Daddy's Dirty Boss

He sat down alongside me and surveyed the room one final time, then wrapped his arm around my shoulders and congratulated me on quite a nice little space.

I rested my head against him and groaned, but it was ok. Truly. This was ok.

I was studying antiques and collectibles after all. My passion. My excitement.

“Just as well this isn’t finance I’m about to dive into this term,” I said, and he nodded.

“Sure is, princess. You’re going to fly at this degree. You’ll be the best in the land when you’re done.”

I ran through a list of the lecturers over again, beaming about how lucky I was about some of them, and he was all in agreement. Especially about some of the more recent ones that were coming.

“I really am going to be an auctioneer,” I said, so looking forward to having a sale room of my own one day.

“Yes,” he agreed. “You most certainly are going to become an auctioneer.”

“Make sure you don’t let Miss Tiddles destroy the curtains,” I said, and he planted a very heavy kiss on my lips before he got to his feet.

“Make sure you keep me informed of who these new lecturers are this term. I may well know some of them. I can hook you up for an extra info coffee out of lesson time.”

“Extra bonuses,” I giggled. “Do you ever stop being a good ally every second of the way in this career?”

“I guess we’ll have to see about that, won’t we?” he asked, and I got to my feet with a groan to walk him to the car.

I waved him away in my little purple motor, laughing as he held up a hand and beeped the horn.

My heart was pounding to a fresh new tune, and my tummy was fluttering at the thought of being without him. But there was excitement too. Excitement and so much ambition to do my very best in this place.

The first week of socials was intense. I made friends – not least with pink-haired Emily, who shared a load of her humour with Holly. I hung out dancing in bars with student discos, and exploring campus, and speculating about our lectures with a load of other antiques students I met up with through the online portal.

And then it arrived. My very first one.

I was so nervous. Insanely nervous and insanely excited.

This was it. Truly it. My first step into my real degree course.

Mum and Dad had sent me a fresh load of pings with good luck, sweetie all over them, and I was buzzing. Really buzzing and really alive.

I sent off a final message to Miles as I headed on in there, telling him I was ready to roll and would let him know who was presenting this string of lectures just as soon as I found out.

Maybe Charles Hanson, he replied. He’ll be a great speaker.

I only hoped it was Charles Hanson, I’d watched him so many times on the daytime TV shows over the years.

There was a wave from Kelly Ryan when I got inside, one of the girls I’d met on the portal. I took a seat right next to her with a smile, and got my notebook ready with my pen all set to scribble, and the room was a simmer of voices for our very first lecture.

Here it was. The real deal.

I was a tingle of nerves when the back door opened and in stepped our new expert. I prayed it was Charles, I really did, knowing full well he was passionate about Maple and Co. furniture just like I was.

But it wasn’t Charles Hanson.

It was a tall, broad man in a suit, with salt and pepper hair at his temples.

It was a man with a smirk on his face, and a huge amount of confidence in his posture and his stare, scanning right across the seating until his eyes landed on mine.

Holy. Bloody. Crap.

I shook my head in disbelief as he cleared his throat and addressed the room.

“Good afternoon,” he said. “I’m Miles Lindon of Lindon and Associates, looking very forward to be here with you this term as your guest lecturer.”

I couldn’t hold back my laugh, keeping it as quiet as possible as he called up his first lecture slide for the presentation.

It was only when he took a break in the topic to let everyone finish their scribbles that I caught his eye for one extremely long second.

I love you, I mouthed, and his smile spoke it right back.

I realised all over again in that moment just how much he loved me right back.

I held back a long time when the lesson was finished, slowly bagging up my pens and notepads as everyone streamed on out of there. He was still standing at his lecture desk. shuffling papers of his own when I finally stepped on down there to the front, and leant with my hand right alongside him.