Page 111 of Burn Bright (Cobalt Empire #1)

HARRIET FISHER

B y Friday, everything is happening at once. I almost believe I pulled a Dorothy, got swept up into a tornado, might’ve knocked myself out. Sure, I’m not in a magical land where witches ride in pink bubbles—and the lions I know aren’t cowardly—but I am in the Honors House.

Fairytales.

I think today I am slowly accepting that I might be living mine.

“It’s perfect you could move in so fast,” Kiki Kershaw says after showing me into my room.

I try my best to lock eyes with her and not gawk at my new surroundings.

“Most everyone is headed home for winter break. I’ll be in Cleveland on Monday, but there’s a few stragglers who always stay here for the holidays.

Guy, among them. Do you have plans? I can let him know if you’ll be here. ”

I’m blown over knowing that I was never going to be alone for the holidays this year. Even if Ben had chosen to be at the lake house.

“I’ll be in Philly.” I pause.

If I mention Ben, is it a braggy name-drop?

Fuck it. I’m name-dropping my boyfriend.

“I’m spending the holidays with my boyfriend and his family.

I’m dating Ben Cobalt so…” My face is red-hot, mostly because I’ve never publicly declared myself as taken, and it’s weird but also…

I kind of love it. I love belonging to someone. I love how that someone is Ben.

I love that he also belongs to me.

Kiki nods into a laugh. “I knew it. I knew it. Wait, wait”—she raises a protective, serious hand—“he’s not still with Kappa Phi? I heard he dropped out, but you need to be very careful, Harriet. They will try to sleep with Honors House girls just to fulfill this ridiculous frat bet.”

Looks like the bet isn’t so secret after all. “I heard about that one.”

“You did?” She’s genuinely shocked but doesn’t ask who told me.

Though it might be obvious it’s Ben. The loyal parts of me are still vitally intact, and I’d never throw him under, even if this bus isn’t moving fast enough to kill.

I nod in confirmation. “But Ben isn’t in the frat. So he has no big ties to KPD anymore.”

“Good, good .” She nods robustly. “I’m not supposed to tell you this, but you were my first choice.

The House was split for a while on who to pick, which is why it took forever this semester to choose our twelfth member.

” I already heard mutterings that it’d been between me, Easton, and Grace, the other pre-med hopeful. “Guy also went hard for you.”

That surprises me, considering I said about two words to him this whole semester, but he’s super friendly with Ben.

I have a theory he likes that I’m one-degree from the Cobalt Empire.

Venus also might’ve voted for me in hopes she’d meet Charlie Cobalt, but honestly, I don’t even care if my connections helped push me over the finish line.

Everyone has them here. It doesn’t discredit all my other achievements, and why would I want my life to be harder? Why should I feel guilty for the boost over the hurdle?

I don’t.

I’m just really fucking happy.

Once Kiki hands over my key and a welcome packet, she tells me she’ll be in the study room if I need any help with my things, but she’ll let me take it all in. She must notice my eyes bouncing around the space.

“Thanks, really,” I say to her. “Being here means…” I have no words to express my gratitude and elation of completing this impossible goal. It’s not so impossible, Harriet. Look at you now.

Her smile grows exponentially. “We know.” I’m in a house full of overachievers, who’ve all clawed for this, who’ve all been here before. “We’re happy to have you here, Harriet.”

It lifts me. I am floating.

When Kiki reaches the door, I raise a hand in a see you later .

She smiles back, then disappears. I twist around in a three-sixty at my bedroom.

Plain cream walls, a corkboard with pushpins, mopped shiny floors, a sturdy wooden desk beneath a quaint window, a dreamy collegiate view of the snowy front yard, a single bed that’s all mine. This is all mine to make my own.

I toss the key and packet on the desk. My lungs swell, and I can’t help myself—I hop up and down and pump my fists in the air. Yes, yes, yes!

When I spin around in a karate-kick-leap combo, I connect with a body and hear a gruff oof.

“Shit.” I extend my hands and freeze as Ben winces into a full-bodied laugh. I scan him rapidly for injury. “Did I kick you in the dick?”

“Not quite that high, Fisher.” He nods toward his leg, his arms full. He carries a cardboard box of my things, my backpack slung on his shoulder, and as he brings them to my desk, he casts an epically attractive glance back at me. “Did I just witness the Harriet Fisher happy dance?”

“Technically you felt it.

He smiles. “I hope I feel it for days.”

“And you call me punk rock.” I shrug off my leather jacket, the heat cranked up to toasty levels. I throw it on my bare mattress. “I’m a wimp when it comes to pain. I won’t even go into mosh pits.”

He sets my box down and hooks my backpack on the desk chair. “That’s a good thing. Picturing my five-foot-one girlfriend being shoved around by men twice her size actually pisses me off.”

“Shoving me for fun though,” I point out.

“Yeah, that makes me angrier.”

I wish I could tell young Harriet that she’d find someone who’d protect her—and she’d let him and she’d love every second of it.

Ben comes closer, spinning my car keys on his finger. His hand slips down my spine, and I realize he’s barely examined my room. He’s just fastened on my features, and I like that I make him smile. That’s what I’m doing—causing his lips to rise, his baby blue eyes to glitter.

I’ve started believing that my mere presence can make someone else happy. Ben gave me something that my mom stripped away. My company isn’t heavy and soul-leeching. I’m not an energy vacuum. I might still press myself against the plaster wall at parties, but I know Ben will come find me.

I know he’ll stay at my side.

I know he’ll smile down at me.

I know I’ll crane my neck to look up at him.

I know I won’t feel alone.

“Two more trips to your car,” he says, “and I’ll have all your stuff up here.”

“I’ll help.” It takes us one more trip. Thankfully the Honors House has a decently sized parking lot, and so Harold has a home too. I didn’t have to ditch my Honda.

I toss my folded sheets, pillow, and comforter on the bed. Then I place Son of Ben more delicately near the footboard. I fix the stuffed lion’s twisted choker necklace. “Do you want weekends or weekdays for this joint custody arrangement?” I ask Ben.

“Joint custody implies we’ve split up.” He rests a potted fern on the desk and my printer on an end table near an outlet. “You trying to divorce me already?” He slips me a teasing smile.

“Can’t divorce someone without being married, Cobalt boy.”

He has a daring look in his eye.

It widens my gaze, and I point at him. “That’s not an invitation for you to drop to your knee.”

He laughs into the hottest smile imaginable. “I wouldn’t propose to you right now, Harriet.”

Oh…kay. I exhale a long breath of relief.

“I just don’t want to rush this next chapter with you.

But one day, though, Son of Ben probably needs a legal mom, right?

” What am I doing…? I can’t take it back.

I don’t want to, and these honest conversations aren’t too hard to have with Ben, even if we like to joke and tease inside them. Anticipation quickens my pulse.

He leans back against my dresser, his fingers rubbing against his stretching lips. “I don’t know the parental legality when it comes to stuffed animals.”

I cover the lion’s ears. “He’s a real boy.”

We’re both smiling, especially as Ben says, “Our boy.” He skims my face. “I suspect one day he will have a legal mom.”

“If she’s not me?—”

“She’s you ,” he interjects with a laugh. “Come on, Fisher, who else is there? It’s only you.”

I have trouble meeting his eyes. My feelings for him surge to the surface so forcefully, and I end up smoothing the lion’s mane. “I’ll take really good care of him.”

“I know you will. Because you already have. It’s actually really fucking adorable. I’m shocked you’ve never had a pet.”

“They’re too much work.”

“Says the girl who combs every knot out of his hair each night.”

“That’s more for me. It’s…therapeutic.” I am more curious now. “Do you think they allow pets in here?” I stride over to the desk and sift through the welcome packet. The rules are typed in bold print. Impossible to miss. “No animals allowed. Welp, there goes my hopes of being a porcupine mom.”

“My apartment doesn’t have those restrictions.” Ben stays against the dresser. “You want to be a porcupine mom, you can keep him at my place.”

His place. He’s officially claiming his brothers’ apartment as his own now, and it’s comforting to hear him firmly plant his feet in the soil and not be so quick to uproot himself. I meet his gaze. “Only if you’re the dad.”

“I’d hope there wouldn’t be another father in the picture, Fisher.”

Happiness pinches my cheeks. “Maybe not a porcupine.”

“Whatever you want.”

It floods me. I can’t stop staring at him. “A bird, maybe.”

His smile shines like a beam of sunlight, and I know this is it. This is the pet we will someday have together. A beautiful little bird.

I glance back at the welcome packet and spot the word curfew. Shit, I forgot I need to explain this to him. “Kiki told me about the strict policy for guests.”

“I was informed.” He jerks his head toward the door. “I can’t spend the night. Guests get kicked out at ten p.m. sharp.” He looks me over. “That bother you?”

I shrug. “It bummed me out at first, but considering it applies to all members, I like the security. It’s nice knowing there aren’t strangers creeping around here.

And it feels like everyone in the House looks out for each other.

” Ben knows I’ve never had that until him and his family. “But it does complicate our situation.”