told me, then flickered an appreciative gaze over Steele before walking away with a sway in her step.
"Friend of yours?" Steele asked me with his pierced brow raised.
I shook my head. "Some girl from Shadow Prep. And apparently a big fan of yours, Kody."
He just grinned this broad, arrogant fucking smile that made me want to hit him and kiss him at the same damn time. "Good thing she now knows I have a girlfriend, then." He tightened his arm around me, kissing my hair.
"You're insufferable," Steele muttered. "Archer isn't even here."
Kody snickered. "Like I care."
Steele flipped him off and went in the opposite direction to get to his class, but Kody walked with me all the way to the door of my lecture. Like we were dating for real.
Were we?
I was woefully behind in my classes, that much became clear before the day was even halfway over. My head was pounding and my scar aching by the time I made my way into the cafeteria, but my mood lifted dramatically when I spotted Bree at the buffet.
"Hey girl," she greeted me when I sidled up beside her. "You made it! Sorry for not texting back; you sent that message in, like, the dead of the night. I wouldn't have made it in time even if Archer hadn't told me not to worry."
I shrugged. "All good, he's ramped up the caveman routine, so I'm not even surprised. I think me checking myself out of the hospital threatened his whole control-freak thing he's got going on."
Bree snickered, giving me a wrinkled-nose look. "Uh, yeah. Something like that. Anyway, how did the meeting go?"
I blinked at her, confused. "What meeting?"
"With your 'family friend' yesterday? The one you were being super cagey about on the phone when you wouldn't tell me where you were?" She arched a brow at me, and I nodded. The meeting with Zane. Leader of the Shadow Grove Reapers. That one.
"Um, it was good," I responded with total vagueness. I loaded my tray up with all the deliciousness on offer—pizza, fries, chocolate brownies, basically anything I could see that might trigger Kody's health-and-fitness button. What could I say? I liked the conflict. And the carbs.
Bree and I made our way over to a vacant table, but she paused before we put our trays down. "Uh, MK? I think..." She indicated over my shoulder, and I turned to look.
The guys—all three of them—were at their usual table with their usual crew of adoring women crowded around them. Kody had stood up and was indicating that we join them, but... fuck that. The brunette bitch who'd dumped juice on me was literally sitting in Archer's lap, and I wasn't about to go making friends anytime soon.
Meeting Kody's eyes, I shook my head firmly and dropped my tray onto the table.
He rolled his in response and abandoned his table to saunter over to us.
"Babe, Archer went to all the effort of actually attending classes today. The least you can do is rub his fucking face in the fact that we're hopelessly in love and probably going to fuck loudly on the table right in front of him." His tone was dead serious, and Bree made a choking noise.
"Uh, what?"
I tried and failed to hold back my grin at Kody's antics. "Long story," I muttered back to Bree. "But I'm not sharing a table with your cheerleaders, Kodiak Jones. Come sit here with us if you're so eager for my attention."
His eyes narrowed, and I knew he wasn't letting me off so easily.
"Just a moment, babe," he said with sarcastic sweetness, and I groaned as he swaggered back over to his table and exchanged a few words with his friends. And by that, I meant he said something that was probably caustic and nasty, and all the girls stormed off with faces like acid rain.
He turned back to face me, spreading his hands wide as if to illustrate the lack of adoring females left at his table. Except... the juice-spilling bitch was still in Archer's lap. Stubborn.
I gave Kody a pointed look, shifting my eyes to her and back again. In reality, it didn't matter if she was there. It didn't matter if she was squirming all over Archer's lap like she was trying to get his dick hard, and it didn't fucking matter if he had his tattooed hands around her waist.
But I knew it'd piss him off. And I was starting to discover I was unnaturally addicted to stoking the flames