She nods.

“Did you tell anyone where you were going?”

She makes a strangled sound that turns into a coughing laugh. “Sort of.”

“What did you say?”

“Uh…” She reaches across the gearshift and rests her hand on my thigh. “I said I was spending the weekend with my stepdad.”

Blood pools low in my belly. I’ve memorized her file. Her parents are still married. Dysfunctionally so, but very much together.

There’s no stepfather.

There’s just me. I grunt. “Did you?”

“Mm-hmm.”

“Did you say anything else?”

“I said he was my favorite person in the whole world, and I don’t get to see him very often—”

“We see each other every day.”

“This is my fantasy, shh.” She giggles. “He travels a lot for work, but when he’s in a city near me, he books a suite in a hotel so we can have some quality time.”

“You didn’t tell people that.”

She laughs longer now, a lovely sweet lilt. “And corrupt some of your innocent students? No, of course not. That part is just for you.”

I take the next exit off the highway. “A suite in a big city hotel, huh?”

“Yep.”

“And what if your stepdad booked something a little more private?” I take the next turn, following the directions on my GPS.

“I don’t care where we are,” she whispers as I pull into the lane for the house I’ve rented. “As long as I get his undivided attention.”

As soon as I park, she climbs over the gearshift and onto my lap. She will have all of my attention for the next thirty-six hours. We both need this. I smooth my hand over her hair as she buries her face in my neck.

“That fantasy is older than our relationship,” she mutters. “For the record.”

“Did you call him Daddy in your dreams?”

“No.” A pause. “That’s just for you.”

I didn’t have any specific fantasies like that one that pre-date Lily, but in hindsight, I can see how I was waiting for her. “When I saw you at the truck stop, you looked exactly like a woman I had seen before. In my dreams.”

“Really?” She lifts her head, and her expression matches how I feel, too. Confused, amazed, and relieved. “This last month has been so hard. Even with the pull between us, you’re the headmaster, and I’m a student. And I wanted to tell you….”

“Tell me everything. Anything.” I grip her by the arms, then release her. God, I could be so rough, too rough with her if I’m not careful.

“I felt like, I can’t tell you I met a guy who changed my world, and he’s all I can think about. That’s not something I can tell myheadmaster.”

“Then tellme. Tell Sebastian.”

She makes a wounded noise, then kisses me instead. I let her because I want her mouth endlessly. I want her hands and her scent and body, too, but I want her heart more. I want her mind and her soul.

“Let’s go inside,” I murmur after she makes me hard. “But we’ll keep talking.”