Page 18 of Meeting Melody
He glances down at my lap, then back on the road. We pass the point, the restaurant that has the best lakeside view, and into a low-key residential neighborhood.
“We’d both be lying if we said we weren’t…awareof each other, Professor. If you didn’t feel the tension. I just didn’t know to what extent until I tasted you. It went from superficial to… something more. I changed my mind.”
I scoff.
“You’re intriguing. Beautiful. And you keep too many secrets, Melody Cameron.”
I shift away from him. “I don’t keep secrets.”
“Who did you think had snuck into your house, before you thought of me?”
“How do you know I thought of anyone before you?” I dig my nails into my palms.
He turns down a driveway and parks in front of a house. I stare at it for a moment, wondering… well, where the hell it came from, I guess. It’s in the older part of Crown Point, well away from the university and downtown.
“This is my parents’ second home,” he says. He kills the engine and hops out, leaving me to stare at him. He treks across the snow-covered ground and up the front porch, then unlocks the door. He turns around and meets my gaze through the windshield, and there’s a challenge there.
And some sort of hidden ultimatum. That I can either sit in his truck and freeze to death, or go inside.
I let out a ragged sigh and unbuckle, hopping down. I take my bag with me, if only for something to hold. The snow covers my toes with every step, and I stop halfway to the porch. His house is surrounded by woods, and it’s… peaceful. Strangely enough. With the snow collecting on the bare tree branches, and filtering down… there’s no other sound except the wind. And my breathing.
“You like it out here?”
I come crashing back down to reality and eye Jacob. I march up the steps and past him, into the house. It’s a bit like mine on the outside, in the farmhouse style, but the inside has been gutted and redone. Updated. I’ve got nowhere near that much money.
I kick off my boots and shrug out of my coat, then pick up my bag again.
Jacob eyes me, then reaches out.
I flinch back before he can touch me.
“You’ve got snow in your hair.”
I turn away. “So?”
“I—”
“Just leave it,” I mutter. I go farther inside, investigating. “So, your parents let you stay here?”
“Yeah. They’ll come up in the summer for a few weeks, but I’m usually on my own.”
“But you’re graduating this year.”
There’s a Christmas tree set up in the living room. It’s got a lot of personal ornaments on it. The tree skirt is red and white, but there aren’t any presents on it. The white string lights are on, though.
The couch is white linen, with fancy pillows and a throw blanket over the back of it—definitelynotsomething you’d see in a single guy’s house. It faces an impressive fireplace, which has one of those quick-start logs already sitting on the grate. A huge television is mounted above the mantel.
“Want something to drink?” Jacob asks, moving past me. “Beer? Wine?”
“Water,” I answer. “Unless you’re going to try to drug me again.”
He shrugs. “Nah. I already told you, didn’t I? Next time, I want your eye contact.”
“There won’t be a next time.”
He shrugs again, then disappears around the corner. Leaving me in the large living room, which is connected to the dining room. There’s a table surrounded by chairs, a sliding door that goes into a large, unfenced backyard.
I drift toward it and shiver.
