Curveball(18)

I shrug, nonchalant. “Nothing special. I was planning on opening a bottle of wine and grading papers.”

Donna leans her elbows on the table, and her dark strands fall in her face, forcing her to push them behind her ears. “Now that you’re back to boning your student, you should come out with us again tonight. Tony and the guys have a big race against a really good crew. It will be fun.” She scoots her chair closer to mine, the metal legs scraping along the tiled floor. “This race will be way better than the last one, and we don’t have to worry about the cops being up in the suburbs. Tony says they don’t even know the spot exists.”

“I don’t know.” I lift the fork from the plate and dig into my cake, mulling over my response. “I can’t risk losing my job, and racing is illegal. Last time was a close call. If Mark hadn’t found me, I probably would’ve ended up in jail.”

“Isn’t what you’re doing with your student illegal and already putting your job at risk?” She takes a sip from her coffee, looking at me from beneath her lashes.

“No”—my tone is defensive—“it’s not illegal—only immoral and unethical.”

“Mark is not jailbait, and he’s sexy as fuck. If I wasn’t with Tony, I’d be all over your man-boy.”

Blush spreads to my cheeks. I have no idea why I am embarrassed, especially after telling Donna all my dirty secrets about my student fling. “He’s all man. Trust me. There’s nothing boyish about Mark.”

“Oh, I’m sure.” She tilts her head back and laughs. “Could you really lose your job over him? He’s graduating in a few months, and it’s not like he’s a child. He can make his own decisions.”

“I wish it were that simple. Even though I wouldn’t legally get into trouble over it, a professor dating a student is frowned upon and considered unprofessional in the eyes of the university. Not to mention, how it would look to other students if they found out. They would assume Mark was only doing well in my class because I handed him As for sexual favors and not because he had put in the effort. If people were to find out, it would not only hurt me, but it would also hurt him.”

She snorts. “He’s a frat boy with a big dick, and he has a shot at playing pro ball. Do you really think he cares about his image? Girls probably line up to have sex with him, and his teachers pass him just for showing up to class. You know how they treat athletes at this school. He would walk away from this with his image intact. Plus, one bad grade from his Law and Ethics teacher in his final semester wouldn’t kill him.”

“I think you’re missing the point, D. While I might not go to prison for hooking up with my student, I could lose my job and the respect of the faculty. Who would want to hire me then? I’d end up working at the club with Bruno and the girls for the rest of my life.”

She crosses her arms over her chest and scans the café, annoyed. “You say that like it’s a bad thing. It could be worse, you know.”

I stuff another bite of cake into my mouth, mostly to avoid this conversation, and I glance out the window in shock. “Fuck.”

“What?” Donna follows my gaze, her eyes growing as wide as her mouth once she sees my cause for concern. “Either Mark has ESP, or he planted a tracking chip on you last night. Weird-ass timing, don’t you think?”

“Very.” My eyes are pinned on Mark as he walks through the door with Luca and Hunter, all of them looking like broad-shouldered sports models.

He makes this so much harder on me than it has to be. If only I could find something about him I hated, but no, he somehow manages to pull me in further every time we are together. Mark tests my willpower and makes me rethink my decisions.

I quit being a lawyer because I’d made a decision that was ethically right but morally wrong. But I’d had an obligation to my client, no matter how much I wanted the jury to find him guilty and lock him up for the rest of his life. Brandis deserves to rot in a cell and to get gang-raped after what he did to those girls.

Now, I have to live with choosing the ethical way and what I thought at the time was the right way, which makes me reconsider my feelings for Mark. I did the right thing once before, and it did not work out. It ruined my life.

What if avoiding Mark ends up being another decision I will regret? I already have to live with so many of them.

“There’s way too much hotness going on over there.” Donna snaps me out of my daze. Like an idiot, she points in their direction, attracting the attention of Mark and his friends. “The one with dark hair is so fine. What is his name? Come to mama!”

“Off-limits.” I snap my fingers. “And stop staring.”

“You know, you are such a buzzkill. I love me a sexy Italian man, and that one is fine with a capital F.”

“You have Tony.”

She chuckles and twirls her dark hair around her finger. “Well, he’s not here right now, and your man-boy has some hot-ass friends.”

I shake my head, all too aware of how close Mark is to me and not the least bit oblivious to the fact that he has been glancing at our table since he first laid eyes on me. One cocky smirk from him, and my panties are damp. Images of last night play in my head like a movie, torturing me. I try my hardest to pretend like Mark is anywhere but here. But he’s not just in my head; he’s in my skin, his touch still with me.