Professor Cline Revealed (The Professor #1) (14 page)

Emmalynn

I arrived at school Monday morning with butterflies in my stomach. I’d spent the rest of the weekend hanging out with Melanie and Quinn, not thinking about what had transpired Friday night. But that morning, reality had set in. I was anxious and nervous. I wasn’t sure how I was supposed to act. I knew I should pretend it had never happened, but I also knew I wouldn’t be able to once I saw him. I had a feeling that the anger from that night would come to the surface as soon as I saw his face.

I kept my eyes focused on the ground as I approached the door to the classroom, just in case he wasn’t in there already and walked around the corner from his office. My stomach was in knots as I reached for the door and opened it. My eyes immediately looking toward his desk to see it was empty. Relief flowed through me as I walked toward it and signed my name.

Get it together, Em. You’re being stupid.

I turned from the desk and walked toward the stairs to get to my seat when the door opened and he walked in.

Just my luck.

I stopped where I was as he came in wearing a dark blue suit with a briefcase in hand. My heart raced as he made eye contact with me for a second before averting his eyes and making his way to his desk. I frowned and felt overheated as I continued up the stairs and settled into my seat. He’d looked at me as if he was disgusted, causing the anxious feeling in the pit of my stomach to turn to regret for thinking I could do what I did and not feel anything. That one look was like a stab to the gut. Anger still stirred, but it was overpowered by anguish and remorse.

Gah, I’m so stupid.

I busied myself getting my things ready for class, not noticing anyone was next to me until I heard him speak.

“Good morning.”

Turning toward the voice, I smiled as I saw Brian sitting next to me, setting up his laptop.

“Good morning.”

“Thank you for sending me all of your notes from Monday. I really appreciate it. I was going to send you an email, but I wanted to thank you in person,” he said with a smile.

I returned his smile.
He really is a good-looking guy
. My thoughts were interrupted as I heard a bang from the front of the room. I turned toward the noise to see Mason had slammed his phone down on his desk and was running a hand through his hair. He looked disheveled and pissed.

“I guess someone’s having a bad morning,” Brian whispered close to my ear.

I spun back to him with a frown to see he was only a few inches away from me. I backed away and quickly looked back down at Mason. He was looking at me, but averted his eyes just as quickly as mine met his.

I didn’t understand what that was all about.

“Hopefully his mood doesn’t project onto his teaching for the day,” Brian stated as he backed away and opened his notebook.

I looked at him with a small smile and opened a new Word document on my laptop. I hoped it wouldn’t either.

“Okay, class,” Mason started as he picked up a stack of papers and held it out for Steven. “We’ve done some book work, and now it’s time to get your hands a little dirty. The papers being passed around are from a cold case back in the eighties.” He paced the room and stuck his hands in his pockets. “I want you to partner up and review all the documents. Become familiar with the case and use all the resources available. How would you prosecute the case? Next Wednesday, I want to hear your thoughts.” He stopped pacing as a girl in front of me raised her hand. “Yes?”

“Is this for a grade?”

He took his hands out of his pocket and walked to stand behind his desk. “Did you read your syllabus, Ms. Jenkins?” he asked in an aggravated tone.

She looked around the room as if to see how many of us were staring. I felt embarrassed for her and a little upset he was being so rude. How hard was it to just say ‘refer to your syllabus’ or he could just tell her no. He didn’t have to embarrass her in front of everyone.

“Y-yes, I did.”

“Then you already know the answer.” He pulled the chair out from his desk and took a seat as he shuffled through some papers. We were all quiet as we waited for what to do next, not moving or saying a word. Then he looked up from his papers and slammed his hand down on his desk. “What are you all just sitting there for? Pick your partners and get started.”

I jumped at his tone and picked up the stapled packet of paper in front of me.

“Do you want to partner up?” Brian asked from beside me.

“Sure.” I hadn’t really talked to anyone else in the class, so I didn’t see a problem in having him as a partner. “But you better bring your A game because I don’t want to look bad.”

He smiled. “Don’t worry about that. I’m all over this,” he said as he started to flip through the pages. “Let’s start by reading the case files so we can figure out exactly what it is we’re trying to prosecute. Then we’ll go from there.”

I nodded and looked down at my paper. I read the first paragraph, but I couldn’t concentrate. My eyes drifted up to look at Mason who was slouched over, typing something on his laptop. I couldn’t help but wonder what was wrong with him, wonder why he was acting the way he was. A part of me wondered if he was upset he had to see me every day.
I’m not exactly thrilled about it, either.
Maybe he regretted the whole encounter and was wishing he hadn’t gone through with it. I didn’t want to have that thought flowing through my mind, but I couldn’t help but think it, especially with the way he’d looked at me when he walked into class.

“Can you believe this case?”

Startled out of my own thoughts, I turned to look at Brian. “What?”

He pointed down at his paper. “This case. She had to have done it. The whole thing screams murder, but they didn’t have any substantial evidence against the wife.”

I looked down at my own paper and scanned over it, shaking my head. “I haven’t gotten that far yet. Sorry.”
There I was telling him he better bring his A game and I’m lost in my own head.

“No worries. Hey, I was wondering if maybe you wanted to meet tomorrow sometime so we could really go over all this information. I have one class in the morning, but I’ll be out by ten.”

“Sure, I only have one class on Tuesdays, as well, so ten would work. Do you want to meet at the library?”

“Sounds good to me. Can I get your number to text you just in case something comes up?” He pulled his phone from his back pocket and held it down under the table, so Mason wouldn’t catch him with it, I was sure.

“Yeah.” I read my number out to him and he programmed it into his phone.

“Okay, let’s get back to reading this. Let’s write down our thoughts about the case and we’ll go over it tomorrow. Does that sound good?”

I nodded, looked back down at my paper and started reading. It was hard for me to concentrate on what I was reading and not look up at Mason, but once I got a little deeper into the case, everything else disappeared. That kind of case was why I wanted to be a lawyer. The challenge was what set my determination on fire.

Once I got three-fourths of the way done, I had almost four pages of notes written down.

“Damn. Looks like we’ll have a lot to discuss tomorrow,” Brian said with a laugh as he pointed to my laptop screen.

I smiled. “I told you. I don’t want to look bad.”

I noticed everyone packing up their things and looked down at the clock on my laptop. I hadn’t even realized how long I’d been studying the case. I started grabbing my stuff and noticed Mason standing down by the door as I followed Brian down the stairs. Knots formed in my stomach as we made our way closer. I wasn’t sure I’d ever get over the feelings he stirred within me.

Keeping my eyes downcast, I made it to the door, avoiding Mason completely until Brian turned toward me in the doorway, stopping me in my tracks. My eyes lifted up to meet Brian’s but bypassed him entirely and went straight to Mason. He was staring in my direction, but he wasn’t looking at me; he was glaring at the side of Brian’s head.

“I’ll text you tomorrow when I get there.”

I glanced away from Mason and looked at Brian with a smile, all the while trying to hold back the flush I knew was forming on my skin.

“Okay, I’ll see you around ten.” I waved to him as he started his way down the hall.

I turned to head down the hall when his voice stopped me.

“Ms. Blake, may I speak with you for a moment?” It was a quiet voice, but commanding at the same time.

I closed my eyes as I let his request sink in. I hated that just the sound of his voice caused a tingle to flow through my body.
I should just keep walking
. I didn’t want to have those reactions to him, but I had no control over them.

Turning toward the classroom again, I glared at him as I made my way back into the room to stand just inside the threshold. The rest of the students made their exit and Mason closed the door, turning the lock as he stepped away and started to pace. I frowned as I watched him, again running a hand through his hair.

“Did you need something, Professor?” I asked, keeping it professional. I wasn’t sure why he wanted to see me, but I knew deep down it had nothing to do with class and all to do with us personally.

He stopped his pacing and looked toward me with a chuckle. “I’m ‘Professor’ now, am I?” He shook his head and walked toward his desk. I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to do, so I just stayed where I was.

He rested his hands on his desk and stared down at it, not focusing on anything. Just staring. It was making me uncomfortable. Even though I’d done intimate things with the man, I still knew nothing about him and he seemed off-kilter at the moment.

I took a step forward to get his attention and his head popped up to look at me. His brow was furrowed and he looked pissed.

“Look, I’m just going to—”

Running his arms along his desk, he swiped everything off the top before I could even finish my sentence.

I watched as his laptop and school papers fell to the floor in a heap. Shock and fear had taken over and my ‘fight or flight’ instinct kicked in as he stalked toward me with an expression I couldn’t even explain.

Turning toward the doorway, I quickly ran for it and reached for the knob, not remembering he’d locked the door.

I frantically tried to unlock it, but arms wrapped around my waist and pulled me away.

“Shhhhh,” he whispered in my ear as I tried to wiggle out of his grasp.

“Let me go or I’m going to scream, asshole,” I managed to say confidently through my shaky voice.

He let me go and I immediately turned around and glared at him. “What the fuck is your problem?” A tear fell free from my eye and I lifted a hand to wipe it away.

I should’ve turned around and walked right out that door, but I couldn’t. I didn’t understand why I felt I needed to stay, but I did, even though I had a ball of fury brewing in my stomach.

Lifting a hand, he rubbed at his temple before running his hand over his eyes. “I didn’t mean to scare you,” he said as he looked at me with concern, taking a step toward me. I took a step back, still not sure of his stability, and he held his hands up to me. “I’m not going to hurt you, Emma. I would never hurt you.” He walked closer to me and I stayed where I was, both staring into each other’s eyes.

My heart raced as we stood like that, not moving. He just looked down at me and studied my face. It felt overly intimate to openly stare at him, to get a look at every flaw.

Maybe that was what he was doing. Maybe he wanted me to get a good look at him. And although the whole encounter felt weird and out of place, I got to see more of him in that moment than he’d probably showed anyone else.

Lifting a hand once again, he caressed my cheek and rubbed his thumb under my eye to wipe what was left of my tears. I closed my eyes and leaned into him, not being able to resist his touch on my skin. I didn’t want to have that reaction to him, but it was like he trapped me under a spell. I was entranced by him every time.

I opened my eyes to see him leaning toward me and I gasped in surprise as his lips connected with mine. I hadn’t been expecting him to kiss me, but unbeknownst to the reasonable side of my brain, I let him explore my mouth with his. I moaned as his tongue slowly caressed mine and leaned into him as one of his hands moved from my face to the back of my head, running his fingers through my hair. His kiss became urgent, fast and hard and I lifted my hands and placed them on his chest. I could feel how fast his heart was pounding, which probably matched my own.

My need for him was almost unbearable, the ache between my legs making its presence known as it pulsated, begging to be touched. I should’ve pulled away from him and walked out after the night we’d had only three days earlier, but I was no longer in control. His hands drifted down my shoulders, to my waist, and settled on my ass. He gave me a hard squeeze then lifted me up to wrap my legs around his waist, never breaking our kiss.

I dropped my bag and draped my arms around his neck, resisting the urge to grind myself on him as he turned and walked toward his desk. I knew what was going to happen and although I knew it was wrong, that any minute we could get caught, I didn’t care. All I wanted in that moment was him. All I wanted was for him to make me feel, to bring me up so high I wouldn’t be afraid to fall.