Page 112 of Endless Anger
There’s nothing going on anyway. Other than a few heavy kisses—kisses I can’t stop thinking about, even when I’m sharing Aurora’s bed late at night, tossing and turning while she shakes the windows with her snoring—I can’t really say anything else has changed.
He hasn’t apologized, and frankly, things around him are weird in general. I’m not sure Iwantanything to be happening between us.
One day I’ll stop lying to myself.
“So is this really what you do all day?” Foxe continues, folding his arms on the table and resting his head on them. “I always thought college was about parties and getting alcohol poisoning, but you guysactuallystudy.”
“Your dad is a professor,” I note. “Why are you so surprised?”
“That’s how he described it growing up.”
“Is it possible he lied to entice you?” Yuri asks, popping a big pink bubble against her lips. “Maybe he thought you’d be more inclined to attend if it sounded fun?”
Foxe glances around at the endless rows of wooden tables and chairs, the walls framed by heavy wooden bookshelves and accented by large, overstuffed furniture. At this time of day, foot traffic is pretty steady, but the quiet remains throughout.
The librarian across the large room escorts people out for being too loud, which is probably why she’s been glowering at Foxe for half an hour now.
“Thatdoessound like something my dad would do,” he concedes with a laugh. “Backfired though, didn’t it?”
We’re shushedagain, and a thumping noise sounds beneath the table, jolting all of us as Foxe lets out a grunt.
He bares his teeth at Aurora. “Ow.”
“Sorry, leg spasm,” she replies, lifting her brows as she goes back to her book. “They’re triggered by morons who can’t shut up.”
“You never seemed to mind in high school,” he snaps, tension threading through the planes of his face. It’s unlike him and totally unnerving. “In fact, I think you rather liked how unceasing my tongue was?—”
“Shutup,” she spits. “You have no right to talk about any of that.”
“No right?I didn’t breakyourheart there,cupcake.”
Her cheeks turn the same shade of pink as her lip gloss. “What the hell are you even doing here,Foxeglove? Shouldn’t you be off with your handler somewhere, being a nuisance to someone who wants you around?”
Foxe’s jaw drops at the use of his full name—no one uses it, ever.The tips of his ears turn red beneath his shaggy brown hair, and a flash of something I’ve only seen on rare occasions flickers in his eyes for a moment.
But then he scoots his chair away, turning his attention to me.
I give Aurora a look, but she just clenches her teeth, busying herself with something in her backpack.
“You got a test coming up, Lulu?” Foxe asks, leaning in to see what I’m working on.
“Yep. Finals will be here before I know it, and I’ve spent most of my semester…well, not keeping up with assignments, that’s for sure. If I flunk anything this term, I’ll have to push graduation because they don’t offer most ecosystem restoration courses in the spring. For some reason.”
“I thought you were majoring in poli-sci.”
Snorting, I shake my head. “I’mminoringin it, and only because my dad convinced me I could do some real good with a little political experience in my bag.”
“Imagine if we all majored in the stuff our parents made careers out of,” Aurora says to me, pointedly ignoring Foxe. “My time would be spent making craft beer and painting.”
“Ugh, I’d be teaching Japanese literature.InJapan,” Yuri adds. “My parents had the whole thing planned out for me until I told them I’d applied for a student visa and was coming here to study.”
“I’d be working for the Mafia,” a new voice interrupts.
My throat swells up at the deep tone, my toes curling inside my boots when I think back to the last time I heard it—when the owner had his fingers inside me.
Now, those same fingers flatten out on the table as Asher bends, getting in my face. His other hand grips the back of my chair, and suddenly I’m being tilted, my world upending as he suspends me backward, lifting my feet off the ground.
He steadies me at an angle, grinning. “Hey, pup.”
