He found me actually cutting a check in donation, not much but I could do something. I still was getting alimony from the divorce, so I had a little to spare. I tried to conserve since I was on my own with not quite a six-figure salary. I’d been out of the teaching game for a long time, and Pembroke had offered a place to start over with room for growth. I’d taken the contract very quickly. Especially since Evie had done me a favor by putting a good word in for the job.
Her son had wiggled his way into my life not long after that, the same way he continued to do so now. Catching me after my donation, Ramses offered me a glass of champagne.
He had two.
I probably shouldn’t—for a couple of reasons—but I took it. One of those reasons was I didn’t want to be piss-ass drunk, and reason two seemed obvious.
The gesture had been a gift from him, the pair of us stealing a sip together. I hadn’t seen him in many weeks, the term more than half over now. He appeared to be thriving, a beautiful lady on his arm. Said arm candy wasn’t with him now, but perhaps, she needed a potty break.
“Where’s your date?” I asked, and he shrugged.
“Somewhere.” A buck’s dark coat in my direction, those eyes a hazel rosin. “Yours?”
“Somewhere.”
This game we played. Enough for me to shake my head. It made him smile, a hand coming over his buzz cut. I directed a finger at it. “New do?”
“It’s functional. Easier.” He chuckled. “Mom nearly killed me. She loves snatching me by it when I’m being an asshole.”
“And why did she decide not to be here tonight?” I knew she was somewhere else, just didn’t know why if he was hosting an event. “I heard this is your family’s box. Your event?”
“Ma never comes to this thing. Me either. Obviously, since I didn’t go to Pembroke until recently.” He cuffed his jacket sleeve. “This is one of Dad’s old events. I’m here out of formality.”
“I see.”
With that between us, he took advantage of another sip of his champagne, his father I knew to be a sore topic. It was one of many things I hadn’t gotten to break down with him. Not that I’d given him a chance.
I hadn’t given either of us that, but it was probably for the best.
“You look good, Bri,” he said, smiling. “Or should I still call you professor?”
“You don’t have to call me that.” And he didn’t. I wasn’t his professor. I shrugged. “And you do, too.”
He looked more than good, heaven actually. He looked like a man, but I’d never seen him as a boy. He took on too much responsibility, had too much passion, to be anything else.
His incessant joy and love for life had been the only thing that made him slip a little. He was so hopeful for things, his optimism undying. Even though I’d pushed him away, he still came over here with me now as if not missing a beat. He didn’t let the world or me taint him, his spirit.
“You didn’t answer my last email.” He appeared to come out of nowhere with this, as if in my head. I’d pretty much just been thinking about that, how I’d pushed him away. His head tilted. “I know I said the ball is in your court, but how long are you going to make me wait, Brielle?”
He was still waiting? Really?
Really.
I saw that in his eyes, that intention, that confidence. I hadn’t responded to his email. Well, I had but chickened out and recalled it. I hadn’t been able to send my response that day. I couldn’t be weak to him. I knew what would happen.
“What did you want to say?” I asked, stupid that I asked. I couldn’t help it. “The conversation with your friend. How did it go?”
I had wondered about it, naturally curious.
His smile dashing right, Ramses indulged in another sip of champagne.
“You don’t get it that easy,” he said, lowering his flute. His eyes danced. “You made me wait after all. You want to know, you get the info with a caveat.”
I didn’t want to know what happened that bad.
But I did want to know.
Playing his game, I deposited another empty flute on the tray of a passing waiter. “What are the terms?”
And if he said another game of thumb war, I’d laugh him out of this place. We weren’t doing that, ridiculous, but I was curious what he wanted from me.
Finishing his champagne, Ramses dropped off his flute as well before taking my hand. I started to protest until he pressed his hard body into my side.
“Come with me,” he said, his voice playful, excited. “I got a place to show you. You agree to check it out, I’ll tell you there. It’s in the city. Won’t take long.”
He was in no place to bargain with me. Especially if it allowed him to whisk me off someplace.
Even still, I found myself hard pressed to move, or to push him away.
This gave him access to me in a way that allowed him to angle his big body around me.
“Come on, Professor,” he said. “Take a chance? The ball’s in your court again.”
My lashes flashed. “I came with Professor Donahue. I can’t just leave.”
What was I saying?
But the words already came out, a smile to Ramses’s voice.
“We can be back soon.” His hand escaped mine to find my wrist. “As soon as you want. Meredith won’t mind. She had no intention of leaving with me tonight, not with all the other money and status in here. I needed a date, and she wanted the ticket. We’re doing each other a favor.”
Eye candy indeed.
I guess we were in the same situation. I wasn’t with my date either. Not really.
But this was just a field trip, what he said.
I faced him, way too close for my liking, but I was curious.
“Quick trip?” I asked, studying his eyes, and his danced again.
“Quick trip.”
Chapter Eighteen
Bri
I told Ramses we didn’t have to rush. Why I told him that, I didn’t know, and when I also told him Guy and I drove up to Chicago separately (with also no intention of leaving together), he’d merely shook his head.
“Of course, you drove separately,” he said, being a smart ass and I was tempted to shove him, flirt with him. It was like automatic when it came to him, which was another solid reason why we shouldn’t be going anywhere together at all.
Yet, here we were, downtown after I followed behind his Mercedes with my SUV. He’d had us park in alley parking, behind an old brick building that wrapped around the corner. At this point, I wondered what was up with the locale, but I was game. My interest was piqued more than anything. Especially when he said to close my eyes.
“Just play along,” he said, those ebony dark eyes playful once more. I asked him how I could walk if I couldn’t see.
That was when his hands pressed over my eyes.
“What are you doing, Ramses?” I spent more time asking him that, questioning myself and everything I was when we were together. I questioned him all the time yet traveled into the dark with him anyway.
His hard heat came in behind me, his voice low.
“You can see with me,” he said. “Trust me.”
It wasn’t him I didn’t trust. It was myself, and though he wasn’t my student anymore…