Billionaire Single Dad

by Claire Adams

  I raised my eyebrows. “Um...the thing is, I’ve always preferred to study alone, to be honest,” I said, as politely as I could.

  “Seriously?” Jason asked as his eyebrows rose. Again, I noticed that something in his eyes that had turned me off from the beginning of our conversation.

  “Yeah,” I nodded, as I rose from my seat. “Thanks for the suggestion, but I think I’ll manage on my own.”

  “Aw, come on,” he insisted. “It could even be fun. Isn’t that the point of study groups?”

  “I think that depends on whom you ask,” I said, trying to walk away from him without being rude.

  “We don’t have to include anyone else,” he said as though that might change my mind. “It could just be the two of us.”

  I gave him an apologetic smile. “I’m sorry, Jason,” I said. “But I’m just not interested.”

  His face changed instantly. The smile faltered for a moment before dropping completely, and his eyes turned angry. I picked up my books and started walking towards the door, but I could hear him follow close behind me.

  “What’s the big deal?” Jason asked emphatically, and I noticed his tone had changed, too. “It’s just a fucking study group.”

  Taken back by the unexpected hostility in his tone, I hesitated at the door and turned back to him. “I’m talking about meeting once or twice a week,” he continued. “That’s all.”

  I stared at him for a moment. “Listen, Jason,” I said, taking pains to be as nice as possible. There was something about the guy that was intense – and not in a good way. “It’s a nice idea, and I would like to say yes, but the thing is, I’ve been a part of study groups before. It’s never worked for me. I’d just be wasting my time and probably yours, as well. You understand that, don’t you?”

  “You’re being a baby,” he said, with indignation in his tone.

  “And, you’re being rude,” I said.

  I tried to walk away from him again, but he stepped in front of me, and I started to get anxious. “I’m trying to be nice,” he said emphatically. “I’m a good guy, and I just thought I’d make a helpful offer.”

  “It was a helpful offer,” I said. “I’m just choosing to decline. It’s not personal.”

  Jason looked like he was about to say something more, but I cut him off before he could speak. “I need to get to my next class,” I said. “Excuse me.”

  I had just pushed the door open when I heard him mutter a word under his breath. It sounded a lot like “cunt” and I whipped around in shock to check if I’d heard right. But Jason had already turned his back on me and was walking towards the exit in the opposite direction.

  My heart was beating a little fast at the jarring confrontation, and I made a mental note to sit as far away from him as I could at the next lecture. I was able to put Jason out of my mind during the next class, and that gave me the room to think of someone more pleasant, namely Professor William. I was still daydreaming about those beautiful hazel eyes of his when I got back to my dorm that evening.

  “There you are,” Missy greeted as I walked in and threw my bag onto my bed. “I’ve been waiting all day to tell you about the cute guy I sat next to during my sociology lecture this morning.”

  I laughed. “Slept with him yet?”

  “Trust me, I’m working on it,” she winked. “What about you? Any cute guys catch your attention today?”

  It was a standard question, one that Missy asked every semester and one that I always answered with an indifferent shrug. But this time, the moment she asked the question, I blushed.

  She gasped. “There was!” she said triumphantly.

  “No,” I said, a little too quickly. “No, there wasn’t.”

  “Liar,” she laughed. “Tell me everything. Who was he?”

  “I…just…um…”

  Missy laughed as I tripped over my words. “Man, you are blushing like your face is on fire.”

  I threw my hands up in the air and sighed. “Geez, I am such a loser,” I lamented.

  “You’re just…inexperienced,” Missy said gently. “Which is why I keep telling you, you need to get out there. Did you speak to him? Did you sit next to him?”

  “Neither,” I admitted. “He wasn’t a student.”

  “Damn, girl!” Missy said, and she sounded impressed. “You have the hots for a teacher?”

  “He doesn’t look like the kind of teacher I’m used to,” I admitted.

  “What does he look like?”

  “He’s young,” I said. “He could pass for a student himself. Except that he’s not like any of the guys I’ve ever met on campus. He’s and self-assured, confident, and intelligent. He’s a real man, you know?”

  “Unfortunately, I don’t,” Missy laughed. “I have yet to meet a mature man on campus.”

  “My point exactly,” I nodded. “He’s different.”

  “Well, maybe you should drop by his office,” Missy suggested. “He has consultation hours, doesn’t he?”

  “To do what?” I asked.

  She wagged her eyebrows at me. “What do you think?”

  I rolled my eyes at her. “You’re crazy.”

  “What?” she asked. “Extracurriculars never hurt anyone.”

  “He’s my teacher.”

  “I’m aware.”

  “I can’t get involved with my teacher,” I said emphatically.

  “Why not?”

  “There’s a rule about that,” I reminded Missy.

  “Please,” she said, waving away my point. “Rules exist to be broken, especially the stupid ones. I think you should make an appointment with him and then seduce him. You can fuck him on his desk.”

  “Hello, have you met me?”

  She laughed. “You’re right, maybe that move is a little ambitious for you.”

  “You think?”

  “What’s his name?”

  “Chance,” I replied. “Chance William.”

  “Hmm, kind of a sexy name, too,” Missy said, as she proceeded to look him up on the university’s website. “Ah, here he is.”

  I peered in over her shoulder. The picture they had provided of Chance was a simple black and white image. He was looking right at the camera with a haughty expression in his eyes. It was almost challenging and extremely sexy.

  “Damn,” Missy nodded approvingly. “It’s almost worth taking the class just to see that every week.”

  I laughed as I read through his biography. “Hey, he used to study here himself. He graduated with honors eight years ago.”

  “That must make him around twenty-nine or thirty,” Missy nodded. “That’s perfect for you.”

  “How is that perfect for me?”

  “Well, it seems to me that you could benefit from a relationship with an older man,” Missy reasoned. “He has the experience that you’re lacking, which means he could educate you about the carnal delights of the body.”

  I raised my eyebrows. “That sounds terrifying.”

  “You scare too easy,” she said dismissively. “That’s your problem.”

  “It doesn’t matter,” I said, closing the page and turning away from the computer. “Even if he wasn’t my teacher I wouldn’t stand a chance…ah, no pun intended.”

  Missy smiled. “I don’t know about that,” she said. “Guys like the quiet girls… I think there’s the assumption that they’re wild in bed.”

  “That’s a pretty big assumption.”

  “Hey, whatever works,” she said, with a shrug.

  I fell back onto my bed and looked towards her. “I’ve been thinking about what we talked about the other day.”

  “What did we talk about?”

  “You know…the fact that I haven’t made the most out of my college experience…”

  “Yeah?”

  “You were right,” I conceded. “Now that graduation is only a few months away, I’m starting to realize how much I’ve missed out on.”

  Missy looked thrilled. “We still have a semester left,”
she said. “That’s enough time to turn things around.”

  I smiled. “Okay then, I guess I’m game.”

  Chapter Four

  Chance

  I shook my head at the paper I was grading. Some of the facts were inaccurate, the writing was weak, and the charts and graphs that had been included were outdated. Mildly frustrated, I set it aside, taking note of the name on the assignment. Even a few weeks, I still couldn’t attach names to faces. But then, it wasn’t as though I was really trying to in the first place. I wasn’t interested in making friends of my students.

  I was about to start on another paper when I heard a knock on my door. A moment later, Lindsey walked in. She was one of the biology professors on campus, and she had been one of the first members of staff to befriend me. She was young, attractive, straightforward, and invitingly flirtatious, and I wondered why my interest in her was limited to a platonic friendship.

  “Grading papers?”

  “It’s a nightmare,” I complained. “Half of these papers are terrible.”

  Lindsey grabbed a paper from the top and looked through it. “You’ve set them a tough first assignment,” she noted.

  “I wanted to get the measure of my students.”

  “And, they’re not impressing you?”

  I smiled. “Some are actually,” I admitted. “More than I would have thought. It’s just that the bad papers are really bad.”

  “Cut the students some slack; this isn’t the easiest subject.”

  “Which is why they should have thought twice about choosing it.”

  She laughed. “Man, you’re a hardass.”

  “I don’t like wasting my time.”

  “I can see that,” she nodded. “And I must say, this no-nonsense attitude of yours is intensely sexy.”

  I smiled, noticing the way the top two buttons of her blouse had been left open to expose a hint of cleavage. She was a very attractive woman. In fact, she was exactly my type, so it confused me a little as to why I was so disconnected. I enjoyed the flirting, but I never felt the desire to take it further than that.

  “Have I spilled something on my blouse?” Lindsey asked, alerting me to the fact that she had caught me staring.

  I met her gaze. “I was just…appreciating the view,” I said honestly.

  “I thought that was what you were doing,” she replied, with a wink. “Feel free to admire the view from a closer angle.”

  “Unfortunately, I have more papers to grade.”

  Lindsey’s smile didn’t falter. She was not one of those women who were likely to take rejections personally. It was another reason I liked her. It would have made a lot of sense for the two of us to hook up, and yet, I was reluctant. My thoughts flitted instinctively to the dark-haired girl who always sat in the front row of my lectures.

  She was easily the best student in my class. She answered most of the questions I put forward, and I knew that she was one of the few students who actually did their readings, research, and paid attention during the lectures. I still didn’t know her name, however, and given the number of lectures and classes I taught each week, it wasn’t likely that I could pinpoint her paper amongst the many that were piled on my desk.

  “Chance?”

  “Sorry,” I said, turning my attention back to Lindsay.

  “Where did you go?” she asked curiously.

  “I was just thinking of the departmental meeting coming up,” I lied smoothly. “I hate those things. They drag on for hours.”

  “I don’t see why you of all people should hate them,” Lindsey said, and there was a hint of teasing in her tone.

  “Why me of all people?”

  Lindsey shrugged. “You’re popular, especially among the senior staff. Elaine and Monica are big fans.”

  I laughed. “That’s good to know,” I said. “I’ve always had a thing for older ladies.”

  “That’s good to know,” Lindsey said suggestively. “Especially considering I’m five years older than you.”

  “How long have you worked in this department?” I asked.

  I knew it would sound like I was changing the subject, but I was genuinely curious. Lindsey shifted in her chair, and her blouse opened up a little more. I could see the swell of one perfect breast, and I waited for the little tingle of desire that usually overcame me anytime I was in the presence of a particularly attractive woman, but nothing came.

  “Three years,” she replied. “I taught at a community college for two years before that. And, I really enjoyed it there, but then…”

  “Then?”

  “I was forced to leave.”

  I raised my eyebrows. “Sounds intriguing.”

  Lindsey laughed. “It’s not really,” she said. “I got involved with the dean, and…let’s just say our relationship was not the healthiest. We ended up hating each other’s guts, and I decided that keeping my job wasn’t worth the torture of seeing him every day.”

  “Ah.”

  She shrugged. “Everyone has one of those stories, though.”

  “I suppose you’re right,” I nodded.

  “Any standouts for you?”

  “Only one,” I admitted. “My college girlfriend. It ended so badly that I’ve stayed away from all relationships since then.”

  “No way,” Lindsey said. She sounded amused more than shocked.

  “It’s the lifestyle that suits me best,” I admitted.

  “Well, well… You and I have more in common than I would have thought,” she said.

  “Apparently so,” I nodded. “Did you always want to teach?”

  “I came to it late,” she admitted. “But I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. Who knows, maybe one day I’ll achieve tenure.”

  “Is that the goal?”

  “Isn’t it yours?”

  “I don’t know that I can see myself living in the Midwest permanently,” I said. “After a few years here, I might decide to relocate.”

  “Where to?”

  “I’d like to try out London for a year or two,” I said. “Or maybe even Florence. But I loved Asia, too, so maybe I’ll try the eastern continent again.”

  Lindsey raised her eyebrows. “How many countries have you lived in?”

  “Quite a lot actually,” I nodded. “Nepal, South Africa, Japan, Spain, and Greece. And, I’ve traveled to many other places besides. I’ve been to London and Florence before, but only for a couple of weeks.”

  “Wow,” she said, looking impressed. “I knew you’d done some traveling, but I had no idea how much.”

  “I don’t think I have it in me to stay in one place for too long,” I said.

  “But you came back to the States?”

  I hesitated. “Yeah… I moved back last year,” I nodded. “My father passed away, and my sister needed a little help.”

  “Oh,” Lindsey’s tone shifted a little. “Were you close with your dad?”

  “I… My sister was closer to him than I was,” I said evasively. “In any case, my contract here is temporary. I have one year and then—”

  “Off to the next country on your list?”

  “Pretty much,” I nodded.

  “So, it seems women aren’t the only thing you refuse to commit to,” Lindsey pointed out.

  I smiled. “So, how are your classes going?”

  Sensing that I was done talking about myself, Lindsey allowed the subject change. “Pretty well. I have an interesting group of students this year.”

  I frowned, wondering if there was a hidden meaning underneath that sentence. “Had many consultations yet?”

  “Lots,” Lindsey nodded. “My door is always open to my students.”

  I smiled. “Sounds like you and I have opposite teaching methods.”

  “You don’t encourage your students to come to you?”

  “Nope,” I said comfortably.

  She laughed. “You just get sexier and sexier.”

  I smiled. “Obviously if anyone came to me, I would do my best to help out.
I’m just not going to feed them answers to questions they should be researching on their own.”

  “Fair enough,” she nodded. “Still, there’s something to be said for the interaction between a teacher and his student. It can help motivate them. I could always give you some pointers?”

  I smiled. “I think I’ll pass.”

  “Suit yourself,” Lindsey said good-naturedly. “But like I tell my students, my door is always open.”

  “Yeah, I bet the boys love hearing that.”

  She winked at me. “College boys are so easy.”

  “Don’t you mean stupid?”

  “You’re cruel,” she said, shaking her head at me.

  “I like to think I’m honest.”

  “Honesty… Such an overrated quality,” Lindsey said, with a wave of her hand. I couldn’t help but laugh.

  “I don’t mean to chase you out of here, Lindsey,” I said, as politely as I could. “But I still have thirty-seven more papers to grade before tomorrow.”

  With an understanding smile, Lindsey rose from her seat. But instead of walking towards the door, she moved around the desk towards me until she was standing between my legs.

  “I was thinking…maybe we could get together sometime after work?” she said. “Just you and me?”

  I raised my eyebrows. “Ah…”

  She leaned in until I could see the tops of her breasts. They were near perfect, and yet still I remained detached and unaffected. “What do you say?” she asked seductively. “Just two consenting adults having a little non-committal fun?”

  I smiled. “That’s a very tempting offer…”

  “But?”

  “I need to focus on getting my bearings here,” I said, as gently as possible. “I think I just need to focus on my teaching for the moment.”

  Lindsey smiled and straightened up. “I understand,” she nodded. “But if you ever change your mind…”

  “I will definitely let you know,” I nodded.

  “Good boy,” she said. She gave me a small wink and left my office, leaving me to contemplate the mysteries of my own psyche.

  Why did I turn her down? It is the kind of offer every guy dreams of. It isn’t every day you meet a woman who has the same mindset you do. My mind jumped back to the dark-haired girl, and I wondered if she was the reason I was reluctant to get involved with Lindsey. I dismissed the thought immediately as being ridiculous.