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That so our slumbers may in dreams have leisure
To tell the nimble fancy our past pleasure,
And so our souls, that cannot be embraced,
Shall the embraces of our bodies taste.
Stonebridge closed the book, slotting a finger between the pages to hold his place. He folded his hands in front of him, surveying the class.
The room was dead silent. A few pages rustled.
“Would anyone care to share their thoughts on that passage?” he asked.
More silence, stretching on and on. Someone coughed and the sound echoed in the room. Then I started to speak before I even realized I was thinking about it.
“They fucked like rabbits.”
A burst of laughter ripped through the class. A student two rows in front of me cupped his hands around his mouth and howled.
Stonebridge remained perfectly still. His gaze scanned the rows for a moment before settling on me. My stomach flip-flopped at being pinned by that intense, icy stare. His expression remained neutral, unreadable. Was he disappointed? Was he dismayed at my blunt delivery and my crass phrasing after the eloquent words he’d recited so well?
I raised my eyebrows in a wordless challenge.
Your move, Professor.
“That’s a succinct way to put it, I suppose,” he said. “And your name is…?”
“Roche,” I said. “Elle Roche.”
“Do you have anything to add to that observation, Miss Roche?”
I lifted one shoulder in a half-shrug.
“I’m not spelling it out for you, Professor. If you need a talk about the birds and the bees, ask your mom.”
A few students snorted with laughter. Stonebridge gave a heavy sigh. I knew the sound of disappointment when I heard it. I’d been subjected to it often enough. He set his book of poetry down on his desk.
“These words are supposed to be inflammatory,” he said. “Far outside the realm of what was deemed appropriate. Carew challenged the convention of his time when he talked about passion like this, which wasn’t supposed to exist in ‘polite society’. He wanted his readers to burn with desire by his words alone. In the modern world, every waking moment is filled with immediate gratification, but Carew understood the nuance of foreplay without touch, and how erotic a turn of phrase could be.”
Stonebridge paused as his gaze found me in the crowded room again.
“Don’t you think that’s more profound than fucking like rabbits, Miss Roche?”
Oh, he was definitely pissed at my choice of words, but his masterful level of self-control wouldn’t let him show it. I couldn’t resist pushing the boundaries a bit more, especially now that I had his attention.
“If it gets the point across,” I said. “Why use flowery prose when a few words will do?”
Stonebridge didn’t blink or look away, but the rigidity of his posture hinted that he had more to say on the subject that wasn’t professional in nature.
“As much as I would like to answer that question, we are out of time for the day,” he said. “Class dismissed.”
A flurry of activity filled the room as students gathered their belongings and filed out. The student who had been reprimanded for dropping her books practically flew to the front of the classroom in order to speak to Stonebridge. I shook my head at her desperation and headed out.
As I made my way back to my dorm, my phone rang. When I fished it out, my father’s name was on the screen. I groaned with dread and answered it.
“Hi, Dad.”
“I just checked your grades, Giselle,” he said in a scathing voice. “What a fucking disgrace. Your sister got straight A’s when she attended university, and she went to an Ivy League school. You’re not even managing a C average at a mediocre school.”
