15

Cathy

Weak sunlight filters through Jonathan’s blinds and strikes me across the face. It’s early. And yet too late. Early risers will be jogging across campus to get in their daily exercise, using the pathways between the staff faculty and the student dorms. My eyes snap open. I sit up but Jonathan’s arm about my waist clamps me in place.

“Don’t move. You’re letting the cold air in.” The eye that isn’t smooshed into the pillow opens beneath a mop of ruffled curls and focuses on me. I don’t understand how he was deep asleep one moment but came so quickly awake when I moved.

I sink back to my elbow but not into his waiting arms, instead hooking the one thick curl that always manages to fall across his brow. He’s sleep mussed and beautifully warm all over. “Which is why I have to go soon. Before everyone wakes up.”

I don’t relish the thought of getting dressed and facing the cold morning, but there is no choice. We need to keep our relationship a secret from the world.

I haven’t even told Adeline about Jonathan. It’s only for a time. Once I graduate, it won’t matter who we are to each other.

My heart flutters because I’m thinking long term with Jonathan instead of weeks and when did that happen?

Jonathan turns to lie on his back. He catches my bicep, tugs and topples me on top of him, crushing my breasts to his firm chest. “It’s a long weekend coming up. Come with me to Stamford. We’ll get off campus and stay in an Airbnb. We’ll be able to go anywhere we like. No sneaking around.”

“You want me with you for the whole weekend?” I ask. I calculate in my head the three days and two nights I’ll have him all to myself. I narrow my eyes, and let a smile play on my mouth that begs for the feel of his lips. “Did you read my mind?”

He chuckles. His voice is a freshly-awoken growl that sends hot shivers skating over my body. “If you’re thinking that a long weekend with me is something you’d like to do, then yes. I can read your mind.” His eyes grow serious. “I want you in my arms as long as I can have you.”

“The lecture room isn’t enough?” I say with a little sass. “What about the library? The store room? Your desk?” Illicit images fly through my mind at the many uses we’ve discovered for his desk other than housing an in-tray and a laptop. He has an uncanny ability to know where I am at all times and we’ve both been taking advantage of it. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say you were the campus stalker.”

“Only with you.” His eyes darken. He lifts his head and captures my lips with his. His kiss is slow. Sensual. And makes me want more than just one kiss.

We both groan when I rub his erection with my thigh. We made love all night, but my clit throbs with renewed interest and I’m suddenly slick between my legs. I really do need more than just this kiss. I want everything. The hardest thing in the world, apart from his erection, is pulling back. “If I have to have a stalker, I’m glad it’s you.”

“Better me than Chris,” he says, and a frown creases his brow. “He hasn’t been inappropriate to you again, has he?”

Inappropriate is the least of what Chris is to me, but strangely I haven’t seen him since that day in the lecture theater. Perhaps that’s because I’ve been consumed by Jonathan and every available moment together we’ve either made love or worked on our dissertation. I’ve lost hours just talking to him and learning how he sees the world. Days thinking about him when we’re not together.

I hear Adeline in my head. You’ve got it so bad, Cathy.

I know I do.

That’s a problem in its own right.

It’s unlike Chris to keep his distance. He’s never had any hesitation digging for as much money as he can out of me. I’ve cleaned out my personal account on more than one occasion with his greed. He’s probably skulking around campus looking for the first moment he can catch me alone. Which is why I’m careful. So much more now that I’m holding another secret.

It would ruin me if Jonathan found out the hold Chris has over me, but it would be ruination for both of us if Chris found out about Jonathan.

“I don’t understand how he was allocated into my class. There’s a lot he doesn’t know,” Jonathan says.

I pull back, some of the sensual fog disappearing, leaving me cold. Jonathan’s assessment doesn’t surprise me. It was only through me asking a favor of Dad that Chris has gotten so far at Blue Sky. Jonathan catches my biceps, keeping me against him. His gaze searches mine. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have mentioned him.”

I needed a mood killer and Chris is exactly that. “It’s okay.”

‘It’s not okay. You should be safe on campus,” Jonathan says.

I should be safe at the family business too, but that’s another conversation.

“I can handle Chris,” I say.

The crease between Jonathan’s brows grows deeper. He sits up, the sheets pooling on his lap and giving me a good view of his abs. “You shouldn’t have to handle anything. Tell me what he’s done to you and I’ll have him escorted from campus.”

I want to tell Jonathan about Chris. The weight of what he’s doing to me is unbearable. But that’s not fair to Jonathan. I can just imagine what he’ll think. Sure, I’ll tell you everything. What do you know about extortion?

Chris’s my problem.

Not Jonathan’s.

Jonathan’s gaze flits from one eye to the other. I keep my expression blank and let him assess me. “You have that expression on your face.”

“What expression?” I know I didn’t give anything away.

His fingers flex on me. “The one where you pretend nothing bothers you but it really does. What’s going on, Cathy?”

I blink at him, understanding sucker-punching me straight in the gut. He sees past the façade. He sees me.

I have to offer him something though, or he won’t give up. “I didn’t want to say anything to you, but Chris keeps asking me out. He’s having a hard time accepting I don’t want anything to do with him. He likes me more than I like him, but the past is the past, you know? Besides, I have someone else I like now.”

He lets my joke slide. “That’s not everything.”