The Hidden Princess At All-Boys Alpha Academy
Chapter 182

Chapter 182

Chapter 0282

“I hate that,” I murmur, working to press myself closer to him, even though that’s not really possible.“I hate the idea of you scared, and alone, and talking to girls when I was just like… half a cityaway.”

“But you were engaged,” he says, his voice strange- I think a little amused? I don’t know. I can’tquite parse it.

“You knew about that?” I ask, looking up at him wide–eyed,

“How could I not?” he asks, grinning at me. “You were all over the media – – and it’s all anyonewould talk about, especially as it got close.”

“Well,” I say, smiling myself a little too and reaching up to stroke my fingers through his hair. “Whatdid you think about it?”

“You’ll be disappointed in me, Ari,” he murmurs, lowering his face and taking a sniff of my hair. “Ididn’t really think about it. It was all very far from what I had been instructed to think was important,what I could understand – a royal wedding…” he shakes his head. “I didn’t have a way tounderstand it, why it was important.”

“Oh, come on,” I say, shoving his shoulder a little, my smile deepening. “You must have thoughtsomething.”

Jackson grins at me for a long moment before he breaks, looking away from me like he can’t holdmy eyes while he admits it. “Fine,” he says, heaving a little sigh. “I thought you were… very pretty.”

“Pretty!?” I say, grinning and sitting up straighter with a happy squeak. “You thought I was pretty!?”

“Just in passing,” he mutters, still not looking at me, a faint blush on his cheeks. “I saw a fewpictures on the covers of magazines –”

“So then how did you not recognize me when we met!?” I shout, laughing and tugging on his shirt,wanting him to look at me again. My mate, ever obliging, turns his head to smile at me.

“Because you were a boy, Ariel – and you smelled like a boy, and I had no reason to equate thelowest–ranked Candidate at the academy with the pretty girl I’d seen on a magazine cover

((

“You thought I was prettttty,” I sing, a little delighted, wiggling victoriously in his lap.

“And I was right,” he growls, snatching me closer and bending me back a bit in a way that makesheat coil in my core. “You are pretty. Much prettier in person, and not dressed up in all that bride–ygauze.”

“Yes, all that bride stuff really was crap,” I say with a sigh, staring up at him, starry–eyed and sweptaway by how wonderful he is – at once handsome, and powerful, and cute. God, how does hemanage it?

But there’s still so much more I want to know, and I’m being selfish, turning this conversation awayfrom him.

+15 BONUS

“So,” I ask, quieting down, sitting up straighter and resolving to be good. “How’d you spend yourtime off? Did you hang out with the guys that you lived with?”

All I want in the world right now is to sit right here in my mate’s lap, listening to him talk for hours,spinning out the story of his life. I’d listen for days, if time and circumstance would let me, even

though I know they won’t.

“In my time off,” Jackson murmurs, thinking back on it and raising his hand to my hair, petting meagain, “at first, I just sat alone in my room. But then the guys I lived with – they were kind, but…alittle rough, you know? They told me I’m a sad sack and that I was being a creep, just sitting in therein the dark. They made me come out into the communal living room, which is where I discovered…television.”

“What!?” I gasp, unable to keep from laughing a little. Jackson laughs along with me, though, givinga self–deprecating little shrug. “You didn’t know what television was!?”

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