19: The Challenge

Quincy St. Martin

I walk into the auditorium and feel the electrically charged heavy air, and now I’m seriously thinking of walking out. Am I in the right class? I was sure this was the right class.

Unfortunately, the crowd of students squeezing through the door to get inside is jostling me forward, farther into the room.

Caspian, the annoying golden god, is sitting in the middle row, surrounded by his adoring female crowd as usual. What’s not usual is him in this class. He’s never in this class.

He’s sitting back lazily in his chair with his long legs spread out underneath the table.

His golden silky hair is slicked back as usual.

His short-sleeved navy Oxford shirt stretches tight across his magnificent chest. His biceps bulge under the sleeves. A jolt of electricity travels down my spine as soon as our eyes meet and lock.

A kaleidoscope of butterflies starts fluttering in my stomach, and my heart and pulse start pumping and jumping rapidly.

I see his lips slowly curl up into an angelic smile, and I quickly tear my gaze away. That smile spells trouble. For me. I can feel his eyes tracking my movement across the room.

He looks beautiful and harmless now, but I can feel waves of fierce energy coming off him even from here. Untamed and primitive. He’s one powerful being, whatever he is.

I’m immune to my alpha’s power, but I can’t ignore his. He’s a predator, and I’m his prey. I don’t know how these people are oblivious to how much power he’s wielding.

I climb up, all the way up, bypassing my regular lone seat nearest to the exit door. There are too many empty seats around it.

Instead, I make sure there are no available seats beside me by going for an empty seat next to a girl busy chatting with her friends on the other side of her.

“Excuse me, is this seat taken?” I ask her.

“Nope,” she says without looking at me and goes back to talking to her friends.

I catch a snippet of their conversation, enough to know that they’re talking about him. ~Gag~! Why can’t they talk about how to bring about world peace or something? Why didn’t I start thinking about how to make a greener world instead of thinking about him? Yeah, why didn’t I? Once I take my seat and place my bag on my knees, I raise my head, and my gaze immediately falls on him. He has his body turned back to watch me.

He’s making no secret that he’s staring at me. His lips curl up into a wicked smile, and his eyes light up mischievously once our eyes meet. Uh-oh.

I tear my gaze away and busy myself getting ready for class, my heart hammering away.

I take my notepad and my pens out. Then I arrange everything neatly on the table.

“~Moya printsessa~.”

His warm breath fans the back of my neck, and I swear I feel all the hair on all parts of my body stand up to the attention. I don’t know when he moved to sit behind me.

“I can still see my teeth marks on you. It looks…sexy.”

Dangerous or not, he’s annoying. My hackles go up every time he opens his mouth.

I’ve brought my hair to one side of my neck just to cover his mark. I’m well aware that it doesn’t really work, but does he have to be a jerk and bring that up?

That’s it. I’m going to town and buy myself a concealer today!

“What are you doing here?” I hiss at him. I half turn and realize that he’s leaning forward, way too close to me. His mouth is just inches away from mine.

“Have dinner with me tonight?” His warm breath feathers against my skin.

“It’s a school night. No,” I tell him, leaning away from him. I’m trying not to look into his eyes.

“Go out with me this weekend, then?”

“I’m busy this weekend.” My head itches.

“Busy doing what?” There’s an edge to his voice now.

Doing what? “Uh…our house is leaking. I have to fix the roof.”

Roof? Really now, Quincy? My whole head is itchy now. Darn him!

“Are you lying to me, princess?” I detect a smile in his voice.

“Um…no?” I clear my throat. “I mean of course not.” I curb the urge to scratch my head and look around to see people closer to us staring. My neighbors, the girls who were ignoring me before, are now clearly listening in to our conversation.

“Okay, I’ll come and help you then,” he says. “I’ve never fixed a roof before. I bet it’s going to be fun.”

“No,” I squeak. “No,” I whisper and make the mistake of looking into his bright green eyes. “It’s a very, very boring thing to do,” I whisper back to him.

So, so green. How can a pair of eyes look so vividly green like that? He’s staring into my eyes. Then he gazes down at my lips. The hungry gleam in his eyes makes my mouth feel dry. My own gaze falls on his sensual pink lips. They look so good. So very good. I wonder what they taste like.

I jump at the sound of our professor’s voice. Saved by the bell, or rather saved by Professor McKinley. I turn to face the front, ducking my head down to avoid all those eyes watching, especially the girls beside me, who are openly staring.

I hear his tortured, frustrated groan behind me and bite my lip to stop from laughing.

I don’t know if I’m feeling very relieved or disappointed right now. We had been leaning very close to each other. Very close. A few more seconds and…

Oh, boy. I am so screwed.