B0161IZ63U (A) (14 page)

“He asked you to marry him because that’s what he wanted to do.”

“It’s funny,
Chase
can be the same way,” Kelly said.  “He doesn’t say anything he doesn’t want to say, and he doesn’t do anything he doesn’t want to do.”

Lila looked away instantly, fighting an annoyed smile.  It was occurring to her that Kelly was the kind of person who constantly spoke in code.  Not a single word had left her mouth during that entire exchange that didn’t insinuate something else.  She was the kind of person who said apple when she meant orange.

Lila was privy to her games.

“I wonder what Chase would
do,”
Kelly pondered.  “If he knew that you’d fucked my fiancé?”

Lila’s smile bloomed.  “You know… That’s the first time tonight that you’ve said what you actually mean.”  Lila met her eyes.  “I hope you didn’t hurt yourself.”

“Likewise.  This is the first time tonight that I’ve seen any real feeling on your face.”  Kelly shrugged.  “I guess Chase just brings it out in you?”

Lila clawed her fingers into the stone railing, harder this time.  “Like I said, you can rest easy, Kelly.” Just for good measure, Lila said the words, again.  “Jack Almeida is all yours.”

--

As Lila made her way through the area of campus she would never go willingly, Sorority Row, she almost turned and walked away at the sight that awaited her.  After the drama-filled conversation with Kelly on the balcony the night before, Lila needed a minute to breathe.

Just one damn minute.

Apparently a minute was too much to ask.

Laughing at the other end of the grassy walkway was Chase Almeida, wearing a crispy white t-shirt and white sweatpants that tapered at his strong calves.  He looked like the angel she knew he wasn’t
.
A young girl walked alongside him, hanging from his arm, as young girls often did those days.

Lila forced a smile when Chase caught sight of her. He slowed his pace and tightened the arm he had around the girl’s shoulders.   Lila noticed that this girl wasn’t Julie, nor was she the girl he’d been dancing with during the Crimson Event, nor the one he’d brought to her housewarming party drunk off her ass.  With a squint of her eye, Lila had to wonder just how many there
were
? 

From the way Julie stayed laying all over Chase during Lila’s lectures, one would assume Chase was a one-woman man.  He gave Julie the attention she craved, maybe even his body every now and again, but she didn’t have his mind.

Lila wondered which one of them did--if any of them did.

She and Chase both slowed to a stop in front of each other, students and faculty continuing to mill past them on that bright, busy summer morning.

“Good morning, Mr. Almeida.”

His eyes were hard.  They always seemed to be those days.  Ever since she’d been short with him in class, the day after the kitchen sink incident, he’d given her several tastes of her own bitter medicine.  He was making it a point to be curt with her in a way he never had before.

Lila recognized the distinct sensation of being punished.  She was only doing what was right by keeping him at arms length.  One day, he would understand.

Today was not that day.  The adoration that was usually present in his eyes when he looked at her was no longer there.

“Professor,” he greeted, squeezing his female friend closer.  “This is Hannah.”

“Hi Hannah,” Lila said, smiling at the pretty redhead.  “I like your dress.”

“Thank you.” Hannah looked down at her white sundress. “I just got it. American Eagle.  Nineteen bucks!”

Chase’s eyes glazed over at the quick shopping turn this conversation was taking. 

Lila laughed. “That’s a steal.  I might have to bite your style.”

“I’m so flattered,” Hannah beamed.  “I see you around campus all the time.  I love your style, and you are crazy gorgeous, by the way.  Like
, gorg
.  All the fraternity guys are, like, obsessed with you.  Seriously.”

“Thank you, sweetheart.” Lila’s eyes moved to Chase.  “Would you mind if I stole Mr. Almeida away?  I’d like to discuss some revisions I think he should make to his research paper.”

“Sure, of course.” Hannah came to her manicured toes and kissed him goodbye on the cheek.

Chase held Lila’s eyes as she did.

Lila looked away.

“Bye, sweetie,” Lila forced a smile as Hannah gave her one final wave, watching her go.  Once she was out of earshot, Lila looked back to Chase.

He shoved his hands in his pockets.  “Professor.”  He no longer said the word
Professor
with a mocking, teasing tone to his voice.

Lila never thought she’d miss it.  She shook her hair out of her face as the wind blew it into her eyes.  “Mr. Almeida.”

The live wires had ignited, vivacious as ever, meeting between their bodies in an electrical war.  It was too dangerous for either of them to reach in and make a real attempt to stop it.  So it roared away, even as they kept their distance.

“I don’t really want to talk about the research paper,” Lila said.

“I hope not, since you never assigned us one.”

“Right.” She blushed.

He took in the sight and then forced his eyes away.

Lila took a deep breath.  “I wanted to get you alone so we could talk about Julie.”

“So talk.”

“She told me the whole story about what happened to her.  Says the quarterback of the football team drugged her at a party, and then they all took turns on her while she was passed out.”

“I know that, Lila.  She’s already told me the whole story.  I’m the one who brought her to you, remember?”

“She won’t go to the police. I wanted you to know that I’m taking it to the legal department this afternoon.”

“The legal department.  How ‘bout that. I hear they just hired a new Deputy Counsel.”

“This has nothing to do with him.”

“It never does, does it?”

Blinding sparks crackled between them, nearly going ablaze, spelling the certain demise of anyone standing too close.

“He holds the most senior position in legal.  He reports directly to the President.  I have a meeting with an
associate
. Even if I wanted to, I’d have to fight tooth and nail to get so much as five minutes in front of him…” She was afraid to say Jack’s name.  Afraid that, if she did, Chase would blow, and their wires would detonate.

“You don’t owe me any explanations.”  His eyes searched her face.  “Right?”

She searched desperately for common sense in a world where her emotions seemed to have taken over.  “I’m going to try and push legal to pursue litigation against the football team.  If I’m successful, it has the potential to be a pretty big scandal.  So, whatever it is that Julie told you, I need you to keep it to yourself.”

“Fine.”

Lila shifted.

He was retreating.  For the first time since she’d met him, the retreat felt real.

The quiet battle their hearts had been entrenched in for years was finally coming to a head.  She didn’t know how to slow it down, postpone it, or stop it.  Whatever was happening between them, it was happening.

She just had no idea what to do with it, even as she felt him slipping away.

She knew she should
let
him slip away.

His eyes searched hers.

Hers fell to his lips.  “I should get going.  I’m late for my office hours,” she whispered.

His eyes stayed on hers even when she stepped away and walked off.

Their wires sputtered, dimmed, but didn’t die out, not even as she crossed the yard with hurried legs, her heels clicking away with every step she took.

--

“Professor James? Jack Almeida will see you now.”

Lila’s eyes nearly exploded out of her head later that afternoon, and she clutched the arms of the chair she was sitting in, pushing against them until she was half sitting, half standing.

“I’m sorry.” She jammed her eyes shut as her body instantly roared with anxiety.  She wished there was a Jack Almeida switch that she could flip on or off, because whenever that thing was on, she could hardly accomplish one rational thought.  “I was told that I’d be having this meeting with an associate attorney.  Jack Almeida is General Deputy Counsel; I’m sure he has more pressing matters on his plate.”

“You were scheduled to meet with an associate, but Mr. Almeida insisted he be the one to meet with you instead.” The young receptionist clutched a folder to her chest.  She wasn’t a day over twenty, probably a student.

Even as annoyance coursed through her, Lila knew this girl was only doing her job and didn’t deserve to bear the brunt of her disastrous life.

“Fair enough,” Lila said, doing everything in her power not to curse at the top of her lungs as she followed the secretary down the long hallway.  Photos of legal staff from years past lined the hallway, including the newest member himself.  Jack’s photo was at the end of the hall, smirking that asshole smirk only he could pull off.

Lila’s heart went into overdrive when the secretary stopped at the last door in the hallway.  They hadn’t changed the nameplate, the old Deputy Counsel’s moniker was still on the door, but Lila knew the truth.

Something devious lingered on the other side of that door, something she’d yet to learn how to exorcise from her psyche.

The receptionist knocked, waited for approval and then pushed the door open, holding it for Lila.

Lila stepped in and met eyes with Jack just as he was hanging up the phone at his desk.  After the heated exchange with Kelly at the gala, she’d managed to slip out without being forced to speak with him. 

It was becoming clearer.  Never seeing each other again was something Jack Almeida was not going to allow to happen.

His suit jacket hung from the back of his chair, and the tie around his neck was halfway undone.  Apparently, his first day at work had been a long one.

“Lila James, sir.”

“Thank you, Amy. That’s all,” Jack said, waiting for Amy to close the door behind her before he blinked over to Lila.  “Lila James.  Twice in one week?  How did I get so lucky?”

Back in the hallway, Lila had urged herself to remain professional.   She’d convinced herself she could.

She couldn’t.

“Why are you
here?
” she exploded, whispering harshly.  “This is my town.  My city.  My school.  I was here first, damn it.”

The angrier she got, the wider his smirk grew.  “This is also my fiancé’s town.  Her city.  Her school.  Not to mention that, being a Harvard Law alumni, technically,
I
was here first.  Contrary to what you’ve convinced yourself of since birth, Lila, not everything is about you.”

“Just so you know,” she warned, “your fiancé is aware that we slept together.  If she knew we were in this office together, she might not be your fiancé for much longer.”

A raised eyebrow joined his smirk.  “You promise?”

Lila’s eyes widened.  “What the hell is wrong with you?”

“Where could it have gone, Lila?  Honestly. Where could you and I have ever really gone?”

“I’m not having this conversation.”

“What the hell else is new?”

She hated the arrogant grin that bloomed on his face with such a passion she almost screamed.  Thankfully, she was able to hold herself together long enough to remind herself why she was there.

Her eyes narrowed. “I have a lot of choice words to say to you right now, but what I came here for is more important.”

He motioned to the chairs in front of his desk.  “Please.”

Lila moved across the room and took one of the chairs, searching through her bag after she’d sat down.  Her hands shuddered with the remnants of her anger.

Jack’s eyes traveled her body while she was distracted, moving away when she looked up.

“A freshman named Julie Barnes came to me last week.  She was gang raped by several members of the football team at a frat party.  I need the law department to look into it and pursue litigation.”

“Wow. Okay. Hold on.” Jack held a hand up.  “Slow it down.  Start from the beginning.”

“Young girl.  Raped. Several times.  What more do you want?”

“Testimony.  Eyewitness accounts. 
Proof.”

Lila balked.

“Does this girl have any
proof
of the accusations she’s made here?  Or are we just taking her at her word?”

“Are you calling her a liar?”

“I’ve built an entire career in law, Lila.  Everyone
is a liar.”

“So what is it going to take for you to get behind a girl who says that six men
raped
her?  Huh?  Do you need audio? Video?  Do you need a video of six monsters shoving their dick inside her before you wipe that smug fucking smirk off your face?”

Lila knew she’d gone off the rails.

The truth was, that was
exactly
what Jack needed.

He needed audio.

He needed video.

He needed proof.

And, soon, he would have it.

9

Every time she looked at him, his eyes were on a new part of her body.

For the most part, the students in Lila’s class stayed utterly distracted, doodling, daydreaming, some were even fast asleep.

Not him.

She’d stumbled over her words so many times that morning that she’d officially lost count.  She had the supreme suspicion he knew exactly what he was doing, so she stopped looking at him completely.

She stopped for as long as she could.

Halfway through the lecture, her eyes traveled back over to the seat, the seat farthest to the left, and landed right on Chase Almeida.

His green eyes were riveted to the dip in her blouse while he chewed absently on the tip of his pen, having disappeared into another world.

She had a good idea what was going on in that world, and forced her eyes away, trying to remember what she’d been talking about.  The few students who
were
listening to her looked confused, reminding her that she needed to focus, and ignore the
suggestions
those green eyes were making from the left-hand side of her classroom.