Elly’s already raised brows shot to her identical white hairline. “How do you know that?” She paused before her mouth widened into an ‘O’. “Lily, you’ve been holding out on me!” Of course, this comment earned attention from others and she leaned closer. “Who was he?”
I slunk down further while most stared. “Just some Com I saw at a party once. I didn’t do anything with him. He was busy doing it with someone else.” I barely held back a sigh of relief as my classmates went back to their project when they heard I didn’t have anything impressive to say.
Elly’s short white curls hung over one of her eyes, and she brushed it away impatiently, flashing her pink-painted fingernails. She waggled the regular banana. “They’re really smaller than this?”
I shrugged, lifting the first condom packet when Mr. Busk walked by my desk, watching me. “Probably not all Coms, but the guy I saw would have loved being that big.”
Elly’s face fell for a moment before she glanced away, lowering the slighter banana with a nod and grabbing one of her own condom packets. Elly wasn’t a virgin — I seriously doubted that anyone in my class would be, being nineteen-year-olds — and friendly, so she expertly put the larger condom on the larger banana. Her hand hovered over the smaller packet and I began to wonder why, but my train of thought was interrupted when Mrs. Fowler asked loudly from the front of the room, “Is there a problem, Ms. Ruckler?”
My attention snapped to her. “No. No problem.” If her blue eyes weren’t watching kindly from her crinkled face, I might have been tempted to have her put the stupid condoms on my gifted bananas herself. Glancing away, I opened the condom packet and peeked at the clock. It was only my first hour of classes back from our month of summer vacation and already I couldn’t wait for it to be over.
I barely kept my eyes open as I listened to Mrs. Fowler and Mr. Busk drone on for another thirty minutes. Finally, the clock ticked its last round. Everyone jumped from their seats, a few of the guys finishing the remains of their bananas, which they had no issues about eating even after condoms being on the peeals, and Mrs. Fowler harped, “Don’t forget! Abstinence is the key against germs!”
I snorted as I bustled to the door. They should be teaching that alcohol made you forget about abstinence, losing all inhibitions, instead of harping about it to my overly friendly classmates. Not that I was against alcohol consumption, seeing as my first drunken encounter resulted in the delicious man now leaning against the wall outside the classroom. My heart warmed as I glided to a stop in front of him. I hummed quietly, “Miss me already?”
Dominic pushed off the wall, aligning our bodies. Towering over me at six feet, five inches, I had to tilt my head back to stare into his fathomless dark eyes. His Prodigy wolf emblem ring glittered on his thumb as he lifted his hand, cupping my cheek gently. His words were soft. “What do you think?”
Scrunching my nose, I rolled my shoulders, glancing at the fashionably attired women and men gossiping. “They’re all staring.” Again.
Dominic dipped, his smooth black hair brushing his strong cheekbones as he nuzzled his face against the crook of my neck, kissing it lightly. Barely breathing, he spoke words only for my ears, no Vampires. “They’re only jealous.”
Yeah, that was what I was afraid of. The Shifter women were glaring under their perfect lashes, and if this hands-off hostility was all I would have to endure, I would be doing well. “We should have leaked the news of our mating this summer.”
“Our friends knew.”
“It wasn’t enough.”
Dominic sighed quietly, his warm breath rushing against the tender flesh of my neck, his sweet lips caressing once more. “The assembly will take their minds off it.” Straightening slowly, he slung his arm over my shoulders, keeping me tucked tight against his solid strength as we weaved our way through the gawkers. “How was class?”
“It was fine,” I mumbled, rolling my eyes. “I did learn an interesting fact.”
“That would be?”
I kept my voice down. “To another Shifter, your sexual fluids taste, and smell, of your animal’s essence when you’re close to your Awakening, not only after it.” My brows lifted at my mate. “In other words, you knew what I was going to be before my Awakening.”
His gaze was pure innocence. “I have no clue what you’re talking about.”
I sniffed. Lie. The bastard. “You suck.”
He merely grinned, glancing behind us. “Where’s Elly?”
“Meeting me in the gym.”