“I’m sure you’ll do well today, Ark. You’ve trained hard, you’re already much stronger. Don’t be nervous.”
It wasn’t really nerves, so much as a little bit of stage fright. There was a distinction between those two feelings, at least for me.
“I’m not nervous,” I replied, brushing a few muffin crumbs off my sleeve.
Kieran rolled his eyes.
“Ah, right. Not nervous, you’re just chomping at the bit to show off in front of the scholars. Can’t get enough of that spotlight.”
Sarcasm dripped off of every word, but his ability to get inside my head was still uncanny.
“What did I tell you about reading my mind, Kieran?”
“That it is an alarmingly attractive trait, and I should do it more often?”
I groaned at the sight of his winning smile, rubbing at my temples for dramatic effect. It was far too early in the morning for flirtatious Kieran. I wasn’t even fully awake yet.
“What? I thought women were supposed to like not having to explain themselves,” he teased, plucking another grape off my plate.
“Sexism? At this hour? Gods, you are so very irritating.”
“I aim to be irritating regardless of gender, actually. I’m an equal opportunity prick.”
“At least you’re a self-aware prick,” I grumbled. “And have you considered getting your own breakfast?”
“I could, yeah. But you don’t like red grapes. Wouldn’t want to be wasteful,” he replied, popping said grape into his mouth with a wink.
Of course he would remember that.
“So what are your plans today, Captain?”
“Oh, you know, the usual,” he started, as I yawned and began to pull my hair back in a ponytail.
He paused for a moment, another grape between his fingers as his eyes narrowed, zeroing in on my neck.
“Ah, so it wasthatsort of late night, huh?”
“Wait, what?” I started, before realizing that Mason must’ve left a mark or two. “Oh.Gods, I should probably wear my hair down to the exams, then, huh?”
“Probably,” Kieran replied dryly.
I raised a brow at him, but said nothing. Was he…jealous? There was no fucking way.
The decision to keep the friendship platonic was a mutual one, and besides—that man had absolutely no room to talk. Though it seemed to hit him in waves and phases without any particular rhyme or reason, I knew damn well that there were weeks where he was taking a different stranger to bed every godsdamned night. And I’d seen plenty of similar marks onhisneck in the past.
“Anyone of interest?” he asked casually.
“In what regard?”
“I mean, are you seeing them again? Do I need to look into him… or her?”
I scoffed. “Him, and no. I don’t plan to see him again, I was just blowing off some steam.”
“Considering you’re still wound up like a top, I might be able to offer the poor guy some feedback on his form,” Kieran laughed.
“Excuse you,” I retorted. “His form was perfectly fine, I’m just a little anxious. You know as well as I do that this is going to be a tough course to test into.”
“If he’d fucked youproperly, that anxiety would be long gone,” Kieran argued.