Addiction (The Hunted Series Book 2)

by Ivy Smoak

  James didn't look upset when I mentioned Tyler this time. "I'll have to thank him for that," he said calmly.

  "After class I went to talk to the professor. She told me my grades were slipping. Which I already knew. But she implied that she thought I had been getting perks in my other classes because of our relationship."

  James sighed.

  "I told her I had gotten to class early, but had been hiding in the bathroom because I was trying to avoid hearing what everyone was saying about me. And she basically said that she wasn't sympathetic and wasn't friends with you, so that she would have no problem failing me."

  "What is your professor's name?"

  "I don't want you to talk to her. I feel like that will just make it worse."

  "You know that I can find out without you telling me."

  Of course he could. "Professor Thornton. But please don't talk to her. I'm going to get my grades back up. When you weren't talking to me I just fell apart. But I have the rest of the semester to fix it."

  "Okay. I won't talk to her. Honestly, I don't even recognize her name. I don't think I've met her. There probably isn't anything I could do anyway. I don't know that many professors outside of the business school."

  Professor McCarty. James would know him. I wasn't sure what he was going to do when I told him. But I had to tell him. I couldn't go back to that class. And I couldn't go to the dean. Professor McCarty had made that very clear.

  "My intro to marketing class was the worst. It's what made me cry. I didn't expect anything like this to happen. I didn't expect any professors to even talk to me. And I was already upset about everything else. I got a paper back in that class. I got a C-. So when Professor McCarty mentioned an extra credit assignment, I wanted to do it. But apparently he had already explained it in the class I missed on Wednesday. And I hate raising my hand in class. It makes me all nervous and..."

  "I know." James picked up my hand and kissed my palm. "You ramble when you're nervous too. It's incredibly cute." He kissed my palm again. He looked down at my hand. "It's okay. I want you to tell me." It was like he knew that I was about to tell him something bad. He already looked upset. Or maybe he was just upset that I was nervous to tell him anything.

  "So, I waited till class was over and went up to ask him what the assignment was. He pulled out the paper that it was on and asked me to come behind his desk so he could explain it to me. I had never really talked to him before. I sit in the back row. I usually get As on all my papers and tests. I never had any reason to talk to him."

  James was running his thumb up and down each of my fingers.

  "He put his hand on my back when I went behind his desk. I didn't know what to do. I thought he was just being nice. I felt kind of frozen. I thanked him for the extra credit assignment and told him I had another class to get to. But he said he thought we might be able to work out some kind of arrangement that would be better. And he put his hand on my ass. And I didn't know what to do. I told him to stop. I eventually slapped him. But he grabbed my wrist. He said he had more connections than you at the university, so it would be more worth my time. I told him that I was going to report him to the dean. But he said that if I told Mr. Vespelli, he'd say I had come on to him. Somehow he knew I had two strikes. He knew I'd be expelled if I got in trouble again."

  James dropped my hand and sat up. "Did you want to stay here or do you want me to drop you off at the apartment?" He got off the bed and began to tie his shoes.

  "What are you doing?"

  "I'm going to go pay your professor a visit."

  "James, I don't want you to do anything to Professor McCarty. That wasn't why I told you about it. I need to know what to do. I can't go back to class."

  "He touched you." James stood up and stared down at me. He looked so angry. I had made him mad so many times. But not like this.

  "And I slapped him."

  James shook his head. "I'm going to kill him."

  "James!"

  "He shouldn't have touched you!" His voice was loud. People in the rooms next to mine could probably hear him.

  "No, he shouldn't have. But that doesn't mean you should kill him! He didn't even know that we were dating. I just want you to help me switch classes. I just don't want to see him. And I don't want to be expelled. I don't want you to hurt him. The last thing I want is for you to do something that'll get you in more trouble. I just don't know what to do."

  James looked down at my left hand. "Marry me."

  "What?"

  "Let's get married." He ran his hand through his hair. "And move somewhere where no one knows either one of us. We can start over together."

  "James, you just told my parents a few days ago that you weren't ready to get married. You just got divorced. That isn't what you really want. You're just upset."

  "I don't want anyone else to touch you ever again. I don't want anyone else to flirt with you. I want everyone to know that you're mine."

  "I am yours."

  "Then marry me. We can go to Vegas right now."

  "James, I can't just marry you. I want my parents to be there. I want my friends to be there. And what about your family? I haven't even gotten to meet any of them yet. I want them to be there too."

  "I don't want a big wedding. I've already done that."

  "That's not what I said. I don't care about having a big wedding. I just want a few people besides us to be there."

  "So that's a definite no?" He put his hands on my knees.

  Did I just reject a proposal from Professor Hunter? I hadn't even meant to do it. I wanted to marry him. But not like this. Not when he was mad. "No. I want to marry you. Just not...today. This was hardly a romantic proposal, Professor Hunter."

  He looked down at my left hand again and ran his thumb along my ring finger. "Romance, got it. Next time I ask, you'll definitely say yes." He smiled at me.

  "If you hadn't said we should go to Vegas right now I probably would have said yes."

  He pushed some of my hair behind my ear. "I wish I hadn't mentioned Vegas then." He smiled at me.

  "Maybe we should just go somewhere that no one knows us, though." I wrapped my hands around the back of his neck. "I was prepared for other students being mean. I never expected my professors to..." I let my voice trail off.

  "You won't be going back to his class. We can transfer you into a different one. Or you can withdraw from that too. I'll call Joe now."

  "He's not going to let me do that. He's going to expel me."

  "He's not going to expel you." James moved his hand to the side of my neck. "And if that creep wasn't on tenure, I'm sure I could get him fired."

  "But are you sure you even want to stay here?"

  "If this is where you want to be, then yes."

  "Can you wait to call Joe? Maybe we can see how we feel on Monday?"

  "Okay. Penny, I'm so sorry."

  "You like to apologize when you've done nothing wrong."

  He laughed. "I guess you're rubbing off on me."

  His phone started buzzing in his pocket. He kissed my forehead before pulling his phone out of his pocket. "It's Rob. He's here early."

  "We should probably go then."

  "Are you sure you're okay? Are you sure we're okay? I thought you might be mad at me. I can't believe I gave them the fuel they needed for the investigation. I never even thought about them searching my office. I can't believe how careless I was."

  "Wait, what? What are you talking about?"

  He lowered his eyebrows slightly. "Joe didn't tell you?"

  "Tell me what?" What is he talking about? What did the detectives find in his office? He didn't actually seduce those girls, did he?

  "About the paper with the bad grade on it that I gave you? The one that you crumpled up and threw at me in my office. I kept it. It was in my desk. With the cute note you left me after was had sex."

  "Oh." Oh. That's how the detectives knew what had happened between us. Of course. "Why did you keep that?"

  "
I just...I didn't want to forget. I thought it was just going to be a one time thing. And it killed me that it had to be a one time thing. I thought it was the only thing I could hold on to."

  I looked up into his eyes. "That's so sweet."

  "And stupid."

  "No, it's sweet. Wait, didn't they need a search warrant to go into your office?"

  "I would have thought so too. But the university gave them permission. My office at the school is technically their property."

  "So that's how the detectives knew?"

  "I think it was easy to figure out what happened after seeing those two pieces of paper. Especially since the white out on the paper with your grade on it wasn't even well done. And if they did a black light test..."

  "That's embarrassing."

  James laughed. "Yeah, it is. But it all makes sense now. I think I know what happened with the other girls too. "Did the detectives promise you anything if you cooperated with them?"

  "Yes, they did. They said they could get my scholarship back."

  "I think the detectives did something similar with the girls they interviewed. I think they told the girls they would get As in the class if they agreed with their story. I'm not sure if the detectives knew about the school's policy or not, or maybe they were just bluffing. But I think they pressured those girls into agreeing with the story that they told them. A story they inferred from your grade and the note you left in my office. All those girls had to do was say yes.

  "That makes sense. The detectives told me what had happened with the other girls and were just trying to pressure me into agreeing it was the same way you seduced me. Those assholes. We have to tell the dean."

  "I already told Joe that. He just wants this to disappear, Penny. And so do I. I don't want you to keep having days like this. I want it to get better, not worse."

  "Are you sure we shouldn't..."

  "I'm sure."

  "I'm not mad at you for saving the note I left you. It's ridiculous that you think I'd be mad about that." I smiled up at him.

  "So we're okay?"

  "Yes." I kissed him and slid off my bed. "I love you so much, Professor Hunter." I let my hand run down his naked torso.

  He smiled. "Try to remember to call me James in front of my brother, please." He lightly slapped my ass.

  "I'll see what I can do. I'm so excited to meet him. Give me a second though, I'm sure I look like a hot mess."

  "Just hot."

  I laughed and walked over to the mirror on the wall. I quickly wiped away the smudge marks from my mascara and added some concealer under my eyes so they wouldn't look as puffy. "I'm kind of nervous."

  "You don't have anything to be nervous about. He's going to love you." He wrapped his arms back around me. But his body felt stiff. He still seemed on edge.

  "Are you sure you're okay?" I asked.

  "I'm fine."

  "James."

  "I don't know what you want me to tell you. Of course I'm upset. I'm pissed. I won't feel better until I've punched him in the face."

  "Please, please don't do that."

  "Penny, he touched you."

  "Can we please just focus on your brother visiting? Just forget about it for now. I don't want to think about it anymore. Let's just have a fun weekend."

  "I'll try."

  "Okay, come on, let's go. I want to meet him!"

  James laughed.

  "What's he like?"

  He grabbed my hand and led me out of my dorm room. "He's...fun."

  "You mean like funny?"

  "No, I wouldn't say funny. He likes to have a good time. I invited him to stay with me when I didn't have you. He's good at distracting me." He looked down at me as we exited the building.

  I laughed. I didn't want to think about when we weren't together. Just thinking about it made my chest hurt. "Is he like you at all?"

  "Like me? He looks a little like me, I guess."

  "Yeah, I've seen his picture. I mean, is he like you personality wise?"

  James opened up the car door for me.

  I quickly got in and watched him walk around the front of the car. He seemed to be pondering the question.

  "No," he said as he climbed in and buckled his seatbelt. "He's not really like me at all. He's kind of the opposite of me."

  "What do you mean?"

  "He's not independent."

  "What does that mean exactly?"

  "He lives off my parents' money. He's never held a job for more than a few weeks." James pulled out of the parking lot.

  "Oh. So is he close with your parents?"

  "It's funny. I felt like I was the only one of my siblings who ever listened to them. And they like me the least."

  "I'm sure that isn't true."

  He didn't say anything.

  "Do your parents know about me? Do they know about your divorce?"

  "They know I filed for divorce. I told them about it before I did it. They tried to talk me out of it."

  "And what about me?"

  "I haven't talked to them since I left New York."

  "They haven't tried to talk to you at all? That was almost a year ago."

  He glanced at me for a second before turning his attention back to the road. "I didn't say that."

  "So they have tried to talk to you? And you haven't taken their calls or something? James, maybe..."

  "Penny. It's better this way."

  I thought about the tickets he had given me to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. They hadn't really been tickets to meet his family. He had just said that I could meet them if I wanted to because I had asked.

  "I'll have to meet them eventually."

  "I know. How about you meet Rob first. Then you can decide if you want to meet the rest of my family."

  "I think Rob sounds great. Does he know about me?"

  "No, actually. He doesn't even know that my divorce is final."

  "So he thinks that it's just going to be two single rich bachelors in a college town? He's going to hate me."

  James laughed. "He's not going to hate you."

  "He probably thinks you're going to go out every night and pick up girls."

  "I'm sure he wishes that's what we would be doing. But he knows I wouldn't have done that whether I had a girlfriend or not."

  "Why wouldn't you if you were single? Wasn't that kind of the point of inviting Rob to live with you in the first place? To get over me?"

  "I don't go to bars and pick up women. I like to practice self-control, Penny."

  Self-control. Was he referring to his addiction problem? I looked out the window. Maybe if he had sex with one college student that he picked up at a bar he wouldn't be able to stop until he had sex with all of them.

  "So what made you give into temptation with me?"

  "You. I've never been so instantly attracted to someone in my life. You're different than other girls I've met. You chose option two."

  I laughed. "Our day in New York was perfect. I'll always choose option two."

  "I know. And I couldn't seem to control myself around you." He glanced at me again. "Not because I'm addicted to you."

  "I don't care if you're addicted to me, you know. I'm addicted to you."

  He pulled to a stop at a light. "That's different, Penny."

  "Is it that different?"

  "When I'm low I feel like I can't breathe. Even when I indulge in whatever it is I'm addicted to. It's just an escape. But with you, I feel like I can finally breathe for the first time. You're not an escape. You're a new way of living that I didn't even know was possible." His Adam's apple rose and fell.

  That was a fine line. A very fine line. When he wasn't talking to me I felt like I couldn't breathe. Maybe I was the one who had an addiction problem.

  "Shit."

  I turned my attention to the road. The reporters were blocking the entrance to the parking garage. I had dealt with enough today. This whole thing was ridiculous. They couldn't sit out here forever in their vans. This needed to end. I u
nbuckled my seatbelt.

  "Penny, stay in the car."

  I opened the door, ignoring him.

  "Damn it, Penny!"

  I slammed the car door. "What do you want to know? Why are you standing out here? Don't you have anything else to report on? This isn't news."

  "Penny! How do you feel about the recent findings in the investigation?" One of the news reporters approached me, quickly followed by her cameraman. "Did you know that James was..."

  "He wasn't. He hasn't done anything wrong. What is wrong with you people?"

  James was beside me in a second. He grabbed my arm. "Penny, get in the car now."

  "Is that how this started? Him telling you what to do? Did he force you..."

  James put his hand in front of the video camera lens that was in our faces.

  "Penny." His voice was stern.

  "He didn't force me to do anything. Haven't any of you been in love? James is kind, and caring, and wonderful."

  "He cheated on his wife in order to be with you."

  "He didn't. Stop standing out here harassing us and go do your job. You're just spreading rumors. This isn't news!"

  "We don't have any other comments at this time," James said and stepped in front of me.

  Why was he being like this? Why wouldn't he stand up for himself? I climbed back into the car. Everyone else at this school was an asshole. Girls were lying to get As. The dean was just accepting crappy detectives' opinions in order to sweep this whole mess under the rug. And these reporters had chosen us to harass? This was ridiculous.

  James slammed the door when he got back in the car and laid his hand down on the horn. The reporters didn't back away until he started to slowly move the car forward. He didn't say anything as he pulled into the parking garage. But I could tell he was mad. His hands were gripping the steering wheel so tightly that his knuckles were turning white. He pulled into his parking spot and got out of the car. I had to chase him to the elevator doors that had already opened.

  "James, I'm sorry. But this needs to stop. They can't stay out there forever."

  He shook his head and hit a button on the elevator. The elevator came to an abrupt stop. "What the hell is wrong with you?"