“Nina is a once-in-a-lifetime creature. I know you probably haven’t read The Seagull—” “A lovestruck, ignorant country girl desperate to become a part of a world she doesn’t belong in?” he asks smoothly, his voice as dry as the Sahara Desert. Well, then, I suppose he did read it. He reaches to clasp my chin and closes my mouth with a movement so soft I can’t fully trust that he actually touched me. “Don’t look so surprised, Bumpkin. My former boarding
