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CHAPTER1
JINNY
“Shoot.”My scarf falls on the ground and of course I have to pick it up. Like I have seconds to spare. I don’t. I am already running late for my American lit class but it couldn’t be helped. I mean what mom in her right mind can leave her babies, crying, begging, jumping all over you, begging you not to leave them? I certainly couldn’t. So, I did the only thing I could do. I sat on the floor with them for longer than I intended, and rolled around on the floor with them, letting them lick my face and pull on my scarf until their cute little puppy tails stopped wagging.
By then, I was fifteen minutes late leaving. I know. I sound crazy. But my puppies are my babies. I keep calling them puppies but they are two year old chocolate labs. I have had them since they were eight weeks old. Normally I let them stay home, but, my new neighbor has been complaining about their..singing, if you will, when I am not there. My landlord threatened to kick me out, so I had to find a doggie daycare and they are not happy.
“Shoot. Shoot. Shoot,” I say tripping over a piece of the sidewalk. This is not the best way to start the school semester. I heard this professor is super strict and is not above embarrassing you if he needs to. That sucks. I am shy as it is and to be put on the spot, I would probably pass out. I just like to sit in the back, put my head down, take notes and run out as soon as possible.
The entire time I am trying to make it, I hear my father’s voice in my head. “When are you ever going to be reliable, Jinny? Is my money going to good use? What is the pansy ass job you are going to school for?” That is all he has done my entire life. Put me down.
I am an only child. A mistake my father let my mother talk him into because like the arrogant asshole he is, he assumed he would make a boy. Well, SURPRISE!! So, he got sniped without discussing it with her and I was stuck alone, to be reminded I am not what he wanted.
My father is an attorney. His law firm is incredibly successful and he lets everyone know it. He is an asshole. A horrible person. But, he is my father and he is paying for my schooling and my condo. Which Is another reason I can’t get kicked out. I would never hear the end of it and he would hit the roof if he knew about my dogs.
I run up the steps as fast as possible and pause outside of the door. Hand on the handle, I do my best to take a few deep breaths, before I try to open the door as silently as possible and slip inside. “Miss, Spruce, I presume?” My head jolts back and when I look up, the entire class is staring at me. Great. So much for slipping in.
“Yes. I am so sorry I am late. I am never-”
“Enough. Please take a seat and try not to interrupt the rest of class for the next forty-five minutes.” My cheeks are so warm I know I am red. There are no seats in the back and then I look further and see one, right in front of his desk. Of course.
I try not to look at anyone else as I make my way to the front. It doesn’t skip me that he stops talking as I make my way. When I am finally seated, he continues. “Please let the rest of the semester go better.” I think to myself. When he walks to the front of the room, my initial reaction is startling. Holy stocking stuffers. The man is gorgeous. Not like pretty boy gorgeous. No. He is tall, brawn and he looks like a bad boy in tweed trying to camouflage who he is.
Sweet eggnog, please don’t let him know I am sitting here trying not to moan. My lady bits are firing on all cylinders right now. Never in my life have I had a reaction like this to anyone. That is probably why I am still a virgin. I have never felt…anything. I was starting to think there was something wrong with me, but now I know that is not the case. Definitely not the case.
Like I summoned him or called his name he looks up at me, eyes bolted to mine, unflinching. I swear I see something spark in his, but then he blinks and I know I made it up. The frown that follows is proof I was conjuring something that didn’t happen. He goes back to being disgusted with me and I go back to wishing a big black hole would swallow me whole.
What are the chances of that?
CHAPTER2
NOAH
I lookedup when the door slammed open, of course I did. I expected to see the pot-smoking slacker who overslept this morning, looking like they just rolled out of bed, toked up, and meandered over here, but instead a gorgeous goddess is standing there. For a split second, I thought about going over to her and taking against the door, but the forty-four other bodies in the room gave me pause. I glance at my watch and see that it’s 9:22, class started twenty-two minutes ago. Normally, I’d give her hell, but for some reason I don’t. I just continue talking about literature in general
I get back to my lesson, but watching her squirm in the front row is doing things to me. I have never and would never think about a student like this, but I can’t stop thinking about this one. Every once in a while, I look over at her and I am stunned by her quiet beauty. I can tell she doesn’t think she’s beautiful and already I know I’d do anything to make her see it.
It’s the one thing in my life that I care about besides my mother. I have two sisters, but they are married with children and off doing their own things. We’re close, but not as close as we used to be before they got married and had nine kids between them. My father left when I was six and it happened on Chrtistmas Eve. He lives in New York with his new wife and their family. Besides my sisters that share my mom, I have four other sisters I’ve only met a handful of times. The holidays just don’t mean anything to me anymore. I hate all of it. The music, the food, the gifts. If it could just go from Thanksgiving to New Years, I’d be okay with that, but of course the world doesn’t work that way. From the day after Thanksgivng to the day of the Christmas, the world is filled with nothing but stupid Christmas music and people pretending to care about the shit they don’t the other three hundred and thirty odd days of the years.
It’s exhausting and it pisses me off. Starting a semester in December makes no sense to me, but this university is cutting edge, or so I was told when I was hired two years ago. This master’s class in Literture encompasess American Lit, though my specicitly is English Lit.
“Some of the earliest American Literature is written by John Smith. He wrote of his time as an explorer. We’ll start in the Coloniol period and end in the present Contemporary period. Any questions?” No one says anything so I continue through the lesson and dismiss the class, reminding them to check the syllabus for when papers are due. I only give one exam at the end of the semester, but there are term papers sprinkled throughout.
I somehow managed to make it through the rest of the class without doing what I want to do to her, but then at the last second, I called her back to me.
“Late girl?” She freezes and turns to walk back over to my desk.
“Yes, sir?”
Fuck, being called sir has never hit me like this. Is it just my imagination, or was that dripping with pleasure?
“What is your name?” I ask, needing to know it.
“Jinny. Jinny Spruce, sir.”
“You missed the beginning of the class, Miss. Spruce. My name is Noah Wyatt.”
“Of course, Professor Wyatt. Again, I apologize for being so late.”
