“I did. We figured it out. I really must have been blocked.”

“I’m glad you passed,” Fordham said.

“Wouldn’t be the same without you,” Roake said with an eye roll.

She laughed and settled into her seat for history. While Movanna rattled on about the foundation of the Society, Kerrigan scribbled out a note to Fordham and dropped it onto his desk.

RFA event tonight, princeling. Join me?

He secretly glanced over at her and then opened the note. He scratched something out, scribbled a note, and then passed it back to her.

He’d scratched through princeling. She almost snorted.

Someone has to keep you in line.

She grinned down at the paper. Her toes curled as she imagined him keeping her in line. She was so relieved to not be kicked out of the program that she might even do something crazy and kiss Fordham Ollivier tonight. Might be stupid. Might be worth it. Only tonight would tell.

“Do I look ready for subterfuge?” Fordham asked when Kerrigan opened her bedroom door.

Her breath caught at the sight of him in all black silk. His black hair loose and tumbling into those ever-changing eyes. A half-smile on his sensuous mouth. His body so big and tall that he took up her entire doorway. He towered over her, and she loved it.

“You look ready for a ball,” she teased.

His smile dropped. “Our last one was quite eventful, wasn’t it?”

Despite sharing the library space frequently over the last months, they’d never brought up her betrothal to March again. She didn’t want it to be real. She hoped her father had figured out a way to break it. Because she had no intention of marrying that man even if he had changed into the upstanding gentleman that he appeared to be. The only gentleman she wanted was the sinister and domineering one in front of her.

“It was,” she said. “Let’s not repeat that night, okay?”

He nodded. “I’d like that.”

“Then let’s get going.”

She veered left instead of right, and he fell into step beside her.

“This feels like old times. Sneaking out of the mountain to get in trouble.”

“No trouble tonight,” she said with a wink. “Just trying to make people like me as important as people like you.”

“You already are.”

She hid her blush by ducking into the secret passage that led out of the mountain. Valia had shown it to her during the tournament. It was shocking that someone knew this mountain better than Kerrigan did.