Fleur's lips twitched as she remembered once again how Julian had asked her about tampons. Aside from the fact that she had not expected him to know about those things at all, for him to also commit the oh-so-improper mistake of typing all his words in big, block letters...
Julian could not help feeling curious and more than a little enthralled by the sudden twinkle in Fleur's big blue eyes. Even though Fleur was two years older than him, it had never felt that way, and it was times like this that perfectly illustrated why. It wasn't so much as innocence as purity. Her outlook of life was as pure as a child, and it was probably why he often felt decades older than her, and likely always would.
Julian turned to face her, but as slight as the movement was, it still seemed to startle her, and he couldn't help slowly running his knuckles down her cheek. He had always wanted to touch her, but in the past few days he had done his best not to, in fear of losing control.
Now, however...
He gave her cheeks a little pinch, and he grinned at the way she quickly reared back with a childish 'ouch'.
"What was that for?" Fleur demanded.
"Because you're adorable," Julian answered solemnly, and just as he had anticipated, the answer was more than enough to placate her.
"Oh. Okay."
She gave him a mollified look, and a moment later, her eyes regained its impish twinkle, and it was all he could do not to flip her skirt up so he could fuck her then and there.
He had never met anyone as easygoing as his little flower, and even more surprising was how much her mellowness turned him on.
Just one fucking hour more, Alexeyev.
They had been on their way to the cafeteria when Fleur finally remembered to tell him she no longer had her period, and since then, Julian had been counting the minutes until he could finally claim her virginity.
For now, however...
In an effort to distract himself from thoughts of sex, Julian looked at Fleur contemplatively and subsequently noticed the way her eyes were still sparkling with mischief.
"Penny for your thoughts, milaya?"
The twinkle in her eyes became more pronounced, and it was all Julian could do not to drag her out of the chair and find a dark corner to ravish her.
Fleur was just about to speak when the sound of clicks and giggles interrupted her. It was another group of Julian's students taking photos of them, but this time not one of them was even trying to be discreet or subtle about it.
She glanced at Julian, concerned that he would mind, but Fleur was the one left astonished when he only shrugged this off.
"Let them," Julian said lazily.
"Are you sure?"
Julian could tell from the tone of her voice that Fleur knew how he normally disliked having his photos taken. But since he had never told her that...
"Have you been talking to Freddie?"
"Kinda?"
Julian smirked. "You're starting to act like you're obsessed with me."
"And you," Fleur countered with a rare smirk of her own, "don't sound like you're bothered." She had expected the words to either make him laugh or feel uncomfortable, but when Julian's only response was another shrug of his powerfully broad shoulders, Fleur had to quickly look down at her plate of pasta.
Oh my gosh.
She allowed herself a secret little grin as she twirled the strands of Japanese carbonara around her fork.
Julian not minding people posting photos of them together was definitely good news for Operation Yuletide 2.0. Maybe she could even interpret this as Julian seeing her as a permanent fixture in his life?
Word seemed to have spread about Julian's rare mood of acquiescence towards being photographed, with students double the number waiting outside the cafeteria and now boldly taking selfies with Julian and Fleur in their background.
"Are you really sure you don't mind?" Fleur just had to ask one last time.
"I'm starting to think you're the one who minds, milaya."
Fleur was bemused. "Why would I mind?"
"According to those who like to hang out on your Instagram, I'm supposedly a mere decoy to hide the fact that you're secretly dating Philippe DeRose."
The curl in his lip was impossible not to notice, and Fleur tried but failed to smother her laugh. "You saw those, too?" Fleur could only shake her head when she remembered the crazy conspiracy theories littering her comment box. "Crazy, right?"
"Crazy or not, I do not like people thinking you belong to someone else—-"
Her eyes widened. "So that's why you're suddenly chill with having people take photos of us!"
"No comment."
But the gleam in his golden gaze said everything there was to say, and Fleur was torn between amusement and disappointment.
She had seen this exact attitude in her brothers before, and this towards women they hadn't really loved, much less ended up marrying. They were like the proverbial dog in the manger when another man tried making a move on whoever it was they were currently fucking, and Fleur hadn't any doubt this was also how it was with Julian.