Page 35 of Professor Next Door

20. Tara

I woke up to find Galen standing over me the next morning with a grin on his face.

“I’ve brought you pancakes, orange juice, and a mountain of bacon. I might have to help you with that bacon.” He settled a bed tray over my lap and came to sit beside me.

“Where’s Rikki?” I took a piece of bacon and tried a bite before I looked over at him. It was the perfect level of crunchy. It could be crunchy or crispy, but never still wiggling around my plate. That just freaked me out.

“She’s with Amanda. They’ve gone for a day of girl-time, from what Amanda said.” He grinned at me as he settled back on the pillows, more at ease than I’d seen him in a long time.

“Ah, she’s taking her to get her nails done and clothes shopping I bet. Amanda adores her.”

“She’s beautiful, smart, and knows how to wrap people around her finger. Amanda can’t help but love her,” he said, snatching another piece of bacon as I cut into my pancakes.

“That’s true. What are you doing home?” I glanced over at him between bites, he had class this morning, after all.

“My TA is taking over for a few days. We have some work to do.” His arched eyebrow told me he meant more than just the bedroom fun-time kind of work.

I gave him another piece of bacon and he munched on it as I finished my pancakes off. I watched him, wondering if I should pout that he wanted to do real work instead of having sex. Would that work on Galen?

In the morning light, after a shower and shave, Galen was awake, cheerful, and too sexy for his own good. Memories of the night before played in my mind, memories I never wanted to lose. I wanted to repeat them.

I sat the tray of leftover bacon on the floor and turned to Galen, running my hand under his t-shirt, the name of the university emblazoned on the front. His skin was warm and smooth and I closed my eyes, savoring the feel of him.

“We can work, but I think I need a little encouragement. Just a little.” I scrunched my nose up and he laughed.

“I don’t think you need any encouragement at all, sweetheart. Come here.” He pulled me over his lap and I straddled him, looking into his eyes as we came face to face.

I hadn’t brushed my teeth, but he didn’t care. He hadn’t said he loved me yet, but I didn’t care. We smiled at each other, our lips brushing together softly. I felt the love between us. I knew it was there. Unspoken or not, I knew there was more to us than mere convenience, or the sex we so enjoyed. For now, I was willing to let it go.

“Look, we could have a lot of sex right now. And I do mean a lot. Tons of it. I’m down with that, but... and this is something to think about, we could spend that time looking for a way to get me out of this situation so we have a lot more time in the future. What do you think?” He’d spoken just as I’d started to explore his neck, the scented skin making my head dizzy with desire.

I didn’t respond at first, I was too busy licking at the pulse in his neck, tasting him on my tongue, a move that earned me a thrust of his hips.

“Oh yes, that’s good, more of that!” I ground down on him, wanting that intense feeling of almost pain but pure pleasure to intensify.

“Tara, baby. Seriously. We should work.” He pushed me away gently before taking my hand as he stood. “You had some kind of idea when you pulled all of those boxes out of the attic, tell me.”

“Nooooooooo! I want sex!” I felt like Rikki for a minute but let him off the hook by smiling at him teasingly. The throbbing in my body hadn’t stopped. It sat there, tormenting me as I walked behind him.

“I’ve created a monster. Later, I promise!”

We settled at the table, a cup of coffee now in front of me, and we started looking over the files once more.

“These are her medical files. You’re planning on heading to medical school, have a look at those and see what you can discover.” Galen handed me a thick folder filled with papers.

“How did you get this? Why did you get this?” I looked at the confidential file then back at Galen.

“I spent a few weeks looking for answers myself, just after her death. It was declared an accident so I put it all away. Rikki needed me, I didn’t have time to go hunting for a ghost.” He looked away but I’d seen the pain in his eyes. It tore at me and I wanted to hold him, but as he’d said, we had work to do.

“What about doctor-patient confidentiality?” I asked, concerned I might be breaking the law.

“She’s dead, Tara. Those laws no longer apply. Besides, I’m her husband, I can share them with whoever I like, right? I think. I’ll call Bill later. Anyway, as far as I’m concerned, you’re part of my legal team now. Open away.” He waved at the file before he went back to his own, a stack of what appeared to be bank statements.

I started digging through the folder, feeling as though I was intruding. I’d made it through a good stack of her appointments for a variety of complaints before I got to a stack from her gynecologist. Everything had gone fine at first, and then there started to be pages stapled together, then more. I paused at those, reading over them carefully.

“Kayla had gestational diabetes?” I glanced up to see Galen nodding absently, a yellow highlighter in his hand as he occasionally swiped at a line item.

“She did, yes. Her doctor was managing it.”