Page 54 of Illicit Education
“He sent you that book yesterday.”
“Only to correct a statement I made.” These new friends of mine were obviously out of their minds. Reed didn’t like me. He wasn’t evenniceto me. “It’s a game to him. He had to win the argument, that’s all.”
“Okay.” Hector shrugged, taking a sip of his iced tea. “Whatever you say, new girl.” He raised one eyebrow. “I’m just saying, he never scrutinized what I was doing or watched me on the security cams.”
“Never gave you a manuscript,” Marcus added, motioning to the pages peeking out of my bag.
“Ouch, babe.”
“Sorry, but he’s never let an intern anywhere near a manuscript.”
I shook my head. Was that true? “He’s just being a pain in my ass with that whole security camera thing, getting me back for mouthing off to him yesterday. He’s petty, that’s all. And the manuscript…” I shrugged. I didn’t really have an explanation for that one. “Maybe the terms of the internship have changed since last year.”
“Yeah.” Hector nodded. “Maybe.”
Chapter Twenty
Cabot
With takeout boxes spread between us across my desk, my best friend and CFO stared at me, his eyebrows furrowed.
“You can’t be serious,” he finally said.
“She came to the club. At the very least, that means she’s interested in the lifestyle. She got a job at White Rabbit, for fuck’s sake. Shewantsto be there.”
Travis blinked as he took another bite of his massaman curry.
“There’s something there, Travis. She knows it. I know it.” I shook my head, running through every interaction I’d had with Ms. Blake over the past twenty-four hours. “I haven’t been interested in someone in years. She’s… I don’t know, she’s—”
“Don’t say different.”
“Sheisdifferent.”
Travis rolled his eyes. “Maybe that’s’ because she’s a child. You have nothing in common.”
My shoulders tensed. I breathed deeply though my nose. “She is not a child. She’s twenty-four.”
Travis laughed, then coughed as he nearly choked. “That’s… fifteen years, buddy. You were a sophomore fucking seniors in the damn locker room before she was even born.”
He wasn’t wrong. I knew that. This attraction to Ms. Blake was problematic. But shewasdifferent. Her application for this internship had impressed me like none I’d seen before it and I’d hadhundredsof applications come across my desk over the years since I took my mother’s place as head of the publishing division.
That applicant was honest, humble. She displayed profound knowledge and a deep understanding of literature I hadn’t seen in publishing in some time.
I’d chosen her before I knew what she looked like, before we’d interacted yesterday morning and she’d tilted my world on its axis.
Before she’d completely consumed every thought.
Was wanting her wrong? Absolutely. I couldn’t act on my attraction to her.
But she’d shown up at the Rabbit Hole, at mysanctuary, and if that wasn’t a sign—
“You want my honest opinion?” Travis asked, setting his food down and leaning forward.
I sighed and swiveled my chair around, putting my back toward him to look out at the skyline. “Of course I do, otherwise I wouldn’t have said a word about her.”
“Fine.” He paused, but I didn’t turn around. “You’re out of your goddamn mind.”
I smirked, shaking my head. I don’t know why I’d expected a different reaction from him. Iwasout of my mind.