Royally Kissed | ✓

39; the undone

She rubbed them together and shook her head. "I forgot, actually–" Her words got caught in her throat when he swiftly pulled out his own from the inner pocket of his long coat. "Oh."

Owen distractedly said, "Here, you put this on," as he did so. They were his black ones–the gloves he'd always favored among the others–and he slipped them on to her fingers. When he was done, he smirked at the size since his hands were apparently bigger than her slender, candle-like ones. "I don't care if you're already going in. The cold got its way into the building, for sure."

"Thanks. I'll see you soon."

He smirked in that good-humored way of his. "I'll be thinking about you."

Her cheeks turned warm. "Um–"

But, as always, Owen loved spontaneity. He'd planted a soft kiss on her cheek, making her toes curl and her heart fleetingly misbehaving; and she could've sworn that she'd just turn a tomato by now since there were genuinely curious stares around.

It wasn't just because of the sheer magnificence of his car, but also because of the fact that Owen was a truly fine bachelor. Before, they were probably at loose ends about who she really was when Owen would drive her to campus. Now that everything had changed, it wasn't only him that was getting the attention.

When he'd already soon left, the ghost of his wintry, masculine scent lingered in the air. She found herself staring at his supercar growing smaller and smaller until he had to take a sheer. Paige was smiling, until she had to turn to the building.

She stood stock-still.

The first thing instinct was telling her was to slot herself into his arms in a bone-crushing hug and brush the falling dirty-blonds down the sides of his face. She totally would. But she recalled at the last second that they didn't exist anymore.

Arthur had an unreadable expression on his face. But when he spoke, his tone was calm as death that rather stunned her.

"So it's true. You've moved on way too fast."

Her mind was numb at first. But when his words slowly registered to her, she scoffed as her chest began to burn in disbelief. "What did you say?"

Hands in the pockets of his coat, he gradually neared to her like a time-ticking bomb. In this distance, the dark circles under his eyes were much visible. But his bruises across his cheekbone and his jawline were beginning to fade.

"Have you heard about the three-month rule, Cadwyn?"

"Wait, what?" Her mouth parted. This was unbelievable. When he simply shrugged in nonchalance as if she owed him an explanation, she shook her head and moved past him. But long fingers clasped around her arm and spun her back to him with an eager pull. "I don't need to answer anything."

"Well, you're going to have to if you don't want us getting any more attention."

With that, Paige scanned her eyes around. True enough, the scene had only caught more eyes. Her breath visibly shivered, as well as down the depths of her being. "Let me go."

He did. But his demeanor told her he didn't want to let go of this ridiculous conversation. "Now, have you heard of it?"

She squinted her eyes at him, and it took her a herculean effort not to snap in front of the other students. "Have you lost your mind?" she hissed, making sure it was only meant for his hearing. "I think three-month rule doesn't apply to relationships that didn't even exist in the first place. Cheaters included. So I don't know where you've got the balls to walk up to me and ask me about a frigging three-month rule when you were the one who broke it even before everything started."