bit with that. When he was around, he commanded so much attention it was hard to think about anything else. Anyone else.
Bree and I stepped through the doors into the building we both shared for this time slot, and she heaved a sigh. "I guess this is where I leave you," she lamented. "You sure you don't want to switch to my nice, easy arts degree? Then I could move into your apartment and we could spend every waking minute together!" She beamed at me, and I rolled my eyes.
"We would kill each other in a week. Have fun, girl. I'll see you at lunch."
I left her and let myself into my first class of the day, hoping I wasn't too late. I whispered a quick apology to the professor on my way past, but she just arched a brow at me and continued talking. I quickly slid into the first empty seat I could see and hurried to pull my laptop out of my bag as silently as possible.
"Hey," the guy beside me whispered, and I did a double take when I realized who I'd sat down beside.
"Bark," I whispered back, "hey. Sorry, I wasn't even paying attention. How are you?"
He quirked a funny smile at me, then shifted his attention back to the projector screen that our professor was talking about. I thought for a moment he wasn't going to reply, so I opened my own laptop to take notes.
"I should ask you that," he murmured after a moment, giving me a sidelong look. "Last time I saw you, you were pretty out of it. Then there were ambulances, and someone said you'd overdosed on something?" His raised brow conveyed all of his questions around that, and I sighed.
"I'm fine," I replied, keeping it brief. "Someone spiked my drink." His eyes widened in shock, and I shook my head. "Like I said, Bark, I'm fine."
I shifted in my seat, making a clear point that I was interested in concentrating on the lecture and not in continuing our conversation. Bark let the subject drop, but I caught him stealing more than one curious glance at me throughout the class. When it was over, I grabbed my shit and bolted before he could ask me anything else.
Call me crazy, but I wasn't eager to stand around and chat about the most recent near-death experience I'd had. The fact that I'd had more than one was enough to keep me awake most nights as it was.
Bark called out after me, but I was already pushing through the door and hurrying down the corridor with my head down and my long, rose-colored hair creating a shield around my face.
Of course, that meant I didn't see where I was going until I’d run straight into someone's chest. Someone's hard, muscular chest. Someone's very familiar chest that smelled unmistakably of oak and subtle florals.
Ah fuck.
Sucking in a sharp breath, I tossed my hair back and raised my chin to meet his eyes.
It was the meeting I'd been both dreaming about and dreading for four weeks, and one I'd replayed in my mind, over and over, testing out different insults and opening lines to craft the perfect encounter with my husband. Yet none of that could have prepared me for the staggering sense of pain, betrayal, and loss that tore through me on meeting his cold blue eyes in person.
Instantly I knew I wasn't ready for this confrontation. Not yet. Maybe not ever.
I tossed aside all those cutting one-liners I'd carefully prepared and simply skated my gaze away from his eyes like he was a total stranger.
"Excuse me," I said quietly, not giving in to the wild tundra of emotions churning within me and tearing strips out of my soul. "I wasn't watching where I was going."
I made to move around him like he meant exactly nothing to me, but he grabbed my wrist in a bruising grip before I could make it more than two steps. A sharp tug saw me turned back to face him, and his mask slipped a fraction, showing me a glimmer of guilt and regret.
Or maybe that was simply what I wanted to see, because in a heartbeat it was gone again.
"Don't be childish, Princess Danvers," he told me in a cutting tone. One that made me want to grab his nuts in my hand and twist.
I arched a cool brow, refusing to let him under my skin. Not visibly, anyway.