Everyone was on their feet. More guards dashed into the room—Murphy must have hit the panic alarm to summon them—as he was lunging at Laius with his baton, and not the asshole who tried to grab me.
“Hey!” I shouted as Murphy pushed and pummeled Laius hard while cuffing him. “He was trying to protect me.”
“He was disturbing the environment with aggravated violence.”
“And what are you doing, huh?”
“Keeping him in check, ma’am.”
I jabbed a finger at Maverick, who was now cuffed against the wall by the other guards. “That inmate is the one who tried to grab me. Laius was trying to protect me. Whatever you’re doing to him is unnecessary.” And fucking vindictive.
“Oh, Miss Meneceo, it’s very necessary,” Murphy countered with a harsh voice, twisting Laius’s arm with a sadistic smile.
I flinched at Laius’s cry out in pain. “Hey!” I stormed over to the rabble of angry men. Laius, cheek pressed into the wall, barely shook his head at me, as if begging me not to interfere. I scowled at the asshole I’d considered cute once and thought I might go out with. “I saw that! Get the warden here. Now.”
“I don’t work for you, ma’am. You know where his office is.” He pulled Laius away from the wall, and blood was trailing from Laius’s forehead down his eyebrow.
“He’s bleeding!”
“He’s fine,” Murphy barked. He hauled Laius away toward the door but was halted by my firm, unmoving hand on his chest.
“Wait,” I gritted and pulled a tissue out of the pack in my pocket. Then I moved it to Laius’s forehead.
His face read different things. The obvious were the surprise and confusion that mirrored mine. It didn’t take a genius to know the new student was only here for the purpose Laius seemed to have failed to serve for no reason I could fathom.
Why did he protect me?
Why could I not stand the brutality he’d faced to defend me? Why did his shout of pain squeeze around my heart? Why did I care if Laius Lazzarini was beaten or bleeding? Why did it hurt that his pain was caused by me?
As I carefully swiped the blood, his stare pierced me. “You don’t need to—”
“Shut up and let me help you,” I bit.
The finality in my voice shut his mouth with a snap. He took a deep breath, his gaze leaving a warm trail from my cheeks to my chest. My heart banged against my ribs as I felt every movement he made while I touched his face, every heated breath that whispered his own secrets across my palm.
I swallowed, unspoken words and questions swirling between us. Every time his mouth twitched near the frantic pulse in my wrist, my breath hitched. How would it feel to have his lips on my skin, right on top of my pulse where he could feel how much of a mess he was making me?
After I wiped all the blood, I stared intently around his face, buying all the time I could have with him. I was probably never going to see him again. It was for the best yet it made me dizzy with inexplicable pain.
A mark appearing on his forehead distracted me for a second. The urge to touch it left me in disarray. I wanted to ease the redness through my fingertips to soothe the pain it must have been causing him. I wanted to kiss it away. I wanted to kiss him. On his beautiful lips. On every part of his sculpted glory.
But I couldn’t. Even if, by his now smoldering gaze on my lips, he seemed to share the same desires.
“I’m done,” I muttered, wiping a spot of blood on my thumb, “but before you go, I want you to see something.” I looked around the classroom. “All of you.”
I moved back to my desk so everyone could see. Then I took off my sunglasses.
As what seemed to have been a hundred pairs of eyes fixed on me, gasps flew, followed by swear words in multiple languages I didn’t need to master to identify. Maverick cursed louder than the others. Shocked or disappointed?
Who cared? This was my last class, and tomorrow I’d no longer be in San Francisco. Giving everybody the answer they needed was the one thing I had to do to ensure my safety as I started over. But I was curious about one thing.
I pinned my stare to Furore. “Did you win…or lose?”
He frowned. He opened his mouth, but no words came. Then he scoffed before the guards marched him out of the classroom.
