Page 1 of My Downfall

Chapter One

Mia

I swipe left on yet another profile as I make my way into the lecture hall. Why are dating apps full of such shits? Honestly, if your profile makes you sound like an asshole, no doubt you’re going to be even more of one in real life. Not that I’m looking for Mr. Forever; far from it. No, Harper will be the next one of us to fall, she’s actually looking for love. I just enjoy my hookups a lot more when I actually like the guy.

Taking my usual seat toward the middle of the room, my ears tune in to the conversations going on around me.

“Have you heard…”

“The Dean himself is going to...”

“I heard he might be out for the rest of the year, he’s…”

“Sorry…” I turn to Madeline, the girl who’s sat next to me every class of this semester. “What’s going on?”

“Apparently Professor James has had an accident, so we’ve got a new Professor taking the class. Some people have said that Dean Davenport will be teaching us.”

I can’t help the scoff that leaves me at that. There is no way that Dean Davenport, of the extremely wealthy and famous Davenport’s, will be teaching us.

“The Dean’s not going to be teaching us.” Even if we are an advanced business class all studying for our MBA, Hudson Davenport wouldn’t lower himself to our level. He’s college royalty, his whole family is practically royalty.

“We can hope though, right?” She giggles and I can’t help but smile back at her.

Yeah, it would be something; certainly a change of scenery from our old stuffy professor who’s taught us for the past few months. Hudson Davenport is a lot younger — not young, he is in his forties, but younger —than most of the staff around here.

He’s also drop dead gorgeous.

Probably the most delicious man I’ve ever laid my eyes on, and that’s saying something because Bella and Ava’s fiancés are HOT!

I’ve seen Dean Davenport once before. It was a couple of months ago and he was on the other side of the quad, so he didn’t see me, but good Lord did I see that man. I’m quite sure my tongue was down to my knees, and my vibrator got a very good workout that night. I didn’t realize I had a thing for beards, but the thick stubble that graces his jaw is something wet dreams are made of.

“Well, whoever’s teaching us is late, so they’ve already got a black mark against their name as far as I’m concerned.”

“You make sure to let them know.” Madeline knows what I’m like. I’ll be all too happy to inform the Professor of their tardiness.

“You know I will.” I regret my words a few minutes later, when to my absolute shock, Hudson Davenport walks into the room.

Well, fuck me sideways.

Hudson

I’ve had a shit morning which is only made shittier when I remember I have a class to teach.

For fuck’s sake.

I need more coffee to handle this banger of a day. It’ll make me slightly late to class, but it’s worth it to get more caffeine into my system.

I walk into the lecture hall six minutes late but with a takeout cup of coffee firmly in my grip.

“Sorry I’m late, class,” I greet as I drop my satchel down by the desk at the front.

“Maybe if you skipped the coffee, you wouldn’t have been.” My eyes whip up at the words someone had the audacity to mutter. My own blue eyes meet ones much more vibrant than mine, eyes that belong to the most sensational face. A face far too young for me.

“I’m sorry, Miss…” I pause, letting her know I don’t know her name.

“Whitlock. Mia Whitlock.”Mia.Her name rolls around in my mind; I want to hear it coming off my lips as I move above her.

“Well, Miss Whitlock, I don’t believe we’ve met.”