Professor next Door

by Summer Cooper

  Angela looked at him trying to decide if he was for real. He sounded a bit like a Tony Robbins seminar, but she knew that he really believed this and that he lived his life this way. He may have been one of the most courageous men she had ever met.

  The rest of the walk back to her car was peppered with more sweet conversation, some light-hearted and some a bit deeper. She was finding out so much about this man who had intrigued her for so long when she thought he was just her best friend’s dad. There was a whole other world behind the making of Richard Kane that she had never dreamed possible and she was finding herself completely wrapped up in it all.

  When they reached her car she thanked him for a wonderful afternoon.

  “Well, the evening doesn’t have to end now. My apartment isn’t far from here. Would you like to join me for some drinks?” Richard asked.

  Angela wanted to. Boy, did she want to. But she knew that she shouldn’t. She had the sinking feeling that she might be on the road to becoming just another conquest or someone that Richard would never allow himself to take seriously. Besides, after what had just happened she didn’t trust herself enough to put the brakes on if things started to get physical. The man was just so magnetic and she could feel herself falling for him.

  But there were too many things that were still unknown. Could she fall in love with him? Yes, definitely. Could he feel the same about her? That was the question without a definite answer, and that was the reason she had to decline the offer.

  “I’m sorry, but I do have an early day tomorrow. I really need to be getting home. I still have some work to do since I took some time off today for the photoshoot.”

  Richard flinched for a second before smiling that warm smile of his. Angela could see the wheels of confusion turning in his mind. She knew that she was giving him all sorts of mixed signals and she really didn’t want him to get the wrong idea about her. Oh, if she could have just told him how she felt and what she was afraid of. She urged her mouth to move and to explain herself, but she couldn’t. She just stood there feeling silly while Richard tried to make sense of it all.

  But his confusion was so brief that she almost wasn’t sure it existed. It was just a slight flinch and a small glint in the eye and then it was gone.

  “I completely understand. I can’t wait to see those pictures. Please send me some copies when you get them.”

  “I will,” Angela said.

  Richard kissed her again sweetly and said goodnight.

  Angela drove home with her head in the clouds. Was this really happening?

  Chapter 5

  Richard let the cue stick slide between his fingers hard and crash into the rack of balls propelling them to scatter all over the table. His eyes furiously watched as several of them began to sink into the side pockets and one in the corner. It was a good break and he was proud of it. Too bad he was playing a game by himself.

  He sank more stripes than solids, so he played the stripes first. He had first picked up the game of pool when he was a teenager. His grandfather had a nice table in his basement and any time he could get a chance he was down there with the stereo blasting out great rock music and working on his billiards game. There was something very solitary about the game, even when you played it with people. You could play as teams, but even then it was really a man against man type of sport. When you had the stick in your hands it felt like it was you against the balls.

  He had even played in a few tournaments when he was younger, but he had been completely shut out. That was a sobering fact as to how good he really thought he was. He had beaten all of his friends and family routinely, and as far as he could tell he was pretty good at the game. He had even become a force to be reckoned with in the pool halls in the local neighborhoods, but when he tried to go national it just fell apart. He barely made it past the qualifying rounds of the tournament before he was shut out. The way these guys played, as if they had all of the geometry of the game worked out in their heads and they knew exactly how to do it all scientifically, was a huge disadvantage to him.

  If he had wanted to, he was sure he could have improved and in a few years he might have been a strong qualifier for a tournament like that, but when he really studied himself he didn’t see pool being his main occupation. By that time the legal field had called to him and he had pursued that instead—he never looked back.

  But he still loved the game.

  He sank three of the easier shots and then sat the stick down to pour another glass of whiskey. It was the way he liked to unwind at the end of the day. A solitary game of pool and a few drinks. Then he would shower and go to bed, if he was alone.

  That was the thing, though. Did he want to be alone tonight? Angela had declined his offer to come back to his apartment, which had thrown him a bit. There was something very special about that girl, even more so than he had initially felt when he realized the strong attraction he had for her. He had been noticing her for a while. It was a strange realization and she had even touched on it during their earlier conversation at the picnic in the park.

  He had not been totally straight with her since he felt a bit caught off guard by the question. The girl was so smart and bold. That was the thing that stuck out most about her to him and the thing he found most attractive. She had a lot of guts and she didn’t hide a bit of who she was and what she was thinking.

  He remembered about a year and a half before at one of the parties he had attended as being the point at which he noticed his daughter’s best friend whom he had seen grow up in a whole different light. Angela’s parents had thrown the party to announce the launch of their first fragrance they were marketing and it had been a huge event.

  Angela had shown up with Naomi, fashionably late as always. and the girls were obviously ready to have fun beyond fun. His eyes had landed on this vision of beauty standing beside his daughter and at first, he thought it was one of the new models that the Walters had just started working with to market the fragrance, but after doing a double-take he realized that it was Angela. She was stunning and graceful. He had not really been able to stop thinking about her the rest of the evening. The situation seemed strange to him and somehow he didn’t feel it was right to make his attraction known to her that night. This was something that had to be done slowly and delicately given the situation; he was fine to wait, he was patient. But every time he had seen Angela since then she just became more and more alluring.

  It had been a long time since a woman had captivated his imagination this way. Of course, he had to consider the fallout of pursuing a romance with this particular woman. The Walters were his closest friends. Naomi was Angela’s best friend. None of them would have been particularly happy to hear about this romance popping up.

  But he wasn’t sure he really cared anymore. Angela was her own woman; she was going to be a brilliant attorney unless she focused her attention on modeling. There was something so special about her as a model. His friend Nick Barnes had texted him to say what a brilliant find Angela was: the camera loved her and everyone who would see these pictures would say the same thing. If those pictures landed in front of the right eyes then her life was going to change.

  He kept thinking about that first kiss with Angela today. The fiery passion that had welled up within him was almost impossible to control. He wanted to just take her and rip her clothes off right then and there and take her in the back of the cab. It had taken every ounce of restraint that he possessed to keep himself together.

  Those feelings of lust had not abated in the several hours since then. He had tried several things to take his mind off it, but he could not stop thinking about her. He wanted to hold her, touch her, and just be with her. But he knew that he had to take it slow; it was up to her to dictate the pace. From what he could tell, Angela didn’t strike him as the type of woman who was very experienced in the ways of love. There was just a vibe that she put off that said she was focused and determined on other things in the world and that her love was going to be
tough to earn, but it was going to be so valuable and special to the man who did obtain it.

  He hoped to be that man. He really did.

  As Richard finished running the table and sank the last two balls his gaze landed on his phone. His thoughts were dwelling on a few of the recent women he had been mildly involved with. He wondered if any of them would be interested in some romantic fun tonight.

  He grabbed the phone and began to scroll through his contacts. When he arrived at Melanie’s number his thumb paused over it. He was ready to push the button but Angela’s face popped into his head just then. He wasn’t going to be able to get her out of his mind. What kind of fun would he have with Melanie if his mind (and his heart?) were stuck on Angela?

  He sat the phone down and sipped his drink. It had been a long time since he had felt so strongly about a woman. There was something about her that he just could not get out of his mind and he knew that if he made love to another woman tonight he would feel empty and guilty inside. He wasn’t sure he would be able to see Angela again without telling her about it, even though they’d had one date and had made no real commitments to each other.

  What was going on? Why did he feel this way? He couldn’t make heads or tails out of it, but he was enjoying the feeling. He could not wait to see Angela again and wrap his arms around her. The way she felt against his own body was the way he had always imagined it should feel. It was beyond sexual; there was something real and concrete there. They had established a connection and he wanted to honor it. Richard knew that if he spent the night with another woman then he would feel like he was cheating on Angela and he was not sure he wanted to subject himself to that pain.

  He knew what he had to do.

  Richard finished his drink and stepped into a hot shower, allowing his body to adjust to the warm water. It felt so good rolling down his stomach and onto his raging hardness. He wanted Angela so badly.

  Her sweet face was all that he was able to think about as he pleasured himself.

  After the shower, he lay down and slept like a baby. He hoped he was able to see Angela tomorrow.

  Chapter 6

  Angela swung the racquet as hard as she could with the backhand swing. She connected with the tennis ball strongly, sending the ball sailing over the net. It landed just before going out of bounds and grabbing the point. Rachel Williams finished rolling into the fence; she had dove for the ball giving a valiant effort, but it was just outside of her reach. Angela had hit the ball too hard. It was like a rocket and she felt lucky it had landed in bounds.

  “Yes!” Naomi shouted, rushing over and slapping Angela a high five. “Way to go, bitch!”

  Angela was not sure whether she should feel insulted, but Naomi’s riotous laughter was rather infectious as she wrapped her arms around her and practically lifted her off the court. She, Naomi, Rachel, and Natalie had decided to spend the Saturday playing doubles on the tennis court. It was something Angela and Naomi had been doing since high school together and later on they brought the other two girls on board as well. Playing doubles was always more fun than playing singles anyway.

  “You got lucky on that one!” Natalie said.

  “Luck? There is no luck with Team Victory!” Naomi yelled. Angela looked around a little embarrassed. Naomi was the only girl she knew who would yell and scream at a sporting event as much as a drunk frat boy.

  “Oh, come on. You barely beat us,” Rachel said, walking to the net and rubbing her elbow the whole way.

  “You okay?” Angela asked.

  “Yeah, I think I’ll live. I should have known I couldn’t get that one,” Rachel said.

  “You forget that you’re not Anna Kournikova?” Natalie teased.

  “No, I’m way hotter. And I’ve actually won before,” Rachel joked.

  The group joined her laughter. Rachel was one of the funniest girls they hung out with, but she was not around that much since her family moved upstate several years before. Her dad was a software developer who had sold a huge piece of software to Microsoft for three hundred million dollars a few years ago. After that, they moved to the Hamptons and the other girls had not really seen Rachel very often.

  She was hilarious and way more athletic than the rest of them, but Angela had a few good moments on the tennis court that she loved to savior. This was definitely one of them.

  “Great shot!”

  The voice came from behind them.

  Angela thought the voice sounded very familiar but she never dreamed who would be standing there when she turned around. It was Richard.

  He was with another man that Angela didn’t recognize. They were both dressed in typical polo shirts and dressy athletic shorts—typical tennis attire for the wealthy elite. Richard looked immaculate as always. The way the sun glistened off his tanned face and the way his clothes clung to his muscular, toned frame was enough to make a woman drool and Angela had to fight her urge to do just that. For a second she forgot that Naomi was standing right beside her.

  “Thanks,” Angela said, remembering that Richard had remarked about the shot that she made.

  “Fancy seeing you lovely ladies here. Naomi, I thought you were going shopping today?”

  “Well, my friends decided we would do this instead. Is that okay with you?” Naomi responded condescendingly.

  Richard smiled and laughed it off as both Natalie and Rachel glared at her. They knew that she had a strained relationship with her father, but it was still tiresome to listen to. All anyone ever saw was a sexy, sweet man who loved his daughter. But his love seemed lost on Naomi.

  “I don’t believe you’ve met my good friend Teddy Giles,” Richard said, introducing the handsome stranger.

  Teddy smiled good-naturedly. Angela noticed that while he might have been good looking, Teddy instantly put out a vibe of someone she would never fully trust. She wasn’t sure what it was exactly, but some people just seemed smarmy.

  “Teddy, this is my daughter Naomi, and her friends Angela, Natalie, and Rachel. Great to see you again Rachel.”

  Teddy nodded a hello to each one.

  “We actually met at the party,” Natalie said with a slight roll to her eyes. Angela could infer from her expression that she had not enjoyed the first time around with Teddy.

  “Oh, that’s right,” Teddy said. Angela could tell he didn’t remember her at all.

  “Well, it’s good to see that your tennis game has not faded at all, my dear,” Richard said to Naomi.

  “Several of us played at school whenever we could,” Naomi responded in her deadpan way. Richard had paid for Naomi to have private instruction since she was six years old until she went away to college. Angela wondered how much Richard hated to see that his daughter was barely an average player after all of the lessons and work she had put into the game over the years. She truly loved to play, but she had been born with the coordination of someone who couldn’t walk and chew gum at the same time.

  Angela, on the other hand, had never really had any formal instruction. She loved the game, but it had always come fairly easily to her. Although she considered herself to be better than average, she was in no way an amazing player. Still, she could hold her own on the court with just about anyone she had ever played with.

  “We’ve got to get going,” Natalie said as she and Rachel began to walk away.

  “Bye girls!” Angela said.

  They both had family functions they were expected to attend, or so they said. Natalie and Rachel were both somewhat secretive about what they did outside of this friendship group, but it seemed that they always had something else going on that prohibited them from really being a part of things.

  “Well, sad to see those two go,” Teddy said as his eyes watched Rachel and Natalie walking away. He was really taking in the view, which only added to his smarmy demeanor.

  “I hope you girls aren’t done for the day. Teddy and I are just getting warmed up. Doubles?” Richard said.

  “That sounds good to me,” Angela re
plied. She hoped the enthusiasm in her voice wasn’t too obvious.

  “Okay, but I want to be on Teddy’s team,” Naomi said as she walked to her place on the court.

  “Fair enough. Besides, too much of our family awesomeness on one team wouldn’t be fair to anyone else competing against us,” Richard joked.

  “Dream on, old man,” Teddy replied as he stepped around the net and jogged over to join Naomi.

  “I’m still young enough to take you down,” Richard shot back as he and Angela took their places.

  When they were out of earshot of the other two, Richard spoke to Angela, “It’s great to see you again,” he said.

  “Likewise,” Angela replied in a neutral voice that took an iron will to produce and keep steady.

  “I tried to get in touch with you the other day, but I guess you were busy,” Richard said.

  “Oh, yeah. It’s been a crazy week,” Angela said. Richard had phoned her twice and left voice mail messages both times. She almost called him back but she was really busy with work, and she was also busy playing a little bit hard to get. Angela had never really been the type to play games, but something told her that this time she needed to remain a bit aloof. She trusted Richard and what he had told her about himself and that he was not quite the man most people thought he was, but still, words and actions were not the same things.

  So Angela decided to just play this one by ear and let things work out as they may. She was not in any rush, even though she had thought about him and his sweet touch almost constantly. Even at work when she was supposed to be concentrating on something else she found her mind drifting and wandering back to that hansom cab ride and those sweet kisses. Every time she thought about it, her whole body got a little bit warm and she almost started to perspire.

  The effect that just the thought of this man had on her was a bit frightening and overwhelming. But no matter how much she wanted to give in she was adamant about forcing herself to take it slow and make Richard prove himself to her. She was seriously considering letting him be the first to initiate her into the ways of physical love, but she had to be sure. He had to prove that she was not just one of his throwaways. He had to prove that he wanted her.