Not wasting any more time trying to be the cool, nice professor, I ordered the students to open their books. My style was no-nonsense. I wanted to get the boring stuff out of the way so I could get to what I considered the good stuff. Life under the sea was intriguing. I had always loved the water. I had longed to find a way to marry my two interests; teach
ing and the water. A career as a marine science professor had been a dream come true when I graduated early at the age of twenty-seven and landed a job almost immediately. I had been living a good life, up until four years ago, when in an instant, everything changed.
“Is this the syllabus?” Jennie asked, holding up the paper I had handed out moments ago.
“Yes. Do you have questions?”
She wrinkled her nose. “I thought we would get more hands-on time.”
I shrugged. “This is your first class of your first year in college. Don’t you think you need to learn about the ocean before you jump in with both feet—literally?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.
Snarky perhaps, but I didn’t care. It was kids like her who had this dream of scuba diving and playing in the ocean that changed majors within a year. I pegged her for an early dropout. She would end up graduating with a business degree. Fine with me.
Drawing in a breath, and mentally preparing myself to go over what I expected from the students and what they could expect to learn, I was interrupted by a loud bang. I looked towards the door, as did the rest of the class. A young woman rushed in, looking as if she were rushing across the finish line of a marathon.
She pushed a stray blonde curl of hair out of her face, scanned the classroom before her eyes landed on me. I had suddenly lost the ability to speak. Her blue eyes locked with mine and I made a motion for her to sit, but I was sure it looked like I was swatting a bee.
“I’m sorry,” she muttered.
But I could only stare in return.
“Really sorry, uh, sir.” She smiled before walking around me and taking a seat at the assistant’s desk.
This was my assistant? I blinked before turning to look at the students who were all staring at me. Her late—and loud—arrival had left my mind blank.
Chapter Two
Tessa
Good one, Tessa. My first day at my new TA position and I’m late. I mentally kicked myself for my tardiness. It was going to be one of those days. I just knew it. As if being late weren’t bad enough, I looked like hell. My alarm hadn’t gone off. When I woke, it had been too late for a shower.
I managed to get a quick sponge bath, hitting the high spots, then rubbed on deodorant and rushed out the door, only to discover I had locked my keys in the house. I had to decide between trying to break in and retrieve the keys so I could drive to my new job or hauling ass on my bike. I’d gone with the bike.
Now, sweat pooled between my breasts, my hair was stuck to the back of my neck and my forehead. Thank God I had put on deodorant or I would have stunk up the entire room. I was too old, in my opinion, to care what a bunch of community college freshmen thought of my appearance. In fact, I didn’t much care what anybody thought on most days, but today, today I had wanted to look professional.
I looked up, wanting to get a better look at my new boss. There was something about him that drew me in. I watched him from behind, occasionally getting a glimpse of his profile. He was the epitome of tall, dark and handsome, but there was something else. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it.
He turned to look at me. I gulped, embarrassed that he had caught me staring. The look he gave me made me feel as if I was two inches tall. It was a look of irritation combined with—disgust?
It instantly pissed me off. How dare he look at me in self-righteous contempt? So I was a few minutes late. It wasn’t like I was getting paid the big bucks to make his job easier. I defiantly stared back, not willing to back down.
He turned his broad back to me once again and continued his lecture about life under the water.
“Life under the ocean is unlike anything you will ever experience up here. There’s a magical symbiotic balance that we humans will never fully understand,” he said, in a smooth voice that reminded me of melting butter.
I found myself captivated by his words. He spoke with his entire body. His shoulders moved forward, and his arms spread wide as he talked about the vastness of the world beneath the surface. His voice deepened when he spoke of the deep-sea dives he had been on and the beauty of the life that lived in the water.
I suddenly had an urge to go diving. I grabbed my phone and quickly texted Maria.
Let’s go diving soon.
Uh, why?
I smiled. My roommate was the kind of girl who called things as she saw them. She pulled no punches.
New professor. Has me fired up to dive.
Ha-Ha. Fine, maybe in a couple weeks. Busy, gotta go.