Steel Princess (Royal Elite 2)

Aiden doesn’t even pretend to focus on anyone else and makes a beeline in my direction.

I ignore him and pull out my notebook.

He stops by my desk, looming in front of me like suffocating smoke. “My place or your place later?”

“Ronan’s place,” I continue retrieving my history book. “He’s throwing a party for me.”

He narrows his eyes on Ronan who pretends to whistle before grabbing Xander by the shoulder.

Aiden’s gaze slides back to me with a predatory streak. “Careful there, sweetheart. You’re starting to push me. I don’t have to remind you that I’m not so nice when I push back, do I?”

I lean my elbows on the desk and meet his metal gaze with my hard one. “I don’t have to remind you that we’re over, do I?”

His left eye twitches, but he remains as immovable as a rock. “Hmmm. Is that so?”

“Yes, King. It’s time you accept it.”

“Or what?”

“We have to wait and see.” I smile. “But I promise that you won’t like it.”

He reaches a hand for me and it takes everything in me not to flinch back.

Aiden is Aiden no matter how courageous I am or what I think I know about him.

His calm mode is scary.

No. It’s terrifying.

I just have to learn how to ignore that fear.

He grips a stray blonde strand between his fingers and takes his sweet time to tuck it behind my ear.

It’s never good when he offers this deceptive type of softness.

Bending over, he whispers in dark words to my ear, “By all means, show me what you got sweetheart.”

6

Elsa

After school, I find Knox in front of the seventh tower.

Headphones cover his ears and he types away at his phone. His expression is easy, but he appears lost somewhere out of the physical world.

Heavy metal music thrums louder from his headphones as I approach him. Upon seeing me, he drops the headphones around his neck and smiles. With a click, the music comes to a halt.

“I see you’re into metal,” I tell him.

“What can I say? Heavy things speak to me.”

Interesting.

We walk down the uncovered hall separating the seventh and the eighth tower. “Not sure if you know this, but RES has ten towers. From one to three are for the first year. From four to six are for the second year. Senior year students get the four remaining towers.”

“Why?”

“What do you mean?”