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Firstly, I thought while looking pointedly at her fingers clutching my forearm, I didn’t invite her. She invited herself. Secondly, there was only one woman I wanted to spend time with at the moment. She was both forbidden and too young, and was the exact person I was escaping with this fabricated errand. But I wasn’t about to say any of those things to this one.
As much as I hated being a dick, contrary to what everyone thought about me, it was obviously the only tact that would get through to my pushy colleague.
“Listen, I really wanted to be alone. I’m sorry, but I don’t want company.”
She lifted her hand off my body—finally—and her demeanor turned on a pinpoint. I’d hurt her feelings, and she was about to be a very poor sport about it. I’d seen this behavior one hundred times in other women, so I braced for the impact of whatever she was about to spew.
“Are you gay?” she blurted, as if it were a reasonable conclusion to draw. As if it were her business in the first place.
“Pardon?” I asked without thinking but then quickly held up my flat palm between us. “No, never mind. I’m not going to even address that ignorance.” Shaking my head, I couldn’t form an acceptable follow-up or farewell, so I simply turned and walked away. Down the flights of stairs to the ground floor and out into the beautiful summer day.
There was no other goal at the crux of this game plan, just putting distance between me and the alluring creature in my office. Now that I stood in front of the office building, I had no idea what to do.
I wasn’t the kind of man who lazed about. Leisure time, if I ever had any, was usually spent grading papers or doing chores around my house that had been neglected throughout the week. Some semesters, if I felt ambitious, I would teach a continuing education class at night. The extra money was always nice, plus the board of directors took those sorts of things into consideration when deciding who would be granted tenure.
After completing two slow and mindless laps around the building, I decided I’d calmed down enough to go back inside to my office. It would be lunch break soon, and I’d get another spell of time away from her. How the hell was I going to survive the entire summer this way? Maybe I needed to swipe right on one of the women who kept messaging me on that tedious dating app I joined and set something up for the weekend. If I could blow off some sexual steam with a casual hookup, I wouldn’t be in a constant state of arousal.
Yeah, right. Keep telling yourself that, Chaplin.
But just thinking of going through that awful process of taking someone out, pretending to be interested, spending money I didn’t have, just in hopes of getting laid… Yeah, it just wasn’t my scene. I’d never been good at one-night stands anyway, and now that Maye was occupying so much of my headspace, it would be even worse.
When I opened the door to my office, she was gone. A wave of panic instantly swelled in my stomach and rose up into my chest. The compressing feeling made it difficult to breathe, and I burst back out into the hall. She wasn’t wandering around out there either, but of course, when I caught my breath again and gave it some thought, I already knew that. I would’ve seen her when I walked the exact path I was blindly searching now.
“Get a fucking grip, Andrew,” I muttered to myself and went back inside and sank down into my chair. Her laptop was still on the desk, open to the website she’d been searching when I bailed out like a passenger aboard a sinking ship. The screen was still active, so she hadn’t been gone long—or long enough for it to switch into sleep mode, at least. Her canvas tote that seemed to be a uniform staple for girls her age wasn’t slung over the back of her chair, though, and the panic fought to gain space in my gut again.
“No,” I said to the empty room. “Stop.” There had to be a logical explanation as to her whereabouts. She wouldn’t leave her computer behind if she’d left for the day. One thing was clear—I really needed to get my shit together around this student. No more personal space invasions, no more daydreams—or night dreams, for that matter. We had to maintain a professional teacher-student relationship and nothing more.
The sound of the old doorknob turning caught my attention, and I shot my gaze to the entrance. She came floating in and gave me a soft smile. As she slung her bag over the back of her chair, she said, “Sorry. I wasn’t sure how long you’d be, and I really needed a bio break.”
I waved my hand like swatting away a gnat. “It’s fine. Of course, you should use the facilities as necessary. You don’t need to wait for permission, Maye.”
Her eyes widened when I said her name. Even I could hear how my voice had dropped in range as I formed the sound. Definitely unintentional but undeniable as well. My body knew what it wanted, and it was betraying me in order to interest her.
Choosing to press on and ignore the moment, I asked, “How’s it going there? Have you found anything promising?”
She sat down and bounced a little with excitement. “Yes, actually. I found a few things that look doable. The timeline on the largest is a little tight, but I think if we put in a little bit of overtime, we could have our package ready for submission in time.”
I was absorbing her excitement as she spoke and found myself sitting forward on the edge of my chair and watching the delicate skin on her neck stretch and flex as she spoke.
What I wouldn’t give to run my nose along the graceful curve of her throat. Lick her milky skin that looked so silky smooth. She was a stunning woman. Her youth and current vibrant passion for her work made her even more beautiful.
I was going to hell for this. That’s all there was to it. Every time I was reminded how young she was, I could almost hear Satan chuckling in my subconscious. It was like the bastard brought this enticing female my way just to test my resolve.
If she gave me one hint of a green light that she was feeling the way I was, I’d have her on her back quicker than either of us could calculate. My body would take over at that point, and I’d be helpless to do anything other than go along for the ride. And fuck me, what a life-altering ride it would be.
Perfect. Now I had an erection—again. Maye had been chattering the entire time I was lost in my dirty thoughts and was now pointing at her monitor. Finally, I swam to the surface of the lust pool I’d been deep diving in long enough to hear her say, “Come look at this,” while she pointed emphatically at her monitor.
Mud. Seaweed. Ms. Donnio. I thought of as many gross things as I could to kill my hard-on so I could stand up and not be embarrassed.
I stammered for a plausible excuse. “Actually, will you send me a link to the page you’re on? That way I’ll have it in my history as well in case I work on the application from home.” It was a reasonable enough explanation, regardless of it being complete bullshit.
Apparently it was good enough, though. “Oh, great idea. I was thinking while you were out getting some air”—she looked up sheepishly—“or whatever you were doing…” She waved her hand as though she were swiping the complicated thought out of the way. “I didn’t mean to be presumptuous.”
I didn’t respond with words. Just gave her a curt nod to continue. If the elephant in this room got any bigger, we’d have to move to a new location to work.
“Anyway, I was thinking maybe we should outline who’s working on what so we don’t double our efforts and waste precious time. What do you think?”
Finally able to stand without having a tent in my slacks, I went to her side of our shared desk. Quickly scanning over the grant she had on her screen, I saw she had stumbled upon a golden opportunity. If we applied for this money and were awarded it, I’d undoubtedly secure tenure and she’d earn that scholarship.
