Player's Princess (A Royal Sports Romance)(63)

I try to convince myself it's in my imagination, but that simply can't be true. I feel a sense of menace from her, like I'm sitting above a predator's cage, watching a panther pace back and forth, eyes always on me, hungry to know what I taste like.

Today I pay extra careful attention, typing notes so comprehensive they border on unnecessary. I catch myself typing "um" because she says it. I will not let her beat me, I swear. My average in the course is a B-again, and if I work hard on the final exam, I can still pull an A.

Besides, I have Jason to help me. I glance back at him a few times. Slouched in his seat, he looks as though he would rather be anywhere else.

When class finally ends, I fight the urge to go to him, as usual. When I walk by, it pains me not to look at him so much that I finally spare him a glance. He smirks when he sees me looking, and I will myself not to blush, and hurry on out to the hallway and away from the lecture hall.

My day goes as normal, and I grow anxious thinking what surprise Jason will spring on me tonight. When I climb down from my room and clamber over the fence, he is waiting by the corner. I sprint over to him and tuck up beside him.

"Grandolf failed me on my last set of review questions," he says with a deep, sad sigh.

I stop in my tracks. "What does that mean? Will it hurt your scholarship?"

He sighs again. "It could. I'm doing better on the math, but midterms are coming up and I'm not sure."

"We can take time to study."

He gives me a sad look. "Next week, huh? Let's have fun. Listen, I think we should ditch class on Friday."

My heart skips at the thought of willfully missing one of my classes. Jason sees the look on my face and laughs.

"Don't go so pale. There's something I'd like to show you and it closes for the year on Friday. We'll borrow the brothers' car and go for a nice road trip, huh? Sneak out of here in the morning."

I bite my lip and huff. "I do not know how I would get past my guards."

"Tell 'em you're sick." He shrugs. "You need to stay in your room. Then sneak out. Come on. You agreed to one week. What does it matter if you get caught at the end of it?"

"I would be sent home. I don't want to go home."

Jason puts his arm around me. "I can't believe they'd really do that to you. What if you told them you wanted to stay together with me? It's 2016, Ana. People don't arrange marriages anymore, no matter who they are."

"They do if they are royalty," I sigh. "Please, can we not speak of this? I don't want to think of how this must end. What are we going to do today?"

"I didn't have anything in mind. We can get the car if you want, go for a ride."

"You drive?"

"Yeah, I just can't afford my own car."

I nod. "We'll drive on Friday. Tonight let's walk. Perhaps we can find a restaurant."

After we are away from town, Jason has an idea.

"You know what quintessential part of the American experience you're missing? Chinese food."

I look at him and blink a few times. "What?"

"Come on."

He takes my hand, and we quicken our pace. When we reach the Great Wall Chinese Buffet, he leads me inside and buys our way in. Jason loads up my plate with a dozen foods I can't pronounce, and we take a table in the corner. I don't dare lower my hood. I am facing away from the door, though, so I feel comfortable taking off my sunglasses.

"Dig in," he says.

I hold up the peculiar sticks they gave me and look at Jason. He smiles and takes them from me, demonstrating how to use them. It still takes me five minutes to eat an actual bite of food. I'm so hungry, I grab the finger foods first, the spring rolls and won tons. It's all hot and greasy and feels a little heavy, but good.

Like everything about this country, it's a little overwhelming.

"Do you miss home?" he asks.

I want to say no, but instead I say, "I do miss my country. It is where I grew up. It is a part of who I am."

"Tell me about it."

I shrug. "The beaches are all pebbles. There is no sunbathing. Most of the island is all rocky coast, so sheer that few people can climb it. There is one safe harbor where the ships come and go, but the rest of the coastline is impassible."

"That sounds like a geography textbook, Princess. What's it like? I want to feel it."

I chew a slice of chicken thoughtfully.

"It is beautiful. It seems dreary until you come to know it. Half the days of the year it threatens rain, and the other half it does rain. The storms can be terrible, hail and lightning that splits the sky like the anger of God. The seas around the island rage and thunder, but it is glorious. When the storms come into the east side of the island, the waves slam into the rocks and cliffs and great pieces shear off."

He looks rapt. "Go on."

"The water bites holes in the cliffs. In some places the caves reach all the way through to the interior. The streams flow down into the sea through them. They all originate from the mountain slope, and when it rains, they become floods. The castle has such a stream that flows straight through it, through cisterns in the walls to keep flowing down to the valley below.

"When the sun does shine, it is incredibly beautiful. The whole island is dark green grass from one end to the other, except for forests on the slopes of the mountain that my ancestors kept as a hunting reserve."