Page 78 of A Legal Affair
Now that she’d experienced his fiercely possessive side, the possibilities were both thrilling and terrifying.
April watched her with an amused look. “I take it by the little smile on your face that you don’t exactly mind the idea of making our hot law professor jealous.” Her eyes widened suddenly, as if an idea had just occurred to her. “Oh my God, Daniela. Do you think he’s into you?”
Daniela shook her head quickly. “Of course not.” The last thing she wanted was to start a rumor about Caleb crossing the line with one of his students. Even if Shara was right about his shady track record, Daniela didn’t want to be responsible for jeopardizing his job or ruining his reputation at the university. She would do everything in her power to protect him, and that meant keeping their affair as discreet as possible.
Funny how she hadn’t given his past indiscretions a second thought when he was touching her, kissing her, burying himself deep inside her.
She’d pushed Shara’s malicious words to the back of her mind, but now they resurfaced to taunt her:There’s always that one who sneaks beneath the radar, the one he simply can’t resist. I guess you’ve drawn the winning lottery ticket this semester….
Suddenly, the half-eaten burger she’d ingested turned into a lump of grease in her stomach.
Was Shara right? Was Daniela nothing more than the flavor of the semester? Had she now become another notch on Caleb’s bedpost, as she’d feared?
Why do you care?an inner voice demanded.You’re not here to win Caleb Thorne’s heart. Only his trust.
“You’re probably right,” April was saying around a mouthful of salad. “He doesn’t seem like the type to mess around with his students. Plus he was literally just on a date with Professor Adler on Friday night. So there’s that.”
Daniela flinched as a needle of jealousy stabbed her in the heart.
“I think he’s amazing,” April continued, blissfully oblivious. “After you left to go check out the other exhibits, he bought four of my photographs.Four. Wasn’t that incredibly sweet of him?”
“Very,” Daniela murmured.
“He even offered to buy one for Professor Adler, but she wasn’t interested. Guess she wasn’t as impressed with my work as you guys were.”
“Forget her,” Daniela grumbled dismissively. “She has no taste, anyway.”
April grinned, appreciating the loyal sentiment. “She might not know photography, but she sure as hell has excellent taste in men.” April leaned forward to whisper, “Do you think ProfessorThorne talks dirty in bed? God, can you even imagine him pulling your hair and calling you good?—”
“Girl, are you okay?” Daniela interrupted, one brow raised. “Do I need to throw a bucket of cold water on you?”
April laughed, clapping her hand over her mouth like a naughty child. “Oh my God. I just realized something. I think I’m lowkey in love with our professor. I mean, I was already madly in lust, but then he complimented my work and showed his support by buying those photos?—”
“So talk about his big heart, not his big dick.”
April choked back a giggle and gulped down her smoothie, dark eyes dancing over the rim of the cup.
Daniela watched her, lips twitching with amused empathy. Caleb’s magnetic aura was undefeated.
April set her empty cup down and grinned at Daniela. “Don’t tell our study group about my little crush, or I’ll never hear the end of it.”
Daniela chuckled softly. “Don’t worry, your secret’s safe with me.”
You wouldn’t believe the secrets I’m keeping from you.
On the way home, she found her thoughts wandering back to last night’s encounter with Hoyt Philbin. Caleb’s hostile reaction to the mayor, and his cryptic warning to her, had been gnawing at her conscience, starting almost from the moment Caleb kissed her at the door at two a.m. and headed back to his own place. Once the postcoital glow wore off, and she stopped dwelling on his apparent aversion to sleepovers, her mind had drifted back in Hoyt Philbin’s direction. Her lizard brain was warning her to look beneath the surface, to dig deeper into the man Caleb so clearly despised.
When she got home, she poured herself a glass of cucumber water and carried it into the living room, where she sat on the sofa and started googling the former mayor. There were hundreds of pictures of him with his wife, speaking at charity events, attending ribbon-cutting ceremonies, visiting the families of police violence victims. He was beloved by the community, a real man of the people and champion of the underdog. But there must be something there. Something she and her brothers were missing.
No matter how popular the mayor was, no matter how upstanding and benevolent he seemed, no one was perfect. Everyone had shades of gray.
Including her.
Layers, Caleb’s words whispered through her mind.So many layers. Too many, maybe.
Her thoughts were interrupted by the ding of her phone. It was a text from Kennedi.
Hey! Did you have dinner at the Gilded Spoon last night?
