To everyone''s shock, Cassian didn''t stand up or walk away. H
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e simply cast Raven a calm, fleeting nce-expression unreadable-then lowered his gaze and continued reading the book in front of him as if she weren''t even there.
The girls in the room stared in disbelief. They didn''t want Cassian to leave, of course, but under normal circumstances, he should''ve reacted like she was a virus and distanced himself immediately.
Yet now, it looked like he''d silently allowed Raven to sit beside him-as if her presence wasn''t worth acknowledging, but neither was it worth rejecting.
"Unless I''m mistaken, no girl has been able to get within three feet of Cassian since the semester started, right?"
"Exactly. Even I, who''s rumored to be dating him, has never been seen within 3 feet of him. How did she pull this off?" "Please, a woman like her doesn''t deserve special treatment. Cassian''s probably just in a good mood today-anyone could''ve sat next to him."
At that, the girls all nodded in agreement. In their eyes, it wasn''t that Cassian cared about Raven; he just couldn''t be bothered to deal with her. That scheming little nobody clearly mistook apathy for favoritism.
With that thought, the looks they threw Raven grew colder by the second-no longer just disdainful, butced with fury and a sharp, bitter jealousy.
She had nearly lured in Preston, and now she was sitting next to Cassian? What kind of ridiculous luck did this woman have? It was uneptable. They couldn''t just let her hoard all the benefits.
Some of them began to move subtly, edging closer, weighing whether they might sit on Cassian''s other side.
But before anyone could make a move, they all froze.
Because Raven, without so much as a nce at the res boring into her back, calmly lifted her hand and picked up the book Cassian had been reading.
The tension in the room spiked in an instant.
"She just touched his book?"
"Is she seriously pushing her luck after getting away with sitting next to him?"
"Cassian''s a notorious clean freak. She''s done."
Everyone remembered the school belle who once tried to "identally" fall into Cassian''s arms-he''d tossed her out of the ssroom on the spot. And that girl was a top-tier beauty. Compared to her, Raven''s in face and clearly calcting mind
didn''t stand a chance.
Now, anger burned in their eyes, but beneath ity a flicker of pity. Poor thing. She had no idea what she''d just triggered.
But then...
Time passed. One breath, two. Cassian didn''t react.
Raven, still unbothered, casually flipped through the book she''d just picked up from his desk.
She read a few lines, then paused. Something felt..... off.
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She narrowed her eyes, closed the book, and looked at the title.
Even with all her usualposure, Raven visibly froze for a beat.
She quickly flipped to the first page again, and the moment her eyesnded on
the text, she was hit by an explicit, no-holds-barred bedroom scene-straight to the point, no warning, no build-up.
After reading a few paragraphs, she looked up at Cassian, expression
unreadable, though her cheeks were tinted ever so slightly pink.
"The President''s Fiery Mistress?" she asked, tone slow and pointed.
Cassian blinked, then registered what she was holding.
He''d left the house in a rush and just grabbed a few books that ke had tossed into the backseat of the car-he hadn''t even looked at the covers. Now he regretted everything.
Without a word, he snatched the book from her hands and shoved it to the bottom of his book stack.
Crisis averted-barely. Except... the book now sitting on top of the pile had a big, bold title that read, "Daddy: Win a Wife and Get a Child."
Cassian closed his eyes.
This had to be karma.
Raven raised a brow, picked up the top book, and held it up with a smirk that was just shy of a fullugh. Her eyes twinkled with amusement as she looked at him.
"You sure have a type, don''t you?"