I hadn’t had the chance to meet my co-teacher yet because he was on a leave. But today, Professor Pattison was introducing us.
Once inside the building, I was transported to a world I’d missed for a whole year. A place full of hustling and bustling young people eager to learn…and have nonstop sex.
Grinning from ear to ear, I walked down the hallway and turned the corner till the very end where I found Professor Pattison’s office.
“Professor Ferro.” He greeted me with a firm handshake.
I might have returned the shake with a little too much enthusiasm. Being here, hearing that designation with my last name, not Declan’s, made me so elated. By the look on his face and the way he withdrew his hand, I’d say I was too elated for my own good.Tone it down, Belle. You don’t want to come off as a nutcase.
“Just in time.” He gestured for me to take a seat. When I did, he adjusted his brown suit jacket and sat behind his desk, a formal smile on his clean-shaved face. I was surprised when Katrina told me he was around fifty-years-old. He looked too much younger to be even forty. His dark blond hair didn’t have a hint of a single gray one or a receding line. He had sharp, blue eyes, a healthy tan, a fit, tall body…I didn’t get it. Should I ask him what his secret was or was that too much?
“I’ve just sent for Professor Asher, your co-teacher for the next few months,” he said. “You will have to work together on a schedule and the rest of the arrangement. I decided it would be best to leave it to both of you because I’d like you to work at your own pace at first.
“I’m sure you’ll find cooperating with Professor Asher to be an easy task. He is one of our finest, been working here for ten years, which means he knows everyone and can help you with anything you need around campus. Can I get you anything until he arrives?”
“Thank you. I’ve already had my coffee,” I said. “I…can’t thank you enough, though, for giving me this chance to work with you. I can’t wait to start.”
“It’s our pleasure to have you, Professor.”
Someone knocked on the door. Must be my new colleague. I hoped he wasn’t a snob or a sleaze. Those were the worst in Academia.
My gaze shifted to the door as it opened. A man carrying a black briefcase that matched his suit took one step inside the office. Then his gaze fell on me, and he stopped in his tracks, his hand tightening around the knob.
Hello sexy, suave and sophisticated.
I always had a thing for professor glasses, and young me thought Declan was sexy as hell with them on. Now, I hated everything Declan, but I still associated the glasses with sexiness in my subconscious.
And this man… He rocked them.
Didn’t Professor Pattison say my co-teacher had been working here for ten years? That would make him in his forties, thirty-five, at least.
Well, that one looked much younger than that, even with the glasses. Maybe even younger than I was. How was that possible? What was it with the men here looking younger than they were supposed to be? There must be something in the water in Oregon.
Note to self: consider Botox, you wrinkly hag.
But it wasn’t only the glasses or the slim fit suit on that body of an athlete, not a college professor, that held me in place, unable to move my eyes away from his face.
He had something else. Something…almost mesmerizing.
A rare masculinity that radiated from him in waves, pulling me to him against my will. His face too beautiful to be real. Even his scent warm and sensual in the strangest way.
I didn’t like that.
I didn’t like his charms having that crazy effect on me. I’d just seen the man, and I was already fantasizing about doing nasty things I should never be doing to a colleague at a workplace, especially a prestigious university such as here.
“Come in, Joshua,” Professor Pattison said.
Yes, come in, Josh-ooh-wah! Get inside. Break that awkward stare I can’t bring myself to break. Please?
Why wasn’t he moving? Why wasn’t he looking away?
And…was that a good stare or a bad stare? Like ‘you’re so gorgeous I fell in love with you from first sight’ stare? Or ‘I hate your guts for no reason. I’m going to make your life a living hell then murder you in your sleep’ stare?”
My heart was racing, my head spinning, but somehow, I was calm. There was something extraordinary about this man. Even if he was picturing how to snap my neck in his head, I felt soothed by his existence.
Professor Pattison cleared his throat. “Come meet the department’s newest addition. Professor Isabella Ferro is going to be teaching here with us.”
Joshua’s head snapped toward him. It was a few moments before he finally left the doorknob, closed the door and walked to the seat before me.
