Page 24 of Break My Rules
“You’re American?” I ask, pleased to recognize a familiar accent. “Where are you from?”
“New York,” she replies, smiling—but her gaze is sharp and assessing. I can tell, nothing gets past her.
“So how did you two meet?” I ask, making an effort to seem friendly and casual. After all, this is supposed to be a fun dinner between old friends, not the Spanish Inquisition.
Avery and Sebastian exchange a look. “Oh, we were… Introduced by a mutual friend,” he replies, smiling. “And then Avery found herself in England, and… We grew closer.”
“He means, he won me in a poker game, after I swore to destroy his life,” Avery says sweetly, taking a sip of her water. “Which I did. We just wound up falling in love, too.”
I blink. “I… OK. Wow.”
I look to Saint, but he’s just smiling, amused. Clearly, he’s fine with all this drama.
“What about the two of you?” Avery asks, looking curious.
“We met at Oxford,” I answer quickly, not about to be quite so honest about what brought the two of us together. “I’m studying there.”
“I’m her professor,” Saint says with a smirk. “She walked into my seminar, and shamelessly flirted with me. I was helpless to resist.”
“I did not!” I protest. “He was actually being a real asshole, lording it over me,” I tell them, as Saint chuckles. “So, I told him exactly what I thought of his bullshit smoldering routine.”
“I smolder?” Saint asks, grinning.
I grin back at him. “You know you do.”
He laughs, and I can’t help but smile along too. When I finally look back at Sebastian and Avery, they’re watching us curiously. “Well…” Sebastian finally says, smirking at Saint. “Isn’t this interesting…”
“Watch it,” Saint replies. “I expect you to be on your best behavior, so you don’t scare Tessa away. You too,” he adds to Avery, who offers an innocent smile.
“Who, me? I’m always a good girl.”
Saint coughs and takes a drink of water. “Should we order now?” he says, changing the subject suddenly. The waiter approaches, and recommends an array of sushi dishes, while I sit back, trying to figure out the vibes here. Clearly, they’re all good friends.
But just how good?
“So, how are things at Ashford?” Sebastian asks. “The Master of the college still fighting off retirement?”
“He’ll hang on until he keels over in the Raleigh quad,” Saint replies, and the two of them catch up, reminiscing about old friends and teachers as the food starts to arrive. I carefully follow the conversation, smiling along, and waiting for my chance to delve a little deeper.
“… I’ll have to see if he’s around,” Saint is saying. “Get the guys together again.”
Sebastian nods. “It’s been a while since we were all in one place.”
“Do you ever get back to Oxford at all?” I ask Sebastian brightly.
“Sometimes,” he replies. “I’m not exactly an active alumnus, but I do have some business interests in the area, so I’m there from time to time.”
Vague.
“It’s a beautiful city,” I continue, “I’ve heard it’s changing though, lots of new development. Have you been up recently?”
“Not in a while, no.”
Still vague.
I’m trying to think of a way to pin down his movements, when I catch a curious glance from Avery.Whoops. I fall silent, waiting until the conversation moves on to their recent travels, before trying again.
“Barbados?” I remark, after Avery describes the beach house there where they spend a few months, escaping the press frenzy after a scandal last year. “I was talking to someone about there, at the party a couple of weeks ago,” I add. “You know, the Blackthorn Society get-together.”