Temptation - Chapter 35
Monday
There was a strange pressure building inside of my chest. It felt like I was about to cry. Why was I falling apart here? I had everything I wanted in this man. But what he had just done to me. The way he had made me feel. Now everything felt more real.
I quickly sat up and pulled my legs in, hugging them close. The tightness in my chest was growing. It felt like I was drowning. I took a deep breath to try to calm myself. What is wrong with me?
Professor Hunter sat up and cupped my chin in his hand. "Penny, what's wrong?" His brow was furrowed.
"Nothing." I blinked to try and remove the tears that were trying to fall. I hugged my legs tighter.
He rubbed the side of my chin with his thumb and didn't say a word. He looked truly concerned.
"It's just. For some reason, this whole time, it's seemed like I made this all up. Like it's this fantasy and you're not real. And I'm afraid that I'm going to wake up from this amazing dream and you're going to be gone. That you're just going to disappear."
"I've told you that I'm not going anywhere. There's no reason to be upset about that. Please don't cry." He wiped away one of the tears that had fallen down my cheek.
"But what we just did. I know you said you were going to be gentle. But I expected it to be like the other times. This whole day just seemed different. More intimate. I don't know. I didn't expect to feel so...so..."
"No one's ever made love to you."
I felt embarrassed. He didn't even ask it like it was a question. He just knew. Why had I opened my mouth? "Well, I thought so. But no, not like...not like that." I was so pathetic.
"I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable." He rubbed another tear off my cheek. "How many partners have you been with?"
Sexual partners? What the hell is this conversation? "One." I felt so inadequate. If I wasn't uncomfortable before, I definitely was now.
He wrapped his arms around me and pulled me down on top of him. I expected him to say something, but he just held me against his chest. I listened to his steady heartbeat.
I had a feeling that I didn't want to know the answer to my next question, but I couldn't resist asking anyway. "And how many partners have you been with?"
He sighed. "A little more than that."
"How many more?"
"Penny, I don't want you to think poorly of me."
"More than five?"
He sighed again.
"More than ten?"
"I spent a large portion of my college years fairly drunk."
"More than fifteen?"
"We should probably stop playing this game."
"Professor Hunter, you're a slut!"
He laughed. "You seem to enjoy all my experience."
I cringed. I didn't like to picture him with other women.
"And what about your one, Penny?"
"What about him?" I didn't want to talk about Austin. Not at all, ever. But especially not here in Professor Hunter's bed. I slid off of him onto my side and rested my head in my hand.
"One is rather intimate. Is he someone I should be worried about?"
I laughed. "No."
"So you no longer speak to him?"
Did he somehow know that I had seen him this semester? "No. I doubt that I'll ever talk to him again. He's an immature asshole."
"And why is that?"
"Why do you want to know?" I didn't want to be talking about this.
"Because I don't want to make the same mistakes with you that he did."
I sighed. I wanted this conversation to be over. "There isn't much to tell. We dated last semester. He didn't speak to me all summer. He made me feel worthless."
"So you broke up with him?"
"You can't really break up with someone who you never officially went out with."
He took my hand in his. "Penny Taylor, I promise not to make you feel worthless. And I'll try not to act like an asshole." He smiled. His fingers intertwined with mine.
"I don't know, Professor Hunter. From what I've found out about you, it seems like I'm just going to end up as another notch on your bedpost."
He laughed. "That's not who I am anymore."
"I thought it was impossible for people to change?"
"I came here for a change. And I think I'm better off because of it." He pulled me toward him so that my head was resting on his chest again. I let my leg cross over him.
I felt so safe in his arms. I knew why I had gotten so upset tonight. Because I wasn't just fucking my professor. I was in deep. I loved him. I'm in love with my Comm professor. I breathed in his sweet scent. This moment could last forever and it wouldn't be long enough.
***
I reached out my hand, expecting to feel his chiseled abs, but all I felt was soft, silky sheets.
I opened my eyes. The bed was empty. The sound of the shower must have woken me.
I rolled over and looked at the alarm clock on the nightstand.
It was 7 a.m. I needed to get back to my dorm room so I could change before my first class.
I slowly slid out of bed, lifted my arms above my head, and yawned.
The shirt I had borrowed from him was nowhere in sight.
I walked into his closet and turned on the light.
I ran my fingers along the row of his dress shirts.
If I didn't have to get to class, I'd put one of those on and tempt him to seduce me.
I smiled to myself. He had made love to me last night.
This was real. He wasn't going to disappear.
His intoxicating smell was all around me.
I pulled open the drawer that I had borrowed a shirt from last night.
There were a few different colors. I grabbed a blue one off the bottom.
As I pulled it over my head I heard a clink on the ground.
When I looked down I didn't see anything.
I got down on my hands and knees and looked under the bureau.
Something shiny glinted from the corner.
I grabbed the item and pulled it out from under the dresser.
It was a gold ring. It can't be. There were words inscribed along the inner band.
I took a deep breath as I drew the ring closer to my face in order to read the inscription.
"James & Isabella. 4-30-13."
No. It felt like my heart stopped beating.
The tears began to well in my eyes. He's married?
I gulped. He's married?! I was having a hard time processing the words.
How could he do this to me? I put my face in my hands and shook my head.
How could he do this to her? The water turned off in the other room.
Shit. I quickly wiped my eyes and got up off the floor.
I had to get out of there. I threw the ring back in the drawer and ran out of Professor Hunter's bedroom.