Beauty and the Professor (A Modern Fairy Tale Duet 1)

Before Erin could process the sweet, almost personal tone, the woman stepped closer to Blake. The office was small, so perhaps the close quarters could be explained that way. But it didn’t feel like it. As if dismissing Erin from sight and from mind, as if Erin were as deaf and dumb as the file cabinet, the woman spoke intimately.

“Lord knows I tried to get you to come back here after the accident.”

“It had been a week,” he said dryly.

“Well, the important thing is that you’re here now, and things can go back to the way they were. I have to admit, I’ve missed you, Blake.”

Erin stared, giving up any pretense that she was cleaning, that she wasn’t watching. She finally put her finger on what she sensed from Professor Jenkins: possession. It was the same way Erin looked at Blake, like she knew him so well, like she owned some part of him.

If she’d had her doubts, the dark expression on Blake’s face sealed the deal. He and Professor Jenkins had definitely been lovers, she just knew it.

Maybe more, maybe committed.

Which shouldn’t matter but somehow did. Erin trusted Blake, and they were together now. He wasn’t about to cheat on her the second her back was turned…or when she was right there in the room. Then again they hadn’t made any commitments.

And they weren’t allowed to tell anyone they were together. Though she tried so hard not to think about it…it made her feel like a dirty little secret.

“That was a long time ago, Melinda,” he said softly.

She hesitated, as if she wasn’t expecting that, then laughed. “We were both young and stupid then. Things have changed.”

He shook his head. His smile was more of a grimace. “Not that much.”

A small sound escaped Erin.

Professor Jenkins looked over, as if just noticing she was still here. “Maybe you can finish up here another time,” she told Erin, her voice hard. “I need to have a private talk with Dr. Morris.”

“No, Melinda,” he said, sliding past her to open the door. “We don’t need to have a private talk, and she doesn’t have to go.”

He was going to tell her, Erin realized. Whether he said the words or not, he’d give it away. And somehow she knew that Melinda Jenkins was vindictive enough to use it against him…and her. He needed this job to return to the world, to become part of it again. She needed to complete her final research paper and get it approved by the board.

“No, that’s okay,” she said quickly. “I have a class soon anyway. I’ll just go.”

Blake frowned, clearly ready to countermand her, so she grabbed her backpack and stumbled out the door before he could stop her. Melinda’s shrill laugh followed her down the hallway. More words about making up for lost time.

Erin sped up, the tiles blurring under her feet and tears glazing her eyes.

Damn it.

She just felt so small and unimportant, even though she didn’t have a reason to be, not really. Blake hadn’t done anything wrong, and neither had Professor Jenkins. Erin was the third wheel, the young, poor college student who had seduced him.

When was the last time he’d seen another woman before he and Erin had hooked up? And she had paraded around his house twice a week, fawning over him with a ridiculous crush. No wonder he’d had sex with her. Any man would have.

That didn’t mean he’d want to continue. It didn’t mean he should.

Maybe he was better off with someone like Melinda. She could help establish him in the real world better with his colleagues at the university. She had the financial means to match him, the right image to stand beside him. He wouldn’t have to hide his relationship with her. Would they also have noontime sex in his office?

It made Erin want to throw something.

Her phone vibrated from the front pocket of her backpack.

She pulled it out to see her mother’s smiling face on the small, dim screen. Her stomach dropped. With a lingering glance at Blake’s office door, she pushed through the doors leading outside, blinking as the sun blinded her.

“Hey, Mom.”

“Are you okay?” The worry in her mother’s voice made guilt pool in her belly. She usually called once a week, sometim

es more. But ever since she’d started seeing Blake, it had gotten harder to talk to her mother and still keep her secret.