This time, he didn’t seek her permission by lighting kisses on her forehead and then her cheeks, hoping she’d give him the go-ahead to kiss her properly.
He just did it, fireworks popping through his mouth and down his throat at the way her mouth fit exactly against his. Her fingernails tracked along his scalp, causing a moan to emanate from deep within his stomach, and Jon enjoyed this kiss with her more than he’d enjoyed anything else in his entire life.
Chapter Nine
Cassie had been kissed before, but never like this. Jon’s mouth was both demanding and firm against hers, yet gentle and probing too. He hadn’t asked, and yet it felt like he needed permission to deepen the kiss.
So she did it, opening her mouth a bit wider so he’d know she was okay with this kiss. And wow, what a kiss.
He moved his mouth to her neck again, and she sucked at the air as she held onto his powerful shoulders. “Jon,” she whispered, but he claimed her mouth again before she could say anything else.
She’d never felt this much energy pouring through her before, and she wondered if that was what love felt like. She’d never been in love before, not with a man she wanted to kiss and kiss and kiss until they fell asleep together, exhausted from the emotions streaming between them.
He finally pulled away and rested his forehead against her shoulder. She held him close to her, bent over as he was, and felt like she’d finally found someone she could share her life with. She hadn’t even realized she wanted someone like him.
“I looked you up,” she finally said, her confession for the day.
“Oh?” He straightened and looked into her eyes, those magical hands kneading their way up her back and down to her waist again.
“Yeah, you only have two more classes until you graduate with your business management degree.”
“Oh,” he said again.
“You didn’t tell me you were actually earning a degree from the university.”
“Didn’t I?”
“Jon,” she said as he disentangled himself from her arms and moved into the kitchen. “You know you didn’t.”
“I guess I didn’t think it important.”
“I thought you were just taking my class for another woman.”
“What’s the difference?” He pulled a pan out of the oven. “And I did get here early to make steak and eggs, I’ll have you know.”
The food distracted her for a few moments, the over-easy eggs cooked to perfection. “Wow, Jon. You’re like, perfect.”
He laughed. “I’m sure my father would love to tell you all of my flaws.” He set a small salt and pepper shaker set on the counter. “Let’s eat. Getting up early really works up the appetite, doesn’t it?” He picked up a fork and slid one to her before coming around to the other side of the bar and sitting beside her.
She ate for a few minutes, the tang of the eggs with the perfectly cooked steak amazing. “You aren’t worried you’ll lose your degree if we’re caught?”
“We’re not going to get caught,” he said. “I honestly don’t see why it matters. The only reason that other professor got in trouble was because he threatened the girl’s grade.” He cut her a look. “She went to the administration. I’m not going to do that.”
Cassie nodded, but she felt like her head had been partially severed from her neck. “What if things between us don’t work out?” she asked.
“Then they don’t work out,” he said. “I’ve had women break up with me before.”
“So you won’t be breaking up with me?” She thought of the kiss they’d just shared, and she’d felt Jon’s emotion for her. It was as strong as her own and burned just as brightly.
“Not today,” he said evasively, and Cassie let the conversation drop. She didn’t need his reassurance that he liked her. He’d just kissed her like she’d never been kissed before, and that had said everything.
“I brought a back-dated contract,” he said. “You should sign it before you go.”
“Am I sneaking out only minutes after arriving again today?”
“Not necessarily,” he said. “It’s up to you. My, uh, sister may have seen you leave last time.”
“What?” she asked, sudden fear gripping her heart with a cold, iron fist.
“But did you see the gate you came through to get to this place?” He indicated a set of two keys on the counter beside her. “The gold one goes to the padlock on that gate. No one can get in or out without it.”
She nodded, the extra layer of security comforting. “Which sister?”
“Karly, the oldest.”
“And?” she prompted when he didn’t continue.
“And nothing. She’s married. She gets it.”
Cassie frowned and finished eating. “Gets what, Jon?”
He looked at her, those dark eyes drawing her further and further into whatever existed between them. “Honestly?”
“I think honesty would be best,” she said. “I don’t want to have to keep too many lies straight.”
“You’re lying? To who? Your bakery boss?”
“Not really, I guess. Addy knows I’m leaving early to come see you.” She sounded a bit defeated, even to her own ears. “So I guess we’re both failing at keeping this a secret.” Maybe she should break up with him right now. Tell him he was a bad kisser and never speak to him again. But then, that would be a lie she’d have to keep straight.
“I think we’re doing fine,” he said, reaching for her hand.
“So what were you going to say?” she asked. “About your sister getting something?”
“I don’t know.” He exhaled. “I guess she just gets my insane desire to be with you.”
“You think that it’s insane to want to be with me?” She may have screeched the last couple of words.
Jon only chuckled and took her fully into his arms again. “I know I feel like I’m going mad when I’m not with you,” he whispered just before he kissed her again.
* * *
Cassie floated through the next month, waking with a smile on her face despite the early hour and humming through her morning job. Addy had stopped asking questions about Jon, and Cassie left the bakery every morning at five when they opened.
Anyone watching would think she just had a new routine. Of course, anyone watching would see she went out to Sunshine Shores every morning too. But she never went to Jon’s again, instead taking a bag of groceries or a suitcase with extra clothes to the cabin in the middle of nowhere.
Over the course of the weeks, she managed to fill it with everything she, Kyle, or Lars would need should they ever have to use the cabin to hide in. By her estimation, she had three weeks’ worth of food and supplies for the three of them, and enough fuel to keep them warm and the stove going.
The smoke concerned her, but as the days passed and she received absolutely no word about Larry, some of her fears faded. She’d done daily searches on him as well, and the papers weren’t reporting anything.
Each evening, she kept her brothers up-to-date with her findings—which were nothing at this point. It certainly made her morning meetings with her carpenter a lot more fun. Because she didn’t have to worry so much about Larry, she could focus on her secret boyfriend.
They had a private date for Valentine’s Day that evening. She’d asked her neighbor to keep an eye on the twins, who she’d told she was going out with someone completely different than “the man who’d shown up one night” at their house. She certainly didn’t want the twins to know she was dating one of her students, and if she and Jon got caught….
She pushed the thought from her mind as she set her coffee on her desk and opened her laptop. The office off the kitchen was cold, as usual, and she reached down to the space heater under her desk and switched it on.
After tapping a few times and yawning more than that, she navigated to her email account. She had regular office hours, but her students typically emailed her if they were having a problem, needed to miss class, or whatever.
She had a fe
w messages from students she fielded quickly, and then her eyes landed on one from Dr. Langstrom. Available for an interview on Friday?
Her heartbeat started ricocheting around inside her chest. Friday. That was three days from now, if today didn’t count. Her fingers shook as she opened the email to see that if she wanted to interview for the full-time professorship position in the Family and Consumer Science department, Food Services division, she’d need to be ready on Friday morning at eight-fifteen.
“Eight-fifteen,” she whispered. That was barely enough time for breakfast with Jon and then to flit home, get showered, and get the twins off to school. If she had a teleporter, she could make it to the college by eight-fifteen, but otherwise….
Sure, she typed into the email. I’ll be there at eight-fifteen.
And if she knew Dr. Langstrom—and she did—Cassie would need to be early. So she couldn’t drive the boys to school that morning. They rode the bus home in the afternoon, but she liked dropping them off behind the locked gate, just to make sure they got there safely.
“They can text you,” she muttered to herself. She added, Thank you for the opportunity, read through the few words again to make sure she hadn’t made any typos, and sent the message back to Dr. Langstrom.
She exhaled as she leaned away from her desk. Super keyed-up now, she didn’t need the caffeine in the cup in front of her, but she lifted it to her lips anyway.
A return email popped up, and it was sort of freaky to think that Dr. Langstrom was up in her office in the same building, reading and responding to her email. Cassie tapped to open it.
Great. Bring two letters of recommendation.
Cassie’s heart dropped to her toes. Two letters of recommendation? She didn’t have letters of recommendation, and she had no idea who to ask. She’d never taught in the higher education system until she’d relocated to Forbidden Lake, and her experience in professional kitchens had gotten her the associate professor job.
She had the letters she’d used back then, and perhaps she could use them again….
The idea got dismissed quickly. Dr. Langstrom had already seen those letters. No, Cassie needed new stuff she could use to get the job. She grabbed her phone and sent a text to Addy. It would be a similar letter, but at least it would be new.
After sending the text, asking her best friend to write a letter for her, Cassie stared straight ahead, wondering where else she could get a letter about her teaching specifically. Dr. Langstrom had done two evaluations of her, so the woman already knew how she taught.
Cassie wondered who else would be interviewed, who she was up against for the job.
Maybe she could ask a past student to testify about her stellar teaching in the kitchen.
Or a present student.
“Don’t be stupid,” she said to herself, glancing out the door to make sure no one from her noon class had shown up yet. She had a student coming to try last week’s recipe that she’d bungled, and Cassie didn’t need to be talking to herself when the student showed up.
But she was not going to ask Jon for a letter of recommendation.
“Hey, Miss Caldwell.”
She looked at the blonde college student who had just arrived. “Hey, Molly.”
“You said I could practice before class?” She hooked her thumb over her shoulder.
“Yeah.” Cassie stood up. “Yep. There’s all the ingredients in the fridge. Go for it.”
Molly smiled, hitched her backpack higher on her shoulder, and turned.
“Molly?” Cassie stepped out of her office. “I’m up for a full-time professorship here, and I need a letter of recommendation. Do you think—have you ever done something like that?”
Molly blinked a couple of times. “I haven’t.”
“It’s simple, really,” she said. “You just tell them how amazing of a teacher I am.” She smiled at the girl, who smiled back.
“I can do that.”
“Thank you.” Cassie indicated the refrigerator in the back of the room. “Go on then. Class starts soon.”
Chapter Ten
Jon knew the moment Cassie arrived at the cabin. He noticed every little thing she brought into it too, from the empty suitcases to the clothes she’d put in the dressers in both bedrooms. Some were hers, and some obviously belonged to the twins. She’d brought extra pillows for the bed and more firewood than this cottage needed for an entire winter.
And the food. Wow, she’d brought in a lot of non-perishable food.
Jon realized how worried she was about the Larry Glassman she’d told him about as he watched more and more being brought into the house. She’d told him more about the man and how abusive and controlling he was. According to her, Larry Glassman stood over six feet tall and had biceps made of steel.
He didn’t have a nice bone in his body, and he’d shot two people in a gas station one night while he was drunk. Neither of them died, so he’d been eligible for parole after twelve years in prison.
The articles Jon had read had labeled Larry as a terrible person, but he’d gotten parole, because he followed all the rules and the judge found him worthy of re-entering society.
Jon didn’t know anyone in Chicago to help feed him inside information, but Cassie said she still had loyal friends there, and they’d told her nothing.
The front door opened, and Jon turned from his thoughts the same way he turned from the vase of red roses on the kitchen counter. “Hey, beautiful,” he said, smiling at her. He’d enjoyed this last month with her immensely, and he’d even gotten used to getting up at four-thirty in the morning.
Sure, it made his evenings exhausting, but the only person who’d noticed lived in another remote cabin on family land, and Phoenix had stopped asking Jon to dinner after the first couple of times Jon had declined.
“Happy Valentine’s Day,” she said, closing and locking the door behind her. She held a red-wrapped package in her hands, and she smiled at him in that half-sexy, half-flirty way she had that set his blood on fire.
“Mm, Happy Valentine’s Day,” he said, taking her into his arms and kissing her. Jon loved kissing her. Holding her close and breathing in the sweet scent of her hair. She claimed that came from all the sugar in the bakery, as he normally only saw her in the mornings after her shift in the shop.
But tonight, she smelled just as sugary, and he knew her last class had ended at three. He slid his hands over her shoulders and up into her hair, taking the ponytail holder out so her dark waves streamed through his fingers.
He loved her hair. Loved the way she laid in his arms while they cuddled on the couch after breakfast in the morning. Loved how she’d told him stories about her mother, her time at culinary school, her trials in raising the twins for the past fifteen months.
He loved learning what she liked to eat and what she didn’t. He loved sharing his life with her, and as Jon kissed her on the most romantic day of the year, he wondered if he was simply in love with her.
The thought terrified and excited him at the same time, and he pulled away though Cassie was kissing him as hungrily as he was her.
“Okay,” he said, stepping back and wiping his hands down the front of his jeans the way he did when he needed a minute to think about a project. “You said you were bringing dinner? I only brought dessert.”
“Did you make it like you promised?”
“I sure did,” he said, pride swelling within him. “But we’re not eating dessert first.” He watched her as she came closer. “Are we?”
She slid her hands up his chest. “I got an interview for the full-time professorship on Friday.”
Happiness burst through him. “That’s great.”
She tipped up onto her toes and kissed him again, this time with a little more passion, a little more fervor, a little more heat. He went with it, because he liked their rougher kisses as well as the more gentle, tender way she kissed him.
She pulled away as quickly as she’d started, and her eyes locked onto his. “I really n
eed this job.”
“And you’ll get it,” he said.
She closed her eyes and nodded, and in that single moment, Jon felt sure he was in love with her. Karly would be so mad at him for not being careful, for not slowing himself down a little bit.
Cassie stepped out of his arms and said, “So I brought those sweet and sour meatballs you love. Mashed potatoes. And my students made sides today, so we have a lot of samples to choose from.” She walked backward away from him, her eyes glittering with flirty fun he couldn’t wait to have. “Come help me, Mister Muscles.”
He chuckled. “Oh, so now I know what I’m good for.”
She giggled too, turned around and continued toward the front door, that extra sway in her hips definitely just for him. After all, he’d seen her walk around the kitchen during class, and she didn’t use the same motion.
He went outside with her, glad the worst of the winter seemed to be behind them. In another month, the cherry trees would be blossoming, and he couldn’t wait to walk with Cassie, her hand in his, beneath the fragrant flowers.
She passed him a stack of aluminum trays, and he took them into the cottage. With the door once again closed and locked behind them, Cassie took the lid off the meatballs, letting out a puff of steam. “Mashed potatoes,” she said. “And let’s see what the students turned in.” She removed the lid from the first tray and he saw green beans and bacon, creamed corn, and what looked like sweet potato hash.
“These all look good,” he said, snagging a single square of sweet potato and popping it into his mouth. “Oh, that’s spicy.” He coughed. “Really spicy.” He started around the counter to the sink for a drink while Cassie took a bite too.
“It’s not that bad,” she said as he downed a full glass of water. “And you should drink milk to cool the heat.”
Jon coughed, his stomach already full from the water. But he poured himself some milk and drank that too, the chili powder finally fading against his palette.
“So your entertainment center is going great,” he said. “I have some pictures from earlier today if you’d like to see them.” He made sure he brought up the carpentry project she’d technically hired him to build every time they got together. Then, if he was ever questioned, he could say that of course they met, because she wanted information on the project she’d hired him about.
Flirting With Danger (Rebels 0f Forbidden Lake Book 1) Page 6
