Secret Heir (Dynasty #1)(46)
“Raph here may have the reputation of being the best of the best, but don’t listen to all the hype. No one does winter and ice like I do,” she adds with a grin, which I feel myself returning.
Raph just rolls his eyes in response, devouring another piece of toast.
“What the hell, me, too,” Lance says. “I can help you with autumn, fire and earth.”
“I can help with water, sea and storm,” Baron adds. “Although, conveniently, it looks like you’ve already started on that.”
My eyes dart to Raph, who looks back at me innocently.
“I think I’ve got that covered,” he replies and Baron just rolls his eyes.
Conversation moves on to an upcoming soccer match and parties as we finish our toast and coffee. It strikes me how surreal it is that I’m sitting here having breakfast with the same people that, a few weeks ago, I thought were going to kill me in my sleep. I can’t deny that I like sitting here with them and that their company, although alien, makes me feel something that I haven’t felt in a hell of a long time.
The next few weeks fly by and it feels like my feet don’t even touch the ground as I go from training with Raph at the crack of dawn, classes, staying after school in the art studio, hanging out with Dani and also now training with Baron, Lance and Keller after classes.
It’s not like Raph and I have started hanging around together at school, but I get the feeling that word about our truce has spread throughout Regency pretty quickly anyway, because the distasteful looks are gone. People no longer avoid me as I walk down the halls and some people that have never even spoken to me before, stop to say hi. It’s surreal to say the least. The guys at school still keep their distance, though, and although I try to quash it, I have a sneaking suspicion that Raph has something to do with that. Although I don’t miss the looks thrown my way—whenever he’s not around, of course.
Layla still makes it clear that she despises me whenever I have the misfortune of bumping into her. In fact, now that I’m spending all this time with Raph, she seems to hate me more than ever. Frankly, though, I couldn’t care less.
“So, Raph is helping you with what exactly?”
“Elements training,” I reply for like the millionth time. Dani has been grilling me almost every day at lunch since I’ve started training with Raph. She’s convinced there’s something more to this. But I’m not. Raph is well … a king in this place—he can have anyone he wants and that includes Layla, the most beautiful girl in the school, who also happens to hate my guts.
He seems to have calmed down with the orgies and groupies, for whatever reason lately, and strangely, Layla also doesn’t seem to be glued to his side like she usually is. But I haven’t forgotten that he’s a player. Pure and simple. His offer to help me out with elements training means just that, and I’ll be damned if I’m going to let myself read any more into it.
I mean, it’s not like Raph doesn’t flirt with me. In fact, every other thing that comes out of his mouth is some kind of innuendo. That’s because when he’s not being a scary as hell asshole, being charming is part of his nature—flirting, to him, comes as easily as breathing. He probably isn’t even aware that he’s doing it. There are still days when I think it’s completely surreal that we’re no longer at each other’s throats. Things do, undeniably, feel … different. I peg it down to the sudden absence of animosity. I heard once that hate, once gone, can leave an empty hole in a person. I feel that now, I guess, but what that hole will be filled with, I don’t yet know, or at least I’m not ready to know.
“That’s all—are you sure there’s nothing else you want to tell me? Come on, Jazmine, you spend almost all of your free time with Raph St. Tristan now—the hottest guy in this entire school, no wait scratch that, on this entire planet, and you’re trying to tell me that there’s nothing else?”
“There’s nothing to tell because nothing is going on.”
A shadow falls over our table and I look up to find a guy that I recognize from our calculus class standing over me. I can’t remember his name, but I think he’s also on the soccer team. He has light brown hair and hazel eyes—really good looking in that wholesome, clean-cut way.
“Can I join you?” he asks. Dani and I exchange baffled looks, but I nod dumbly in response.
“Devon, right?” Dani asks.
“Yep, I’m in your calculus class.”
I nod again, pretending I knew his name all along.
He gets straight to the point then.
“Jazmine, I was sort of wondering if you know, we could go out some time. If you’re free.”
I gape at him, because I don’t think anyone’s ever asked me out before.
“Like on a date?” he adds, flashing a brilliant smile.
I open my mouth to answer, but I’m interrupted by Dani who is staring at something behind me.
“What the hell …” she trails off, as another shadow falls over our table.
I follow her gaze and look up to see Raph standing over our table. I notice that the tables around us have gone quiet, too.
He looks pointedly at Devon, who now looks visibly paler. I look on in confusion, as he gets up without another word, and goes back to his table.
I turn back to Raph, who is looking back at me nonchalantly, as if he hasn’t just scared off some poor guy who was in the middle of asking me out on a date.