Page 54 of Forbidden Lessons

“If I see you headed for a hunting lodge, I’m jumping out of this car.”

He laughs. So wild, so beautiful, it makes me blush. Or maybe it’s the fact that I could make a mature, intelligent man like Bastian Rooke laugh.

“You think I could be that cruel to you, sweet girl?” There’s still laughter in his voice, but he stiffens and throws me a quick glance. “Sorry. That was inappropriate.”

I wish I knew how to turn the AC down in this car. I’m starting to sweat again. I don’t dare speak, because I know I’ll stammer, and then blush. So I just turn to look out the window again, trying to concentrate on the glimpses of Agony Hollow peeking through the trees.

Again, my professor seems to read my mind.

Bastian rolls down his window, turns his face into the cool wind that surges inside, and inhales a deep breath. “I love that smell,” he murmurs. “If they could bottle this stuff, I’d swim in it.” He leaves the window open, and I silently thank him for howit cools the Tesla’s interior. Although it’s shocking how quickly the temperature has dropped since I got in.

There’s a definite chill in the air. If you can’t handle the cold, move down to Riverside. Some days the woods felt more like a jungle. That creek, a jungle.

I wonder where Kai lives now. We sent a few letters to each other after he moved out of Riverside, but I’ve never been to his house before. I was too busy working at the convenience store, and my dad couldn’t afford bus fare to get me all the way across town. Kai only got a car late into high school, and even then, he was too busy with his sports, or his school work, to come visit me.

Except for that one time?—

“Have you lived here all your life, Haven?”

I like the way he says my name. It sounds so smooth and eloquent on his tongue.

“Uh, yeah. Pretty much. You?”

He chuckles. “Oh no. New York, originally. Then the west coast for a while. But it always felt like I was surrounded by strangers wherever I went. So many people streaming past you on the street, day in, day out, but you’ll never see the same face twice. Never get to learn their stories. What makes them tick.”

“Never thought about it like that,” I murmur.

“You don’t know what you don’t know, Haven.” He inhales another deep breath, huffs it out with obvious enjoyment. “Never thought I’d like small town living until I got here. But this place? All these lives, so tight-knit. Like a tangle of wool. Everyone’s connected. It’s fascinating.”

We turn onto a smaller single-lane road. This one cuts straight through the trees like an arrow until a sharp turn takes us out of sight of the road.

Bastian’s done a lot to make me feel comfortable, but unease still trickles down my neck like a bead of ice water.

Nowhere to run. Not that I’ll need to.

No one to hear me scream, if I had to.

Just me and Bastian.

The road takes another sharp bend. A house emerges from the forest. Whoever built it was a genius. Despite harsh geometric lines, gleaming reflective windows, and its pitch black solar panels, the dark concrete seems to blend with the pale trunks of the trees forming its backdrop.

Bastian stops the car, and I lean forward to take it in.

“Well, it’s definitely not a hunting lodge,” I murmur.

“Sit tight. I’ll be right back.”

Should I be insulted he doesn’t ask me inside, or relieved that I’m not pushing my stupidity to a whole other level?

He’s barely taken two steps from the car before he stops, hesitates, and then walks back. Ducking his head inside the car, Bastian leans his elbows on the rim of his window as he studies me.

“Unless you wanted to come inside,” he says, flicking his hands. “No pressure, of course.”

I swallow. “What if I go in there and you have a hundred animal heads on the walls?”

“No taxidermy, scout’s honor.”

Bastian smiles.

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