Sighing, I rolled off her and onto my back beside her. My thigh tingled with the reminder of her arousal, my dick still hard as a fucking rock inside my pants. But my mind… my mind was tired. It’d been a long day, and we really needed to get some rest.
“Can I share the bed with you?” I asked her softly, too exhausted to bicker anymore. “I promise to keep my hands to myself. I’ll even sleep on top of the sheets.”
I didn’t look at her while I spoke, my focus on the high ceiling above. Mostly because I didn’t want to see her expression. If she went into another rant about the sleeping arrangements, I’d go sleep on Kols’s couch or something.
Silence.
Of course.
All right, well, clearly, she wanted space. “Okay, I can take a hint,” I said, sitting up. “It’s been an eventful evening, and all of this is a lot to take in. I’m going to go hang out with Kols. We need to catch up anyway.” Not true. But I suspect Ella would argue if she knew I was giving up my room for her. Wasn’t that what set her off earlier? My offering my bed?
I nearly snorted. Impossible female.
Her hand snagged my wrist before I could leave the bed, her grip surprisingly strong. “Stay,” she said, clearing her throat. “I mean please. Please stay.”
My eyebrows shot upward. Did she just say something mildly polite? I almost uttered the words out loud but thought better of it. Because those would spike another argument. Instead, I lay back down with a softly spoken “Okay.”
A calm energy settled between us, one I welcomed with a yawn.
Ella rotated on her side, facing me. “Why did you dance with Ryan?” Her whisper of a voice pulled my focus toward her, my eyes meeting hers as I remained on my back beside her.
“Because I wanted to have a word with her regarding her unwelcome interruption,” I admitted. “Your stepsisters want me to make you fall in love with me so I can break you publicly in front of the school. I pointed out to her that her intrusion was counterproductive to the goal.”
Ella gaped at me. “What?”
“Yeah, your stepsisters are evil incarnate. Hence the reason I want them destroyed.” I rolled my head back onto the pillow again, my gaze flickering up to the ceiling once more. “My thought is that we’ll date for a few months, while secretly working on a way to bring them all down. Then, right about when Ryan expects me to shatter your heart, we’ll demolish her instead.”
Ryan and Carmen didn’t have hearts, so playing them in a similar manner wouldn’t work.
“I think it’s their social status we need to dismantle,” I added, thinking out loud. “We’ll need to decide if Clarissa should burn with them.”
Ella popped up onto her elbow, her blue eyes bright as she stared down at me. “You’re serious.”
“Yeah. I think I’ve mentioned this idea a few times.”
“You really want me to get revenge on them.”
“Of course I do.” My brow furrowed. “What I want to know is, why don’t you want revenge? Those bitches have put you through hell and back. Dash and Charlie are no better. Why do you allow it? Why don’t you fight back?”
“Because fighting back only brings on more attention. I learned a long time ago that ignoring them affords me more peace.”
“Peace,” I repeated, snorting. “Was this week peaceful for you? With Charlie pestering you every morning in English class, the two idiots wanting to drown you in the pool, and then that circus tonight at the dance?”
“Well, it was more eventful than normal, thanks to a new student showing up,” she drawled.
“Come on, Ella. Be serious for a moment. Even had I not shown up, those two idiots would have pestered you. And who knows what your stepsisters would have done had I not offered the distraction of a new game.”
“Wait, you suggested the whole breaking-my-heart thing?”
“More like I steered Ryan into the idea,” I clarified. “It gave me an excuse to spend time with you, while also pretending to be on their team. Win-win.”
She scoffed at that. “Being on their team isn’t a win.”
“It is when you want to take the bastards down,” I countered, going onto my elbow to mimic her pose. “Think about it, Ella. If they believe I’m on their side, they’ll let down their guard around me and give us ways to infiltrate their circle and destroy them from the inside. It’s a brilliant plan.”
“Seriously, why are you wasting your time on this?” she demanded. “They’re a bunch of high school humans. Seems pretty insignificant when compared to all this.” She gestured with a hand around my room, but I understood what she meant—the Midnight Fae Realm.
“Something they’ve done has hindered your access to your powers.” I reached across the space between us to palm her cheek. “I take that offense very seriously. As should you, Ella. You’ve spent years crafting impenetrable walls to hide from their torment, and I suspect that’s part of the block on your inner fae.”