by Anthology
“We all think it would be nice for them to meet the woman who is carrying their grand-daughter.”
Darn it! That does make sense.
“Maybe we can do the meet and greet after she is born,” I said with a hopeful smile, not giving up.
He chuckled. “I don’t think that would go well with my parents.”
I sighed. “What time?”
“Six.”
“She’ll be ready.”
The little meddler.
That night, Hunter was driving me back home from his parents’ house.
“You know my mom was serious about us naming her Giselle, right?”
I laughed. “I don’t think that would be the right fit.”
“Well, it’s better than my dad wanting us to name her Poppy.”
We both laughed. “I like them. They’re really funny.”
He smiled. “They like you, too.”
“Are you sure? You don’t think I was too awkward?”
“No, you were perfect.”
I blushed and turned to look out the window so he couldn’t see my face.
We drove the rest of the way in awkward silence, with the soft music playing in the background.
We finally pulled up to my house, and he walked me to the door.
“I actually had a great time tonight. Thank you.”
He laughed. “Told you.”
I rolled my eyes with a smile. “Don’t rub it in.”
He smiled. “I’ll see you tomorrow. Make sure you get a lot of rest,” he warned. He knew that I was a night person, so I liked to stay up all night, watching movies and eating. Obviously he didn’t approve with me being pregnant.
I smiled mischievously. “Yes, sir.”
He shook his head in amusement, because he knew that I was going to do it anyway. “At least study for your test Monday. We haven’t had our tutoring session since Wednesday.”
“We’ll see.”
He chuckled. “I don’t know what I’m going to do with you.” He then leaned down and kissed me on my cheek. “Goodnight.”
He walked back to his car, while I stood there, frozen in place. Once he drove off, I slowly lifted my hand to my cheek.
Chapter 10
1 Month later
“Hello?”
“I’m hungry.”
There was a long silence.
“Then get something from the kitchen.”
“I want pizza and some sherbet, and I don’t have any in the fridge. Can you get me some?”
“You do realize it’s three in the morning and we have Lamaze class at ten and lunch with our parents right after, right?”
“Yeah, so?”
“So it’s three in the morning, and I want to go to sleep.”
“Well, you’re not sleep now.”
More silence.
“How about you wait until morning? I’ll get you some then.”
“I don’t want to wait. I’m hungry now,” I whined.
Silence.
“I’ll be over.”
I smiled. “Thank you.”
“Yeah, whatever,” he grumbled.
“What took so long?”
“It’s only been thirty minutes.”
“That’s too long.”
He groaned and placed the food on the bed. I immediately opened the box and dug into the pizza, taking a huge bite. I closed my eyes and moaned.
“I saw Mr. Matthews at the store,” he said, breaking me out of my food-induced trance.
“Why?”
“He was picking up his wife. She works there.”
“Oh.”
“Of course he wanted to know why I was there so early.”
“You didn’t tell him anything, right?” I asked nervously.
“Of course not, but you do owe me.”
“Okay.”
He then started taking off his shoes.
“Um, what are you doing?”
“Going back to sleep.” He pulled off his shirt, and I swear my heart stopped.
“You’re not sleeping here.”
“I’m not driving back home sleepy.” He then proceeded to get in beside me. He rolled over, his back facing me, and pulled the covers over himself.
“Hunter?”
Silence.
“Hunter?”
More silence.
I then leaned over and started poking his cheek. “Hunter,” I said in a sing-song voice. “Wake up.”
“Eat your food, Eve.”
“Not until you get out of my bed.”
“That’s not happening.”
“It is if you want me to leave you alone.” I continued poking his cheek with a mischievous smile on my face. “Hunter,” I sang.
He groaned. “All right, all right,” he said, sitting up. He then looked over at my pizza, and before I could stop him, he reached over and grabbed a slice and took a big bite out of it.
“Hey, that’s mine!”
“Well, I bought it.” He moaned. “This is good.”
“Give me back my pizza, “I yelled, leaning over him to get it.
He turned and took another bite, finishing the slice, while holding me back.
“Thanks, Eve. That was just what I needed,” he said with a smirk.
I snarled at him and hit him with a pillow.
He snatched the pillow away and grabbed my wrists. “That’s enough,” he said with a glare.
I glared back at him. “It will be when you leave.”
“Look, you asked me to come here…”
“And now I don’t need you anymore.”
“I didn’t have to come, you know. I could have just stayed in bed and let you starve.”
“And why didn’t you?”
He leaned in and kissed me. My eyes were wide in shock, but apparently my mouth didn’t have any issues. It immediately started moving with his. I then closed my eyes and allowed myself to be swept away by the moment.
This is wrong.
I immediately pulled back.
“We shouldn’t be doing this,” I said, not looking him in the eyes.
He stared at me for a couple of seconds and then finally pulled back. He leaned back against the headboard with his eyes closed.
“We have a long day today. We should get some sleep,” I said. I suddenly didn’t feel hungry anymore. I just wanted to go to sleep and forget this happened, even for a few hours.
“I got it,” he said quietly as he reached for the pizza.
He took the food downstairs, and when he came back, I was already in bed facing away from his side. The room went dark, and then I felt the bed dip. He got in, with his back turned. This time I didn’t object.
It was awhile before we went to sleep, but when I did, all I dreamed about was him, and I knew I was in too deep.
Chapter 11
Two Months later
“Are you and Mr. Knight dating?”
“Why would you think that?” I asked calmly, despite the chaos going on inside.
“My friend saw you two together at the doctor’s office. Is he helping you raise the baby?” a girl from class asked, giving me a disgusted look.
Did she just insinuate that I roped him in to take care of another man’s baby?
Before I could say anything, Penny jumped in. “Listen, nosy, he’s taken by my cousin.”
What?
“He was just there, offering her a ride. So take your big ears somewhere else.”
She gasped and turned red. She then turned around with a huff and stormed away.
I whirled on Penny. “Why did you say that? You know I hate lying!”
“First of all, she was judging you, and second, I’m the one who lied. Not you.”
“You know what, it doesn’t even matter. What matters is that people are already talking. Who knows how long it takes before it gets to Mr. Matthews or higher? What if they already know? Mr. Matthews has been looking at me funny recently.”
“Eve, breathe. It was just two people. It do
esn’t mean anything.”
“It means everything, Penny!”
I turned around and started to walk away.
“Wait, where are you going?”
“To end this.”
I sat down in the chair while Hunter gave me a worried look. “Are you okay? Is it the baby?”
“No, no, we’re both fine. It’s just…” I couldn’t find the words to say, so I just looked down at my hands. I heard movement, and he was moving to sit in the chair beside me. He grabbed my hands with one hand and lifted up my head with the other.
“You can tell me anything.”
Looking into his eyes, I knew that was true, but he wasn’t going to like it.
“I think that whatever we have going on between us should stop.”
He leaned back, dropping my hands. “What?”
I closed my eyes. “I only agreed to this so that you could be an active father in our daughter’s life, but I think we have gone beyond that.” I finally opened my eyes, and he was staring at me with a blank expression on his face. I already started this. I might as well finish it.
“People are starting to talk and…”
“Is that what this is about?”
I saw that he was getting upset.
“Hunter, you know my reputation means everything to me.”
“And? Who cares what people say? You, I, and God knows what’s really true, so that’s what should matter.”
“But…”
“This isn’t about your reputation. This is about you being too scared to give me a chance.”
I became angry. “That is not true.”
“Oh really?”
“Yes. But it’s not just about that. It’s also about you losing your job. What kind of person would I be if I let you lose it because of me?”
“I don’t care about my job, Eve. Yes, I love teaching, but I’m sure I can find other ways to accomplish that. I can’t find another love.”
I sat there in shock. “What?”
He got down on his knees and grabbed my face. “Eve, I love you.”
Tears started to fall down my cheeks.
“You make me feel things I have never felt before. One minute we could be laughing and the next we could be arguing, but I know that either way, I just want to kiss you senseless. I can see you with bed hair and pizza sauce around your mouth, with chocolate ice cream on your shirt, and I still think that there is no one more beautiful. You hate your awkward personality. You think you’re always saying something stupid or you’re not saying things in the right way, but I find it intriguing. It makes you unique. You have one of the kindest hearts I have ever seen. I have also never seen anyone so driven. You felt like the world was against you for twenty years, but you didn’t let that stop you. You went back to school, and you made the dean’s list. That’s a huge accomplishment, and I am so proud of you.
“I’m also proud of what kind of mother you have become. At first you were scared, and you didn’t know how you were going to do it, but you pushed forward, and now when I look in your eyes, I see how much love you have for her. When you tell me the dreams you have for her, it brightens my day, because I see those same dreams. Dreams where we are a family.”
He wipes away a tear. “I also see the love you have for me. You don’t want to admit it because you’re scared, and I get that. I’m scared too, but I want us to be scared together. I will face Mr. Matthews and the state’s wrath if I have to. I will even give up this job, but I won’t give you up. Please don’t make the choice for me.”
When I came in here today, I was ready to let him go. It would have hurt, but I knew that it would have been for the best. But seeing him on his knees, wiping away my tears, looking at me with so much love, I couldn’t do it. This man had brought light into my life that I never knew I lacked. He gave me confidence and happiness and laughter. And most importantly, he gave me my daughter. I couldn’t lose that light.
I leaned my forehead on his.
“I won’t.”
Our lips then met each other’s, and I never felt so more at home.
Epilogue
The nurse laid a baby wrapped in a pink blanket in my arms. I looked in the baby’s big green eyes, and a huge smile spread across my face. “Harper,” I said with so much emotion. I then looked up at Hunter. “That’s the name that popped in my head as soon as I saw her.”
He smiled. “I love it.” He then leaned down and kissed her forehead. “Daddy will always be here for you and Mommy.”
About the Author
Allysia is a twenty-three year old who lives in a small town in Georgia. In her spare time, she reads, sleeps, writes, watch movies/TV, and sings. She’s a huge hopeless romantic, so expect her stories to be filled with them. She thought about writing in the sixth grade but didn’t start writing until the ninth grade. During that time, she has written five short stories that were never published. After that, she took a short break but then started back writing when she discovered Wattpad. Five or six years later, she had her first short story published by Crave Publishing.
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Educating the Professor
By Dakota Star
Chapter 1
Thump, thump, thump. The hangover from last night’s celebration lingered, giving Rebecca one more reason to hate turning forty. She gulped down headache medicine with a sip of water, thoughts about how she celebrated both her birthday and the six-month anniversary of her divorce making her groan. It had been a night to remember and to forget.
Glancing at the phone on her desk, she checked the time and then grabbed her outline for the Advanced Writing and Literature seminar at Green State, a small university tucked away in the lush hills of Vermont. Her pointed high-heeled shoes clicked across the tiles as she avoided overstuffed backpacks and clumps of students lounging in the bright corridor. One hundred-plus scholars waited for her in the lecture hall, and as always, exhilaration to teach class filled her.
She paused before the double doors to ensure her navy blue suit jacket was buttoned and her skirt spotless. She pushed stray strands of her near-black, shoulder-length mane behind her ears. That morning a gray hair had popped out, and Rebecca had plucked the offending strand in the mirror with dismay. She shook the thought away as she entered the large movie theater-like room full of worn and graffitied desks, some already occupied. She greeted students as she made her way to the podium and white board in front.
“Good morning, Dr. Locklear,” her graduate assistant said from a seat in the first row.
“I keep telling you to call me Rebecca.” She sent a broad smile to the competent, blond twenty-four-year-old graduate assistant. Luke did everything from grading papers and advising students to taking over the occasional class. He’d make a great professor in his own right once he completed his PhD.
Rebecca used the minutes before her lecture to settle in. She logged onto the computer and pulled up slides and videos on rhetoric that went along with the previous class assignment. Even the laziest of the students usually found the visuals interesting. Her eyes drifted to the man in the front row. He sat in the same seat and attended every lecture at a time when most students found ways to avoid class and the corresponding work. One undergrad’s grandmother had died four times in a single semester.
Older than the average college student, the man had reached his late twenties. No matter what his age, he was devastatingly handsome with dark, heavy stubble defining chiseled cheeks, sea blue eyes, and a full mop of dark brown hair. While he looked slightly scruffy in stained jeans and work boots, intelligence lit his eyes as his gaze met hers.
He stood, stretching languidly like a cat that had been basking in the sun, and sauntered up to her.
She shook it, not expecting the spark that came with the contact. “Thank you. It’s always nice to hear from students.” She emphasized the last word. He radiated sensuality, causing a long-forgotten ache in her stomach and lower.
He released her hand after holding it a second too long. “I’d love to speak with you about the paper due next week. I’m really struggling.”
For the first time in her career, Rebecca wished she had a reason to say no. She intuited that being alone with this man might remind her of all she’d been missing in those last years of her marriage.
She stumbled to find the right words to say, almost laughing out loud at her school girl reaction. Lacking the right words would become a huge hindrance for an English professor trying to rise in the ranks of academia. Not that it mattered, she couldn’t avoid a meeting with an undergrad, no matter how she phrased it. Office hours were in her contract.
She shook the crazy thoughts aside. She dealt with attractive students, both male and female, all the time. It must be the hangover. She’d control her overly emotional response. She valued control.
“Of course,” she said. “I’m free this afternoon at five. Stop by then.”
With a smile and a nod, he returned to his seat.
Her lecture lacked luster, which peeved the professor. Though she knew the material by heart, she couldn’t focus. Instead, her eyes kept returning to Jayson. He appeared happy to distract her. He smiled or quirked an eyebrow every time their gazes met. The simple gestures made her panties moist. Her mind strayed as the lecture about rhetoric flowed from memory.
Why had her ex-husband never created such intense arousal, even when they first met? she asked herself as she packed up her notes after class.
