Page 27 of Savage Elites

A laugh bubbled up my throat. “From the looks of things when we met, you were still coping.”

He flashed me a grin, and the lights changed back to green. “I would say it’s a force of habit, but until now, I haven’t wanted to spend more one time with one girl.”

A tiny breath caught in the back of my throat. It was one thing to have caught Sebastian’s attention. We’d connected during the drive back to Mom and Dad’s, but I got the impression that Leopold had worked his way through nearly every girl in Brittas Academy over the age of consent.

A silence stretched out as the jeep left Regent’s Park behind and passed a statue of Saint George on horseback, slaying a dragon. I’d always accepted Leopold as a sexy bonus, but I had to take this opportunity to discover more about his intentions.

“What makes things different with me?” I asked in a small voice.

“I’ve never quite had a girl turn me down so emphatically,” he said with a chuckle. “Or one who immediately got my reference to Les Liaisons Dangereuses.”

A laugh bubbled up in the back of my throat at the conversation we’d had in Economics class about his supposedly fractured penis.

“I admired your silent dignity, and I couldn’t get over the image of you towering over me with fists flying and tits trembling. I wanted to be your friend.”

“Just friends?” I asked.

“It’s the best of both worlds.” He grinned. “Sebastian and Kash are my closest companions, and we’ll get to spend more time together by sharing a single girlfriend. And, by having three studs at your disposal, there’s less social pressure on me.”

Usually, I would roll my eyes at that, but given his family situation, I could see why it might be easier not to have an official girlfriend.

Leopold slowed down the jeep to join the Finchley Road, a long, bustling stretch of hotels and restaurants and high-street stores. Over the Christmas break, I’d gotten to spend time with both him and Sebastian, and I felt completely comfortable in their company.

Prakash continued to be an enigma. He would sit with us at dinnertime and chat amiably with the boys, but he still didn’t warm to me, and I couldn’t understand why.

“I’m not sure about Prakash,” I whispered.

“You and Kash were getting on well enough the night of your accident.”

“What happened?”

“Seb and I drove up to Carlisle because you’d both gotten drunk. I distinctly saw you snuggled up with him in the back seat of this jeep.”

I twisted around to see if the wide, leather seat would trigger any memories. It didn’t. “How on earth did I get from being escorted home by you three to the bottom of a mountain?”

“Hopefully, with Master Chang’s protocol, snippets of memory will return.”

“Let’s hope so.”

“Don’t look so down.” He turned into a side street and parked in the courtyard of an elegant hotel. “Let’s order some lunch before we make the long journey north.”

* * *

Spending time with Leopold made up for Sebastian’s absences. Something seemed to bother him, and I wasn’t sure what. Perhaps now that his leg had healed, and he had started football practice, the academic requirements of the academy had become onerous.

On Monday morning, I opened the door to my room to find a huge box in my path. Its contents were a three-month supply of Master Chang’s herbs in transparent sachets I needed to tear apart with my teeth. Each contained about a third of a pint of boiled herbs that looked like sludgy coffee and tasted like ass.

As I slid the box into my room, I found an envelope on the parquet floor. It contained a message demanding that I meet Mrs. Benazir at breakfast. My stomach tightened, and I wondered if it had anything to do with the Board of Governors’ having an emergency meeting.

Crumpling up the note, I headed down the stairs toward the headmistress’s office. She sat behind her desk with her salt-and-pepper hair loose from its bun and swept down one shoulder. As I walked further into her room, Miss Claymore stepped out from behind the door and into my line of sight.

I cleared my throat. “You wanted to see me, Mrs. Benazir?”

She pointed at the empty seat opposite her desk. “Your average this week was eighty-five.”

I sat and answered, “It’s because I’ve been on painkill—”

“That is unacceptable and is not what we agreed.” Her eyes hardened.