DESCENDED

PRIED

"No thanks," I shy away from him. Leery of accepting anything from him.

"I don't bite Angelique."

"I know. But I think I'll steer clear of you Covington boys."

"Don't tell me these girls have put fear into you already," he teases.

"I just want to avoid unnecessary drama," I clarify.

"Well, don't worry about Jasmine. She's just a hater."

"I am not," Jasmine whines like a two-year-old.

"You are and you know it," he gives her a pointed look. "Angel's new and we're supposed to be welcoming her here. Not throwing fruit punch in her face."

Jasmine scoffs and storms off with her friends in tow. Samuel grabs some tissue, then helps get the fruit punch off my face and out of my hair. Giving me a chance to see him up close.

And I'm impressed...

Between his enchanting green eyes, wavy brown hair, and deep dimples. I'm finding it hard to look away.

"You have beautiful eyes. What are they? Gray." He asks me.

"Yes."

"Nice."

We hold each other's gaze until things become awkward, and then Samuel looks away. Placing his jacket around my shoulders. He motions for me to put my arms in the sleeves, but I still don't trust him. Or his motives. So, I shrug his jacket off and hand it back to him.

"Is there a problem?" He asks.

As a matter of fact, there is.

"Why are you being nice to me? I thought you Covington boys only conversed with the female species at the Louisiana home for girls?"

"That's bull," he frowns. "Who told you that?"

"Well, everyone thinks that, and you're deflecting."

"Well, I beg to differ... Angelique Savant. And I've heard about you too. At the age of three you were said to be the next Einstein. At age four you were sent to a school for the gifted. And at age six you were the youngest member of the Omega Society. That is... until you were sent to a very bad place for very bad people," he recites my life's story.

And my first instinct is to slap him across the face...

It isn't the fact that he knows what I've been through that bothers me. It's the fact that he had to pry into my personal life and dig these things up bothers me. I want to bury my past. Not be reminded of it.

I narrow my eyes at him as anger comes bubbling to the surface.

"What is he talking about?" Tessa asks.

"Nothing," I lie.

"You shouldn't feel ashamed," Samuel tells me. "We all have our secrets."

"Ignore him," Anna comes to his rescue. "Samuel is a law school wannabe."

"And you decided to do research on me? Why?" I wondered.

"Just curious." He shrugs.

"Well, the next time you're curious, find someone else to be your muse."

I would rather freeze to death then be caught dead wearing his jacket now. He completely overstepped his boundaries, and I have never met someone who didn't understand the concept of boundaries before. He thinks what he did is charming. But it isn't. It's far from charming.