Page 82 of Devious Knight

This time Kade isn’t following behind me like a dark shadow.

He's in front, leaning against my desk holding my notebook in his hands.

My phone—the tracker—is on the desk between him and my bag.

Shit. I should have switched it off. Or better yet left it at my apartment. I didn’t need it while I was here researching. I’ve also been so immersed in my work that I haven’t even checked my messages or socials like I usually do.

Kade lifts his head and his eyes meet mine. He smiles and a lump the size of the moon rises in my throat.

Knowing he’s bad for me was a good starting point, but it doesn’t make it any easier to stop my emotions from running out of control, or those sinful memories from resurfacing in my mind.

“What are you doing here?” There’s a quiver in my voice that I hate.

“The last time I checked the library was open to all students. Even me.”

“Yes, but finding you in here at this hour on a Sunday morning is about as rare as seeing a leprechaun with a pot of gold.”

His lips curl into a wide grin and he flashes his stupid, sexy dimples at me. “I guess strange things do happen then. This looks good. Very impressive.” He raises the notebook and points to the sketches I did earlier.

So far, I have the woman and the sphere. It’s a first draft, but it does look good. I just never imagined getting such a compliment from him. At the same time, it irritates me given that he’s the reason I’ll still be here until second year.

“Well, thanks to you, I’ve had to come up with a new project that will get me into Cambridge.”

Kade lifts his shoulder for an easy, carefree shrug. “This one looks better than the last. So maybe that was a good thing.”

Asshole. I don’t know what kind of person destroys the artistic creation of an artist then says shit like that.

More irritation fills me. I march up to him, set my books down, and swipe my notebook away from him. “That is my private business.”

“Why are you leaving Raventhorn when it’s clear you’re in love with the place?”

His question throws me. I search his eyes and take in the genuine look of interest deep within the bright blue haze. It’s a juxtaposition to our situation.

He shouldn’t look so interested in me, and he shouldn’t have been able to pick up that I’m in love with Raventhorn.

“Cambridge, scholarship with a world-renowned sculptor, the chance to study in England with the finest. The list goes on. So it doesn’t matter what I feel about Raventhorn.”

“It does when you’re this good.” He cocks his head back to my notebook and again throws me with his words. Those words feel like a carefully laid trap waiting to ensnare me. “It means you can go wherever you want and still get what you want.”

“Christian Degas’ program is at Cambridge.”

“But your goal was to get on his internship program after graduation.”

Should I be surprised he knows that? If he found a way to track me so he knows where I am all the time and pretty much what I’m doing, this is no surprise at all. “Where is this conversation going, Kade?”

He leans forward and stops an inch away from my lips. It’s only at that moment I realize I’m too close. I landed myself in this position when I walked up to him to get my notebook—another trap.

And now that I’m so close the scent of his power laced beneath his musky cologne seeps into me, tantalizing my nerves like a hypnotic snake.

“You should stay at Raventhorn. You’ll get the internship with Christian Degas after graduation.”

My lips part and my lungs squeeze. How the hell can he sound so sure? He didn’t even hesitate for a second. “You don’t know that.”

“Yes, I do.”

“No. There’s no way you could know.”

“When I was ten years old I knew I’d get the chance to take my pick of any football team in this country. I knew my future would look like whatever I chose. Since then I’ve been scouted by every college to play on their team, and every football team in the NFL has their eye on me.”

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