“I think I have the right to raise the question now and then,” he said. “You’ve made your place here. You’ve shown how good you are. What more do you have to prove?”
That was about as close to a compliment as I was going to get. “I’ll let you know,” I told him. “So, what really brings you by?” I asked.
I probably should have let the subject drop. But I needed to know if I was busted. I needed to do damage control. I was never going to admit I slept with a colleague. I could play it off as a couple of drunk people flirting. That certainly wasn’t against the rules.
“I heard something about a new art program starting up at the community college,” he said.
Shit. “Yeah, I heard that too,” I said nonchalantly.
“I heard they were searching for someone to head it up and had already approached a few people,” he said and stared into my eyes. This was his version of a lie detector test. “Are you involved?” he asked directly.
“No,” I answered honestly. “They did ask if I would like to be involved in some capacity.”
He clenched his jaw. “I see. I’ll remind you of your obligations to this university.”
“I know what my obligations are.”
“You have a full schedule here,” he said.
“Yes, Dad, I know. It’s my schedule.”
“What involvement do they want from you?” he pressed.
I shrugged. “They asked if I would head the program.”
His mouth dropped. “How dare they?” he hissed. “You work here!”
“Lots of professors have full-time jobs outside of the university,” I reminded him.
He shook his head. “I cannot have you teaching art at a community college. How am I supposed to sell our art program if they can get the exact same instruction for a fraction of the cost?”
“I didn’t say I was going to teach. They asked if I would head it up. That’s not teaching.”
He snorted. “Community colleges don’t have a lot of money. You wouldn’t just be the department head. You would be expected to lecture and teach. That won’t do. You have a contract with the university. The most you could do is act as a consultant.”
It chewed at my independence to hear him talk about what I could and couldn’t do like I was still a little kid. “I don’t know how you heard, but your little birdies got it wrong. There was nothing more than a discussion.”
“It isn’t fair to them for you to even entertain the idea,” he said. “Your job is here. Your skills are being put to use here. Working for a community college just won’t do.”
“Gee, Dad, I’m glad you’re not a snob or anything.”
“You know what I mean,” he growled. “I’ve been working very hard to elevate this university. I have hand-picked many of the professors. I want this place to be in competition with the top ten schools in the country. I can’t have my professors stretched thin and unavailable to the students that are paying for you to educate them.”
“I’m always available,” I said. “It isn’t like my particular area of expertise is quite as demanding as a law professor. I rarely see students outside the classroom. Artists are naturally independent. They don’t want someone to tell them how to paint. They want guidance. They are not going to be neglected.”
“You are thinking about it,” he accused.
“You are jumping to conclusions. There is nothing concrete being discussed. It’s a program that would benefit a lot of people. Not everyone can afford the tuition of a four-year university. That doesn’t mean they shouldn’t have the opportunity to get some of the basic education. It’s art. It’s not a medical degree.”
He got to his feet. “The only room in your contract is for a consulting position. You will not try and juggle a position with the college and my university. You were hired to work here in a full-time capacity. Your salary reflects that. I expect your full attention and nothing less.”
He jerked open my door to walk out. He was not going to have the last word. I walked to the door to tell him he couldn’t dictate every facet of my life when I saw Lukas coming toward us. There was a moment of shock and horror.
Lukas barely looked at me. He nodded at the dean instead. I wasn’t sure my father even saw him. He was stomping down the hall without a backward glance. I sighed and shook my head. That was generally how most of our conversations ended. He really stole my teenage-girl thunder when he left the room before I could slam a door or stomp away.
14
Lukas
She didn’t look happy. Neither did the dean. This could be bad. But if it was about me and her and our little dirty dancing show on stage at the mixer, he would be talking to me as well. He stalked away, leaving River standing in the hall.
I grinned. “Someone’s in trouble.”
She shot me a dirty look. “No one is in trouble,” she scoffed. “Did you need something?”
Clearly, we were back on those terms. It was hard to imagine we’d been hot and heavy just a couple of days ago. I wasn’t going to be put off. “My office is still here,” I reminded her.
“I forgot,” she said.
“I didn’t know the dean knew where this building was,” I said with a laugh. “I guess I better find another building to put my office.”
It was supposed to be a joke, but she wasn’t laughing. “He goes everywhere,” she said.
“Is everything okay?” I asked.
“Fine.” She turned to go back into her office.
“Wait,” I said and followed her in.
“What?” she snapped.
“I’m going to assume you’re mad at the dean and not me,” I said. “I haven’t done anything to upset you. In fact, it’s me who should be upset.”
“Why would you be upset?” she asked.
“You ran out like a thief in the night,” I said in a low voice.
Her eyes widened and then she rushed around me and slammed the door closed behind me. “You can’t say that,” she hissed.
“It’s true,” I said. “I woke up and you were gone. How’d you get home?”
She was turning bright red. It was kind of fun to see her blushing. “I took a cab.”
“I would have given you a ride home.”
“No. That would have been a bad idea.”
“It would have been the gentlemanly thing to do,” I said.
She waved a hand. “It was fine. I got home just fine.”
“I can see that,” I said. “How are you?”
“I’m fine.”
I didn’t understand why the woman didn’t like me. It was hot and cold. She hadn’t been that drunk. “I’m glad I ran into you,” I said.
“Why?”
“We need to do karaoke again,” I said. “You’ve got me hooked. I’m ready to do it again. I’ve been listening to the radio every chance I get. I heard a song yesterday. It was a country song, but it wasn’t country. It was on the normal radio station. Something about watermelons and sugar.”
That earned a small quirk of her lips. “Watermelon Sugar,” she said. “It’s a good song.”
“Let’s sing it. I’ll work on it.”
“No, thank you,” she said.
“Okay, you pick the song. Just let me know and I’ll download it. I’ll be primed and ready to go.”
“I can’t,” she said. “We can’t.”
“Why not? We weren’t that bad. We got a pretty good round of applause if I remember right.”
She put a hand on her hip. “That’s not what I’m saying, and you know it.”
“What are you saying?” I asked. I wanted her to say it so I could give her a good reason why we could.
“That was a one-time thing,” she said. “You know it and I know it. We both knew it was off limits. We could get in trouble.”
“No one has to know,” I said. “I wasn’t suggesting we get up on stage and go at it like rabbits.”
“It’s not a good idea,” she insisted. “We should just pretend it never ha
ppened. That’s the best thing we could do. It’s in our best interest. Neither of us needs the trouble.”
“We can be friends,” I said. “I would never betray you and blab our personal business. Like you said, that doesn’t do any of us any good.”
“You don’t even like karaoke,” she said.
I smiled. “Maybe you changed my opinion.”
“I don’t believe that,” she said. “There is no way one night of karaoke changed your mind. Karaoke is something you either love or hate.”
“And I don’t hate it.”
“Lukas, what happened between us was, uh, fun. Nice, but it can’t happen again.”
I let my eyes sweep over her body. “It was a lot more than nice, and you know it.”
Her cheeks turned red again. “We can’t let it happen again.”
“I asked you to go to a karaoke bar with me,” I said with a smile. “I didn’t ask you to come over and have a repeat of the other night.”
“Oh my god,” she hissed. “Have you no shame?”
I sighed. “Okay, I’ll come clean. I do have an ulterior motive.”
“Exactly!”
“No, it isn’t what you think,” I said. “We talked about our lack of social lives the other night, remember?”
“Yes, but I don’t think a karaoke bar with me is the way to change that.”
“There’s more,” I said. “My family—my brother—thinks I’m lame. He gives me shit about being the only single one. They all give me shit about how much I work and my lack of a social life. You said you understood that feeling.”
She softened a little. “Yes, I do.”
“Anyway, I was at my sister’s birthday party recently and my brother was talking shit as usual. I had to prove to him I wasn’t the old, boring stick in the mud he always called me. I told him I did karaoke and had a lot of fun. He doesn’t believe me.”
She laughed. “Because he knows you well.”
“Yes. I told you I wasn’t exactly a party animal. Some people have to work really hard to prove they have turned over a new leaf and are done with their wicked ways. I’m trying to prove I’m just a little wicked. I didn’t know it would be so hard to be bad.”
That made her smile. “You shouldn’t have to prove anything to anyone,” she said.
“I know that, but you know how this goes,” I said. I was trying to plead to the side of her I met at the mixer. She was trying hard not to be boring. I thought we did a good job proving to everyone we were not boring. We were fun.
“I do.”
“My brother doesn’t believe I actually did karaoke. He said he won’t believe it unless he sees it. He asked us to go out with him and his wife.”
“How did he know about me?” she asked with a very irritated look on her face.
“I didn’t tell him any of that,” I assured her. “He wanted to know why I got up to do karaoke. I told him you convinced me to do it. That was it.”
She gnawed on her lower lip. “Where is this bar?”
“I’m not sure. I seriously doubt it’s anywhere any faculty would be. If we’re seen, we’ll say we are friends. There aren’t any rules against that. It’s encouraged. It’s why they put on the mixer.”
“I can’t believe you’re letting your brother goad you into this,” she said. “Aren’t you a little old for that?”
“I don’t think I will ever be too old to show up my brother.”
“Is he older?” she asked.
I shook my head. “Younger. I’m the oldest of four. They’re all married with kids. I’m the one that has never even taken a girl home for the holidays or anything. It’s like the big joke. Everyone loves to make jokes about how boring I am, or I’m going to die alone.”
She popped out her bottom lip in an exaggerated pout. “Really? Your siblings pick on you, so you’re going to humiliate yourself with karaoke?”
“First of all, I don’t plan on humiliating myself,” I said. “Second of all, it’s not like they will ever let me forget it if I made up a story and fucking Lincoln called me out on it. I have some dignity.”
“Lincoln?” she asked.
“That’s my brother. My sisters are Lori and Leslie. My parents got into an L thing. I don’t know why. Anyway, I would really appreciate it if you could help me not look like a liar in front of my brother. We’ll do one song. You can tell him I did it before and that should be good enough.”
“Is this a joke?” she asked.
“Is what a joke?”
She folded her arms across her belly, and in the process, she lifted her ample breasts. “You do not strike me as someone who needs to prove anything to anyone, especially a younger brother.”
“Why don’t I strike you as someone like that?”
“Because you are way too cocky and confident for that,” she said. “You know you’re successful. You’re this confident man with a mission. You are not the kind of guy that gives two shits about what someone thinks. Unless—”
“Unless what?” I prompted. I wasn’t sure if I was flattered or insulted. She had a funny way of complimenting me if that was her intention.
“Unless your brother is some uber-successful doctor or lawyer or some big fancy CEO. You are trying to prove you’re just as successful and fun as he is. He has the wife and kids and the great job. I get it. You guys are in some weird competition.”
“Um, no,” I said. “He is married and does have kids, and I suppose he is doing okay for himself, but he isn’t uber successful. At least not in the way you are describing.”
She frowned. “So, what’s the deal? You’re truly offended he thinks you’re boring?”
“I’m not offended, but I guess I don’t want to be the brunt of the jokes.”
“You want to win,” she said with a smile.
I laughed. “Maybe a little. Maybe it’s because I’m the oldest. I don’t know. I do know I can’t just let this punk get away with calling me a liar. Being a liar is one thing, but a liar that is trying to sound cool or whatever is totally not okay.”
She laughed and shook her head. “There you go. That’s the ego I was looking for.”
I shrugged. “I do have a little bit of an ego. I can’t let my brother get away with challenging me. I have to prove him wrong. If I don’t, he is never going to let this go. He is going to bring this up at every family get-together. I cannot take that kind of ridicule.”
She stared at me for several seconds. I hoped she would take mercy on me. I really did not want to do karaoke on my own. I would try and save face, but it was still giving him way too much ammunition. He would accuse me of making River up. And to be perfectly honest, I didn’t think I could do it alone. I would freeze and Lincoln would win. He would get to prove he was right, and I was nothing more than a boring suit with no life.
“Fine, but no sex,” she said.
I had to laugh at that. “You drive a hard bargain. Sex is off the table.”
“Fine, I’ll go. But this is just karaoke. I’m taking pity on you. This is nothing more than that. No sex. No kissing. No nothing.”
“Thank you,” I said. “Can I have your number?”
She scowled. “This—”
“I need to be able to text you with the day and time. I promise I won’t send you any dick pics.”
She burst into laughter. “Good to know.”
She grabbed a piece of paper and scratched her number down. I took the paper. “Thank you. I imagine it will be in the next day or two. Are you free?”
She gave me a look. “What do you think?”
I winked. “Right. I forget we’re two peas in a pod. I’ll text you once he tells me when and where.”
“Game on,” she said.
15
River
I couldn’t believe I agreed to go out with him. There had to be something wrong with me. I had just been warned by my father, the dean, about my contract. A normal person who’d just had her job threatened would have told Lukas hell no. I should
have been thinking about how I was going to prove I was worthy of keeping my job. I should have been thanking my lucky stars the dean wasn’t accusing me of sleeping with another teacher.
But no. Those damn eyes. Lukas looked at me and I practically melted into a pile of goo. He weakened my resolve with a sexy smile and those eyes. How could any straight, hot-blooded woman say no to him?
Having his attention was making me feel just a little heady. It was an ego boost. He was looking at me. He wanted to hang out with me. All the women in the world, and that man wanted me.
That feeling of being wanted by a man like him was better than any drug. I was high on it.
I was both excited and nervous about going. I couldn’t help but feel like this was going to be a double date. His brother and his wife and me and Lukas. What was I going to wear?
A wave of panic hit me. I needed to find Gwen. I wasn’t sure I had anything in my closet that was suitable for a night out with him. I wanted to look good. I wasn’t going to sleep with him, but I didn’t want people to look at us and wonder what in the hell he was thinking by hanging out with me. I needed to rise to the occasion. He was a definite ten. I needed to at least aim for seven status.
I sat down and quickly took care of the emails and stuff I’d come to my office to handle in the first place. I did my best to focus on work, but damn if my mind didn’t constantly wander back to him. I thought about his kisses. Then I thought about his body, including that very precious appendage between his legs.
The man himself wasn’t too bad either. Although I couldn’t say I knew him really well, I did think I had a pretty good idea about the kind of person he was. I was sure with more time I could peel back a few layers and get to the heart of the man.
“No,” I reminded myself. There was no getting to the heart of the man because there was no fraternization allowed.
I quickly finished up my office duties and made my escape. I was a little afraid to be in such close proximity to him. His office. My office. Closed doors. It was too tempting. I made my way to the coffee shop that catered to the early birds. With my bounty juggled in hand, I walked to the quad to go over some of the papers that needed grading. I expected Gwen to show up any minute. I texted her and told her we needed to talk. I had to tell someone or I was going to explode with nerves and excitement.
Our Little Secret Page 9