growing more and more difficult to resist her and it was becoming clear to me that we needed a group discussion about more things than just what I'd managed to discover about Royaume D’élite.
I looked at my messages for a long moment as Kyan and Blake raced down into the gym on their hunt and Monroe gave me a look that said he didn't really believe I'd play.
Saint:
I'll give you a *squid emoji* you'll never forget when I find you, siren.
Tatum:
I have no idea what that means? I feel like you're trying to make a threat there somewhere but the *squid emoji* just makes no sense in that context.
I slammed my phone down on the table with a grunt of frustration. I was sure I'd figured the fucking squid out that time. Fuck them. Fuck them and their fucking squids. Even Google wouldn't give me the fucking answers to it, but I wasn't going to give up until I figured it out.
Monroe tugged his own cell phone from his pocket and pulled up the messages, laughing loudly at me as I stalked away from him and my anger rose a fraction at that. How the fuck did a teacher know what it meant and yet I still didn't? That shit was infuriating.
I headed up to my room and fell still at the top of the stairs as I let my gaze skim over everything until I spotted something out of place which would let me know where she was hiding.
It took me less than three seconds to spot the crease in the duvet cover and I prowled towards the bed with purposeful strides before dropping down suddenly and looking beneath it.
Tatum gasped as her eyes met mine and I smiled darkly before snatching hold of her ankle and dragging her out as she screamed like I was serial killer come to murder her. That really shouldn't have turned me on, but what could I say? I was a fucked up being.
I pinned her to the carpet and leaned close to her as she squirmed beneath me.
"Tell me what the squid emoji means," I growled as she wriggled and laughed and I began to seriously doubt the wisdom of pinning her down like this because it felt like I’d somehow given her the upper hand.
"Never," she swore in a whisper that had my hackles rising, but before I could get any ideas about punishing her for it, she leaned up and pressed a kiss to the corner of my mouth.
My grip on her slackened and I pulled back as she drew away, though my skin burned where her lips had met with it.
"What was that for?" I demanded.
"You won the game. Blake said the prize was a kiss."
I scoffed as I shoved myself upright and offered her a hand to pull her up with me. "We need to talk," I said as I found myself inches from her body, her skin flushed from the excitement of the game and her blue eyes bright.
"We do?" she asked, biting her lip and looking at me like she'd been waiting for this. Which was good, because it was well overdue.
"Yes. I drew up an itinerary. So let's get it dealt with now." I turned away from her and headed for the stairs just as Blake and Kyan bounded up them.
"Get out of my room before I throw you over the balcony," I warned them. I hated having people in my personal space and they damn well knew it.
"How come you don't get mad at Tate for coming up here?" Blake complained as he turned back with a huff and jogged down the stairs obligingly.
"She's special," I said before I could stop myself and Kyan made a wooing noise like a little girl at a slumber party.
For fuck's sake.
"We need to have a meeting," I announced as I moved back over to my laptop at the dining table. I had a notepad and pen ready next to it and I was itching to get started.
"It's pizza night," Tatum reminded me as she headed around the table to put the first round of pizzas in the oven.
As if it wasn't bad enough that we all had to eat the cheese and tomato paste bread with our hands, we had to endure the fact that they couldn't all fit in the oven at once, so the food didn't even all arrive at the same time. It was fucking traumatic every damn week. But unlike every other motherfucker