by Linda Kage
A nanosecond later, I scrambled from my chair and snagged the note off my board. Whipping it open, I gaped slack-jawed at the words he’d written in a sloppy, bold scrawl.
“The greatest scholars are not usually the wisest people.” - Geoffrey Chaucer.
A second later, I shook my head and grinned. “Touché, Mr. Gamble. Touché.”
Literary scholar or not, I’d just made a huge mistake; I had let Noel Gamble know how much he affected me.
I was still rattled by the time I eased back into my chair. I stared at my ereader but couldn’t make myself reopen the story I’d been reading. All I could think about was—
My desk phone rang.
I answered without paying attention to what I was doing.
“Hey,” an upbeat male voice entered my ear. “Are we still on for tomorrow night?”
“What?” I shook my head. “Who is this?”
“It’s, uh...It’s Philip. Philip Chaplain...from the—”
“Oh, my God. I’m sorry. Of course.” Who else would it be? Wasn’t like I had an active social life. “I wasn’t thinking. Please excuse me. I have my Friday brain on.”
He gave an uncertain chuckle. “It’s fine. Been a long week.”
Boy, hadn’t it. “Yes, it has.”
“Look, about tomorrow...” When he paused, I knew he was going to cancel. Damn. This had to be a record; I’d bombed my date before even going on it.
“Something came up...” Yep, I knew it. Something came up...unavoidable...maybe some other time...blah, blah, blah. We can still be friends. Don’t call me, I’ll call you. “So do you think we could just meet there at, say, seven thirty?”
It took me a moment to realize what he was asking. I’d been expecting the usual brush-off. Meeting there totally threw me for a loop.
“Oh! Uh...sure. Wait, where exactly are we meeting?”
“The Forbidden Nightclub. It’s on Second between Grand and Admiral. Huge place. Amazing drinks. I think you’ll like it.”
I’d never been there before, hadn’t even heard of it, and clubs were definitely not my thing. But I agreed because I’d already bought a dress for the occasion and I wanted—no, I needed—a reason to get my mind off a certain student of mine. “That sounds great. I’ll see you there.”
CHAPTER NINE
"Few people dare now to say that two beings have fallen in love because they have looked at each other. Yet it is in this way that love begins, and in this way only.” - Victor Hugo, Les Misérables
~NOEL~
The club was more crowded than usual. I swiped a white towel across the beading sweat on my brow as I glanced at the swarming bodies swamping the other side of the bar.
When a waitress appeared with a round tray full of empty bottles, I lifted my chin to her in greeting. “Tips any good tonight?”
“Oh yeah.” She wiggled her eyebrows before tossing the empties into the nearby trash. The familiar clink and shattering glass almost comforted me because it had become so common. But that was the only comfort I felt this evening.
I should’ve had the night off, yet in the past nine days since the twins had quit, I’d been stuck behind the bar of Forbidden all fucking nine of those days. I’d had plans to meet up with Tianna and her friend, Marci, at the frat party for my long-overdue threesome tonight. It’d been almost six weeks since I’d been inside a woman. That was a dry spell for me.
It was probably what had me thinking dirty thoughts about my English professor too. Lately, I thought about her just before I went to sleep. When my head was nestled deep in a pillow and my eyes had just fluttered closed, there she’d come, wavering into my subconscious until I’d officially had way-more-than-one wet dream about her.
I still couldn’t believe I’d almost kissed her in her office yesterday morning. It had to be the most embarrassing, horrifying thing I’d ever done.
It was impossible to tell whether she’d played dumb afterward, or if she honestly hadn’t had a clue how close I’d come to leaning in and devouring her mouth. I was just grateful she hadn’t made an issue of it.
But it heaped on one more reason why I really, really, really needed to find a woman for a nice, satisfying release. And soon. Except, Jessie, damn her, just had to call me into work. With Ten out of town visiting his family and the new guy, Lowe, doing something or other with his girlfriend, that left me and Pick unwillingly dragged in on our nights off.
“What can we get you, sweetheart?” Pick asked the waitress as she rested her elbows against the bar and drew in a deep, bracing breath as if she needed a day off too.
“Need a double rum and Coke with two Coors in a bottle. And I’ll take some valium if you have any.”
“Aww, it can’t be that bad.” Pick reached across the counter to massage her temples for her while I snagged a tumbler to make her order.
I chuckled. “Yeah, you should try working ladies’ night for us sometime. Then I’ll listen to you talk about a bad shift.”
She cocked me a dirty look only to close her eyes and moan when Pick hit a sensitive area. Shaking my head over how effortlessly he always made the girls sigh, I set the rum and Coke on a cocktail napkin and fished the beers out of the cooler.
Holding the neck of the two bottles in one hand as I flipped off the lids with an opener, I glanced toward Pick and the waitress just as a woman crossed my line of sight between people directly behind them. I barely caught a glimpse of her profile, but it was enough for me to crane my neck some more and try to catch another.
She’d been wearing a dark, backless dress that flared out from her tiny waist and ended just above her knees. Her slim, delicate shoulders had looked creamy pale and inviting. And her hair...wow, her hair had been dark, but not black. Maybe a deep red-brown mahogany. She’d swept one side up and pinned it in a loose roll, while she’d let the other side tumble down her back.
I loved it when women did that, leaving one side all mysterious and hidden away under a bounty of rich curls, while the other half tempted me with an open view of bare flesh. I always wanted to stroll up behind them and bend my head to kiss the exposed shoulder while I tunneled my fingers through the free-flowing part to caress what was hidden beneath. Best of both worlds.
And with this lady wearing a backless dress, my mind was already digging up visuals of how I could just keep kissing my way down to those twin dimples at the top of her ass.
I shuddered from the sudden weight tightening my pants and blindly set the two bottles on the waiting tray beside Pick.
“Thanks, Noel,” the waitress called as I wandered off. I didn’t even acknowledge her as I leaned a little over the bar to squint into the crowd.
Damn. Where had she gone?
“Hey, can we get a screaming orgasm over here?”
Gnashing my teeth, I turned toward three girls motioning me over. They were all scantily dressed and smoking hot, but I was still tempted to keep searching for the lady in the black backless number.
Controlling myself, I shook my head free of little black dresses and returned to my duties. Grinning obligingly at the three, I lowered the timbre of my voice. “Why, yes. Yes, you can. Who wants to scream first?”
They giggled and drew in closer, leaning on the bar to give me a glimpse down all three tops. One wasn’t wearing a bra. Nice.
Braless giggled. “We meant the drink.”
“Oh, oh.” I pressed my hand to my brow, feigning embarrassment. “Silly me. Of course you did. Well, you can have some of those, too.” I winked at her. “Be right back.”
Pick sidled up beside me as I was whipping up the first concoction for them. “Sure you can handle all three of those lovely honeys over there, partner?” he asked, spelling out his double meaning when he wiggled his eyebrows, making the silver stud in one glint under the dim overhead lights.
I snorted. “Trust me. I got this.”
He chuckled but stepped back to help some guy who approached for an order. I returned to the girls and passed out their drin
ks. They paid in cash, and when they stuffed a couple extra bills into my tip jar, I smiled a little wider. “Thanks.”
“Hey, aren’t you Noel Gamble, the quarterback for ESU?” the tallest of the group finally gained the courage to ask.
“Yep. That’s me.” Always thrilled when someone recognized my face for something good, I propped my elbows onto the bar as I leaned in toward them. “Have you ladies seen me play?”
Two shook their heads while a third said not-so-successfully under her breath, “I’d sure like to see you play.”
The grin I sent her pretty much said, anytime, sweetheart, though honestly, my mind was still on Black Dress. But flirting made me more money, so I kept flirting.
“When do you get off work?” another asked.
I opened my mouth to dish out another impish response that would hopefully drag more tip money from them when I saw someone approach the bar and sit at a stool at the other end. I glanced over and nearly swallowed my tongue when I saw her. Gorgeous dark hair tumbled over one shoulder, and that elusive black dress glimmered slightly in the overhead lights.
“Excuse me,” I murmured and deserted the three co-eds to approach my mystery lady. Nothing was going to keep me from at least securing her digits.
But Pick was beating me to her. I grabbed his arm and jerked him back, unsettling his balance.
“What the fuck?” he said, stumbling into me.
“I changed my mind. You can have those three. I want her instead.”
He snickered and glanced back at the woman who was busy with her head bent, searching for something in her clutch purse that matched the fabric of her dress. When he looked back toward the flirty girls, a slow grin spread across his face.
“Well, hell, Gamble. I think this is the first time you’ve preferred quality over quantity. I’m impressed.”
“Just go take care of the airheads.” I pushed him toward the three who were still lingering by the bar.
He laughed at my obvious fixation with the lone woman, but complied, strolling toward the trio.
I took a deep breath, a little anxious about the first impression I was going to give, and stepped toward her. She didn’t notice my approach, which gave me a moment to plan my strategy.
In the end, I decided to go simple.
“What can I get you?” I asked, setting my hands on the edge of the bar and bracing my arms wide because I knew damn well how doing that made my muscles strain through my shirt. I let my slow smile start to spread as she lifted her face. Chicks always claimed to dig my smile as much as they did my biceps.
She looked up, and I held my breath, waiting for the moment our eyes connected. A jolt tore through me. I’d been hoping for a pretty face, and fuck, I wasn’t disappointed. But the crushed emotion I saw in a pair of green, green eyes caught me off guard. They were wide and lined with some dark, smoky eye makeup that made her look all sexy and edible. But so very, very sad. My protective instincts kicked into gear, ready to rip apart whoever had hurt her.
Then I glanced at her mouth. Her lips were ripe and edible and shaped divinely, just like...wait a second. I knew those lips. They were way too familiar, even as they parted in surprise.
“Holy shit.” I pulled back, zipping my gaze back up to her eyes and then all around her face, to take in the entire picture.
The fucking hot woman was my fucking hot English professor.
Jaw dropping, I couldn’t have contained my shock if I tried.
“Dr. Kavanagh?”
What. The. Hell? This wouldn’t do. It wouldn’t do at all. I’d been craving some woman to help me take my mind off my teacher. And the universe had sent me her wearing a hot black dress instead? Un-fucking-believable.
I was immediately pissed for two reasons. This was totally not helping me get over my fixation on her. And the mystery woman who might’ve actually helped me do that turned out to be just as forbidden as she was, because they were one and the same. I narrowed my eyes and clenched my teeth. Well, this was just peachy.
***
"I wondered if he realized that the way he looked at me was far more intimate than copping a feel could ever be.” - Maggie Stiefvater, Shiver
***
~ASPEN~
I’d been stood up. I hadn’t talked to Philip since the day before when we’d revised our plans, but I figured we were still on.
Oh, how wrong I was.
But I was already here, so I stayed and kept looking for him. I didn’t want to become a lame loser and go home alone in the nicest, sexiest dress I owned to sulk on the couch as I ate bon-bons and watched reruns of my one true love, Damon, on The Vampire Diaries. I wanted my damn date to show.
So, here I wandered through clusters of partying friends, feeling alone and abandoned. Uncomfortable to find myself surrounded by so many college students, I wondered why Philip had even chosen this place. Wouldn’t he want a break from this crowd?
Thank God, no one had recognized me as their English professor yet, but I’d certainly recognized a few of them. Or maybe I should say no one recognized me until I finally approached the bar after searching the place for Philip for the past forty-five minutes.
But as one of my student’s eyes widened in shock and he uttered, “Dr. Kavanagh?” I gaped back at the football star, deciding Joseph Conrad had been a genius when he’d written Heart of Darkness and coined the phrase, The horror, the horror! Because that was exactly how I felt. Absolutely horrified.
Number one way to make my night a living hell: toss Noel Gamble into the mix while I was being stood up on a date.
I moaned out a little whimper under my breath, wondering what I’d ever done to karma to make it kick me in the tits like this. If Philip showed up now, I’d never be able to concentrate on him because Noel looked incredible in that tight black shirt. And his bulky arms were so...
Oh, yum.
Why did he have to work here of all places?
Clearing my throat, I straightened my shoulders and tried to pretend it was perfectly normal for me to be here, wearing the most-revealing clothes I owned, and relishing some potent alcohol to ease my mangled nerves.
“Y-yes. I...I’ll take a Bud Light Lime.” There. That had sounded good...enough. Normal, average woman ordering a drink from a normal average bartender...who just so happened to star in all the dirty dreams I’d had this past week.
He gaped at me a second longer, then shook his head and dully repeated, “Bud Light Lime,” as if he was a recorder. But as soon as the words seemed to soak into his brain, he wrinkled his brow and snorted. “A Bud Light Lime? Really?”
“What?” I frowned, curious about the venom in his voice.
He shrugged. “I don’t know. I just thought you’d be more the type to order a blushing champagne in a fluted glass.” He fluttered his eyelashes to complete his mockery.
His contempt shocked me. I would’ve thought he’d despise me a lot less by now. I’d finally given him an A. I’d assured him I would keep his secret. I’d even pretended not to notice when he’d almost kissed me. It hurt to realize he still thought of me as the bitch of the century.
“Well, I’m not,” I mumbled, trying to hide the pain. “May I have a Bud Light Lime or do I need to go somewhere else for a drink?”
“No, no need to go. I can hook you up.” A smirk twisted his lips, and his eyes went hard. “I.D. please.”
When he held out his hand, I gaped at his extended palm. “You’re kidding me?”
His expression glittered with evil relish as he slowly shook his head. “No, ma’am. I am not. Underage drinking is serious business, and we here at Forbidden don't allow that kind of activity.”
Muttering under my breath, I snapped open the clasp on my purse and began to dig around. “You’re getting a kick out of this, aren’t you, Gamble?” I ripped my driver’s license free and thrust it his way.
“You have no idea,” he murmured as he slipped the plastic from my fingers before lowering his gaze. A second later, his eyebrows
crinkled. “Aspen, huh?”
Folding my arms over my chest, I scowled. “That’s right. What about it?”
Noel shook his head. “Nothing. I just didn’t know your first name.”
I ground my teeth and held out my hand. “May I have my ID back, now? Noel?”
He pulled it away from me and shook his head. “Hold on. I still need to check your age.” When his gaze flickered to my birth date, his jaw dropped open. “Holy shit, you’re only twenty-three?” His face zipped up. “How the hell do you have a PhD at twenty-three?”
I sighed and flicked some hair out of my eyes impatiently. “Let’s see. I graduated high school at fifteen, earned my bachelor’s degree at eighteen, my masters at twenty, and I received my doctorate at the top of my class last year. Add that up, and that makes me...what do you know, twenty-three.”
Shaking his head slowly back and forth, he gawked. “Well, shit. Graduated high school at fifteen? Fuck, I should’ve known you were one of those freaky girl geniuses.” Then he hissed a derisive snort.
“I’m also thirsty.” I leaned forward and yanked my driver’s license from his hand. “How about that drink now?”
“Sure, Professor.” His voice was contemptuous as he turned away and sauntered off. I glared after him, upset to realize everything I thought we’d shared yesterday must’ve been nothing but a figment of my imagination. And yet I wasn’t quite upset enough not to ogle his tight ass in those blue jeans.
Seriously. Wow.
Forcing myself to look away, I opened my purse and pretended to dig around, though I’d already had my money ready to pay before I’d even seen who was behind the counter.
“Here.” His voice was none too polite as he clunked an open bottle on the counter before me.
“Thank you.” I gave a regal nod and took a tentative sip.
He stayed in front of me after I paid, watching me drink. His stance brooded as if he couldn’t wait for me to leave, but his eyes...oh God, his eyes.
