Page 86 of A Legal Affair
“What’s the longest relationship you’ve ever had?” Caleb asked in a low voice.
She turned her head, and this time it was she who searched his face. “Does it matter?” she countered softly.
Something stirred in the fathomless depths of his eyes, an unnamed emotion that made her heart beat a wild tattoo in her chest. For several charged moments they stared at each other, and then Caleb glanced away, breaking the intimacy of their heated gaze.
“I tell myself it shouldn’t matter,” he quietly admitted, gazing out into the distance. “You’re one of my students?—”
“I’m twenty-seven years old, Caleb,” Daniela reminded him. “Hardly a child.”
A muscle bunched in his cheek. “That’s not the point. The point is there’s a serious power imbalance between us. I’m your professor?—”
“—and I’m a grown, mature woman having a consensual relationship with the most incredible man I’ve ever met in my life.”
“Jesus.” Closing his eyes, he scrubbed a hand down his face and blew out a hard breath. “All I’m saying is, there are certain standards, a code of ethics established to govern our conduct with students, and I’ve broken each and every rule. That’s not an easy pill to swallow.”
As Daniela studied his tortured profile in the lengthening shadows, she felt a deep wave of sympathy and guilt. For the first time, it dawned on her that Shara had lied to her about Caleb’s past indiscretions with other students, hoping to make Daniela jealous enough to back off. The man seated next to her was genuinely conflicted about crossing the line with her. He wasnota womanizer, as she’d been led to think, but an honest, upstanding man made of flesh and blood who’d succumbed to temptation. The truth of that was so obvious she wondered how on earth she’d ever believed otherwise.
Because you wanted to believe it. You wanted to latch on to something negative about him that would make you feel better about your own deceitfulness.
Shame flooded her at once, and the mellow mood she’d enjoyed all evening began to dissipate.
Seeing her downcast expression, and mistaking the cause, Caleb reached over and gently took her chin between his thumb and forefinger, forcing her to meet his dark, piercing gaze. “Being with you is impossible. It’s selfish, it’s reckless, it’s unbelievably insane. I can’t see any way this isn’t going to end disastrously for both of us. That said, Daniela,” he intoned, his voice dropping to a gravelly pitch, “I’ve enjoyed every last second of being with you, making love to you. That night at your house, last night on my car, every single time we’ve come together has rocked my fucking world. If I had to do it all over again, I wouldn’t change a damn thing, except to prolong our time together.”
Daniela’s heart soared, tears biting beneath her eyelids. “Oh God, Caleb?—”
He slanted his head over her mouth, capturing the rest of her words. Her pulse went crazy as he parted her lips with his and kissed her with a melting hunger, slowly exploring her mouth with his tongue in deep, sensuous strokes that sent a hard shiver through her body.
“Caleb,” she half moaned against his lips, “what about your family? Do they know…? Do you think they suspect that we’re…?”
She felt the vibration of his low chuckle all the way down to her toes. He dragged his mouth from hers to kiss her lowered lids, then her temple, before drawing back slightly to smile into her eyes. “What do you think the mass exodus was about? They wanted to give us time alone.”
Daniela grinned shakily. “I should’ve known. They weren’t very—Oh, look!” she exclaimed in sudden delight.
Caleb turned his head, and together they watched the sun sink behind the vast hills, spreading vivid flames across the sky in a display that was nothing short of breathtaking.
Daniela let out an awed sigh. “I think I just died and went to heaven.”
Caleb smiled a little, gazing down at her. “Kinda feels that way, doesn’t it?” he said in a soft tone that made her wonder if he was talking about the sunset, or something else entirely. She looked at him, and as she watched the play of candlelight across his strong, beautifully sculpted features, her heart swelled painfully in her chest.
Dear God. She was falling in love with him.
Even as her mind offered a swift, vehement denial, she knew it was true. She was falling in love with Caleb Thorne, and there wasn’t a single damn thing she could do about it. She couldn’t tell him how she felt, nor could she stop herself from fallingharder. Which was exactly what she was doing with each passing minute, hour and day that she spent with him—falling harder.
“Dance with me, Daniela.”
The low, seductive timbre of Caleb’s voice broke into her tortured musings. She blinked, surprised to see that he’d risen from his chair and now stood over her with an outstretched hand.
She swallowed, staring up at him uncomprehendingly. “Dance? But…there’s no music.”
“A minor detail.” His midnight-dark eyes glinted with mirth and something else, something so profoundly intimate that her pulse accelerated, doing double time.
Drawing an unsteady breath, she placed her trembling fingers in his hand, rose to her feet and allowed herself to be led away from the table, to a clearing on the flagstone terrace. Holding her gaze, Caleb drew her slowly into the solid warmth of his arms.
As they began to sway together, falling into an easy rhythm that seemed instinctive, Daniela asked dazedly, “What’re we dancing to, Caleb?”
“Whatever you want, sweetheart,” he murmured, the tender endearment sending a wave of indescribable pleasure through her. “Something romantic. Sexy.” He hummed a few bars of an unnamed song, his voice a deep, velvety caress in her ear.
“Mmm, I like that.” With a sigh of dreamy pleasure, she closed her eyes, looped her arms around his neck and put her head on his shoulder. What could be more romantic than slow dancing on a secluded hillside against the backdrop of a glorious sunset? It was perfect as nothing else in her life had ever been, their bodies moving in perfect harmony as if they’d danced together a million times before.
