Chapter 18: Sparks Fly
I looked around the room and every single woman in that class was doing the same thing I was doing, which was trying very hard to pretend they were not staring. Some had full on dreaming eyes. Others were performing a very unconvincing version of looking at their notebooks. You always picture a Dean as an older man. Stern. Reading glasses. A cardigan. Not a Channing Tatum lookalike standing six foot two with brown hair and eyes the color of deep forest pools that I had to keep looking away from just to maintain basic cognitive function.
I kept my head down for most of the class. The guy next to me passed the roll and I signed it and passed it on without looking up. Dean Poché gave us our assignments due in three weeks, I put them in my bag and when he dismissed us I walked out with the composure of a woman who had absolutely not been affected.
My second class had a female instructor and I am going to be honest with you, I was relieved. I could actually pay attention to the material. Most of it was review from Baylor anyway so I took my notes, sat through the hour and a half and walked out feeling like a functioning academic.
I was heading to my car, sunshades on, keys in hand, feeling genuinely good about the day, when I heard someone call my name.
"Is that you Cadence?"
I looked over. A man was looking directly at me with a woman beside him who appeared to be a female version of him entirely.
As he walked closer I recognized him and my stomach did something I was going to pretend did not happen.
"Jacob," I said, working very hard to sound casual.
"Hey. How are you?" He smiled and those ocean blue eyes did exactly what they always did which was make me forget what I was about to say.
"Just fine," I managed.
His brown hair was slicked back like he had recently stepped out of a shower. He hugged me and his cologne was entirely unfair. He pulled back slowly and smiled in a way that told me he knew exactly what effect he was having.
The woman beside him cleared her throat.
"Cadence, this is my twin sister Heather Moore-Stevenson. She is married to Bill Stevenson, President of the University."
My eyes went wide before I could stop them.
"Pleasure to meet you Cadence," Heather said warmly.
"The pleasure is mine," I said, shaking her hand and hoping nothing on my face was giving me away.
"Are you a student here?"
"Yes. I started today."
"Healthcare Management," Jacob told her, still watching me.
"Good luck. And if you need anything at all you let me know." Heather pressed her business card into my hand, kissed her brother and walked away. I looked down at the card. She owned an HR firm. Jacob Moore’s twin sister was married to the President of the university where I was currently enrolled. Of course she was. Because my life is apparently a telenovela.
I stood there feeling mildly intimidated and trying not to show it.
"Do I make you nervous Cadence?" he asked.
The question caught me completely off guard. "Why would you make me nervous Mr. Moore?"
"Because you cannot look me in the eye."
He was right. I raised my head to look directly at him and immediately looked away again. I could not help it. He was too much. Too present. Too everything.
"You do not have to be afraid of me," he said, lifting my chin with two fingers.
I felt my breath leave my body on a one way ticket.
He stepped back as a group of people passed between us. Then he came back and leaned in close.
"When you stop being afraid," he said quietly against my ear, "and you are ready to bring your desires to life, call me."
He kissed my earlobe and walked away.
I stood there with my eyes closed for what felt like a full minute after he was gone. When I opened them he was nowhere in sight. And I could feel warmth between my legs that had absolutely nothing to do with the New Orleans heat.
Lord have mercy on me. Every single one of these men was going to be the death of me one way or another.
In all my years I had never looked at men the way I had been looking at them these past few weeks. Something had genuinely been activated in me and I was not sure there was a reverse gear. I walked through the invisible cloud of Jacob’s lingering cologne trying to absorb every last molecule of it and told myself very firmly that this was the closest I was ever going to get to him. He was dynamite. I was not ready to be near an explosion of that magnitude. If I let him in I would absolutely lose myself and I had worked too hard reconstructing myself to hand the pieces over to someone that dangerous.
I got in my car and called Marci.
She picked up on the first ring.
"Hello Cadence. Lilly wants to meet with you tomorrow after class at the Monroe Building. I will text you the address."
"Do you know what she needs?"
"No, sorry. Around one?"
"One works. And Marci, can you get a message to Evan thanking him for the flowers and the mirror?"
"Why don’t you call him yourself?"
Was she serious. There was absolutely no version of that phone call that ended well for me. I would stutter. I would say something embarrassing. He would laugh. I would die.
"I cannot call him."
"Do you want to talk about it?"
"No. I just need you to pass the message."
"Okay. How was class by the way?"
"Good. My instructors were lovely." I paused. "And I ran into Jacob."
A beat of silence.
"Jacob Moore?"
"That would be the one."
"That is right, his sister married William. Are you okay?"
"Why would I not be?"
"Because Jacob is..." She went quiet for a moment like she was choosing her words carefully. "He is manipulative Cadence. Very attractive, absolutely, but he plays these mind games where you end up doing things you never planned to do. Garrett is an angel compared to him. Jacob is genuinely dangerous for your health. He should come with a warning label and a big red X."
I laughed out loud at that.
But I also filed it away.
Because something about the way she said it told me she was not entirely joking.
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