I was going to extend my hand for a proper greeting—not because I wanted to feel his wedding-band-free hand around mine or anything like that—but he wasn’t even looking at me when he unbuttoned his jacket and sat. He set his briefcase on his lap, a deep grimace on his face, ignoring me completely.
“As I was saying, Professor Ferro will be teaching General Psychology and Abnormal Psychology this semester,” Professor Pattison said.
“That’s what I teach.” Joshua’s voice was deep and low, the kind that hit you right in the core and silenced you to listen.
“That’s why I chose you to be her co-teacher for the first—”
“That’s a terrible idea.”
I cocked a brow, and then I looked at the Head of Department.
He fiddled with his tie, giving me another managerial smile. “Why would you say—”
“You really think I can work with her?” Joshua interrupted again.
Okay. Professor sexy, suave and sophisticated was officially a dickhead. At first, I thought this might be a payroll issue. Sharing classes could mean a deduction sometimes, which wasn’t the case here. Professor Pattison assured me of that, and since that dickhead had just been informed, I thought that was his problem.
But then he spoke again, and apparently, the issue was that I had a vagina.
I couldn’t remain silent anymore. “I’m right here, sitting across from you. I can hear everything you say.”
“Good.”
I gaped at him in disbelief. “Excuse you? If you have a problem with me in particular, Professor, say it. Do you even know me to not want to work with me?” Glaring at him, I grabbed my bag. “You know what? Forget it.” I jumped to my feet. “Thank you so much, Professor Pattison, but I do not need a co-teacher. I’m fully capable of running my classes by myself.”
“Nobody doubts that.” My boss rose from his seat. “Could you please give us a minute, Professor?”
Fuming, I just stared at him.
He ushered me to the door, apologized on behalf of that asshole and asked me to wait outside.
I dropped on the couch in the waiting area, taking it at my bag handle, shooting a death glare at dickhead Asher before Pattison closed the door.
What a way to start. One moment I thought the day was getting even better; how lucky I was that my co-teacher turned out to be pure hotness behind professor glasses. The next he crapped on my first day at work with his misogynist shit.
He takes one look at me, sees I’m a woman and decides I’m not good enough?
Men were pigs. All of them. I made the right decision when I swore them off for all eternity. Relationships with them…not their bodies. Those I could still use to my benefit. Last night was enough proofjust sexwas an outstanding arrangement. I’d be an idiot to give that up after years of—
The door opened, and the asshole burst out. “Let’s go.”
My face contorted in utter disgust. Who the hell did he think he was? He didn’t even look at me, and he was already one stride away from leaving the office? “What the…”
“We have class in thirty minutes.”
“If you think for one second that I will—”
“Look, I’m sorry.”
That took me by surprise. I didn’t expect a man like him to apologize, not this fast, not ever. I felt…betrayed. I wasn’t ready to drop this feud yet. “Do not interrupt me, even if it is for an apology.”
He twisted and stalked toward me, his gaze penetrating me now, unwavering like in those first seconds he’d laid his eyes on me. Was he going to give me more of his crap? I stood to level the confrontation. Bring it, asshole.
“Of course.” He murdered my hopes at a decent verbal fight where I could blow all that steam stuffed in me. “I’d like you to know that was not my best behavior in there.”
Are you shitting me right now? Where the fuck did that civil act come from? And what the fuck were those eyes made of? I’d never seen that color in my life. Grayish violet blue, like cold steel being shoved in a furnace.
Do not distract me with your beauty and sudden politeness. Return to the douchebag facade and let me have my payback, slashing you with my words.“You think?”
