The Hidden Princess At All-Boys Alpha Academy

Chapter 97

“Well, kind of” he replies, laughing louder now, freer. “I mean, I just didn’t let my mind go there before. You were just another guy. A little shrimpy one who I liked hanging out with, and who I worried about sometimes. But..I didn’t think of you that way.”

I narrow my eyes at him, leaning a little closer, inspecting his face for lies. “That’s not how attraction works, Jackson. You can’t just decide to turn it on and off.”

He stares at me stoically for a long moment before his mouth twitches in the start of a

smile.

I

gasp, pointing at his face. “You totally were!” I whisper, thrilled. “You were into the Shrimp! You had a crush on me!”

He laughs, snatching my finger out of the air and wrapping his hand around mine even as he leans closer. “Fine, I thought…I thought you had a nice smile, okay?”

I grin, leaning into him, making him say more.

He groans, sighing and rolling his eyes. “And nice skin and…and pretty eyes. But! I thought you were my mate’s twin, okay? That was my best guess. So, I was just imagining what she looked like, which was probably a lot like…you?” His face twists up now, getting all muddled in the truth.

I laugh with him, leaning back against him, pleased. “Well, I’m glad you didn’t find me totally repulsive.”

“Not totally,” he murmurs, lightly tracing his fingers down my arm and then around my back, settling me cozily against him again. “What about you?” he asks, his voice a little wicked.

“Oh,” I sigh, leaning my head against him. “It was terrible.”

“What?!” He’s laughing now.

“Rafe had to drag me back to the room all the time,” I say, looking up at him, a little embarrassed. “Told me I wasn’t allowed to moon after you in the hallways –”

Emergency calls only> 0 □ &

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think shocked, but laughs harder.

just leap on you in the hallway when we’d see you between classes, or steal your shirt and hide it under my pillow,

laughter now and I can’t help it, I join in with

had a happy day in his life, laughing like that. God, but it does wonders for my

glad I didn’t disappoint. That

looking down at his finger and smiling. But then I turn my face back up to his, returning to the question at hand. “Jacks,” I say quietly, and he turns his face to mine, more serious now but nodding to invite the question he can hear in my voice. “Why…why were. you so shocked to find out I was a girl? Why don’t you

long sigh and

I worry that I’ve

wrapping it in his. “It’s fine – I want to tell you. It’s just…I have been taught, all my life, to keep it a secret. So, it takes a little bit of

lip, worried for different reasons now, and press myself against him, hoping to communicate my support, my genuine interest, my faith. He raises his face

I didn’t know you were a girl when we first met, really,” he murmurs, smirking a little, “or else I’d never have

all.”

only

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to be serious, but his own smile brings mine forward. “I

“I thought my

I ask, laughing. “Daphne

don’t know, a gigantic whale, or a unicorn or something. Even if you know it’s nice you still don’t

you?” I

“Almost nearly as mythical,” he murmurs. To me, at least.”

of a kiss, Jackson,” I say, tilting my head and wrapping a hand in the fabric of his shirt, possessive, “if it

second. “Well, no, he murmurs and I gasp a little at the drama of it

instantly on my lips, but they all fall away when he turns back to me.

eyes a little sad. “I…I will tell you about her okay? Just…not right now. Not

hands tighten their grip on his shirt. I find that I do not like, at all, the idea of this singular other girl. It is somehow, bizarrely, worse than Luca’s fifty anonymous women.

move on from it, because I’m….honestly not sure I want to know. At least, as he says,