Page 40 of Evergreen

I opened my mouth, then closed it again. My heart was hammering in my chest so hard I thought I might die on the spot. Linden was waiting for an answer, his golden eyes watching me with careful hope.

“I don’t know how to do this,” I said finally, my voice barely above a whisper. “Like, actually date someone. I’ve never... I’ve never wanted to before.”

“But you want to now?” he asked, and there was something vulnerable in his expression that made me want to protect him, which was weird because he was literally three times my size.

“Yeah,” I admitted, running a hand through my hair. “I think I do. But I can’t promise you anything, okay? At the end of the semester… I don’t know what’ll happen.”

“Why don’t we just see what happens then?” he offered. “But at least now we can approach it truthfully, instead of pretending this is just sex.”

I thought about all the ways this could go wrong. I could end up with a broken heart, pissed off parents, or some kind of trouble with the Dean for dating my new supervisor. Maybe all three.

“Y-Yeah,” I nodded at last. “I can give that a try.”

“That’s all I ask,” he smiled. Then, with one meaty hand, pulled me down into a very gentle kiss. “You really are beautiful, you know?”

I smiled, feeling my stomach clench. “You’re just saying that because I’m sitting on your dick.”

He shook his head slowly, those golden eyes never leaving mine. “No, Sparks. I mean it. You are really beautiful.”

I didn’t trust myself to speak. So instead, I threw my arms around him, my face buried in his neck.

This big, dumb dryad was going to make me cry, and that just wasn’t something I was ready to do yet.

Nobody had ever made me feel this way.

Chapter 17

Linden

Nearly a week had passed since Cass and I had our little talk. And in that time, so much had changed.

For starters, the greenhouse was actually starting to look like a greenhouse again instead of a disaster zone. Cass had made incredible progress on the glass panels. With Professor Blackwood’s lessons and that focusing stone she’d given him, his control had improved dramatically. The panels he was installing now were nearly flawless, the work precise and careful in a way I wouldn’t have thought possible a week ago given his skill level.

But more than that, everything between us felt different. Better than I imagined it could, actually. We still had our moments of tension though. Cass was still grumpy, and still prone to making sarcastic comments at the worst possible times. But with each passing day, it got a little better. I noticed him starting to catch himself here and there before he said something rude or mean. It was progress, and that meant a hell of a lot more than him being perfect from day one.

I caught him watching me sometimes too when he thought I wasn’t looking. The way his green eyes would track my movements across the greenhouse, lingering on my hands as I worked the soil, or on my ass when I bent over to work. And I definitely wasn’t subtle about it either. I’d find excuses to stand close to him, to brush against him, to touch him in ways that weren’t strictly necessary for the work.

Nerion, of course, noticed every single time I did it.

“You two are disgustingly adorable,” he’d announced yesterday while working on another section of his canvas. “It’s gross. Honestly. Get a room.”

Cass had thrown a glove at him. I’d just shaken my head and tried not to smile too obviously.

The real challenge was keeping things professional when Professor Paulson was around. She’d definitely caught on to something being different between us, though I wasn’t sure exactly how much she suspected. There was a knowing look in her sharp eyes whenever she caught us working together, like she was waiting for us to slip up.

True to my word, I’d kept the relationship just between Cass and I. Neither of us really wanted an audience, or more of an audience than Nerion insisted on being. Keeping things private made it easier to be honest with one another. And it meant that there were no uncomfortable questions or chance of someone letting Cass’s parents know what was happening. As much as I didn’t like it, I understood his trepidations. The Purity Front was still causing trouble in the world. The last thing I wanted was for the wrong person to find out and then have them knocking on my door.

However, there was another problem on the forefront of my mind. The inevitable disaster waiting at the end of the semester. Thankfully, I was usually too busy or too naked with Cass to think about it.

“You’re thinking too loud,” Cass said, appearing beside me with a glass panel balanced carefully in his arms. “I can practically hear the gears grinding in that big green head of yours.”

“Just thinking about how much work we still have to do,” I lied smoothly, reaching out to help him position the panel into the empty frame.

He shot me a skeptical look but didn’t press. That was one of the things I appreciated about Cass. He knew when to push and when to let things go. Most of the time, anyway.

We worked in comfortable silence for a while, the afternoon light shifting around us, turning the greenhouse into a study of gold and green. More than a few of the plants had sprouted new leaves, their glossy surfaces catching the sunlight.

“So what’s the plan for tonight?” Cass asked, giving me a sideways smile.