“Shelley … ? Wait a minute,” he called after her retreating figure. He grasped her arm and spun her around. “What’s the matter now?”
“Nothing,” she said, wrenching her arm from his fingers.
“Like hell there’s not.” He advanced far enough ahead of her to block her path. “Tell me what happened between the third floor a
nd the do—Oh, Miss Elliot saw us together. Is that what you’re worried about?”
“Did you see the look on her face? She looked at me like … Never mind. Good night.” She tried to pass him. He wouldn’t let her.
“What do you care what she thinks? Is her opinion all that important?”
She rubbed her forehead wearily. It had begun to pound. “No, not her specifically. Everybody. You’re my teacher—”
He jerked her erect, his hands gripping her shoulders. “I’m a man first, dammit. And you’re a woman first, before you’re anything else. Besides, I don’t think that’s the real problem, is it? What other roadblocks have you constructed in your mind?”
His perceptiveness frightened her and she stiffened in fear and anger. “Let me go.” The manner in which she gave the order brooked no argument and his hands slowly relaxed, then dropped to his sides.
“I’m sorry,” he said, glancing around.
She saw the unconscious gesture that revealed so much. “You see, Grant. You’re wary, too. Wary of what people will think and say about you if they see us as a couple.”
“All right,” he said grudgingly. “I’ll admit to a little caution. I’d be a fool not to be concerned about my reputation being lambasted again. But it won’t be, Shelley. If we’re open and aboveboard, who’s going to accuse us of anything unseemly?”
She responded to his words with a negative shake of her head. “It doesn’t work that way. People are always looking for the worst in others. That’s human nature.”
“You’re avoiding the real issue, aren’t you?” he demanded with alarming insight. “What’s really troubling you, Shelley?”
“Nothing,” she insisted in a strangled tone. “I have to go.” She walked around him, going straight to her car and unlocking the door. She maintained her rigid posture until she drove past him, then she slumped back in the seat.
He was right. He posed problems in her life he couldn’t even guess at. And she didn’t know how she was going to deal with any of them.
CHAPTER 4
Why weren’t you in class today? Are you sick?”
It had been two days since she’d seen Grant in the library. The last thing she’d expected was to find him on her doorstep. “No. I’m not sick.”
“Why weren’t you in class?”
“Do you personally call on all your students who cut class, Mr. Chapman? Doesn’t that take up a lot of your valuable time?”
He looked thoroughly annoyed. Putting his hands on his hips, he shifted his weight to one leg. His eyes, under the thick brows, took a long, slow, scornful survey of her. “You’re a coward.”
“You’re right.”
Her quick agreement surprised him. He had expected an angry outburst of denial. His exasperation manifested itself in a long sigh. “May I come in?”
“No.”
“Yes.” He backed her into the room until he could close the door behind him. She sputtered a protest, but he silenced it. “I don’t think you want to thrash this out while standing on your front porch.”
She glared at him before turning her back to go stand at the window. “Say what you have to say. It will make no difference. I’ve dropped your class.”
“Why?”
“I have too heavy a load this semester,” she said, still keeping her back to him.
“Try again.”