The Professor (McMurtrie and Drake Legal Thrillers #1)(55)
Again, neither of them spoke, and Rick took another step closer, violating her personal space. He wasn’t sure what he was doing – he knew he should confront her about the things Tyler said – but the heat he felt below his waist was unbearable. The confusion and anger from the conversation with Tyler, the elation over the meeting with Mule and his pent-up, long repressed desire for Dawn had combined with the alcohol to make him loopy.
Dawn averted her eyes and looked down. “So, what do you want to do now?” she asked, her voice soft. She looked up at him, and Rick finally let himself go.
He pressed his lips to hers and plunged his tongue into her mouth with an energy that was desperate and uncontrollable. When his mind returned to the photographs, he squeezed his eyes shut and kissed her harder, moving his hand up under her shirt. He expected her to protest, but she didn’t. Instead, she pressed into him and her hands began fumbling at Rick’s belt buckle.
Rick caressed her breasts, but his mind could not stop seeing the wet T-shirt. Dawn had leaned into the Professor and hugged him, just as she was leaning into Rick now. He could almost hear Tyler’s laughter. “Wake up and smell the coffee, Rick. The Professor is playing you like a fiddle.”
Rick started to kiss Dawn again, but then pulled away from her. He turned his back and wrapped his hands around his neck. “I’m sorry,” he said.
“I... don’t be,” Dawn said, sounding confused. “It’s OK. I... I want to.” She walked over to him and gently put her hand on his arm. “I want to,” she whispered.
She raised on her tiptoes to kiss his neck. “Rick...”
Before she could say anything else, Rick wheeled around. Don’t do this, he thought, but the words were already coming out of his mouth. “Is the Professor paying you to work for me?”
“What?” Dawn took a step back.
“It’s a simple question. Is the Professor paying you to work for me? Jameson Tyler thinks he is and said so today. I blew Tyler off, because you told me you were working for the experience, and I didn’t think you’d lie to me. But now I’m asking. Is he paying you?”
Dawn’s lip began to tremble and she looked down at the floor. “Rick...”
“Answer the question,” Rick interrupted, feeling anger boiling inside him as the truth shone on Dawn’s face.
“Yes,” Dawn croaked, closing her eyes. “I’m sorry. I meant to tell you, but...”
“Bullshit,” Rick said as the confirmation burned through him like buckshot. “You lied to me and didn’t mean to tell me shit.” Rick turned away, feeling heat behind his own eyes. How could he have been so stupid? To think that a young, pretty, smart law student would voluntarily work for him for free? You are an idiot.
“Rick, please listen,” Dawn said, her words distorted with emotion. “The Professor has been paying me to work for you. I... I know I should have told you earlier, but the Professor told me not to say anything to you about it. He said that you wouldn’t understand that he was trying to help you.”
Rick’s jaw stiffened. He didn’t want to hear this crap. “Let me ask you, Dawn, when the Professor was giving you these instructions, was it in his bedroom or did y’all just find a place at school to do it?”
“What?” Dawn stopped trembling and glared at Rick, which only seemed to fuel his anger. He took a step towards her.
“Tyler showed me photographs of you leaning into the Professor and hugging on the Professor and wearing a wet T-shirt. So, my question is, when you struck this deal with the Professor, did you do it before you had sex? Afterwards? During? Are you meeting him on the weekends and giving him a little consideration for his payment? Tyler called you the Professor’s whore. Is that–”
Rick couldn’t finish the question, because Dawn’s slap caught him right across the face. Before he could say anything else, she slapped him again, this time harder and stuck her finger in his chest. “Don’t you ever call me that again. The Professor is paying me to work for you, because he felt guilty that he was forced to leave after hiring me to be his student assistant. I accepted because I’m a single mother and his offer was better than what I could get working as a law clerk for any other firm in town. Yes, I took the deal, and, yes, I should’ve told you about it, but the rest of what you said is an outright lie.”
Rick knew he needed to calm down, but he couldn’t contain his emotion. “I saw the photographs. I saw you leaning into him and hugging him.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Dawn said. “What photographs? I remember the Professor walking me to my car in the rain one night when I didn’t have an umbrella. I hugged him at the car to thank him. That’s it!”
“Why should I believe you?” Rick asked, feeling the bitterness in his words. “You’ve lied to me from the beginning. About everything. Tell me why I should believe a word you say.”
Dawn put her hands on her hips and glared at him, not saying anything. Her lip had started to tremble again. “Rick...” She cut herself off and bit her lip. “You know what? I don’t care if you believe me or not.” Then, blinking back tears, she calmly walked to the counter where the coffee had finished brewing. She poured herself a cup and grabbed her purse from the floor. When she reached the door, she paused but did not turn around. “I quit,” she said.