For some reason, that made Isobel like her just a little bit more. Most people didn’t see through Theodore’s golden boy mask. She kept her mouth shut instead of commenting on Theodore, but her lips curled into a smile.
“You can come back,” Luis offered, answering her smile with a toothy grin. “You can finish your tea next time.”
“Maybe I will.” Isobel waved at them and then started off toward Dorm A.
4
The Cold Emoji
Isobel walked halfway to Dorm A before her nerves got the better of her and she redirected herself to Dorm O. She couldn’t turn up in sweaty exercise clothes spotted with blood and without birthday gifts. Niko never invited her to anything, and she hadn’t seen Kilian in weeks.
She agonised over what to wear, her stomach flip-flopping sickeningly. Her fingers itched to snatch one of Kilian’s shirts from the shelf, but they didn’t smell like him anymore. She considered wearing the dress he had bought her, but it reminded her of Eve … and the fact that nobody had attacked her since Eve was expelled.
The news about Aron had broken to the public the same night she told the guys, but none of the officials had reached out to her to hear what she had to say. Not even her father had asked her what had happened in Vermont. He had given her an exhaustive lecture about wasting her time on Omegas and then ignored her for two weeks for ruining his settlement tour, abandoning his apartment in the family centre until she was well enough to start playing the game again.
She had no idea what had happened to Eve.
Nobody would tell her, and the news was only focussing on Aron, keeping the details just vague enough that it almost seemed like they were blaming him for the attack … and him alone. None of it made sense, but that was Ironside. The officials didn’t have to explain themselves. They decided what narrative to play, and the rest of the world never questioned what they saw. The only thing that remained to be determined was why, exactly, they had chosen this narrative.
Isobel settled on a pale slip dress—one of the pieces her father had brought to their last dinner. He had one of his assistants analysing the latest fashion trends and purchasing designer pieces for Isobel to wear. A post had gone viral of Isobel recycling the same five oversized T-shirts, always tucked into black tights or shorts, and some of the comments had linked her apparently limited wardrobe to the less-than-stellar box office numbers for her father’s latest movie.
One of his team had decided to bring the comments to his attention, and now Isobel had more clothes than she knew what to do with.
He didn’t care that the T-shirts were Kilian’s, or that she spent most of her day exercising. He had told her to get changed between every single class so that she was never anything less than absolutely presentable.
The slip dress skimmed her body gracefully, the fabric silky smooth, gliding against her thighs as she slipped her feet into sandals. The neckline was subtle, the spaghetti straps accentuating her pale collarbones. She quickly moisturised and brushed her hair, twisting it into a ponytail when it flared out, a little too wild after all her activity for the day.
She picked two ribbons carefully off one of the more extravagant dresses she would likely never wear and hurried outside, almost running straight into a harassed-looking Theodore.
“Good. You’re here,” he said. “Already checked everywhere else.” He cast a quick, uncomfortable look at the door. “Can we please leave, like now? I’ve been accidentally groped twice.”
It had been weeks, and it was still hard to look at Theodore without thinking about his hand pushing into her panties. Most nights when she flopped onto her makeshift bed, that intense look in his eyes as he eased her toward orgasm was the first thing she saw. The way his arm had shuddered with restraint as she came on his fingers. The way he had bitten his lip so hard it had drawn all of her focus. The way his eyes had burned hotter than they ever had before was seared onto the backs of her eyelids.
“Ah.” She cleared her throat. “Hello.”
“Hello back at you, cutie.” He grabbed her hand and began dragging her away from the dorm. He clearly wasn’t as affected as her. “What are the ribbons for?”
“I’m going to pick some flowers for Niko and Kilian.”
“What for?”
“For their birthday.”
“I don’t get it.”
She was jogging to keep up with his long strides, but she didn’t care at all because the warmth from his hand was tunnelling through her body, easing away her exhaustion and calming the feeling of her stomach turning over and over like a carnival ride—the same uncomfortable feeling she had been dealing with for weeks.
“To give them as presents?” she tried again.
“Oh.” He cast her a tight smile. “Of course. How … you.”
“I can’t tell if you’re insulting me or not,” she grumbled.
“I would never insult you …”
She dug her heels in, forcing him to slow down before she continued walking, analysing him with her eyes narrowed. “Why did that sound like there was a but?”
“Well … I don’t have the highest opinion of your innermost survival mechanisms,” he admitted gently. She flinched, thinking he was talking about Eve, but he quickly added, “Because of Oscar.”
“Sato?” She frowned up at him, but he avoided her eyes, both of them silent as they walked around the lake.
She broke away from him when they got to Jasmine Field, and quickly gathered up two floppy bouquets of flowers before they approached Alpha Hill. It wasn’t until she was halfway up the steps that it finally hit her.
“The kiss,” she whispered, almost tripping over the next step.
Theodore caught her and then quickly released her. “Mhmm.”
“The chain made me do it,” she muttered the words lowly even though the cameras were too far away to catch any words spoken on the stairs.
He glanced immediately to her chest, which wasn’t surprising. Niko had likely told them everything in a group message as soon as he walked away from her.
Well … almost everything.
She doubted he said anything about licking her. They seemed to share a lot with each other … except their more intimate moments with her. Theodore must have only just recently found out about the kiss with Sato, or she was sure he would have brought it up earlier.
“Does it hurt?” he asked, glancing away.
“Not anymore.” She shrugged. “It healed straight away. Now it just feels … comfortable, I guess. I visited Sophia—the Guardian’s daughter. She thinks it’s a gift from one of the gods. Something about ‘if it’s a mystery, then it’s probably from the god of mystery.’”
“That would check out.” Theodore smirked. “I’m glad Niko was there.”