Four Of A Kind - Chapter 195: [4.13] Five Problems for One Truth

Chapter 195: [4.13] Five Problems for One Truth

I closed the library door behind me and leveled my gaze at Cassidy. “Stop calling me that.”

“What, Master?” Her eyes widened with faux innocence. “But that’s what you’ll be when I lose that test on Friday.”

“Which you’re not going to, because we’re studying properly.” I dropped into the chair across from her and pulled my chemistry project back toward me. “Now focus. I have three hours to finish this and you have a test to prepare for.”

“So bossy.” She slid off the table and into the chair beside me, close enough that I could smell her coconut shampoo. “I like it when you’re authoritative.”

I ignored her and opened my laptop. Operation Focus Mode activated. I needed to lock in on this stupid chemistry project – periodic trends, atomic radius calculations, ionization energy. Boring as hell, but required to pass, and I wasn’t about to tank my GPA over something this basic.

Twenty minutes. That was my window. Twenty minutes of uninterrupted work, then I’d check on Cassidy, then back to chemistry. Simple plan.

The words flowed onto the screen as I typed, my brain settling into that familiar productive zone. Data, analysis, conclusion. Easy. Just don’t think about the girl sitting next to—

“Your jawline gets all tight when you concentrate.” Cassidy’s voice sliced through my focus. “It’s hot.”

I didn’t look up. “Do your practice problems.”

“I am.” She flipped her notebook around. “See? Quadratics. Very math-y.”

I glanced at her work. She’d completed exactly two problems in twenty minutes.

“You need to go faster than that.”

“Maybe I need motivation.” She leaned closer, her shoulder pressing against mine. “What do I get if I finish all twenty?”

“The knowledge that you won’t fail your test.”

“Boring.” She pulled away with a dramatic sigh. “How about something fun instead?”

“Learning is fun.”

“God, you sound like Vivienne.” She rolled her eyes. “Speaking of my perfect sister, how was your bathroom makeout session? Spare no details.”

My fingers froze over the keyboard. “We’re not discussing that.”

“Why not? You’ve already broken your own rules with two of my sisters.” She counted on her fingers. “Vivienne gets a bathroom kiss. Sabrina gets whatever happened in your room last night.”

“Nothing happened with Sabrina.”

“Liar.” She flipped her hair over her shoulder. “So what, you like them better? They get kisses and I get quadratic formulas?”

“I’m trying to help you pass your class.”

“Maybe I need a different kind of help.” Her hand landed on my thigh under the table. “More hands-on instruction.”

I removed her hand. “Cassidy.”

“What?” She grinned. “Just testing your concentration skills. Very impressive.”

“Do your problems. Now.”

She muttered something that sounded like “I’m trying to” but picked up her pencil again. I returned to my project, trying to recapture my mental flow.

Atomic radius increases down a group, decreases across a period. Ionization energy follows the opposite pattern. Basic chemistry, focus on that instead of the girl beside you whose hand keeps “accidentally” brushing yours whenever she reaches for her eraser.

Ten more minutes passed. I was making decent progress, maybe 30% done. At this rate, I’d finish by noon if I could stay locked in.

“Isaiah.” Cassidy’s voice again, softer now.

“What?”

“I need help with number seven.”

I sighed and looked at her notebook. The problem was standard quadratic form, nothing tricky.

“Just use the formula. Negative b plus or minus square root of—”

“But that’s the thing,” she interrupted. “I keep forgetting the formula.” She tapped her pencil against her lips. “Maybe there’s a way you could help me remember it?”

“Write it down fifty times.”

“Or…” She leaned in, her lips almost touching my ear. “You could give me a reason to care about it.”

Her breath was warm against my skin. I pulled back.

“Your GPA isn’t reason enough?”

“Nope.” She popped the ’p’ sound. “But I bet you could think of something more persuasive.”

This girl was going to kill me. I had work to do, boundaries to maintain, and a sister waiting on me. Yet here I was, fighting to keep my eyes on the notebook instead of drifting to Cassidy’s lips or the way her Valentine sports top hugged her curves.

“For every five problems you complete correctly, I’ll answer one question truthfully. Any question.”

Her eyes lit up. “Deal.”

She attacked her notebook with sudden intensity, pencil flying across the page. I returned to my project, managing a solid fifteen minutes of focus before she slapped her pencil down.

“Done! Five problems. Check them.”

I reviewed her work. All correct, surprisingly.

“Not bad, Valentine. What’s your question?”

She grinned. “Did you enjoy kissing Vivienne?”

Of course she’d go straight for the jugular.

“Yes,” I admitted. “But it shouldn’t have happened.”

“Because of your job or because it was Vivienne specifically?”

“That’s a second question. Five more problems.”

She grumbled but returned to her work. I went back to chemistry, typing steadily for another fifteen minutes. When she finished the next set, I checked them quickly. Four out of five correct.

“That’s only four right.”

“Close enough.”

“Rules are rules.”

“Fine.” She fixed her mistake. “There. Now answer: if you had to kiss one of us again, who would it be?”

The bluntness of Valentine women was staggering.

“Pass.”

“No passing! That’s not how this works!”

“I never agreed to no passing.”

She narrowed her eyes. “Then I’ll stop doing these stupid problems.”

“Then you’ll fail your test.”

“Maybe I want to fail.” She leaned back in her chair, crossing her arms. “Maybe I want to be your pet for a day.”

My laptop screen suddenly seemed incredibly interesting. “You want to fail a test just for a stupid bet?”

“A bet is a bet, Angelo. And don’t act like you haven’t thought about it.”

I had. Way more than I should have.

“Do five more problems.”

“Answer my question first.”

I looked at her directly, abandoning all pretense of working on my project. “What do you want me to say, Cassidy? That I’ve thought about kissing you? Fine. I have. I’ve thought about all of you, and it’s fucking with my head.”

Her eyes widened slightly.

“I’m stuck in a mansion with four gorgeous identical sisters who keep finding ways to get me alone and then—” I ran a hand through my hair. “I have a job. I have Iris. I have responsibilities.”

“So responsible.” She moved closer, her chair scraping against the floor. “Always doing the right thing. Don’t you ever get tired of it?”

“Every damn day.”

“Then stop.” Her hand found my thigh again. “Just for a minute.”