When he breaks away, he sighs with sadness. “We have to go back to the Manor. Classes tomorrow. My last semester.”
I toss my napkin toward the trash can, but it falls on the floor. “I’m thinking of dropping out.”
“What? No, you’re not.”
“Yeah. I have a billionaire husband now. No need.”
The little muscle in the back of his jaw works overtime. “Don’t waste your brilliance. Ashlyn, you can be whatever you want to be. I wish?—”
“Fine. I’m switching my major to architecture.”
It almost makes me sick how proud he looks. But it also warms me up inside. “That’smy girl. Mygeniusbaby.”He swallows another bite with a wide grin. “What made you change?”
“This house. The drawings… Julien. I think I’d enjoy creating spaces more than decorating them. But the problem is, it requires more math. And I hate it.”
“You can do it. I’ll help.”
“On your lap?” I ask flirtatiously.
“Of course.”
“Sold.”
Sunday,we drive back to Northview City and theThetaManor in Dad’s Escalade for the new semester. I hate to admit that I’m looking forward to a change in major and a new outlook on my life. Fresh starts. New place to stay. And my life is now tangled up with Aiden’s.
The foyer explodes with shouts of reunion as soon as we walk in—bro hugs, chants, and the crash of shot glasses. A keg stand competition’s already raging in the game room, the air thick with beer foam and whiskey heat.
Aiden carts our bags inside and snags my hand in his possessively.
“Will you be busy with them?” I ask, and he nods with a roll of his eyes.
“I have to lead the meeting tonight, but Tade will take care of the problems.”
“Should I go to theOmegameeting tonight?”
“No. I don’t want you out of my line of sight?—”
“I have to be away from you sometimes.”
He shifts, his hands skimming my hips to guide me ahead on the stairs. “No, you don’t. I’m watching you, and if we get a single clue where that fuck went? It’s KOS.”
Kill-on-sight…
I kind of enjoy that thought.
“You know what I’m thinking…” I muse as we wander down the hall toward his suite. “Talon was texting a brunette, and now that I think about the pictures I saw.” I pause, trying to bring up the image in my head. “I’m pretty sure it was Elowyn.”
Aiden’s steps stutter. “Elowyn?Price?”
“Yeah. Same hair color and style. Samebody. At least from what I could see.” And given what happened on Red Night, part of me wonders if Talon never quit fucking her after that…
“I’ll ask her for sure, then.”
I open the double doors as Aiden sets our stuff on his sofa. Both of us immediately gag from the intense putrid odors erupting from the room.
“What thefuckis that?” he asks, slapping the back of his hand over his nose.
Pulling my sweater up to my eyes, I shake my head. “Did we leave food out?”