Page 39 of A Legal Affair

“Senator Chambers.”

Daniela gasped. “BrandonChambers? The governor’s son?”

“I know, right? They went to UT together. Adele says they bonded over having rich daddies and being fine as fuck.” Kennedi grinned. “So did you get into one of Professor Thorne’s classes or not?”

“Um, well, actually—” Daniela was interrupted by a man’s voice in the background.

Kennedi responded to him before reappearing on the screen. “Gotta run, El. I need to sign a few more papers, then I’m off toa client meeting.” Her face softened. “Thanks for your listening ear.”

“Anytime, doll.” Daniela smiled. “Enjoy your new ride.”

“You know I will. And don’t worry about Aunt Pam—she’ll be in good hands.” Kennedi winked and blew her a kiss before disconnecting the call.

Smiling, Daniela tucked her phone into her backpack, then rose from the stone bench and headed toward the library to meet her study group.

Before making her way to the rooftop terrace where they awaited her, she stopped first in one of the reading rooms to search for a book she needed for her torts class. She wandered down rows of mahogany-paneled bookcases filled with leather-bound tomes before finally locating the right aisle.

Unfortunately, it was already occupied. By none other than Caleb Thorne.

She felt a fresh spurt of anger, though she’d just spent the past hour in his class trying her best to pretend what he did with his students wasn’t any of her concern. But she couldn’t lie to herself. She felt some type of way over what she’d learned about him from Shara Adler, but there wasn’t a damn thing she could do about it.

Resolutely squaring her shoulders, she started down the aisle, scanning thick leather spines as she went, praying she would find what she needed before she reached him.

No such luck.

“Professor Thorne,” she greeted him, as if she’d just noticed him standing there.

He barely glanced up from the book he’d been thumbing through. “Miss Moreau,” he murmured.

Was it just her imagination, or was there an edge to his deep voice?

“Excuse me,” she said, hitching her chin toward a segment of books at his midsection.

He stepped aside, but not by much.

Biting back a sigh of irritation, Daniela moved in beside him and knelt in front of the bookcase. She ran her fingers over the spines until she found the volume she was looking for, pulling it off the shelf and cracking it open.

“Is everything all right?” Caleb asked without looking up from his book. “You left rather abruptly after class.”

She felt a surge of feminine satisfaction to know he’d been watching her. “Everything’s fine,” she told him. “I just had to take a personal call.”

Let him think it had been her boyfriend, she mused. Let him care.

His next query, deceptively nonchalant, brought a triumphant smile to her lips. “Nothing dire, I hope?”

“Mmm, I guess that depends on your perspective,” she purred, letting her gaze deliberately wander up his thick denim-clad legs, over the impressive bulge at his crotch, past the broadness of his chest and the strong column of his throat, to his unsmiling, sexy mouth.

She allowed her gaze to linger there before finally lifting her eyes to meet his, shivering at the piercing intensity in those dark, magnificent pools. “You know how it is,” she said silkily.

She could practically see the muscles of his jaw tightening beneath his beard.

“You might want to make your boyfriend aware of the hours you’re in class,” he said in a voice edged with steel.

Daniela swallowed another smile. “Yes, sir,” she promised sweetly. She thumbed through the contents of her book a minute longer, then decided she’d better go find her study mates before they came looking for her.

As she began to straighten from her kneeling position, Caleb moved at the exact same time, reaching around her to return his book to the shelf. The sudden shift was uncalculated.

And devastatingly explosive.