His eyes flickered with something like amusement. "So, why'd you do it if you thought I'd be angry?"
My lips parted, but no valid response formed. He kinda had a point there.
"Look, babe, I'm not going to give you grief over doing something that both helped you work through your feelings and gave you valuable physical combat skills. Would I have preferred you'd asked me to train you? Hell yes, of course. But I can't fault you for training with Cass. He's old, but he's still in pretty good shape." Kody's grin told me he was ripping on Cass for the fun of it. I’d gotten the impression not all of the Reapers were in my boys' bad books.
I rolled my eyes. "He's not old, Kody. He's probably only thirty-five or something."
Kody snickered a laugh. "Actually, thirty-three. His life experience is aging him faster."
I huffed a sigh. "Whatever. So, you're not mad?"
He gave me a shrewd look. "Depends. If I'm mad, will you try and cheer me up?"
Typical Kodiak Jones.
Reaching up, I grabbed his face between my hands and planted his lips against mine. It was all the encouragement he needed, and his arms banded around my waist as his mouth devoured mine with fierce hunger. But as much as I wanted to take things further and really make sure I'd cheered him up, we were still standing in the middle of SGU campus with students all around.
"Later," I promised him in a husky whisper as we broke apart.
He gave a small groan and kissed me again. "I'll hold you to that, babe."
Interlinking our fingers together, we continued on our way to the dining hall, smiling like dazed, loved-up idiots. Bree was bound to comment on it as soon as she saw us, but I couldn't care less.
Kody made me feel like the center of his whole universe, and it was totally addictive.
29
When I met Cass for our workout that afternoon, he told me about new security measures that had been installed in the building during the day—upgraded alarm systems and a security guard in the foyer.
"Kid, I know shit is all messed up between you and Arch right now," Cass rumbled on our way back from the gym, "but it might not be a bad idea to move back there."
I stopped dead in my tracks. "What?"
Cass just gave me that face. The resting fuck-you face. "What?" He parroted, and I scowled at him.
"What fucking gives, Cass? I thought the Reapers needed me here as an insurance policy against Archer's celestial wrath." I parked my hands on my hips, my tone accusing.
He didn't blink. "The Reapers do. I'm telling you that it might not be the best idea for your own safety. Get it?" He gave me a pointed look, then continued walking.
I hurried to catch up, turning his advice over in my mind. If Cass was admitting that I wasn't entirely safe in the Reaper-owned building, then I needed to take that seriously.
But fucking hell, I couldn't go back to Archer's house. There had to be another option.
"Anyway, I'm supposed to be babysitting you tonight." Cass looked as excited about that as he would be about getting an enema.
I shook my head. "You don't need to. I'll be just fine with you across the hall." Besides, hopefully Kody would come over later, seeing as Steele was working on more security stuff and Archer was an insufferable prick.
Cass just shrugged. "Orders. No one wants to see you sliced and diced, kid."
"Well, agreed. But I also don't need you breathing down my neck while I'm studying. You're right across the hall, right? You can play babysitter from there." We'd just reached our floor, and I gave his apartment door a pointed look. "Last night was a fluke. I can't see anyone getting the jump on me when you're right there, can you?"
Cass ran his palm over his short beard like he was considering my point. Clearly, he wasn't looking forward to sitting on my couch all night while I wrote essays and watched reality TV.
"What about if I promise to text you every half hour so you know no one has jumped out of a closet and strangled me?" I was making light of the situation, but that was all too scary of a possibility these days.
He huffed a sigh. "Every five minutes."
I grinned, knowing I'd won. "Ten minutes."
"Fine," he grumbled. "But I'm sweeping your apartment first."
Not arguing with that requirement, I unlocked the door for him and waited while he checked every nook and cranny imaginable. Only when he was satisfied that no one was hiding and no cameras had been placed while we were gone, did he return to the hallway.
"Clear," he informed me. "Every ten minutes, understood? If I don't hear from you, I'm breaking the fucking door down."
"Understood," I nodded firmly.
He squinted at me a moment, like he was trying to work out if I was up to no good, then finally turned to his own door.
"Think about moving back with your boys, alright?" Cass told me as he unlocked his own door, then stepped inside. "Make smart choices, kid."
That advice echoed around my head as I entered my apartment. Make smart choices. Had I been doing that thus far? Probably not. So yeah, Cass was right. I needed to start making the smart choices that would keep me alive.
Even if it meant accepting help from Archer goddamn D'Ath.
Tomorrow, though. Tonight Kody would come over and we could have one freaking night together without Archer listening and jerking off in his room next door. And then maybe I could let Kody think he'd talked me into moving back to the mansion. Maybe I could keep a few shreds of my dignity intact that way.
After I showered—and noticed that my bathroom mirror had been professionally cleaned—I got changed and went back to the living room to study and cook dinner. And by cook dinner, I absolutely meant order takeout from the local Chinese restaurant again.
For a couple of hours, I worked my way through my assignments, finally making a dent in the work I'd been letting slip. Every ten minutes on the dot, I sent Cass a thumbs-up emoji. He didn't reply to any of them, but the messages were marked as "seen," which was good enough. Meanwhile, I was growing increasingly impatient to hear from Kody. When I'd told him "later," I’d thought he understood that I wanted him to come over after his training session.
When I finished all the work that was due for my classes, my phone finally lit up with Kody's name.
"Hey, I thought you'd forgotten about me," I joked as I picked up the call.
"Never in a million years, babe," he replied. "We just finished, but I got a call from Jase. He needs me to go and talk about some investment shit for a line of sportswear we've been working on. Can we raincheck?"
Disappointment soured my gut, and I groaned. "Jase needs to see you at eight thirty on a Friday night? He's the worst kind of party pooper, I swear to god."
Kody laughed. "I know, I'm sorry. He made it sound really important. Cass is still there with you, right? He said he'd keep a lookout so Steele could work on some security measures."
"My big bad babysitter is keeping me safe, don't stress." I glanced at my phone, noting that I needed to send Cass another message in two minutes. "Call me when you're done. I want to hear all about this sportswear."