PRINCE CHARMING: A Stepbrother Secret Baby Romance(36)
Olivia nodded, only half listening. She wished her university looked this nice and old. There was so much history pouring out of the walls, she wanted to disappear inside the buildings for days to see what she could find. She felt like she’d stepped back in time, and she had a prince at her side to escort her around the grounds. Quincy asked if she was ready to go inside and she nodded, taking his arm and walking quickly towards the large front doors. They were made of solid wood and creaked when he pushed them open. Their steps echoed on the dark stone floor and off the walls lined with paintings and photographs. Beside each one was a name, and Olivia rushed to read them.
“Were these done by students?”
“Yes, all of them up and down these halls,” he said. “It’s mainly an art school, so you’ll see paintings and murals in the other buildings, too.”
“Can we see them all?”
“Yes, you can, Princess Olivia,” a woman’s voice called from down the corridor. “Prince Quincy, nice to see you again.”
Olivia watched the woman in her flats and paint-splattered jeans walk to them and bow her head as she stopped. “Hi, are you a professor?”
“I am Director Marie Hollins,” she said. “Welcome to my university.”
Olivia tried not to let her jaw drop. The woman couldn’t have been older than thirty, yet she ran the university. Amazing. She had her black hair pulled back in a bun and blues and violets were in her hair from whatever project she had been working on. For the first time since arriving on the isle, Olivia felt she’d found a kindred spirit, someone she could really talk to about her art. Quincy would listen, but this woman would really understand her.
“This is amazing! Where do we start?” Olivia asked, her voice filled with excitement. “What were you working on?”
“Would you really like to see it?”
“Trust me, she would,” Quincy said. “Please, lead the way, Director Hollins.”
Olivia walked beside Marie while she told her about the history of the campus and the art the students made there. She nearly forgot about her new life on the island and why she was even there to begin with. Everything fell away, and for a moment, she was back home with her paints and a blank canvas, discussing the right mediums and brushes to use with another painter.
***
Quincy glanced at his watch and grinned, laughing at the fact that Olivia and Marie had been talking about paint for the better part of three hours while they toured the campus. He really wasn’t even there, not in their minds. He trailed behind them, admiring the beauty of the campus and listening to them talk. It brought a smile to his face to hear Olivia so excited about what she did.
“This is fascinating. If I wasn’t so close to being finished with my classes, I’d stay here,” Olivia said as they stopped in the massive courtyard in between the buildings.
The towers soared high, maintaining their sentient forms from their days as military buildings, though the students’ murals of beaches and oceans, even crumbling cityscapes, helped make them less intimidating.
“Why don’t you just transfer?” Quincy asked. Marie had excused herself to return to her work and was already walking back to her studio, leaving them alone. “I don’t think it would be that much trouble.”
“I have a great reputation and relationship with my professors. I don’t want to let them down.”
“What do you mean?”
“They’ve worked with me since I started college, and I’m kind of their prodigy, so to speak. If I just leave like that… They might be sore at me for it, and they’ve done so much, I can’t do that to them.”
Quincy glanced around to make sure they were alone before he slid his hand across the bench to hers and held it tightly, massaging her palm. “Even if it meant you could stay here? With me?”
Her eyes narrowed as she sucked in a breath. “Quincy, what are you doing?”
“I’m not doing anything. Is there a problem?” He smirked as he let his hand trail to her bare thigh. Their bodyguards waited at the other end of the courtyard with their backs turned, and the place was otherwise devoid of students since it was summer. He loved her soft skin, like flower petals, and his fingers slowly slid higher, up her dress, but stopped short of going further. Her eyes closed on a sigh, and she turned towards him as if to kiss him.
“Do you want me to stop?”
“We… we can’t do this here.”
“So do you want to leave?”
“Won’t they ask questions if we leave early? Besides, we have to meet your father and my mom.”
Damn it, forgot about that. He jumped to his feet, a wicked glint in his eyes as he pulled her up. “Come on, we don’t have much time.”
He made sure they headed in the opposite direction of the bodyguards and ducked into a building, Olivia laughing and asking what the hell they were doing. He didn’t answer, pulling her down the stone corridor. Eventually, he found a room with the door open and told her to get inside. No one had followed, so he closed and locked the door behind him, keeping the lights off as he glanced around.
“Well, isn’t this romantic,” Olivia laughed.
“Could be worse,” he said. “Could be the janitor’s closet.”
It wasn’t much better, but a room that appeared to be for nothing more than storage was better than no privacy at all, and he was not going to make it through an entire day without touching her or having her at least once.