, grinning at me and lining my schedule up
with his and Rafe’s on his lap, “if you don’t get the information and keep it to
yourself for more than ten seconds.”
“Well, I haven’t learned anything about being a spy yet, Jesse,” I say, rolling my
eyes at him even as I grin. “That’s why I’m here.”
“Congrats, Ari,” Rafe says, grinning at me. “I know you wanted Espionage Track.”
“Seriously, Shrimp, congratulations,” Luca says, smiling down at me, and as I
turn my face to him I realize that I’m…well, I’m kind of still sprawled over his lap,
aren’t
1?
I blush beet red, mumbling something about how I’m happy too, and do my best
to gracefully crawl off of my mate and back to the corner of the couch.
Chapter 40
68%
Luca grins at me, his smile widening as he notices my awkwardness and my
blush. “You’ll be great at it at least you’ll definitely be able to squeeze into all
sorts of
tiny spaces.”
I prove him right by pressing myself deep into the corner of the couch, and when
1 glance to my side to I see Ben grinning at me in absolute wicked delight. I give
him a dirty scowl, which just makes him laugh harder.
“Looks like we’re all teamed up tomorrow afternoon,” Jesse says, looking up at
me and Rafe with raised eyebrows, leaning over to pass our schedules back.
“What, all of us?” I ask, taking my paper from Luca when he passes it to me, glad
to have a minute to look at it. “Are you guys Espionage too?”
“No, we’re both Warrior,” Jesse says, leaning back in his chair and studying his
schedule. “Ben, do you have a weird unnamed class in the afternoon with the
three of us? What track are you, anyway?”
“I’m Ambassador,” Ben says, studying his schedule, “and no, I’ve got diplomacy
every afternoon this week. Weird, though, that you guys have a cross—track
class. I didn’t think those existed.”
I study my schedule, surprised and interested to see that Jesse is right. Almost
every morning this week I’ve got Chemistry and Marksmanship, but twice this
week — tomorrow included — I’ve got an unnamed seminar in Room 1260.
“You’re not in it either, Luca?” I ask, lifting my chin to peer over at his sheet.
Seeing my interest, he hands his schedule to me and scooches closer so that we
can study the papers together. He presses his shoulder to mine to do so, and I
pretend not to notice the tingles that immediately flood my left side. I guess he
does too.
“Nope,” Luca says quietly, his eyes moving back and forth between our
schedules. “Looks like we don’t have a single thing together, Shrimp.” He sighs
and sits back, studying me with a sad twist to his mouth. “Well, it was nice
knowing you.”
“I’ll remember you fondly,” I reply with mock seriousness, making him burst into a
grin.
“Nah, you guys will see me all the time. With a sweet place like this?” Luca leans
forward, grabbing his unfinished dinner off the coffee table and starting to dig in
again. “I’ll be here all the time.”
12:48 Sun, 10 ar
Chapter 10
I smile a little bit at the prospect, leaning down to pick up my own unfinished
plate.
“Someone light a fire.” Jesse says, leaning back in his chair and still studying his
schedule with interest. “Let’s get cozy. After all, I heard someone say there was
coffee cake.”
68%
“Best coffee cake in the world,” Luca says, nodding towards the pastry box as I
take my last bite and move eagerly to the fire, starting to re—stack the logs so that
they suit my liking a bit more. “You’ve all got to try some. Nan would die, if she
knew a Prince and a Duke were eating something she baked…”
And a Princess, I think to myself, opening the flue to the chimney with a little
smirk on my mouth. But, at least some secrets have to be kept tonight, right?
Ben and Luca stay late, but not too late — walking a fine line between knowing
that they’re not going to be able to sleep tonight for the sake of excitement, and
wanting very much to get a lot of sleep tonight so that they’re fresh for tomorrow.
Plus, our little room is very cozy at night, it turns out. We spend a couple of hours
laughing and chatting around the fire, the oil lamps that Rafe lights around the
room giving everything a particularly comfortable glowing ambiance. The coffee
cake really is very good, and I think we all over—do it a little bit on the sugar and
snacks after two weeks of eating the bland suppers that the barrack cafeteria
provided.
As the hours pass I relax, wrapped up in the fuzzy green blanket Rafe gave me,
warm and calm, a little unable to keep my eyes from drifting back to Luca’s
laughing face. I let myself fall quiet, allowing the boys take over the conversation,
and instead I just…listen. As their words fade to a steady hum I drift away into my
own thoughts, thinking about how much I like my life right now, how lucky I am to
be here.
How much I want to tell my mom everything, all about it.
My hand drifts to the hair ribbon in my pocket, and I doze off a little while I stroke
the soft velvet with my thumb.
“Hey,” a soft voice says I don’t know how long later, and my eyes slowly drift
open. It takes a second for me to focus on Luca, leaning towards me a little, but
then I gasp with guilt as I realize that in my sleep I stretched out and my feet
have drifted
12:48 Sun, 10 Mar
Chapter 40
into his lap. “Oh, I’m sorry.” I gasp, starting to pull them back, “I’m hogging the
couch —”
68%
“No,” he says, laughing, putting a warm hand on my calf, letting me know I don’t
have to jump away. Slowly, liking the feel of his hand on my leg a little too much, I
relax. “I’m just leaving now.” He murmurs. “But I wanted to say goodnight.” Slowly
— almost like he doesn’t realize it, Luca’s thumb drifts across my calf, slowly
pressing the soft muscle there.
It’s almost the sort of thing he wouldn’t notice that he was doing. But when I
move my eyes back up to his, and find his intense stare already on me?
Yeah. He knows what he’s doing.
“Oh…” I say. kind of at a loss for words, but when I glance up at the clock I
startle. “Luca!” I gasp, leaning forward to smack him on the shoulder, “You have
to get up in seven hours!”
“Eh, I’ll be all right,” he says, shrugging and ignoring my weak blow. “Besides, it
was
almost meditative —” very relaxing listening to you snore just now
1 gasp, sitting up straight. “I did not =”
“You did,” Jesse calls over his shoulder, heading to the bathroom.
I look around, seeing that Ben is already gone, and Rafe is carrying the tray full
of empty plates over to the dumbwaiter.
“Good night, Shrimp,” Luca says, laughing softly feet from his lap
at as I move my and let him stand up. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
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« » . .
Okay,” I say, yawning and watching
. . i) “ _
him pull his boots back on. “Sleep
“ou Spm f
well.” “Oh, I will,” he says, glancing
“
over at me. “l just hope I have
” :
some…good dreams.” The content is
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chapter there!
1 go still, pink creeping over my cheeks as I look sharply up at him, trying to figure
out…
But he just smirks at me, shaking his head a little as if I just confirmed something.
He stands up straight, putting his hands on his waist, studying me.
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« ” . :
Oh, go away,” I sigh, standing up too,
“ys . a)
I’m too tired for this.” I wave a
dismissive hand at him, tossing my
pretty throw blanket on the couch.
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48 Sun, 10 Mar
Chapter 40
Luca laughs, but I just give him a shove towards the door and head for my little
nook.
my
My mate calls his goodbyes to us and closes the door behind him as I jump into.
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little fluffy bed, snuggling down into
the pillows and pulling the warm
)
blankets over me. I’m very pleased to
find that the bed is already toasty
warm- probably due to the way the
nook is nestled in next to the fire
place. The content is on
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chapter there!
“Night, little sister!” Rafe calls to me from across the room.
“Night, Rafe!” I mumble back. “Jesse!”
But honestly? I’m basically already asleep again as soon as my head hits the
pillow.
Because tomorrow is a big — big day, and I can hardly wait for it to get here.
Presuming, of course, there are no nighttime interruptions that get in the way…