“Mr. Rutherford, can you please explain to us the Law of Superposition?” he asked in a razor sharp voice, and that silenced the entire hall. Jack jumped into his seat, probably taken off guard by the sudden question.
“Uh, Mr. Jackson, it is classification of …”
“Classification of what?”
“It is the sequence of rocks.”
“Sequence or classification?”
“Sequence.”
“Why do you use it in archeology?”
“To determine the ages and conditions of deposition.”
Nick placed the marker on the table a little too hard. “Can you please demonstrate, Mr. Rutherford?”
The shocked Jack got up from his seat and walked down to the board. Nick stepped aside, folding his arms across his chest, barely controlling his urge to start a brawl. This thing with April was disclosing so many emotions inside him that he was beginning to feel a little on the insane side. As Jack worked over the whiteboard, the entire class sat dead silent. Yeah, he too was surprised. He normally was easygoing and this sudden reaction was startling. Maybe it was time he got over April because she clearly wasn’t interested in pursuing things with him, and there was no reason for him to keep expecting like a lovesick puppy.
By the time he exited the campus, he was determined to move past April. He drove straight to his work: Leo Archeological Research Firm. It was started by his uncle decades back and now it was run by his son, Kyle Leonel Jackson. Nick was always interested in archeology, so he had joined them when he had done his graduation. Work was always a welcome distraction, and a solid distraction was exactly what he needed right now.
“You look beat, Nicky,” Kyle greeted him at the reception.
“I know.” He was in no mood for teasing and jokes. He went straight to his room and shrugged out of his jacket. He hated these suits. Grabbing a pair of jeans and a T-Shirt, he went for a shower, a cold one. He needed to wipe out April Blackstone from his mind – and body.
He was putting on his boots when Kyle walked in. “Are you heading to the site?” “Yeah.”
Kyle sat next to him. “Are you alright, man?”
“I’m fine, Kyle. Just a bit exhausted.” He couldn’t tell Kyle that he was twisted around the little finger of April Blackstone.
“You don’t need to go to the site. You can go home and rest.” And let his mind run ahead of him? No, thank you. He got up and fastened his TAG Heuer before slipping into his leather jacket. “I’ll be fine.” He was ready to leave when Kyle called him back. “Can you take the interns with you? I was planning to send them with Richard, but he is still caught up with the Holland conference.”
“Hell, no! I am already exhausted; I don’t need nagging interns on my tails. You handle them on your own, brother.” Nick stepped out of the room, and Kyle followed. “Come on, man. Two of them are really sharp. I’m already thinking of giving them an extension. They have been here for more than two weeks now. They won’t nag.”
Kyle was always the softie, and Nick shook his head.
“Fine, but I’m only doing this because you write my paycheck,” he said with a frown. Kyle gave out a loud laugh. “You know you are more than that, Nicky. This is as much yours as it’s mine.” Kyle always said that, but Nick never claimed. “Tell them to meet me downstairs in two minutes, or I’m leaving without them.” “Oh, by the way, one of them is Gerard’s daughter. You might have to keep an eye on her. She is one energetic being.” Kyle winked at him. Gerard, as in Kyle’s teacher from Harvard? he wondered as he took the stairs down instead of the elevator. Gerard was a familiar name to Nick’s ears because Kyle was always talking about him. He was the best archeologist in the hemisphere, yet his daughter was here to intern? That should be interesting.
He jogged to his car. “Mr. Jackson,” a male voice called from behind, and he turned. But what caught his eyes wasn’t the man who called him, it was the woman following him. April. What the hell was she doing here? “What the hell are you doing here?” he growled.
She looked up at him and gasped. “Nick? I mean, Mr. Jackson?” The other two guys looked at them in confusion. “What are you doing here, April?”
“I can ask you the same question. Are you following me?” she glared back at him.
“You are questioning me in my own office parking?” His words brought a wrinkle to her forehead. But before she could argue further, one of the guys said, “Mr. Kyle Jackson sent us to join you. I’m Griffin Watson. We are interns here.”
Nick looked at Griffin in disbelief. Interns? In his office? Under his wing? His gaze shifted to April. She had the same horrified expression on her face. He was trying to run away from her. And only hours later she showed up? What was karma up to?
He ignored them and got into his car. It was impossible to spend the class hours in her presence and now she was also going to torture him at his workplace. He had to talk to Kyle. He couldn’t do this. He raced the car out of the parking lot and onto the road. A minute later, an old Chevy was following him. He saw in the back mirror, it was Griffin driving with April sitting next to him and the third man in the backseat. He closed his eyes for a moment and made a prayer that God had mercy on him – and his dick because it was painfully erect and there was no solace for it from where it was expecting.
*****
April fell on her bed and groaned. Her days were painful. Mentally, physically and emotionally. School, internship, and Nick took all her energy to survive through the hours of the day. When she had started the internship, she was positive that it’d take her mind off Nick and she’d finally think of something other than him. And the first two weeks went quite well too, but then she encountered Nick bullying Jack in front of the entire class. She was unable to fathom his sudden reaction and had never seen him that furious. And then later, she came to know he was her boss too. His instant outburst had hurt her. She had no idea what to make out of it. At one place, he was desperate to have her, at the other, he was displeased to see her. Following that day, Nick was cold towards her. In the classroom, he ignored her existence. At work, he walked past her without acknowledging her. And she hated that.
She knew she was being hypocritical. She herself had told him that it was over between them, then why was she expecting him to talk to her like he did before? It appeared like the older Nick was just a dream. Because she hadn’t seen that carefree Nick from the bar, or the earlier Professor Nick for a long time. What she saw was a distant, formal, stiff and cold teacher and boss, Nicholas Jackson. She missed the earlier Nick and wanted him back. She wanted him to tease her, touch her accidentally in the classroom, kiss her senseless in his office. Her heart ached so badly for him. She wanted to be in his arms. A lone tear escaped her eye, and she closed her eyes tightly. What she desired was something she had kicked away when she had it. Now there was no way to have it back. Nick had given her what she had asked for.
“Bad night?” Griffin asked her as she stepped into her work gear. Griffin was an easy-to-go guy and slightly younger than her but shared a great passion for working at sites like her. She liked him as a friend.
“You can say that.” She just didn’t have a bad night. She was having a bad fate. “Here, this may help.” He presented her a Hershey’s energy bar with a grin. “Thanks, Griffin. You are a lifesaver.” If only this bar could save her from the pain inside.
She turned to leave but stilled at the sight before her. Nick was standing at the door, eyeing her with a frosty glare.
“If you two lovebirds are done, can we proceed?” he said in a hard voice and then left. Lovebirds? He thought something was going on between her and Griffin? April’s heart started beating furiously. She had a sudden urge to set Nick’s facts straight. Even if that didn’t matter much, she still didn’t want him thinking that she was screwing Griffin.
April followed him and saw his broad shoulders disappear into the small office room on the other end. What was his deal anyway? She stormed there and didn’t even
bother to knock the door. He was bent over the table, his eyes clenched shut. His locks however, were disheveled, and that made him look ready to lick away.
“This is not what you think it is,” she said in a breathless voice. Nick snapped his head in her direction. For one moment, all she could see were raw emotions on his face, but then he hid it away. “Get out, April.” Huh?
“There is nothing going on between Griffin and me if that’s what you are thinking.” She didn’t know why she was handing out explanations.
“I don’t give a fuck about what’s going on in your life, April. I’m your professor and boss, remember? I don’t need insights about your love life.” His voice was so acidic that she felt her own ears burning.
She felt overly emotional that her eyes threatened to water and looked at him in such desolation that her own heart felt like a constricted sponge. What was that in him that she was so affected by him? Even when his eyes were shooting daggers at her, she still wanted Nick.
“What have you done with the Nick I met the first night?” The words slipped her tongue before she could stop them. “Who’s to blame that he no longer is in the picture?” “Nick …”
He challenged her to continue but no more words came out. He was right. She was to blame. Just then, Kyle Jackson entered the office. “Nick, I am getting … oh, April. I didn’t realize you were here.” He looked to and fro between Nick and April. “I’ll leave you two alone.” He probably would have registered the tension in the air between them.
“No, Kyle, stay, please. I was just heading out.” She managed to give him a smile, and without looking at Nick, she stepped out of the office.
Griffin was waiting there for her, but she didn’t stop at him. She just kept walking. Her mind and heart, both were on an emotional roller coaster. She had to separate her thoughts thread by thread to see what she wanted. What her feelings were for Nick and what she wanted out of all this. She didn’t realize where she was walking until she heard her name from behind.
“April!” It was Nick’s voice. She wasn’t sure she wanted to talk to him now and was afraid of spilling something that she’d regret later. So ignoring him, she kept walking.
“April, stop!” He was yelling, and his voice was getting closer. “Look ahead!” he called. Look ahead? She turned to stare at him in confusion. He was running in her direction. His expression was one of horror,. and then he jumped towards her. Next moment, she was flying back with him, and there was a loud sound of metal hitting the ground, but she couldn’t see anything because she was rolling on the ground along with Nick. He had her head cradled to his chest with his arms around her protectively. Her back burned every time it hit the rough ground. She gripped Nick’s biceps tightly for support, not knowing what was happening. When finally they halted, Nick still didn’t let go of her for a good minute and next, he was up and hovering over her.
“Are you alright? Are you hurt?” he asked her, checking her for himself. His face was full of worry … and fear. His own face had a little gash on the forehead that was oozing blood. But he didn’t seem to care about it, all he was concerned about her being okay. April’s heart melted like a candle. Why did she turn him down again?
“Speak up, April. Are you okay, sweetheart?” he cradled her face, and she leaned into him, wanting his touch, his warmth like her next breath. Sweetheart? He called her sweetheart? Workers started to gather around them, and she tried to get up, but Nick didn’t allow it. He put his arms around her and pulled her into his arms.
“I’m fine, Nick. Put me down, please. I can walk.” Having every person witness her being carried around by their boss was quite humiliating. “Just relax, babe, I’ll carry you.” All his anger and acidity from earlier had vanished, and what was left was the man she had fallen for the first night. Fallen for him? Is that what had happened? This was why she was running away from him?
“April? Nick! What happen? Are you both okay?” She heard Kyle’s voice and turned her head to tell him that all was good when her eyes found the man standing behind him. Gerard Blackstone. Her father was there, looking at them with a frosty glare.
*****
He thought he had aged a thousand years when he had seen April walking down the dig line and died a hundred deaths when he saw that crane moving right in her direction. Nothing had scared him more than the thought of seeing her hurt. Her words from earlier had put him in jeopardy. What have you done with the Nick I met the first night? It was that expression on her face that had torn him inside out. And fool that he was, he had cross-questioned her. And then she had headed out. By the time he had decided to go after her, she was nowhere in sight. He had asked Griffin, and he too had taken his sweet time to answer.
Nick paced in his office with turmoil inside him. Today he had acknowledged a very rich and intense feeling inside him for April. He couldn’t bear to lose her. She meant so much to him that he was done fighting whatever was between them. He wanted her like he had never wanted anything in life. All odds were against him. He was her teacher. The fraternizing policy of the college was damn strict. He was her boss too, and Kyle wasn’t an advocate of inter-employee relationships. And what’s more, she was Gerard Blackstone’s daughter, the man he had looked up to.
Therefore, April was in one hell of a nowhere near to go zone, but did he care? Nope. Not even a bit. But what was the point of running after shadows when it was just a waste of time, energy … and heart. Yes, heart. One more thing he had acknowledged was that with April, it wasn’t lust, it wasn’t infatuation; it was more. It went far beyond that, and it involved his heart. So yeah, he had quite a lot at stake there. But at what cost? April wasn’t there to reciprocate. He was being stupid, but for him there was no U-turn. It was one way with no point of return.
Kyle knocked the door and entered. “Have you taken the painkiller?” He checked the gash on his head. Nick bowed away. “I’m fine. It was nothing.” The burning pain in his back told him how nothing it was. “Sure, I can see that.” Kyle frowned. “Stop being a mother hen, dude.” Nick didn’t like the looks his cousin had been giving him since the incident.
“Gerard wants you to join the dinner tonight.”
“What? Why?” The ice-king asked him to be at dinner. What on earth for? The way he had looked at him earlier told Nick that he wasn’t in the good books of that man. And he had no idea why.
“He specifically asked for you.” Kyle shrugged.
“Isn’t it supposed to be a reunion sort of dinner with you and his daughter? Why invite me?”
“I don’t know. He just invited you. You’ll come, right?” Nick wanted to refuse. But the look on Kyle’s face made him nod.
The dinner was a disaster as far as Nick was concerned. Gerard Blackstone wasn’t just an ice-king, he was a complete overbearing douchebag too. The way he talked as if the entire world belonged to him and every person ought to follow him like a mouse after the Pied Piper. He hated him in the first five minutes, and what was more, Gerard seemed to have mutual feelings.
Then there was April. She was just as uncomfortable sitting at the table as he was. Gerard commanded her around like she was a little girl. He wanted to smack the old man’s face. When he had asked April how she was, Gerard had interrupted saying that when she had a professor like him to rescue her at a moment’s notice, what could possibly happen to her? April had become flustered, and Nick had barely kept his control to strangle him.
“April told me that you teach her ITA. It takes some balls to go into teaching,” Gerard threw at him.
“I have been complimented for having balls of steel, Mr. Blackstone,” he gave it back to him, and both Kyle and April coughed into their drinks. “Ah, a sassy one, I see. How long have you been teaching?” Gerard wasn’t an easy giver.
“It will be two years this month.”
“Do you plan on continuing it?” Gerard’s question made him glance at April. She too was looking at him. Was he going to continue teaching? He hadn’t thought about it. Wha
tever happened with April, his teaching job could be affected. “I haven’t made my mind up yet, sir.” He gave April a deep look and then tore his gaze away.
The conversation shifted to Kyle and Gerard’s other ex-students. Nick kept stealing glances toward April’s side. She stayed quiet, saying very little when asked. She looked so contrite and different from her father. The only thing they shared were their eye color.
“I need to use the restroom. Excuse me, please.” April excused herself from the table, and then Kyle also got up to take an urgent call. It left just Nick and Gerard.
“I know that look in your eyes, Nicholas,” Gerard said in a cold tone.
“I’d appreciate if you elaborate your observation, Mr. Blackstone.” Nick leaned back too. He was ready to dwell.
“That look you give to my daughter,” Gerard growled and leaned forward. “I see that hunger in your eyes. The way you look at her like she’s a gem that you want.”
“You put it absolutely right there, Gerard. April is a gem. And yes, I do want her,” the acceptance of the fact only made his heart light.
“Stay the fuck away from her, Nicholas. You are her professor. Don’t jeopardize her degree. She doesn’t want a stupid fling in her life right now. This is damn precious for her.”
This time, Nick leaned forwards and held Gerard’s gaze in a hard, lethal way. “I’ll do what I damn well please, Gerard. And you need to stay the fuck away from April’s life. She doesn’t need you to tell her what she wants and what she doesn’t. She can make her own decisions without you telling her at every turn where to move and where not to.”
“You are going to tell me how to treat my daughter?”
“Damn straight.”
“I’m warning you, Nicholas. If I see you near her, you’ll be out of Princeton at a moment’s notice.”
Nick gave out a scoff. “You think I care about that? I’ll always choose April. Always, Gerard. And over everything.” There, he sealed the deal on his heart. And damn, didn’t it feel liberating?
Sucker for the Boss Page 50
