His Secret Baby

by Jamie Knight

  She paused for a moment when Trent gave her the application. She pulled the paper closer to her face, as if to get a better view in the dim light. She scanned the paper quickly, an inquisitive look on her face, like she was trying to understand what it was all about.

  All of a sudden, her eyes snapped up and she stared directly at me. I stared right back. We sat there for a few minutes, our eyes locked on each other, like we were having a silent conversation across the room.

  I knew that I shouldn't have been holding her gaze for so long, because it might draw unusual attention to us, but, just like last night in the club, I was struggling to look away. There was something about her that was so familiar, so intriguing, that I wanted to just keep staring at her and taking in her beauty.

  She started to softly bite her lip. I could feel the blood begin to rush to my head. She looked away and didn't look back, almost like she was having the same thought that I had been having: she knew that we shouldn't be staring at each other but was having a hard time doing much else.

  But I hoped that she was considering applying for the internship so that I could help mentor her. It would give us all the reason in the world to be together and get to know each other better. I couldn’t help it – that was all I wanted to do.

  The film ended, and Trent turned on the lights, signalling that it was my turn to finish up the class and make my final remarks. I looked toward Izzy, took a deep breath, and stood in front of the class.

  "I am excited to be starting a new journey with all of you and want you to know that I have an open door policy for anyone who might have questions or might want some extra help with course material. I want you all to know that I am here to help you become successful, however I can. Are there any questions?"

  I stopped talking and looked out over the room to see if any hands would raise. Part of me wished that Izzy would ask a question and give me a chance to speak with her, to look at her some more, without making it weird. Instead, she sat there looking over the internship application that I had given her.

  The bell rang, and the students moved to leave the classroom.

  "Don't forget that you'll have a pop quiz this week on the film," announced Trent, walking over and writing the reminder up on the white board.

  Izzy took her time gathering her notes and her bag. I could sense her watching me out of the corner of her eye. I wanted to call her over to talk to her about the internship application and to get an idea if she was going to apply. But I wanted to come off nonchalant when I talked to her.

  I still was trying to contain my excitement. When I finally did talk to her, I wanted to make sure that I was in full control of my thoughts and emotions, not staring and drooling all over myself like a lovesick puppy. I wanted to find a way to connect with her, not have her running away in the opposite direction.

  I stayed at my desk, pretending to be engrossed in something on my computer screen until Izzy had left the classroom and I was sure she was on her way to her next class. Only then could I relax a bit, and let out a breath I hadn’t even realized I had been holding in.

  That girl. What the fuck is she doing to me?

  Chapter 4

  Izzy

  My phone buzzed for the hundredth time since I had stepped foot into the classroom. I already knew who it was without even looking at the caller ID. I pulled out my phone and laughed as I confirmed the name that I knew was going to be on the screen.

  Mom.

  I tried picking up, but the call was already going to voicemail before I had the chance to answer. I went to my call log, found my mother's number, and pressed send.

  I inhaled sharply, trying to brace myself for the anxiety-ridden conversation that I knew that I was about to have. But I figured that it would be better to go ahead and get the conversation over with before she sent a search team out looking for me.

  "Hi, Mom," I said, trying to sound as upbeat as possible.

  "Are you okay, sweetie? Why weren't you answering my calls? Did something happen? Maybe you should come home for a while..."

  I rolled my eyes, trying not to be completely irritated with my overbearing and overprotective mother.

  "Mom, I'm fine! I haven't been raped, mugged, or beaten yet. I didn't answer my phone because I was doing the unthinkable: sitting in class, actually paying attention to my teacher. Big shocker. I know."

  "Well, I'm sorry that I care so much," said my mother, sulking over the phone.

  Hearing her voice sounding so sad and disappointed made me feel a little bad for being so sarcastic with her. The truth was that her breathing down my neck was irritating, but I tried to just put up with it because I knew that her worry came from a place of love.

  I just wished that there was a way that I could get them to understand that while I really did appreciate all the love that she and my dad gave me, I was growing more and more tired of being stifled. I was in college, after all. Now was my chance to grow my wings and fly.

  "I love you, Mom," I said. "I'll call you later. I'm about to head into my next class."

  We got off the phone and I jammed my phone into a pocket of my bag. I had two more classes to get through, and they passed by pretty uneventfully.

  I tried to stay focused on what I was supposed to be learning, instead of on the fact that super hot guy from the club was my new professor. Or else I would never be able to pass my classes. Finally, I made my way back to my dorm room.

  As soon as I walked into my room after my classes were done, however, I threw my bag in the corner and landed face first on my bed. I was still exhausted from all the events from the night before and now I had time to sit and process everything that had just happened.

  I couldn’t believe that the guy from the club last night was my professor. I remembered the packet that I had gotten from his class and I was really curious to look more into it and see what it was all about.

  I had tried to look it over during the class, but I was too busy taking notes on everything else to really focus. Not to mention the fact that, on top of having an incredible amount of pressure to do well so that I could get good grades already, now I had the added burden of having to manage not to cream my pants just sitting in class while I watched him stand in front of me like the fine specimen that he was.

  Now, I saw what it was all about. An internship. It would let me get one-on-one hands-on field training, something that could prove to be invaluable depending on what field I wanted to go into. But, if nothing else, it would be a great way to get some extra credits.

  The internship offered two credits and would only be a three-hour weekly time commitment from me. I thought about my already packed semester and wondered if taking on this internship wouldn’t be biting off more than I could chew.

  On one hand, this would look amazing on my resume. With my being so young already, there was already a bias. But, coming with both knowledge and experience would put me light years ahead of many other candidates that might be up for an opportunity. The thought of what an opportunity like this could do to fast track my life made me want to jump for joy and do a little happy dance.

  The only thing was that it would mean spending a lot of time with Dr. Rivers. Considering how we met, spending more time with him could cause more crazy situations. First, I poured my drink on his girlfriend or wife. Then, I almost fell on him when showing up late for the first day of his class. Then, I stalk him by means of an internship?

  But he was the one who gave me the information about the internship, so it could hardly count as me stalking him. He was so hot, though. I would have to find a way to do the internship and not just stare at him dreamily, sighing like a smitten teenager.

  Class had only been in session one day and on the very first day, I kept wondering what he looked like with his shirt off for most of the class. I actually had to start taking notes because I kept imagining him slow grinding on top of his desk like he was a male stripper. I wondered what his butt felt like. I wondered what his cock felt like…<
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  Stop that, Izzy, I thought to myself.

  Besides the fact that he was my professor for a class that I needed to well in, he also obviously had a wife or girlfriend, the one he was at the club with, and one who probably was not my biggest fan, considering the fact that I ruined a great outfit and potentially a good date night for them.

  I cringed, hoping that he wasn’t one of those vindictive professors, one who took out their personal frustrations out on their students, even if he could have done so with good reason. The way that she had overreacted made me think that she probably wasn’t going to get over it anytime soon.

  But maybe this internship would be the perfect way to get into his good graces. I knew that I could surpass any and every expectation that he might have had for me. The thought of what it could do for my grades was one thing, but what could this possibly mean on a more personal level?

  Even though this would be a wonderfully enriching experience for my education and career, my fantasy from the night before made me start to toy with the idea that I might get more than what I set out for this semester. I smiled a sneaky smile and looked for a pen in my bag so that I could start filling out the application.

  I almost leapt out of bed when my phone started vibrating and chirping from its place buried inside of my bag. I tried to steady my hand as I fished around for it, hoping that it wouldn’t stop ringing before I had the chance to find it.

  When I finally found it, I saw my dad’s name on the screen.

  “Hey, honey, it’s Dad,” he said loudly, once I answere4d, sounding like he was in crowded room. I had to plug my ear to try hearing him.

  “Hey, Dad. I can barely hear you. Where are you?”

  “Your mom and I are out to dinner…” I could hear my mother talking frantically and then it sounded like the phone fell. After about a few seconds, my dad came back on the line.

  “Sorry, dropped the phone. Gosh, your mother,” he sighed tiredly. “She said that she tried calling you earlier and she couldn’t get ahold of you. So, I was just calling to check on you.”

  I had to fight the urge to scream, much like I had had to for most of my life. I was the youngest of my four sisters and I felt every bit of my parents’ overprotective smothering for years.

  I think that it was just part of the reason why I had buried myself in my school work. I wanted to get away from the smothering and felt that leaving for college could help me do that. It paid off academically, because I was able to finish high school early and start college when I was sixteen.

  It didn’t pay off as well, though, when it came to my goal of moving away. Because of my overprotective parents being too afraid of me being on a college campus, I started taking classes online. I had begged and pleaded with them to let me go, but they kept telling me that only adults belonged on college campuses.

  So, I kept on studying hard, counting down the days until my eighteenth birthday. When it finally came, and I asked them to help me get into a good college where I could study on campus, they still said no.

  “Why do you need to go to a campus?” they asked. “You’re doing perfectly fine taking your classes here where we know that you are safe.”

  Then came the barrage of newspaper clippings citing rapes happening at college campuses all over the country. It was like they found a fresh story to leave taped to my dresser every day. I was starting to think that I would never leave their house.

  But I refused to give up. I started investigating colleges on my own and showing my parents that I was an adult capable of taking care of myself.

  When it came time for me to leave, my mother cried so hard that she couldn’t even manage to say goodbye. My father made me promise to always carry mace on me and answer my phone when they called.

  I knew that biting my tongue during his phone calls was part of me keeping my end of the deal.

  “Yeah, I talked to Mom earlier,” I told him, irritated that she had only given him half of the story and made it seem like I wasn’t doing as I had promised. “I was in class when she called at first. I’m good, though.”

  “Oh, good,” he said, his voice lightening.

  I could tell he liked talking to me, even though he was annoyed at my mom for making him call me. At least my parents loved me, and that was the one thing that allowed me to keep my sanity when they started freaking out with their worries. They were only doing it because they cared. It could be much worse, and I could have neglectful parents, I guessed.

  “How are you liking your classes so far?” Dad asked me.

  “I like them a lot,” I said. “You know me. I’m always up for a challenge. Speaking of challenges, in my organic chemistry class, my teacher gave me an application for some sort of internship.”

  “Really?” he asked, sounding interested. “Are you thinking about doing it?”

  “Well, yeah,” I admitted. “It would look really good on my resume.”

  “And your professor?”

  The question almost caught me off guard. I definitely wasn’t about to tell my dad anything about the fantasies that I had had about Dr. Rivers, but I did wonder what had made him ask about him.

  “H-he’s nice…” I stammered. “I think I was the only student in the class to even be offered a position.”

  “Of course you were, Superstar,” said my dad, calling me the nickname that he had called me since I was born.

  He said that out of all his children, my eyes shone the brightest, like stars. Plus, I had always been an overachiever. So, the name just stuck.

  “I figured this professor would know a smart cookie when he saw one,” Dad said, clueing me into the fact that he had just wanted to know more about the professor who would give me such an opportunity.

  In my paranoia, or maybe as a result of my guilty conscience, I had taken his question to mean something different. Now, I tried to stay focused on the academic aspect of things, like my dad was doing – rather on the fact that I wanted my hot teacher to pop my cherry, even if I knew that could never happen.

  “I’m pretty excited,” I told him.

  “You sound like it,” he said, with an edge in his voice. “And you know that I am proud of and happy for you. I just want to make sure that you aren’t taking on more than you can handle. Stress is a major cause of many crimes.”

  I hadn’t expected that response. My dad could be so strange sometimes.

  “How so?”

  “Well, you know… you could be so stressed out from having to work too much and not get enough sleep. And are you eating? Well, that’s what criminals wait for. They wait until the moment you are too stressed out to pay attention and then bam! That’s when they go in for the kill.”

  I hit the mute button on my phone and screamed. I shook my head, hardly believing that my dad was serious about what he was saying. But I knew that he was, in fact, as serious as a heart attack. Those were the kind of things my mom and dad sat around thinking and talking about.

  “You’re still wearing your mace necklace, right?” he asked.

  “Of course,” I lied, remembering that I had tossed it in the back of my closet of my dorm room as soon as I had gotten the chance.

  “Good,” he said, sighing. “Well, I’ll let you get back to studying or whatever you were doing. I just wanted to make sure that you were okay.”

  “I know, Dad. And I am. I love you. I’ll talk to you later.”

  We hung up and I went back to filling out the application for the internship.

  I could handle the responsibility and then some with flying colors. I wasn’t going to miss out on a golden opportunity all over a silly crush.

  Sure, I fantasized about my teacher taking me for my very first time, but I would leave it at just that: thoughts. I didn’t have to act on them.

  I was much too smart for that.

  Chapter 5

  Jace

  “Do you think she’ll show?” asked Trent, echoing the question that had been bouncing around my head all day.

/>   “Who knows?” I said, shrugging as nonchalantly as I could.

  The truth was that I was struggling to even breathe, as I waited to see if Izzy was going to show up. Tonight was the first night of the internship and Izzy’s application had been the only one that I had handed out.

  In all fairness and honesty, she was the only student who stood out as being able to handle something like this. No other student had even come close. And being a little more transparent, the fact that she was more than mesmerizing made me excited about the idea of her being the only student getting my undivided attention.

  “Well, I know you have high hopes for her,” Trent said, meaning high academic hopes, since I hadn’t exactly told him about my ridiculous crush on my student. That would be fucking stupid. “But if she doesn’t show up, she’s throwing away the opportunity of a lifetime. And if that’s the case, she probably isn’t the stellar student that we hoped she would be.”

  I gave a vague reply, only half paying attention to him. My attention was fixed on the door. I moved around the room, fixing random stacks of paper and getting things set up for our experiment.

  When the door finally opened and Izzy walked in, I felt like the air could finally return to my lungs. In fact, I had to sit down for a minute because all the blood in my body seemed to rush to my head all at once. I had no idea what had gotten into me, but I guess it was just raging lust for this sexy student of mine.

  “Well, well, well, look what the cat dragged in,” said Trent, to Izzy. “We were starting to think that maybe you weren’t going to show up.”

  “No, I’m sorry I’m late,” she said, glancing at the clock. “I got caught up on the phone and completely lost track of time.”

  “Well, don’t let it happen again,” said Trent.