The Hidden Princess At All-Boys Alpha Academy novel Chapter 624

“Selfish,” Daphne says a little later, laughing as she reaches out and snatches the cookie packet from Jesse’s hand. “How many of these are you going to eat?”

“All of them, obviously,” Jesse murmurs, lunging to grab them back but missing when Daphne laughs again and pulls them to her other side. “I have to eat them all – Ariel’s more likely to notice that half a pack is missing than a whole one.”

“You stole these from Ariel!?” Daphne’s gasp is scandalized.

“They taste better when you steal them,” Jesse says, grinning, “Especially from Ariel. She gets so mad.”

Daphne laughs with him and takes a cookie herself before handing the pack back. “I never get you sibling-types,” she says, taking a small bite and then curling up in her chair with her head resting on the back of it, gazing at bit at the boy next to her. “All the teasing – what’s the point?”

“I don’t really know,” Jesse says, turning towards her as well, both of them blissfully ignoring the show that the sky is putting on, seemingly just for them. “Something about growing up in such close proximity just…makes you want to torture the crap out of someone, even if they’re your favorite person on earth.”

Daphne grins at him, a little whistful. “That kind of sounds…nice. Psychotic, but nice.”

“Do you think you’d have liked it?” he asks, letting his eyes drift freely over her now in this stolen moment – over the gentle curve of her cheek, the way she curls up so neatly in the chair. “Having as many siblings and cousins as I’ve got?”

“I don’t know,” she whispers with a bit of a frown. “I think I’d be…a completely different person if I had. So it’s like asking me if I want to be someone else.”

“That’s a no, then,” Jesse says, decided, reaching for the whiskey bottle. “Any world in which we lose you precisely as you are is a tragedy, so – definitely a no.” He gives her a coy wink before taking a sip.

“Oh, you’re just flattering,” Daphne says with a sigh, accepting the bottle from his hand and taking her own long sip. Jesse smirks, knowing that he means every word of it. “What about you? Ever miss being an only child?”

“Never really was,” he murmurs, looking steadily at her now. “Rafe and Ari were always around, riding the coattails of my glory –“

Daphne laughs, shaking her head at him and looking out over the landscape again. He grins and keeps his eyes on her.

The pair sit in quiet for a long moment, but none of it is awkward, none of it bad. Just…peaceful.

“Tell me what you’re thinking, please,” Jesse says, quiet.