Page 36 of Racing Heat (The Forbidden Heat #2)

~CASSIE~

“Wanna go to dinner tonight?” Jase asks me as we’re moving through the halls of the stadium.

“Really?” I ask. “I thought we talked about just lying low at your house tonight. At least that was what you said when I left you this morning.”

I’ve been spending a lot of time with Jase.

It’s been great. I’ve enjoyed this time with him.

We’ve developed a new attitude toward Mac and Danny knowing.

Fuck it has been the name of the game. There isn’t anything we can do about them knowing, so it’s easier to just roll with it.

It’s almost like playing a game of chicken with Mac.

She dances around it but doesn’t really say the words out loud.

I just do my best to ignore her or divert the conversation.

She doesn’t push, which is great. I’ll tell her eventually; I just have to find the right time.

“I thought it might be nice,” he says. “There’s this new restaurant I’d like to try. Thought maybe we could try it together. Do you like sushi?”

“I do. I really do, actually.” I stare at him for minute. “I hadn’t pictured you as someone who would eat sushi, Mr. Fish and Chips.”

He laughs and I decide it’s one of my favorite sounds of his, the other one being when he moans my name as he drives into me.

“Yeah, I like sushi. Are you in or what?”

“You bet I am. I look forward to our date tonight.” I wink at him.

He smiles wide. “Yeah, I guess it’s a date.”

I laugh and look over at him. “Would you rather I not put a label on this? Or on our evenings in? We really haven’t talked about what we are…”

“Hey, stop. I like that you’re calling our little evening tonight a date. I consider the time you spend with me dates. I know this is complicated, but I like spending time with you. I don’t want you to worry about everyone finding out. We’ll figure this out.”

I smile. “I wish I could touch you right now.” I look around the hallway at the training center. “But I’m afraid.”

“I know. One of these days you won’t have to be.”

I stare at him, wishing he would explain what he means. “Are you leaving? Because Hen will kill me if she loses you.”

He chuckles. “No, I’m not going anywhere, and neither are you. There has to be a way around this. I’ll figure it out,” he promises.

I just nod. I like what he’s saying, but I doubt it’s that simple.

He raises his eyebrows. “You look like you don’t believe me.”

I lean toward him so that we are almost touching. “Careful. You might be making promises you can’t keep. I’m gonna head out so that I can shower and get ready for our date. What time should I be ready?”

“See you at seven.” Jase runs a fingertip over my forearm. “But I meant what I said.”

I just nod and turn on my heel to leave.

“Have a good night,” he calls after me.

Rolling my eyes, I turn around to face him. “You’re crazy.”

“Maybe” is all he says.

Later that night, I’m walking out of my apartment so that I can sneak around the back where he should be picking me up. As I start down the stairs, I hear a horn honking.

There he is, parked right beside my Jeep, waiting for me. I look around and hurry over to the car. Jase gets out car and rushes to open my door for me. I move quickly, but he’s quicker.

“Have you lost your ever-loving mind?” I hiss as I climb into the car.

“It’s our date night. I wanted to do it right.” He winks at me before heading back around to his side of the car. He’s dressed nice tonight—black dress pants and a navy-blue polo. The darker colors accent his dark features, making him look sexy.

“You look beautiful tonight,” he says when he makes it back into the car.

“Thank you.”

“And this is for you.” He reaches behind him and pulls out a single purple rose. “I know they say that red ones are nicer, and that purple isn’t as romantic, but I happen to like purple roses.

I grin at him. “They’re easily becoming a favorite of mine too.”

Jase starts the car and eases out of the space. “I have to get you out of here before I end up just carrying you back to your place.”

We drive out of the complex. Mac’s car is here.

Same with Hendrix’s and Amelia’s. I wonder if any of them noticed his car or me leaving with him.

My phone has been switched to silent mode, so I won’t hear or see any of the texts from my friends who might be asking me if I want to do dinner.

I hate to avoid them, but I don’t want to lie again.

So, avoidance seems to be the best route forward.

A comfortable silence falls over the car.

All I can hear is the soft sounds of music playing.

I look over at the display. It says Picture This.

I make a mental note to look them up later.

I haven’t heard of them before. Every once in a while, Jase hums along to them, so they must be one of his favorites.

I relax into the leather, watching the city of Tampa pass us by and listening to him hum.

The trip to the restaurant is closer than it normally is. Usually, he takes me far out of town so that no one will see us. But I recognize the area. It’s a few blocks over from the stadium, I think.

“Are you feeling cocky tonight?” I ask him as he slows to a stop in the valet line.

“Why would you say that?”

“Normally, we drive so much farther than this to have dinner.”

“I thought we’d be safe. Don’t worry, we’re going to be fine. Wait here.” He hops out of the car and hand the keys to the valet. Taking his ticket, he comes around to get me out of the car. “Let’s go enjoy our night.”

I place my hand in his and let him lead me into the restaurant. “Wow, this is so nice.”

It’s modern and sleek. The lighting is dim, and all the tables are booths with high backs to give you and your dining partner privacy.

“This is perfect. You’re right. I think we’ll be safe here.” I lean into him, and he kisses the top of my head. It’s nice to be out with him like this, in our city and not having to drive so far away to enjoy dinner. Sometimes the ride is so long that I find myself fighting sleep until we get home.

“Good, I’m glad you think so too.”

We’re shown to our private booth in the back of the restaurant.

Once we’re seated, I ask him, “Did you ask to be placed in the back?”

“I thought this might be the best way for us to have a night out.” He shrugs. “I know it’s not fun going so far away to eat, so this was my solution. What do you think?”

“I think it’s perfect.”

I pick up my menu and begin browsing. The sushi selection here is huge. My mouth waters thinking of all the things I could try. It’s definitely a step up from the grocery store packs that I pick up at Wegmans.

“Do you want some wine? Or they have a fishbowl drink we could get,” he teases me.

“I think some wine would be nice. I don’t need to drink a fishbowl. I’d rather not have a headache like I did when we were at The Backwoods last time.”

“We were fine until you all suggested those shots.”

“Which ones?” I ask him with a laugh.

“It was a fun night.”

“Are you referring to the time we spent with our friends, or the strip tease I gave you afterward?”

His voice drops to a sexy low. “I think I liked the strip tease the best. Hanging out with our friends was stressful, but we managed to survive it.”

“We sure did.”

We order our wine and some edamame as an appetizer. Jase isn’t too adventurous on the sushi; he doesn’t eat anything raw. But we manage to pick out an assortment of four rolls that we can try. He even adds in a few raw rolls for me. It’s served to us quickly.

“This is delicious.” I pop another roll in my mouth and moan at the freshness. “You’re really going to spoil me with this. I don’t know that I’ll be able to hop on over to Wegmans and grab a pack of their sushi without remembering how delicious this place is.”

“I’m glad you’re enjoying it. I really like it here. Not sure if it’s the sushi or the company.”

“Yeah, that’s a toss-up,” I tease him and stick my tongue out at him.

“Real mature,” he teases back.

“Well, I am so much younger than you,” I remind him.

“And here I thought we were going to make it through the night without you teasing me about my age.”

“Sorry.” I reach across the table and brush his hand. “While we’re here, I’ll be on my best behavior.”

“Good. But when we get back to my place, that rule goes out the window.”

“Deal,” I promise.

“Are you thinking about dessert?” Jase picks up the menu and begins reading me the options. “There’s a decadent chocolate cake, cheesecake tiramisu, gelato, and an apple tart. Any of that sound good to you?”

I look around at all the food we still have left. “Are you kidding? Look at all this sushi. Don’t you want to finish this?”

“Yeah, I wanna finish it, but I think you might want something sweet. Something substantial for when you need your strength later tonight.”

“Oh, that sounds promising.”

“Fuck,” he mutters. His gaze is pinned over the booth.

“What?” I say, looking behind him.

There stands August, and of course he’s looking right at us.

“Is August is the one who told you about this restaurant?” I ask him.

“Yeah, and he’s coming this way. Of course he couldn’t just leave it be. He had to ruin our night.”

“He doesn’t know what he’s ruining,” I remind him.

“This doesn’t look good.” Jase pinches the bridge of his nose.

“No, you’re right. This doesn’t look good,” August replies. “Jase, why don’t you scoot in a bit. I don’t want to have to stand here and draw even more attention to this situation.”

“No one would recognize me,” I say.

“Well, we need some discretion nonetheless,” he fires back.

Jase scoots over and August takes a seat on his side of the booth. “Dinner looked like it was good,” he comments.

I shake my head. I can’t believe this is happening. I place my hands in my lap, wringing them. I’m so scared and nervous right now and August is sitting there like he’s talking to old friends.

“Looks like you took me up on my dinner recommendation,” August says.

I’m not sure what to say. I decide it’s best not to show him my cards.

“Alright, August, what do you want to know?” Jase asks, cutting to the chase.

“I interrupted date night, didn’t I?”

“Yes,” we both say.

“How long?”

“He picked me up at seven,” I quip.

“Funny. But this isn’t a laughing matter.” August pins me to the spot with his gaze, but my comment made Jase smile, so there’s that. “What’s going on here? Is this a first date? A fiftieth? What’s happening between the two of you?”

I sigh. “We broke the fraternization policy. We’ve been hanging out and going to dinners for a few weeks now.”

Jase nods. “Yeah, but it wasn’t like she pursued me or anything. It just kind of happened. We have something special here, August.”

“You can’t have something special here, Jase.

You’re not allowed to have something special.

The policy is very clear, and you both broke it.

” He shakes his head. “I knew there was something going on with you that night at the bar, but I thought it was just alcohol making me see things that weren’t there.

I can’t believe you would do this, Jase. ”

“August, I—” Jase begins, but August cuts me off.

“And you,” he says, turning his attention to me.

“Back off her,” Jase jumps to my defense.

August turns to him. “I will not. I’m trying to build a team here, Jase. You know how hard I’m working for this team to be respected. I don’t need it constantly rocked with scandal. This cannot happen.”

“So, me,” I say.

“Yeah, you.” August shakes his head. “I can’t believe you were this naive. You’re a fucking rookie, Cassie. A rookie. You don’t have the backing that he does. This was a colossal fuckup on both of your parts. We’ll talk about this tomorrow.”

August rises and looks at both of us. “Do not go home together, do not pass go, and do not fuck this up anymore. Do you hear me?” We both nod. “I’m going to need fucking verbal confirmation.”

“Yes,” we say in unison.

“Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go explain to my date why I no longer have an appetite and that we’ll have to reschedule.” August walks away in a huff without waiting for us to respond.

Jase motions toward our server to bring us the check.

“I’m going to call an Uber,” I tell him, pulling out my phone.

“I can take you home,” Jase replies quickly.

“No, I think I’ll be taking an Uber.” I request I ride. “I’m going to wait out front.”

“Cassie, wait. Can’t we talk about this?” Jase pleads.

“I’m sorry, we can’t. We’re just so fucked right now.”

He sighs. “I’m sorry.”

“I’m not mad at you. I’m mad at the situation. And right now, the only thing I want is some space. So please give that to me while I wait to see what my fate holds.”

I leave him sitting there. I hear him say my name, but I don’t look back. I have to get home and have the colossal freakout that I’m currently internally having, because I may have just ruined my career and my life.