Page 55 of Illicit Education

“And you absolutely cannot make a move.”

“I know—”

“Cabot.”

I turned slowly around to meet his gaze.

“I’m fucking serious. She’s anintern. And she’s half your damn age.”

I frowned but didn’t correct him. She wasn’thalfmy age exactly—

“This could destroy not only you, but the entire corporation. You could lose the publishing house, your father’s company.” He sighed. “Shit, you saw the way those vultures looked at you the other day at lunch. They’re justwaitingfor a chance to pounce. They’d take everything you love from you faster than you could blink.”

My chest tightened at the thought.

“And that’s assuming this doesn’t get out before the old man steps down. Hell, you make a move and your father gets one whiff?” He shook his head, then lifted his hands and spread his fingers to represent a bomb going off. “He’d leave you withnothing. Probably happily give everything to that prick godson of his and disown the shit out of you.”

I grimaced at the thought ofanyRombauer getting their hands on my birthright.

But Travis was right. Too many people awaited my downfall.

I slumped, running my hands over my face. I hadn’t wanted a woman like this in so long, and now that I did, I couldn’t have her.

“Heavy truly is the head that wears the crown,” Travis said. “But if you want to keep that crown, you’ll steer clear of that woman.”

Chapter Twenty-One

Rylan

Sitting cross-legged on the floor and tucked back into my groove of the massive tree in the center of Reed Tower, it was just after three o’clock when I finished the manuscript Reed gave me this morning.

Now, my heart was on the floor beside a pile of used tissues.

Through blurry eyes, I stared down at the final page and the twoworstwords in the history of the English language:

The End

Another wave of emotion gripped my heart.

How could it be over?

Eloise mentioned her book hangover fromWhere the Crawdads Sing, but it had nothing on this ache where my heart used to be. My chest was heavy with loss, yet empty like a crater had replaced my heart.

I swiped the tears from my cheeks. I’d never read something with so much heart, so much angst… and I’d been reading romance as long as I could remember, starting with stealing my mom’s bodice rippers long before I was technically allowed to read about rogue rakes and highland hotties.

Andnothinghad ever gripped me quite like this.

Wiping beneath my eyes again, I shook my head and returned the manuscript to my bag, pulling it to my chest. I leaned my head back and looked up into the branches of the tree above, sighing as I allowed myself to sit with the feelings. I’d need time to process everything I felt before I could properly execute an opinion on the manuscript as a whole–assuming that’s what my new boss expected of me, vague as he’d been. Luckily, I still had nearly two full hours before the close of business to process my feelings on the romance that had both ripped my heart out and filled it with hope all at once.

I might have a new favorite author.Apologies to Simona Steele.

School had recently let out for the day, so my quiet space was slowly filling with the sounds of excited squeals and laughter as children flocked to the massive play structure within the tree. I smiled up at the canopy of fake leaves and considered the story I’d just red and the man who’d trusted me with it.

What was Mr. Reed’s response to reading something so prolific?

Something so gut-wrenching?

I highly doubted he’d gone through an entire box of tissues to mop up his tears, but had he felt something?