Page 107 of Illicit Education

“She has always consented–”

“She can’t consent!” Mina’s voice rose with her brief loss of composure, but she quickly took a deep breath and when she spoke next, her voice was calm again. Terrifyingly calm. “You are her employer, Cabot. She cannot consent.”

The muscles across my shoulders tensed. My stomach twisted uncomfortably. I understood what she was getting at, but it was bullshit. “I did consent. Do. Idoconsent.”

“Just the simple fact that he is your boss outside of the Rabbit Hole means that you cannot, in the true–legal–sense of the word, consent, Rylan.” She shook her head, closing her eyes on a long blink. “He has betrayed your trust, and in doing so, has betrayed mine.”

Cabot’s shoulders slumped.

I looked back and forth between them, from the disappointment in Mina’s eyes to the side of Cabot’s head as he still focused intently on the floor. This version of this man was unfamiliar to me. It was so opposite of everything I’d learned in the short time I’d known him.

“Cabot?” I asked.

Mina’s mouth gaped incredulously. “Master Creed.”

I spared her a brief glance, but honestly, I didn’t really care about formalities right now. “What’s going on? Why won’t you look at me?”

He swiveled his head and our eyes locked. I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw the hint of anger in those onyx pools. I’d slipped up and called him by his first name in front of Mina, his boss… or whatever… here in the Rabbit Hole. He was pissed at me for doing so, even in this tense situation. And I found strength in that glare.

“Oh my God.” Mina sighed. “It’s worse than I thought.”

I turned my attention toward her and braced myself.

“I thought you didn’t entertain personal relationships, Cabot.”

My brows furrowed. He’d told me the same thing. What was she getting at?

He dropped his head again, staring at the damn floor. “I don’t.”

See? Cleared that right up.

“You’re going to lie to me as if I don’t have eyes?”

Cabot didn’t respond.

We weren’t in a relationship…were we?

“Stella is out there!” Mina whisper-yelled, pointing to the door.

I jerked back in my seat.Stella is here?I looked at Reed.

He’d gone white as a ghost.

“If she can see this,” Mina continued, shaking her head in disbelief. “If she saw what I and all of those people saw on that stage…” Mina made a strangled sound in her throat and I swiveled my attention back to her like I was watching a damn tennis match.

“Tell me she doesn’t still work for you.”

Silence filled the room, thick and heavy. My pulse sped. I gnawed at a hangnail on my thumb until it bled.

If Stella was out there, then she’d seen us together. She’d seen us on stage, seen the way he touched me, the way I reacted to his touch.

I knew whatever had been happening between them was now over. He’d told me as much and she’d confirmed it that day in the store.

But… how didshefeel about that?

I knew howI’dfelt watching him touch her when I wanted his hands on me. And I hadn’t even known him that first night in the Rabbit Hole. I’d been desperate for that touch, those whispered words, and I had known the man for one whole day.

For Stella, that desire, that envy, would be worse. It would be unbearable. She knew what it felt like to be touched by Cabot Reed. Knew how it felt to give him the power.

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