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Arrogant little fuck.
“Mr. Holmes’ head is not a wastepaper basket.”
“Yeah, Ander.” Liam Holmes, now wearing a matching smirk, picked up the balled-up piece of paper that had landed on his table, throwing it back in the direction of Ander Loveridge.
“Enough,” I ground out, and fucking finally, their smirks disappeared. “Would anyone else like to waste more time, or can we get on with today’s seminar? You’re paying for the privilege of being here. Remember that.”
“Grumpy fucker,” someone muttered from the front row, which stopped me in my tracks. The front row was where the students who actually wanted to be here chose to sit, generally. Was I really?—
Shit. JJ’s face appeared in my mind, the sincerity in his gaze when he’d offered to help me with my social skills…and, well, he had a point.
I exhaled heavily. Maybe if I imagined he was here, I could do this. Be…nicer. “Alright. Last week, we looked at outsourcing non-core business functions. Today, I’d like to look at insourcing non-core business functions, and then I want you to get into small groups of three or four and discuss the strengths and weaknesses of each approach. If there’s something you’re unsure about after I’ve been through today’s material, you can come and see me, and I’ll be—” Fuck. Just say it. “—happy to answer your questions.”
A shocked silence followed my words. I glanced at Ander Loveridge, who was staring at me with his mouth wide open and his brows at his hairline. It took all my self-restraint to keep from making a cutting remark, but by keeping my jaw clenched shut and thinking of JJ, I managed. How on earth did my sunshine boy live with such an irritating man-child?
No. JJ wasn’t “my” anything. This agreement between us was temporary, and as soon as the faculty dinner was out of the way, we’d go our separate ways.
“Uh. Dr. Wilder.” Tearing my gaze away from my laptop, I glanced up from my position behind the desk next to the lectern to see Ander Loveridge standing in front of me.
“Yes, Mr. Loveridge? What can I help you with?”
“The thing you said about TUPE law—I’m not sure if I understood it properly. It’s gonna be in my assignment, isn’t it?”
I sighed inwardly but nodded towards the spare chair in the corner of the room. “Pull up a chair, and we’ll go through it.”
He stared at me, open-mouthed, for the second time in an hour. I rolled my eyes.
“Go.”
“Okay. Yeah. I’ll. Okay.” Finally, he moved, dragging the chair back over as I scrolled through my lecture notes to the relevant section.
“Make a note of this. Page 203 in your textbook. Read it. Then read it again. Then summarise it with bullet points.”
“Now? You want me to email it to you, or?—”
“No, and no. Read and summarise in your own time. I don’t need to see it. You’re an intelligent man, Mr. Loveridge, when you apply yourself.”
“I’ve heard that before,” he mumbled, and I almost smiled. Almost.
“Perhaps you should listen to the advice. Right, can you see my screen? I want you to focus on this chart…”
To my surprise and his, he gave me his full attention and even asked a number of insightful questions as I spoke. When I’d finished going through the material and I was sure he’d grasped it, he cleared his throat.
“Dr. Wilder? Sorry for earlier. I was getting Liam back for this morning?—”
I held up my hand, cutting him off. “I don’t want to know. But I accept your apology. And please, don’t call me Dr. Wilder.”
“Huh?”
Fuck. Why had those words slipped out?
JJ. Again. The thought of him calling me Dr. Wilder in that sexy-as-fuck, sultry tone…
“Call me sir. Maybe one day, you’ll even earn the right to call me by my first name.”
Again, he gaped at me. “Fucking hell. What’s happening here? Have I been dropped into a parallel universe or something? Are you feeling okay?”
And just like that, he was back to his usual irritating self.
