by Nikki Dean
“Nice to see you, too.”
Chapter 23
Mallory woke up the next morning smashed between Matt and the wall, his large form nearly covering her completely as he slept. They were spooning, one of his arms thrown across her side and his thigh nestled between hers.
She reached around him to feel for Nico, but he was gone. A quick glance at her clock showed that it was still early, and he’d probably just left for PT.
Do I really want to wake Matt up and make him move? Did he seriously sleep in this tiny ass bed with Nico and me again last night? I guess so, since he’s here now.
He stirred a little behind her, just moving his arm to get more comfortable. Mallory froze, holding her breath as she waited to see if he was waking up.
He didn’t move, still relaxed as ever against her back.
This should feel wrong. My boyfriend just left and I’m in bed with another man. I should be stopping this, right? It was hard to remind herself of the importance of the situation when he felt so damn good against her. Matt was warm, and solid, his bigger body fitting so well against her curves that it was almost like they were made for each other. She’d thought the same thing about Nico before, but in a different way.
I wonder if this is what it would have been like if I’d agreed to date Matt instead of Nico. It feels different, but still really good. Then again, Nico must not mind us being cuddled up like this if he just left, and saw Matt holding me while we were sleeping. Shit, he may have been cuddling me all night, and Nico may have even been in on it. Maybe I should get one of those surveillance cameras for my room, just so I know what’s happening while I’m asleep.
The thought was ridiculous, but no more ridiculous than the idea that this was actually possible. Going to bed with two men, without any drama, and waking up snuggled up to one or the other depending on the day. It sounded kind of amazing, if she was being perfectly honest with herself.
“Well, if it’s not broken, I’m not fixing it,” she muttered to herself as she wiggled into a more comfortable position. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on how she was looking at it, the only one available involved accepting her fate as the little spoon and tucking her ass against Matt’s belly.
He groaned in his sleep. Mallory froze, hoping he didn’t wake up.
She wasn’t ever that lucky.
He stilled, clearly unsure about his welcome in such an intimate position. Matt sat there for a second, then slowly pulled his arm out from under her pillow, doing his best not to wake her. Forcing himself to roll over, he sprawled out across the other side of the bed.
Well, that went nothing like I thought it would. He’s trying to be a gentleman though, which is nice. She made a decision and rolled over too, pretending to be asleep as she pulled one knee up, tucking it against the back of his.
Their positions had officially reversed, and she was the big spoon. It was kind of funny. Matt reached down and squeezed the back of her knee, pulling her leg tight against his for a moment before letting go, still afraid of rousing her enough to realize that it was him, instead of Nico, in the bed.
Which worked for her. This conversation wasn’t something she was looking forward to having, at least not when she could just lie here and pretend that having two boyfriends, who were both completely off-limits, was possible. It was something to dream about, at least.
They woke up when her alarm went off a little later. They’d rolled over again, so he was cuddling her like before, only more intimately, if it was possible.
His hand halfway down the waistband of her pajama pants, holding her hip while she slept.
“Holy shit, I’m so sorry,” he said in a rush, letting her go and pushing himself away. Only he forgot how narrow the mattress was and ended up on his ass on the hard tile floor.
“You okay down there?” Mallory asked, sitting up to look over the edge at him.
“Think so. Sorry for manhandling you in your sleep.”
She just looked at him for a minute, unsure how to respond. I’m not sorry, was what she wanted to say, but that would just complicate things even more. “I guess it was bound to happen when three grown-ass adults decide to sleep in one tiny twin bed together.”
“I can fix that today, if you want.”
“Fix what?”
“Your bed. I have a cot that I can bring over and put the other mattress on, if you and Nico want something bigger. It’d basically end up like a king size, and it folds away when you don’t want it in the middle of the room.”
Mallory grinned. “Oh, yeah? Trying to get your bed right next to ours so you guys can cuddle at night?”
“He does have that adorable ass,” Matt fired back.
She was relieved to hear his humor was back, at least. “And those piercings. Never thought I was a nipple piercing kind of girl until I met him.”
“You learn something new every day.”
They were quiet for a minute as he got up, stretching and rubbing his backside. He sat back down on the edge of her bed.
“I’m not going to be coming back for a while. So it really would be for you and Nico to use.”
“What?” Her eyes flew to his face and she reached for him with her mind. “Why not?”
“I got reassigned. I’m not going to be your handler anymore, so I’m going out on a mission. Apparently Fitzam isn’t thrilled with your progress, so he’s assigning you to someone else.”
“My progress?” She scoffed. “My powers have gotten so much stronger since I got here… but you haven’t told him any of that because you’re covering for me,” she finished slowly. “Oh, Matt, this is all my fault. I’m so sorry.”
“It is what it is. I knew it was a possibility. You’re going to have to be very careful not to let the new handler know what you can do, though.”
“Do you know who it is?” She was almost afraid to ask.
“Yeah.” Matt nodded. “It’s Pohler.”
“That son of a bitch,” Alec swore. They’d gotten together over dinner at a local place off campus, far enough from the school that the odds of running into anyone was low. “I don’t know what you ever saw in him, Matt, he’s been a prick from the beginning.”
Mal smiled into her beer at his vehemence, which she wasn’t going to argue with. “He does seem like an asshole. What do we do to get you reassigned to me?”
“Can’t. I’m already on another mission. I head out tomorrow morning,” Matt said.
She blinked back a sudden, furious stinging in her eyes. A mission means he’s going into danger. He might not come back. Why didn’t I tell MacKenna that Matt and I were playing chess every night and he was crucial to me advancing in my classes? Maybe I still can. “This is all my fault. I’m so sorry, Matt.”
They all looked at her, even Everett. He’d reluctantly graced them with his presence after crawling out of whatever hole he lived in, and only at Matt’s insistence. Out of all of them, he seemed the most angry about the turn of events, even if he didn’t say anything.
Not that Mallory had any way of knowing that. He was surprisingly closed-off on her web, his magic working overtime to keep her at a distance. It was bizarre, and Mallory wondered if he even knew that he was doing it.
Probably so.
“It’s not your fault, Miss Magic. We get reassigned all the time when we’re in the field. It just goes with the territory.”
“But you’ve been here for so long as my handler. What if I talked to MacKenna and told him that I can’t do his class without you? That I’m awful at chess and you’re teaching me the strategies. There has to be something.”
“Or what if I just break Pohler’s face in half?” Alec offered. “He can’t handle much from the hospital.”
Matt chuckled as Damon nodded.
Guess they really do all hate this guy. I’m on board with that.
“I shouldn’t be gone long, and it’ll look weird if you try to keep me as your handler. We’re not supposed to have that kind of relationship, re
member? It’s meant to be entirely impersonal.”
“So? It doesn’t have to be personal when I say that Pohler creeps me the fuck out,” Mallory said with a shudder. “I feel like there’s something seriously wrong with that guy.”
Nico squeezed her hand, silently reassuring her.
“Why?” Everett asked. The others were giving her looks of interest, as well. “What do you pick up from him?”
“I don’t know. He seems really cold. Like he sees people less as people, and more as a means to an end as long as he gets the results that he wants. And he doesn’t like it when he’s wrong. I think he was trying to imply that there was something going on between Matt and me that day at the meeting with MacKenna, but I dropped hints that I’m dating my ex-roommate instead, Eliza. He was confused, and not exactly happy about it.”
“The girl from the club?” Everett asked, his brow wrinkling as he tried to recall.
“One of them, yeah. Pohler had asked me out to dinner, but I said I had plans. So then I had to actually go, in case he’s as much of a creep as I’m afraid he is, and checked up on my phone location or some kind of weird government shit like that.” Fuck, I’m so stupid. It really is my fault. “But then I forgot to turn it off when Matt came to get me. He could have pinged my phone location and seen that I was at Matt’s apartment.”
“Do you think he would have done that?” Nico asked, looking at Matt.
He shrugged. “Maybe. He does like to act like he knows everything, and he has her file. Her phone number is listed in it.”
“I’m so sorry, Matt. I should have thought about it.” Nico patted her hand. Mal shook him off and pulled out her phone to power it down.
“It’s not your fault. We’re all sitting here now, together, and I bet it never occurred to any of us to turn off our phones until right now.”
“We shouldn’t have to,” Alec shot back angrily. “This is bullshit, and a gross misuse of resources if he’s seriously tracking her phone.”
“Except that he’s not wrong,” Everett cut in. “She’s fucking Nico, who will be her TA next semester, and Matt’s slept in her room several times. Then there was that whole incident in the gym. You probably stayed in the dorm last night, didn’t you?” His voice held a note of challenge.
“So what if I did? I do that every weekend, and it never mattered before,” Matt shot back. “Consistency is crucial in intel, you know that.”
“And you haven’t been consistent, because you’ve been staying home since that meeting,” Everett retorted. “Pohler would be an idiot if he didn’t know something was up. I told you all this was a bad idea, and that you needed to stay away from her.”
“What the fuck?” Mallory hissed. “Why do you hate me so much?”
“I don’t hate you, Mallory. I just don’t want you around.”
The other guys jumped in, arguing with him to mind his own business and give her a chance while she sat back, crossing her arms over her chest. Everett did the same, ignoring his friends as he met her stare of challenge until the others calmed down.
“Do any of you think this is going to end well?” Everett finally asked. “Can you really not see it? Fitzam is going to send her after the amaroq. It’s going to kill her. End of story.”
“I can just refuse,” Mallory began, earning a look of derision. “Or I might even beat it, you never know.”
“Yeah, I do,” he replied softly. “And the rest of them do, too. You’re dead already, but you just haven’t realized it yet.”
A flash of something she may have mistaken for regret if she didn’t know any better broke through the shell surrounding his light on her web. Mallory paused to examine it as he tossed some money on the table and got up to leave. He really means it. He thinks I’m going to die, and he doesn’t want his friends to get caught in the crossfire, or get their hearts broken when it happens. Why is he so convinced?
She didn’t have time to ask him before he was gone, having told Matt good luck and to keep in touch, and ignored the rest of their protests about his callous declaration.
Chapter 24
Matt had been true to his word and fixed the bed so that they could put the second mattress alongside hers. Matt fell asleep on it as they watched a movie, and while she couldn’t prove it, Mallory was pretty sure it was done on purpose.
Still, she didn’t make him move, and just climbed over him to settle down in the middle. Nico smirked without saying anything, and she didn’t offer an explanation. It was still too weird to put into words, and it was just sleeping, right?
Sleeping was no big deal. Not like the kiss that would never be mentioned again.
Matt left early the next morning, kissing her cheek while she was still asleep. Nico told her about it later.
“He said he can call in a week or so, but not to worry about him,” Nico murmured as he held her when she finally woke. “He’ll be fine.”
“Are you sure?” Mal had to ask. “Fucking military, snatching people up without any warning.”
“Yeah, Matt’s tough. Plus he has his magic to take care of him. It’ll be okay, and he’ll be back before you know it.”
“He can’t even call for a whole week. That’s not ‘back before you know it’ kind of material, Nico. Did he tell you where he’s going, at least?”
Nico shook his head. “Nope. It’s classified. He’ll be fine, I promise.”
How do you know?! There’s no possible way to promise something like that! She wanted to scream it at him, but didn’t. It was useless, and they both knew it.
“All you can do is keep going and try to move forward. He’ll catch up when he’s back, and you’ll have something to tell him about. You have another battle simulation next week anyway, and midterms are coming up. You’ll be so busy you won’t have time to worry.”
“I’m not worried.”
He poked her in the side, but didn’t try to argue. “Come on. Classes start soon, and there’ll be questions if you don’t go. You have to pretend everything is normal.”
She grumbled, but got ready anyway. Nico made it out the door first, leaving her to walk to her first class, Strategy and Magic, on her own. The air was getting crisp and the first few leaves were starting to turn, pretty reds and golds creeping into the green. Halloween was right around the corner and a few of the buildings had painted pumpkins, or carved jack o’ lanterns sitting in the windows.
Jitters was packed, but she managed to grab a pumpkin spice latte and make it to class on time anyway. She had just slid into her seat beside Janae when the other girl pulled out an energy drink and downed it in a matter of seconds.
“I swear, one day your heart is going to explode if you keep that up,” Mallory muttered. “It’s not even nine thirty. Long night?”
“Long month is more like it,” Janae whispered back. “I can’t wait for this semester to be over.”
But isn’t something going on with you and MacKenna? Maybe she just wants to be out of his class so it’s less risky. Nico said it’s worse if you’re in a TA’s class and someone finds out that you’re dating, so maybe the same holds true for the actual professors. I still can’t imagine that going over well, though, and I haven’t noticed anything really romantic between them. More like resignation, like you see in couples that have been married for a decade, and just tolerating it for the last few years. It’s a weird dynamic, and can’t be right for them.
Professor MacKenna came in with a cheerful smile, congratulating each of them on a quiz they’d passed last week. He handed the papers out to the small group, and knelt in front of Janae’s chair.
He came back up with a pen. “I think you dropped this,” he said, holding it out to her.
She shook her head, sitting back in her seat. “I don’t think so.”
“Are you sure? I thought I knocked it off accidentally. Maybe you just didn’t notice.”
She glanced over at Mallory, just a quick dart of her eyes before she sighed and reached for it reluctantly. Mallory
activated her web just in time to catch the transfer of magic through their fingers as Janae took the pen and healed him from some unseen injury.
Mallory watched in her mind as the energy flowed up his arm, crossed his chest and settled into his opposite forearm. Janae’s hand dropped, breaking the flow of energy. Professor MacKenna patted her shoulder on the way by, either not noticing or not caring how she nearly recoiled from the touch.
Janae rubbed her eyes, then turned to face Mallory again. The dark circles that had been prevalent before the little exchange were even more pronounced now, and Mal slid her coffee across the desk.
“It’s pumpkin spice latte,” she murmured. “I already drank some of it, but you’re welcome to the rest.”
Janae took it without hesitation and drank deeply. “Damn, I hate pumpkin spice. Thanks, though.” She took a few dollars out of her purse and pressed them onto Mallory’s desk.
“What just happened? You look even more exhausted than you were five minutes ago,” Mallory whispered.
“Nothing,” Janae said quickly. Her lips thinned and eyelids fell as she closed off, clearly unwilling to talk about it.
She didn’t want to heal him, Mal realized. But MacKenna made her, somehow. That whole pen thing was bullshit, since she didn’t have anything on her desk before he came by. I totally misread them sitting together by the door last month. They can’t be dating, Janae would never put up with that bullshit from someone she considered an equal, which means he has something over her. Is he threatening her grades, maybe?
The rest of the class went by quickly, but Mallory’s attention was torn between the lecture and her friend sitting beside her. Janae wasn’t doing well, and her presence flickered with soul-deep exhaustion on Mallory’s web, something she hadn’t ever seen before.
It made Mallory more and more angry as she thought about it.
Why does she put up with that shit? He shouldn’t be able to force Janae to use her magic on him like she’s some kind of candy dispenser - he pushes the button and sweets come out. I doubt he cares about her at all, and probably feels the same about all of his students, just using us for whatever he can. Maybe this is why she told me not to catch his interest.
