The Boy Who Has No Faith (Soulless 5)

“True. Then maybe we need to cut your hours here a bit.”

“Can’t do that.”

He was spread way too thin, and now I understood why he couldn’t bring himself to work on his story unless I forced him to do it. When he worked on his laptop at home, he wasn’t just doing emails or whatever. He was doing all the back-end paperwork to keep that company alive. “You have more time than you did before you hired me, so we’ll carve out some time to get those things done. Leave it to me.” I set the plate on the coffee table. “It’s time for us to leave for your lecture.”

He glanced at the time on his watch then scarfed down the rest of his pizza. It was the first time he’d ever taken a break, but once he had to focus again, he was on his feet and ready to move on to the next thing.

“Your binder is coded with today’s lecture, so it’s easy to flip to. I also printed out all the worksheets for the students. I’ll hand them out when we get there.”

He shouldered his bag then turned to me, looking at me with that unreadable, hard stare. “Great…thanks.”

It was a long two hours.

Since I couldn’t even follow what he was lecturing about, I had nothing to keep me entertained. I pulled out my laptop and worked on other things, but my eyes kept flicking back to the gorgeous man making his way across his whiteboards, getting his notes down without even having to check his papers often. Once his mind started going, he just did it from memory.

I glanced at the other students to see if they were as bewildered as I was.

Nope.

Sometimes when he raised his arm to start his notes at the top of the whiteboard, his shirt would lift and would give us all a nice peek at his tight ass and his muscled back. When he crossed his arms and studied the whiteboard, all the large muscles of his arms were even more obvious, along with the veins that ran like rivers to his hands. When he brushed his fingers across his lips as he was absorbed in his thoughts, he looked like a model posing for a camera. He had such a focused expression that it was brooding and sexy.

Was anyone else distracted by this?

And his passion was so fiery. Once his lecture started to go, he just ran with it, his excitement obvious in his tone and his expression. When he worked out problems with his students, he engaged them all, treating it like a small study session.

I’d never seen anyone be so passionate about something.

At the end of the two-hour session, the students started to pack up and file out.

Bryan walked up to his desk. “Dr. Hamilton, my mom is already responding well to her treatment.”

A smile spread across Derek’s face, one so genuine and beautiful. “That makes me very happy, Bryan.”

“Dr. Hamilton is really brilliant. He’s kinda hard to talk to, but it’s obvious that he cares about my mom. Is that a coincidence…the last names?”

Derek gave a long pause, as if he weren’t sure if he wanted to share that information. “He’s my father.”

Bryan gave a slow nod. “I guess that makes more sense now, why you were able to arrange it. Well, thank you. You have no idea how much this has impacted my family. I know it’s not much, but…” He pulled out a card from his bag and handed it to him. “It’s from my parents.”

Derek opened it and read through it. “It’s a very kind gesture. Thank you.”

Bryan walked out.

Derek looked at the card again when the student was gone, like that card meant a lot more than he let on to Bryan. Instead of throwing it away, he slipped it into his bag like he wanted to hold on to it.

One student was left. Her name was Isabella. I only knew that because she was the only female in the class, and I’d noticed her name when I graded the exams. She got a good score, and she was one of the top students.

She walked up to his desk. “Dr. Hamilton, can I speak to you in private?”

“Go ahead.” He put the rest of his things in the satchel.

She glanced over her shoulder. “Could you excuse your assistant?”

He stared at her for a while before he turned to me and gave me a subtle nod.

I grabbed my things and walked into the hallway. The door was open, so I leaned against the wall and waited. I could sit in the car, but I wanted to talk to him about that card the second I saw him.

Footsteps sounded, and by the pace, I could tell they didn’t belong to Derek.

“Leave it open.” His deep voice gave the command. “How can I help you, Ms. Richmond?”