Page 26 of Mistaken Prejudice

“You can blink, Jess,” Andrei said casually as Diesel put his arm around his shoulders.

“Did I win?” Jessie blinked several times before shifting his attention between us, “Did I?”

“Yeah, you did.”

“Hell yeah!” He slapped my shoulder and snapped his fingers at me. “I want to thank my, well, I want to say parents, but I got no clue who they are—”

“Would you quit being an idiot?” Diesel laughed as he charged at Jessie, and the two started wrestling.

“So he can laugh,” I said quietly as I changed my position to stay away from their wrestling show and also to be closer to Andrei.

“Shocking, right?”

“Absolutely mind-blowing.”

Andrei chuckled and dropped a small kiss on my cheek before putting his hand on my shoulder. “So, how was your day?”

“Other than failing math, not much.”

“Failing math? You?” He raised a questioning eyebrow my way.

“What can I say? Me and numbers just don’t get along.”

“Well”—he turned to face me—“luckily for you, me and numbers do get along, and it so happens that you and I also get along. So it’s a simple equation, truly.” He used his free hand to remove a lock of hair away from my eyes. The gesture was simple, and so were his words, yet I was overwhelmed by them.

“Are you offering to tutor me?”

“Depends.” He popped one of his dimples with a half-teasing smirk.

“On what?”

“On how you’re planning to pay me back.” His hands that slowly traveled down my body were now pinned on my hips.

“Is that extortion?”

“More like negotiation.”

“Well, in that case”—pretending to consider his offer, I pressed my lips together and curved my eyebrows—“how about dinner in exchange for a private lesson?”

He tilted his head back a bit. “With my tutoring skills? You’re gonna have to try harder than that, darling.”

“Well, you haven’t tasted my cooking yet.”

“Why do I feel violated by your flirtation?” It was Levi who spoke and made me realize that, once again, I let myself dive into this unknown depth of Andrei’s presence.

“Like you’re one to talk. You were five seconds from fucking Jess a moment ago.” Andrei let go of my body and turned to face Levi, who stood beside us.

Wait, Levi was about to do the— I’m not jumping to conclusions, but it does make sense.

Levi joining our conversation probably caught Jessie’s attention ’cause he let go of Diesel’s shoe and ran to join us.

“Miles! Miles!” He panted, probably from wrestling with Diesel. “Andrei said you invited us to a party. So when is it? Can Levi come? Can I come? What should we bring? Oh! What’s the dress code?”

“Jess, let Miles breathe.”

“It’s in the Hills, Friday, ten p.m. You’re all welcome, bring nothing, and the dress code is anything you like.”

“Hell yeah! I bought a new shirt that shows my belly ring.” He lifted the pink shirt he was wearing and revealed his pierced navel. “It wasn’t painful to do, in case you were wondering.”