Chapter 45

YENA

It had only been an idea… up until that moment.

Reading Adan’s book had gotten me started thinking about the opportunities I could find in the human world. The thought of going abroad to study was scary, though.

But then today Nolan kept telling me how he thought I was too good for the Noble Academy, and the idea started to grow.

It was not something I had actually planned on doing.

But when Nolan told me he wanted me to get pregnant, I panicked.

And the look in his eyes… he wanted so badly for me to say yes.

An hour earlier I never wanted him to take his hands off me. I never wanted to be away from him ever again.

And now I was sitting here telling him I wanted to leave.

I was scared. I wasn’t ready to be a mother. I had hardly been ready to be somebody’s wife when I agreed to marry him.

It looked like I was breaking Nolan’s heart. He was trying very hard to look unaffected.

I didn’t know what else to say. I thought about taking it all back, but then… maybe I did want to leave.

It was too much to think about all at once.

I maneuvered carefully in the tub and managed to get myself settled onto his lap. I kissed his neck and rubbed my body against his until he got hard slid inside me.

We had slow, gentle sex in the tub until the water started to get cold, and most of it had splashed out onto the bathroom floor. I think we both felt a little better by time we got out.

Neither of us brought up the topic of our future again for the rest of the night.

I was tired. It had been one of the craziest days of my life.

I fell asleep almost as soon as I was back in bed, only vaguely aware of Nolan pulling a blanket around my shoulders and giving me a soft kiss on the cheek as I started drifting off.

I visited Adan the next day during his office hours. A student was walking out the door, saying goodbye to the professor, as I approached.

Adan told the student he would see him in class and took one step out the door as the student paced off down the hall. He smiled when he saw me.

“If it isn’t our resident superstar,” Adan said.

I blushed and shook my head. “Please don’t,” I said, not able to keep from smiling.

“As you wish, Princess,” he said with a wink. “Would you like to come inside?”

“Sure,” I said, and we went into his office and sat down.

“Can I offer you my simple congratulations, at the least?”

“Yes,” I replied, “and thank you. Were you able to make it there to watch the show?”

“I was.” Adan reclined in his chair. “It was quite a show you put on. It was a very good idea for them to have you on last.”

“Oh,” I said, “that was just a randomly assigned order.”

He looked doubtful. “Probably not. They previewed your collections, right?”

I nodded.

He gave a little half-smile and said, “They expected you to win. That’s how these things work. It makes for a better show if you save the best for last.”

I thought back to the day of the sign-ups, when the judges first looked over my design materials and plans for the contest. They had seemed very critical of everything. A lot more than they did with everyone else.

“You have to know by now,” Adan continued, “that you are leaps and bounds ahead of your peers here. That competition… was not much of a contest. You wiped the floor with the other competitors.”

“Thank you,” I said, thinking again how odd it felt when Adan repeated things that Nolan had already said to me. It was uncanny.

“You know,” I continued, “I’m not someone who has ever had many friends. And I just wanted to let you know that it meant a lot to me that you came to the show to support me.”

“It was my pleasure.” Adan gave me a warm smile.

“And there’s another thing,” I said, feeling nervous just thinking about this topic again. “Maybe sometime you could tell me more about universities in the human world. I’m thinking about possibly studying abroad.”

A very excited look flashed across Adan’s face for a split second. But then his regular, more reserved smile returned. I wasn’t quite sure what to make of that, but then he leaned forward with his elbows on the desk and started talking excitedly.

“I’d love to do that for you,” he said. “I can even put together a list of the top fashion design schools for you. Come see me tomorrow, and we can look it over and talk through your options together.”

I nodded and said, “Wow, that would be so helpful. Thank you so much.”

When I stood to leave, Adan said he was on his way out too, so we left the building together.

We had only just rounded the corner toward the parking lot, when Adan stopped in his tracks and said, “Yena.”

I stopped and wheeled around to face him. “Yeah?”

“May I ask something of you?”

“Sure,” I said. “What?”

Adan smiled and took a step closer to me. “Will you give me one, small gift?”

I got an odd feeling, like I didn’t know where he was going with this, but knew it was not somewhere good. I squinted at him and tilted my head. “What kind of gift?”

In answer, he took a big step close to me, bent down, and moved in to kiss me.

I jumped away on instinct, but suddenly he had his arm around me and I wasn’t able to escape his reach all the way.

His mouth missed my lips, but they landed briefly on my forehead instead. Then he released me and I wrenched away from him.

“What the fuck, Adan?”

He had no reaction. None. His face was stony and neutral.

I had never seen him wear this kind of expression before.

It was the princely look. The way Nolan wore his face when he was in public or trying to impose his authority.

I’d always thought Adan resembled Nolan a little, in that vague way biological siblings always do. But I’d never seen him look so much like Nolan as in that instant.

Adan was always so relaxed. This was a different side of him. One he had been hiding from me.

I heard Nolan’s voice in my head saying, He’s not who you think he is.

Suddenly I wished I had trusted my husband. And stayed away from this man that now stood before me.

I was a little afraid to turn and run away. Adan was much, much bigger and stronger than me. And suddenly I understood that I had no idea what he was capable of.

Then I saw his eyes dart over my head to something behind me. I turned and saw Nolan approaching us.

Then everything happened really fast.