My Professor(61)

He stands and meets me at the end of his desk, near the mess. I pass him the cylindrical tube then step back to leave, but his gaze locks with mine and he shakes his head.

I peer over my shoulder, looking back at the door. I’m not sure what I’m expecting to find, but there’s no one there. Where we stand, I can’t see Candace at her desk, which means she can’t see us either. Still, someone could walk in at any moment.

“I should really be getting back to work,” I say quietly as I turn back to him.

“I’d like you to look at these plans.” He draws them out of the tube.

“Engineering isn’t really—”

“You’re a team member on the Belle Haven project. I assumed you were interested in keeping abreast on all the updates. If you’re uninterested, then leave.”

Adequately embarrassed, I nod eagerly. “Of course I’d like to know everything that’s going on with the project.”

He unrolls the plans onto his desk and drops paperweights on all four corners before smoothing out the site rendering with his palm.

“We were just given the survey and inspection report this morning. The foundation is in worse condition than we thought possible. It’s crumbling in most places due to the presence of an iron sulfide mineral. The foundation was done by the JJ Mottes Concrete Company, and we’ve been able to trace the concrete back to a quarry in Willington, Connecticut, that’s no longer in business.”

“What is there to do?”

“That’s what we’re trying to decide now. The engineering department is coming up with potential workarounds, but more than likely we’ll have to remove all of the existing foundation—”

“That means lifting the house. That’d be insane.”

“The foundation is crumbling because of that iron sulfide mineral, and if it’s left there another year or two, it will continue to expand and the walls of the house will start to collapse. We’ll have to remove the foundation floor, footings, lally columns—all the concrete has to go.”

He starts to round the desk, and I look up from the plans to follow his path, my breath arrested in my chest.

“Now you’ll tell everyone that’s what we talked about if they ask.”

Panic seizes me.

I hold up my hand to block his path. “Don’t.”

“Emelia,” he chastises.

My hand drops instantaneously. He has more control over my body than I do.

He steps closer, and I let him invade my space until we’re nearly chest to chest. His hand reaches up to grip the side of my neck, and his thumb lifts my chin, exposing the long column of my throat as I swallow down my nerves.

The pad of his thumb brushes back and forth just underneath my lips. He’s studying them as he makes a demand. “Don’t flirt with another man in front of me. I won’t play games.”

“I wasn’t—”

“I pulled up the boy’s HR file. Should I send an email, have him fired on the spot?”

My body tenses in panic. “You wouldn’t. That’s cruel, and ridiculous. He did nothing wrong.”

“He made you smile,” he says, wistfully ensnared by my pout.

I narrow my eyes.

“Are you always this territorial?”

A beat passes.

“No.”

Then he bends down and kisses me.

The shock of it would tip me backward if he didn’t have such a tight grip around my neck. He holds me steady as my heart flutters so fast it threatens to leave my body altogether. He takes a step toward me so our hips brush as his lips slant over mine in claiming possession. His tall frame feels like a shadow cloaking me in darkness.

We’re kissing with the door open, and I don’t have the good sense to stop him. My mind is entrapped by the weight of his mouth on mine—not overbearing, but hot and demanding. A soft moan escapes before I can quell it. He deepens the kiss, tries to part my lips and take things further, and I let him. I lean my body into him in a show of submission as my tongue touches his. Take what you will.

My hands slide up the lapels of his suit jacket and then, abruptly, he steps back.

I’m still blinking my eyes open, my bruised pink lips still parted, when Mr. Banks speaks from the door behind me.

“Did engineering send over the plans?”

“They’re right here. Emelia brought them up.” He looks back at me, playing his part to a T with his inscrutable mask dutifully back in place. His expression says he’d forgotten I was still in the room. I’m suddenly a servant who’s overstayed her welcome. “Thank you.”

It’s a dismissal and I heed it quickly, ducking my head and skirting around Mr. Banks, praying he can’t see the stain of color on both of my cheeks.

Professor Barclay’s kiss took me to newfound heights, but now I’m crash-landing back on earth as I make the hasty trek past Candace’s desk, back toward my cubicle. There’s no time to relish the moment.

That was our first kiss is obliterated by You’re an idiot. Anyone could have seen you. Mr. Banks probably did see you.

“What did you just take to Mr. Barclay?” Hugo asks before I can even get my butt back in my seat.

“Oh…” I think quickly, regurgitating everything Professor Barclay just spoon-fed me. “Engineering plans. Apparently, there’s an issue with the foundation at Belle Haven.”