Flirting With Danger (Rebels 0f Forbidden Lake Book 1)

by Elana Johnson

  He lifted the matted pictures he’d brought with him under the pretenses of calling this a business meeting. Cassie hadn’t exactly told him she wouldn’t meet him. But she certainly hadn’t said yes either.

  “I was just walking by,” he said, which made her shake her head and laugh lightly. He got the distinct impression she didn’t laugh much, and Jon wanted to change that. To keep himself from blurting out such preposterous things, he peered into the dessert cases. “What’s good here?”

  “Everything’s good here,” she said. “I make it all.”

  “So one of everything then.” He looked at her, noticing the surprise mingling with pure desire in her eyes. He’d lost some sleep last night after her text, wondering if maybe—maybe—the spark between them had only been on his end.

  But looking into the dark depths of her eyes, he knew it wasn’t.

  She started plucking one pastry from every tray, and Jon laughed. “Wait, maybe I want to change my mind.”

  “Nope,” she said. “We have a strict no-mind-changing policy here at Donut Delight.” She flashed him a smile made purely of flirt. “You can take them back to the orchard.” He leaned into the counter and watched her work. He’d always found the simplest of things alluring, and she wore a dark apron smudged with frostings and flour. Her dedication to this job showed in her early arrival every morning, and Jon’s attraction flared again.

  “Have you been digging up information on me and my family?” he asked.

  “Heavens, no,” she said, placing the last pastry in the third box and putting a lid on it. She looked at him, and the moment stretched. “My night was full of homework and sci-fi movies.” Her chin lifted as if she dared him to freak out and walk away.

  “You have kids,” he said, pulling his wallet out of his back pocket, glad when the words didn’t pitch up into a question at the end.

  “One hundred and twelve dollars, and thirty-four cents.” She took his card, ran it through the machine, and added, “I’ve never been pregnant, but I do take care of my two fifteen-year-old half-brothers.”

  “Full time?” Jon asked. “By yourself?”

  Her eyes flashed with dangerous fire, and dang if Jon didn’t want to get burned by her. Repeatedly. “Yes.” She ripped off his receipt and handed it to him with his card. “The coffee’s on me. Thanks for coming by, Mister Addler.”

  He blinked, his hand still extended toward her, the card barely balancing between two fingers. “Mister Addler?” He moved then, stuffing his card back into its slot in his wallet. “I thought we were past that.”

  Even though she looked very much like she was interested, she shook her head. “I don’t date students,” she said.

  “I’m not really a student,” he said. “I’m barely part-time, and I didn’t go last semester at all.”

  “Why did you sign up now then?”

  Ah, of course she’d ask that. Jon sighed and reached for the boxes of pastries. “So you don’t want to even look at my work?”

  “You said you had a special need.”

  “You’re pushy,” he said.

  “You’re the one who wouldn’t leave my class last night,” she shot back. “You were so desperate to stay, you made me a deal.” She nodded toward the pictures still clenched under his arm, as if he hadn’t been present for any of their earlier encounters.

  “I offered the deal,” he clarified. “You still haven’t taken it.”

  “Fine.” She swept her hand toward the empty doughnut shop. “Let’s have a look at those pictures.” She moved from behind the counter, and Jon felt very much like a satellite. She was the sun, and he’d rotate around her forever.

  He tried to push the feelings and thoughts away, bury them deep, but they surged against his attempts. She pressed into his personal space to get the boxes, and he didn’t give her an inch of breathing room.

  Their eyes met, and time stopped. Oh, yeah, Jon would be kissing this woman. Soon. The craving to do so almost clouded his rational thoughts completely, causing the male instinct within him to take over.

  And in his opinion, if she didn’t date students, even better. “I can keep a secret,” he said, causing time to flow forward again. She collected the pastry boxes and started walking over to a table in the corner.

  He snatched the coffee and followed her, wondering if she was consciously adding an extra sway to her hips. No matter what, she drove his desire for her to the edge of insanity, and she probably didn’t even know it.

  She sat facing the entirety of the shop, and he noticed the way her gaze swept the space, lingering on the door. That inkling of fear resided in her expression for a moment, and then she focused on him.

  “There’s no secrets to keep,” she said.

  “But we could.” He sat on the chair opposite of her. “I meant what I said last night.”

  Her eyes glittered like dark diamonds, and she opened one of the boxes and took out a long maple bar. “We wouldn’t be able to go out in public.”

  “My family owns thousands of acres of cherry orchards.”

  “It’s January.”

  “We have thirty cabins.” Jon was certain he could find a solution to anything she said.

  Interest sparked in her eyes as she took a slow bite of her doughnut. Jon tracked the movement, licking his own lips as she cleaned the frosting from hers.

  “Anyway,” she said. “I was thinking of talking to my boss about hiring you as an assistant. But I still don’t date co-workers.”

  “Again, I’m a pro secret-keeper. I have five brothers and sisters. We were always keeping secrets from my parents—and each other.”

  “I suppose that’s a pretty good résumé.”

  Victory shot through Jon, and he too reached for a pastry. He didn’t even care what it was. He barely glanced at the cinnamon roll before taking a bite of it. Big mistake. The soft, squishy, disgusting raisin mushed between his teeth.

  “Ugh.” He scrambled for a napkin and spit the offending food into it, wiping his mouth carefully before looking at Cassie.

  She burst out laughing, and again, Jon felt sure she had no idea what that sound did to his insides. They vibrated and laughed with her, hoping they could make such a happy sound come from her again. Soon. So soon.

  “Who puts raisins in a perfectly good cinnamon roll?” he asked, poking at the pastry. “There should be a warning label.”

  “I like them with raisins,” she said, picking up his treat and taking a bite of it. “And nuts.”

  “No.” He shook his head. “Now you’re just trying to be difficult.”

  She lifted one slim shoulder into a shrug. “Why’d you sign up for my class?” She put the cinnamon roll back in front of him, and he glanced at it. He wasn’t going to eat it, but he sure wanted to have his mouth where hers had been.

  What he really wanted was to touch his mouth to hers right now. Instead, he reached across the table and brushed a piece of hair off her forehead that had fallen there. She froze, her eyes wide, and he smiled softly at her. This was the smile Phoenix had told him to use, the one he gave to their sisters on their birthdays.

  While he wasn’t remotely interested in Cassie as just a friend, he definitely wanted her as a girlfriend. And to do that, he had to be friendly.

  “Promise not to laugh?” he asked.

  “I can’t promise that.”

  “I suppose not.” He looked back to the pastry counter, but the blonde woman had disappeared. He heaved a sigh, like this information was costing him a great deal. Because it was. He didn’t think Cassie would go out with him after he told her.

  She’s not going out with you now, he told himself. Unless he could get her to agree to be his secret lover, he’d have to settle for seeing her in class.

  “I signed up, because there’s a woman I was interested in,” he said. “And she said she wouldn’t go out with me unless I knew how to cook.” There was another reason, but he wouldn’t have chosen Introduction to Culinary Arts for his last elec
tive if Marcy hadn’t said she wanted a man who could cook.

  Cassie gave him one, two, three heartbeats of silence before she snorted and then sure enough—laughed. “And now you’re asking me out.” She covered her partially eaten maple bar with her napkin. “You’re a piece of work, Mister Addler.”

  “Jon,” he corrected again. He placed the pictures on the table. “I have to get to work, but I’ll leave these with you.” He plucked a business card from his coat pocket and laid it on top of the mounted pictures of his parents’ anniversary dresser and the kitchen table and chairs where he’d won Best in State at a furniture showing two years ago.

  “My card has my website and business number. If you like what you see….” He stood up and leaned over the table toward her, brushing that hair out of her face again. “And I’m sure you will. That you already do. Call me. Like I said, I’m really good at keeping secrets.”

  And while he wanted to stay and taste that frosting again, only this time from her lips, he turned and walked calmly out of the bakery.

  Chapter Five

  Cassie stood nervously outside Dr. Langstrom’s office, her fingers braiding themselves together and pulling apart almost like they had brains of their own. She was stupid. Stupid for requesting this meeting. Stupid for thinking she could get out of it now without a big explanation. Stupid for even thinking about going out with Jonathan Addler.

  Even as her aide, assistant, helper, whatever, he’d become an employee of the university, and the relationship would still be forbidden.

  She turned to leave—she could text something about one of the twins needing her—just as the door opened. “Come on in, Cassie,” Dr. Langstrom said, her voice pleasant.

  Cassie fixed a smile on her face before turning back to her boss. Sure, Dr. Langstrom might look pleasant, but there really wasn’t a happy bone in the woman’s body. Almost sixty, she’d worked in education for almost forty years now, and her keen eyes missed nothing.

  Not the way Cassie straightened her clothes before marching toward her. Not the way she twisted her fingers together one last time as she entered the office.

  Dr. Langstrom was no-nonsense, right down to her stylish pixie haircut and precise gold hoops in her ears. Cassie had never seen her in anything but a pantsuit or a skirt suit, and today was no exception.

  She settled in front of the desk and waited for Dr. Langstrom to go around to the other side. “What brings you here today?” she asked.

  Nerves fluttered through her with the strength of a flock of birds being frightened into the sky. She opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out.

  “If it’s about the full-time position,” Dr. Langstrom started.

  “It’s not,” Cassie said. “My special needs class is full, and I’m wondering if we have the budget to hire an aide.” There, she’d said it.

  Dr. Langstrom frowned and leaned back in her chair. Her nose was a bit hooked, almost like an eagle, and she certainly struck fear right between all of Cassie’s ribs when her eyebrows pulled down into a V. “An aide? You’ve run full classes before without help.”

  “There are some particularly difficult students in this group.” Cassie tasted the lie on her tongue as the words left her mouth. What in the world was she doing? Her life felt crowded with questions now, and she didn’t have the answers for any of them.

  I’m really good at keeping secrets.

  She’d had no doubt about Jon’s ability to do anything he said he could. Especially after she’d looked through the pictures he’d left with her. The man had not lied about his extreme talent with his hands, and Cassie had only been able to think about what other magic the man could do with those fingers in the twelve hours since he’d left the bakery.

  She’d also been toying with renting one of his cabins for a while. Just to get away from the house in case Larry came looking.

  Which was stupid, as Larry himself couldn’t actually come looking.

  “Well, I’m afraid I don’t have the budget,” Dr. Langstrom said.

  “I understand,” Cassie said, standing. She’d taken a couple of steps toward the door, almost desperate to get out of this stuffy office, when she turned back. “And I do hope I’m still being considered for the full-time position.”

  “Of course.” Dr. Langstrom smiled at her, but it was made of pure politics. Cassy had seen those kinds of smiles before, and they annoyed her instantly. But she smiled too and let herself out of the office.

  So that was that. Jon couldn’t become her co-worker. He’d stay her student. She could be professional; she always had been before.

  She needed this job—needed the full-time position if she had any hope of a more normal life with Kyle and Lars.

  So she’d see Jon on Tuesdays and Thursdays from five to six-thirty, same as the other special needs students.

  If only she could stop thinking about what it would be like to kiss him.

  * * *

  Thursday at five o’clock snuck up on her like a thief in the night. Before she knew it, Jon walked through the door, looking delicious enough to eat and class hadn’t even started yet.

  She liked that he had a big family, that he seemed fond of them and worked with them around the orchards. She had refused to allow herself even a moment to look up his carpentry business and learn more about him that way.

  The fact that he ran his own business impressed her, and she wondered if she could perhaps perpetuate their relationship by hiring him. Or asking him to help her with a business consultation. After all, she did want to start her own restaurant someday, and he obviously ran a successful enterprise.

  They weren’t alone in the kitchen, but the tether between them made everyone else fall away. She nodded to him, but he came right up to her. “Well? Did you look at the designs?”

  “I did,” she said.

  “And?”

  She glared at him, quite unsure why she couldn’t just kick him out of her mental space. But flirting with him had been fun. The heat from his touch, light as it had been against her skin, had ignited a fire inside her that she’d thought had gone cold long ago.

  “I’d like to request another meeting,” she said as aloofly as possible. “We can discuss the terms then.”

  “Intriguing.” He grinned at her and went to the back of the room, where he immediately engaged in a conversation with Colton, his table-mate. He didn’t look at her more than necessary, and he put together a perfectly seared chicken dish as instructed. He left with the other students without a backward glance, and Cassie actually felt neglected by him.

  Once home, she put together the same chicken dish she’d just taught to her students, fed the twins, and asked them about homework. The evening was as normal as it ever had been since they’d come to Forbidden Lake—except for her ever-present thoughts of Jon.

  What would Kyle and Lars think of her dating a man? She’d never done it since she’d gotten guardianship of them. She’d wanted them to know and feel like they came first, always.

  “What do you guys think of staying in a lakeside cabin?” she asked.

  Lars looked at her, his soft, brown eyes wide. Kyle didn’t glance up from his math book. “Why would we stay in a cabin?” he asked.

  “Just to get away from the house,” she said.

  That got Kyle to raise his head. “And why would we need to get away from the house?”

  Cassie gave up trying to be nonchalant. “It could be an option if we needed to get away quickly and have someplace safe to hide. I have a friend—” She almost choked on the word. “Who owns a bunch of cabins on the lake. He says they’re secluded and secure.”

  “Is that who asked you out?” Kyle asked.

  Cassie decided to go with the truth. Her half-brothers deserved it. “Yes,” she said. “But we’re not going out.”

  “You should go out with him,” Lars said. “You never date.”

  She blinked at them. “I don’t have time to date.”

  “Sure, you do,” Lars s
aid. “Like right now, you could be on a date.”

  “Then who would be home with you? Making sure you get that history essay done?” She raised her eyebrows while he shrugged at her.

  “It’s not due until next week.”

  “Get the Chromebook, and let’s get it done.”

  Lars groaned loudly, overemphasizing his displeasure, but he got up from the counter and went to get his computer.

  “You really could go out with someone,” Kyle said. “Mrs. Kim is real close, and like we decided this morning. We have time before anything drastic needs to happen.”

  “If anything drastic needs to happen,” Cassie clarified.

  “Right,” Kyle said. “So you might as well go out with the guy. I mean, if you want to.”

  Oh, Cassie wanted to.

  I’m really good at keeping secrets.

  She was too, wasn’t she? Wasn’t that the foundation of the life she’d built here in Forbidden Lake?

  Lars returned, and she let her thoughts of Jon meander wherever they would while she pointed out typos and grammar mistakes.

  * * *

  The next morning, Addy pounced on her the moment she walked through the door. “So, are you going out with Dreamboat Addler?”

  Cassie scoffed and laughed as she unwound the scarf from her neck. “No. Not even close.” So she’d endured another sleepless night while she considered her options. That wasn’t even entirely true, as it was two-twenty-five in the morning, and the night still had hours to go.

  “Why not?” Addy asked, elbow-deep in dough already. “He is easily the hottest man to walk through that door in a week.”

  “That’s only because Carlson didn’t come in this week.” She met her friend’s eyes.

  “Hey, I gave you forty-eight hours before I started with the questions.”

  “Addy, you’ve been crushing on that guy for months now. I’ve given you way more than forty-eight hours.”

  Addy said nothing. Just continued to knead the dough—or maybe her increased pounding of the innocent ingredients was her way of saying something.