by Cassie Cole
“Jessica?”
“You should probably call her Professor Morris,” Finn said in the kitchen.
“Shut up,” Zack replied. Then to me: “What are you doing here?”
“Can we talk?”
“Yeah, just give me a second to throw on some clothes.”
I didn’t want to spend another second being ridiculed by Finn, so I followed Zack down the hallway into his room.
10
Jessica
Zack’s room looked like every college guy’s room I had ever seen: movie posters crammed every inch of the walls, a bed was pushed up against one wall, and the rest of the space was filled with a computer desk. Clothes were scattered on the floor and in a hamper at the foot of the bed.
Zack flinched when he realized I had followed him. “Let me just, uh, clean up a bit…”
He hastily tossed the clothes into the hamper, then looked at me. “I was going to change…”
A dozen jokes sprung to mind. How it was silly for a stripper to be modest, and how I had already seen plenty of him in my apartment last night. But I wasn’t in the joking mood so I turned my back to him.
I heard the towel drop and a drawer open and close. In front of me, the computer monitor was dark and acted as a pretty good mirror. I could even see the lines of muscles in his chest and shoulders. Being this close to him and seeing his nude body brought back a barrage of memories from last night. The way he held me in his arms, lifting me onto the table like I weighed nothing. Spreading my legs…
I shook off the memory as Zack’s reflection pulled on a pair of shorts. I’m supposed to be angry, I thought.
“You can turn around now.”
I whirled around accusingly. “You told Finn.”
Zack crossed his chiseled arms over his chest. “I texted him when I was in class today. It was before you told me not to say anything.”
“It doesn’t matter!” I said. “You shouldn’t have told anyone!”
“I was freaking out,” he shot back at me. “I walked into class and found out my Roman History professor is the woman I slept with last night. I needed to talk to someone about it. You don’t need to worry about Finn. He doesn’t gossip.”
I doubt that, I thought, but his excuse made sense. I spent the day freaking out and wishing I could tell someone too.
Zack sat on the bed and groaned. “It shouldn’t have happened. Our agency that books our gigs checks everything to make sure we’re not sent to the wrong person’s house. They use our class schedule and everything. They got the names of everyone at the bachelorette party ahead of time. Someone seriously fucked up for this to happen.”
“I was a last minute invite,” I revealed. “I probably wasn’t on the original list. I barely even know the bride.”
He sighed with relief. “That’s good to hear. I mean, relatively good. I’m glad it wasn’t a fuck-up on our end is what I mean.”
“Do they really do that?” I asked. “Check the names of clients against your class schedule?”
“You’d be surprised how much effort goes into background research.” Zack snorted. “All it takes is the wrong stripper sent to a certain address and it can cause all sorts of problems. Not just on a professor-and-student level, either. I heard about a girl who was accidentally hired to strip at her own dad’s retirement party.” He shivered at the thought.
“Makes sense. Have you switched classes yet?”
He looked up at me with those perfect blue eyes. “Here’s the thing…”
“No!” I blurted out. “There shouldn’t be a thing!”
“All the other history classes are full. Literally every single one.”
“They allow overflow enrollment in certain circumstances,” I insisted.
Zack shook his head. A bead of water from his wet hair ran down his temple and pooled next to his lip. He licked it away and said, “I asked my adviser about that. Overflow is only for special cases. The best she can do is put me on the waiting list.”
“I can pull some strings. Talk to my fellow professors and find a spot for you.”
“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” he asked skeptically. “If you go around calling-in favors it might raise some eyebrows…”
I remembered the way Lori, his adviser, had acted when I asked about Zack’s exception. She kept asking me if there was a problem, and there was a curious note in her voice. All my friends in the history department would be just as curious. They would ask questions and demand to know why he didn’t want to be in my class. I doubted I could hold up to so much scrutiny without giving away what had happened. They would see me blush and instantly know.
“Then drop the class,” I said.
“I need three history credits for my degree.”
“Then take a history class in the spring.”
Zack’s sexy face smirked with regret. “Here’s the thing about that…”
“No!” I said. “No more things!”
“My spring schedule is packed. I’m already taking twenty-one credits, which is over the credit limit. I don’t have room for another class.” He held up a finger before I could argue. “And even if I did, I have a problem with this semester. I’m at twelve credits, which is the minimum to be classified as a full-time student. If I drop your class I’ll lose eligibility for most of my student aid programs.”
I let out a defeated sigh and sat next to him on the bed. “Then drop out of school. Become a stripper. College degrees are overrated.”
“I do make good money as a stripper. At least for the next five or six years until I let myself go.” He patted his stomach, which was as flat as a washboard. “As soon as I get a beer belly? It’s all over.”
I laughed in spite of the hole I had dug myself into. Maybe because of it. Sometimes things in life were so ridiculous there was no other option but to find humor in it.
“If anyone finds out, I’ll lose my job,” I said softly.
“That’s true regardless of my enrollment in your class, right? Professors can’t sleep with students?”
“It’s only forbidden if you’re in the professor’s class,” I said. “Otherwise, fraternizing between faculty and students is frowned upon… but allowed.”
“Well shit,” Zack said. “If I had known that I would’ve slept with Brandi last night.”
“Brandi’s the one who is engaged.”
“Oh, right. Then I would’ve slept with the woman sitting next to you at the party. The one in the black dress.”
“We were all wearing black dresses.”
“The redhead.”
“Christie? She’s married.”
“Then the other blonde. Sitting next to Brandi.”
I laughed again. “You didn’t have to sleep with anyone, you know.”
He flashed me a smile. “Sure, but now that I know I can? It feels like a missed opportunity.”
We grinned together, and I remembered why I had brought him back to my apartment last night. He had an animal magnetism about him. I was drawn to him in a way I couldn’t ignore. I felt it now, sitting on his bed and joking about everything that had happened.
His sexy face grew serious. “We can pretend it didn’t happen. Just a one-time thing. Put it behind us and move on.”
“Can you do that?” I asked softly. “Pretend it didn’t happen?”
“I can try,” he said. “Especially if your job is on the line. What other option do we have?”
I knew he was right. Out of all the bad options in front of us, this was the least-bad of the bunch. It sucked, but sometimes that’s how life went.
That’s what I get for making such a huge mistake.
“You can’t tell anyone else,” I warned.
Zack nodded. “Already promised that.”
“You have to make sure Finn keeps it to himself.”
“Already promised that, too. If I tell Finn not to tell a soul, he’ll take the secret to his grave.”
“We have to act normal in class.”
“I’ll try,” he said. “I’m a good actor. Comes with the job.”
I gave him a sideways look. “Were you acting when we were together last night?”
He looked at the ground between his feet and grinned. “Not even a little bit. That was one hundred percent Zack.”
I felt the tingle in my belly again. The one that said it wasn’t random chance Zack and I had found ourselves together last night. Deep down, I still wanted to believe that it was fate.
But was it still fate if it led to a huge mistake?
Zack stuck out his hand to me. “We have a deal, Professor Morris?”
I shook his hand. His palm was warm and totally enveloped mine.
“We have a deal… I’m sorry, what was your name again? I have so many students that it’s tough for me to keep track.”
He continued shaking my hand, not letting go. “Very funny.”
“I’ll remember everyone’s name by the third week, I promise,” I teased.
“You’ll remember this.”
He pulled me toward him into a long kiss.
I was caught totally off-guard, but the kiss was everything my body had wanted all day. It was the perfect encore to last night’s fun. I quickly forgot everything we had just agreed to. Zack’s tongue moved passionately against mine as he held me close, and I kissed him back because I didn’t want it to end. As soon as it ended we had to return to the real world.
Both of us were panting when we finally pulled our lips apart. Zack’s face tightened with a smile around his crystal-blue eyes.
“One last time,” he whispered. “To remember me by.”
“To remember you by,” I repeated. I certainly wasn’t going to forget him any time soon.
Before I could make another bad decision, I muttered a goodbye and rushed out of his room.
Finn was sitting on the couch eating a plate of chicken and veggies while watching TV. Without taking his eyes from the screen he waved and said, “See you next time, professor.”
I reached the door and opened it. “There won’t be a next time.”
“Sure,” was the last thing he said before the door closed.
11
Jessica
Our decision made logical sense. Zack and I had to pretend like nothing had happened. I was his professor and he was my student, and there was nothing else going on between us.
But for the next two weeks I struggled to maintain that illusion.
Class on Wednesday was easier than that first day. The students arrived to class, and Zack was one of them. He sat in the third row and took notes on his laptop. Once I began my lecture I was able to forget he was even there. He was just another body sitting in a seat, absorbing the history lesson I was giving.
Everything felt totally normal.
Then Zack began acting too normal. He raised his hand in class and asked relevant questions. Like his adviser had claimed, Zack knew a lot about the Roman Empire. Either he was studying extra hard or he genuinely cared about the subject. After two weeks he was the best student in class, even more so than the actual history majors.
That made it a lot harder to ignore him.
I found myself admiring him throughout class. Watching him walk into the lecture hall. Eyeing him when he left at the end of class. God, he was sexy. Even though he wore simple jeans and a t-shirt, they accentuated his muscular body. I couldn’t stop thinking about what we had done that night in my apartment.
And all the things we could be doing if he wasn’t my student.
Lunch with Dominic helped take my mind off things. We ate together on Wednesday, then again on Friday. The following week we met in the cafeteria on Monday and Wednesday again. Our schedules aligned and it became a routine without either of us ever saying a thing about it.
“You were a football player here, right?” I asked one day.
The broad-shouldered man nodded. “Four years, plus a red-shirt freshman year.”
“Has DMSU changed a lot since then? Everybody says so, but I struggle to picture it.”
He rumbled with laughter, a sound like boulders rolling down a mountain. “The school is much bigger. It was tiny when I was a student. All the academic buildings are new except History and Fine Arts.” He gestured around. “We didn’t have this community hall. I had to walk all the way back to the freshman dorm to eat.”
“A quarter of a mile?” I said with mock sympathy. “That must have killed you.”
He gave me a playful glare with his emerald eyes. “As a student-athlete, we had two-a-day workouts. After what coach put us through? Some days I could barely stand.”
I ate another bite of my sandwich. “Okay, I retract my teasing. The toughest workout I had in college was the one-credit swim class I took.”
“Remind me where you went?”
“Nebraska. For undergrad, graduate, and doctorate.”
“But you grew up in Iowa?”
“Sure did. Onawa. Family has lived there for three generations. Onawa’s biggest claim to fame is being the starting city for RAGBRAI every ten years or so.”
Dominic shook his head with disappointment. “And you crossed the Missouri. Did that start a civil war in your family?”
I cocked my head. “Is that a Julius Caesar reference? Crossing the Rubicon?”
He grinned sheepishly. “Wasn’t sure if you’d get it.”
“Oh, I got it alright. I’m all about those subtle Roman references! But no, my family didn’t care that I became a Cornhusker. I was the first person in my family to go to college, actually.”
“Is that so?”
“First to get any degree, let alone my master’s and doctorate.”
Dominic leaned back and ran a hand through his wavy brown hair. His white dress shirt fit tightly around the corded muscle of his arms, and he looked at me approvingly.
“I wasn’t the first in my family to get their degree, but I was the first to want to,” he said.
“What do you mean?”
“Everyone in my family played football. My dad, my uncles, my older brother. Naturally, I came to DMSU to do the same. But I chose a major I actually enjoyed, and when I graduated I kept studying. My family thought I was crazy.”
“Getting a higher education,” I muttered. “Totally crazy.”
Dominic grinned at me and started to say something else, but then two girls approached our table. “Excuse me, Professor Karlson?” one of them asked.
He twisted to face them. “How can I help you?”
One of the girls blushed while the other giggled. “I was wondering when your office hours are.”
“Every Tuesday and Thursday, from two to three. It’s on the syllabus.”
“Sorry, I lost it. I’m kind of ditsy.” The girl let out another giggle and her friend playfully shoved her.
I tried not to roll my eyes.
“Is it okay if I come tomorrow?” the first girl asked. “I have some questions about the material.”
Dominic’s face remained emotionless. “As long as your questions are related to World War One and its causes.”
“Thanks!” The girls quickly walked away, leaning close to each other and giggling.
“That was… something,” I said dryly.
Dominic sighed. “It gets worse every year. I swear they’re getting bolder. And when they do come to my office hours?” He let out an exasperated chuckle. “It would be funny if it wasn’t so inappropriate.”
“Inappropriate,” I agreed.
“Thankfully my willpower is strong,” he said. “To do something that goes against all of my moral and academic principles…”
I felt a blush begin to creep up my cheeks.
He shook his head again and gestured at me. “You must get a lot of that too.”
I gave a start. “Why do you say that?”
Dominic cast his eyes down and focused on his food. “I hope it doesn’t cross a line for me to point out that you’re young and attractive. The male students must leave a lot of ap
ples on your desk, so to speak.”
He was right. There were always one or two students who flirted with me in every class. But my mind immediately went to Zack and the terribly, wonderful thing we had done…
“As a woman, I’ve learned to ignore it throughout my life,” I said casually. “Not just as a professor.”
“Well put,” he said. “Can I take you out this Friday?”
I almost spit out my drink. “Can you what?”
“There’s no policy against colleagues dating,” he said quickly. “I’ve enjoyed our lunches and I thought it would be nice to see each other outside of campus, but if I was being too forward…”
“I would love to,” I said.
Maybe this will help get Zack out of my head.
12
Jessica
I had been crushing on Dominic for so long that I had begun doubting if he liked me too. There were only so many casual work lunches two people could share before someone made a move. So once he did ask me out? I was terrified of screwing it up. It felt like the stakes were higher than they should have been.
But I was excited, too. I was on cloud nine the rest of the day and wished I could fast-forward two days to the date itself.
I considered how the date would go, and what might happen at the end of the night. I wanted to jump Dominic’s bones, but it had taken him four lunches before he worked up the courage to ask me out. I got the impression he wanted to take things slow. I didn’t know if I had it in me.
Especially since that night with Zack had awoken something within me.
I couldn’t stop thinking about my student. I was having sexy dreams about him. Every time I walked into my apartment I looked at the table and relived what had happened. Zack was like a bad idea I couldn’t get out of my head.
I did what I had been doing for years: I pulled out my vibrator and took care of myself. I had a healthy libido and some me time usually scratched that itch. This time it felt woefully inadequate. No amount of toys in the world compared to having a muscular hunk pumping between my legs, filling me with his cock.