Page 96 of Forbidden Billionaires: Vol. 10

Monday

I was just getting the casserole dish into the oven as Penny stepped out of my bedroom.

She was only wearing the t-shirt I had loaned her.

It stopped right below her butt. My eyes gravitated away from her long legs and up to her face.

She looked younger without makeup. But still just as beautiful.

Her skin was flawless, just the hint of rosiness in her cheeks.

There was something nice about the way she was completely exposed to me.

"You look breathtaking, Penny. I don't understand how everything I own looks better on you."

Her cheeks grew rosier. When she reached me, I grabbed her hand and twirled her around.

I couldn't help but realize how normal this was.

And comfortable. I wanted every night to be like this.

I could so easily picture coming home to her.

The thought should have terrified me. But if anything, it was comforting.

She laughed and sat down on a stool at the kitchen island. "It smells amazing. What are we having?"

"One of the only things I know how to make. Vodka chicken."

"That sounds fantastic. So, if this is the only thing you know how to make, do you usually order out?" She rested her chin in her hands, her elbows on the granite countertops.

"Rarely."

She laughed. "What, do you have a personal chef or something?"

"Yeah." I opened the oven and peered inside. "Almost ready."

"Why do you never volunteer information? It's like I have to force it out of you."

I shrugged. "I'm sorry. I'm not used to people asking me questions that aren't going to be used for articles or something.

I've gotten good at giving very vague answers. If you'd like to ask me a few questions, I'll be happy to try and answer them for you." Don’t ask about my past. I didn’t want to ruin our perfect evening. But I knew I’d just invited her to ask me for personal information. This wasn’t going to be good.

I grabbed two plates, two sets of silverware, and two glasses as I waited for her first question.

"I can do that." She slid off the stool and grabbed the dishes from me. "Here, or in the dining room?"

"The dining room is good." I never ate in the dining room. I always ate at the kitchen island really quickly or in my office. But I also usually ate alone.

"And now for the last part of your ideal date,” I said as she finished setting the table.

I uncorked a bottle of champagne and poured her a glass.

"I think that covers everything.” "Pina coladas.

Getting caught in the rain. The feel of the ocean.

And the taste of champagne. “So how did I do? Was today worth skipping class for?"

"I'd do anything to spend more time with you. Today was absolutely magical." She held up her glass. "And here's to getting to know each other better tonight."

Fuck. I’m pretty sure my laugh came out nervous as I clinked my glass against hers.

I took a large sip of champagne. The feeling that I had with her was enough.

I didn’t need to know anything else. But it was true.

Just because I didn’t need to know anything else, it didn’t mean I didn’t want to.

I wanted to know everything about her. But I couldn’t offer her everything back in return.

"So," she said and sat down. "How long have you lived in this apartment?"

I sat down across from her. Now that was a question I could answer. "Ever since I started working at the university."

She looked around again. "So why aren't there any decorations? There isn't a single picture anywhere."

"I wasn't sure how long I'd be staying for."

"Why?"

I shifted in my chair. "Like I told you before, I needed a change. But I wasn't sure if the change would be permanent." I came here on a whim. I’d always wanted to visit Delaware. Rumor had it that people were nicer here than in the city. I was finding that to be true.

"Do you still think you'll go back to New York?"

I didn't want to lose her. Whatever this was between us, I didn't want to picture it ending. We had only just started dating.

The timer on the oven went off.

"There's nothing left for me in New York.

" I got up and went back into the kitchen.

I grabbed some potholders and pulled the casserole dish out of the oven.

I hoped that was all the questions she had.

I just wanted to eat in peace. And stare at her.

I could stare at her for hours in silence and be perfectly content.

I set the dish down on the table and scooped some out for both of us.

She didn't even pick up her fork. "So, the move is permanent now?"

I’m not leaving you, if that’s what you’re worried about. I gave her a smile. "I believe so."

"What made you change your mind?"

Apparently she was not content with silence. But this was another easy question. There was only one thing that had changed my mind. "You."

She looked down at her plate and blushed. She laughed like she didn’t believe me and then took a bite of the vodka chicken. "This is delicious."

"Thank you."

She looked back up at me.

"Do you have any more questions for me, Penny?" I truly wanted to be able to answer them. For her. I wanted her to know that I was serious about her.

"Only a million more."

I laughed.

"Tell me about your family."

I slowly finished chewing the bite I’d just taken, trying to figure out how to word a response. "Well, I have an older sister and a younger brother."

"Tell me about them."

"My sister lives in New York." I finished off my glass of champagne and poured myself another. I didn’t want to talk about Rob. Hopefully he was out of prison by now. That didn’t seem like a great first thing to say about him. She already had enough reasons to stay away from me.

"And what does your sister do?"

"She's a writer."

"Has she written anything that I may have heard of?"

"Probably not." She mostly wrote boring articles.

"And what about your brother?"

I wasn’t going to get into this. "The last time I heard from him, he was in Costa Rica." True enough.

"Wow. What does he do there?"

"Nothing as far as I know. He's been taking time off to travel."

"Well that's fun."

Not the way he was doing it. I needed to call him later to make sure he was okay. I half expected him to show up tonight unannounced and ruin my night. But luckily that hadn’t happened yet. I needed this time alone with Penny. Who was I kidding, all I craved was alone time with her.

"And your parents?"

"What about them?" I didn’t mean to sound terse, but this conversation was going from bad to worse.

"Well, where are they?"

"I'm not close with my parents." Every question she asked made me feel more and more tense.

"That's a shame."

I laughed. "No, it's not." I shifted in my chair. I needed to divert the conversation back to her. I already knew how fucked up I was. I just wanted to know about her. "And what about your family, Penny?"

"I'm an only child. Growing up, I was really close with my parents. But not as much since I started college."

"And why is that?"

"I don't know. I feel like some of the best things about college are just things you don't really talk about with your parents."

"You mean like me?" Penny didn’t feel like a breath of fresh air at all tonight. She was stifling me. I was finding it harder to breathe. I didn’t want to talk about family. I wanted to talk about us. What we could be. Before she had a chance to realize I was wrong for her in every way.

"Yeah," she laughed. "I mean, I can't exactly tell them about you. I don't even like to imagine how upset they'd be with me."

"So you're ashamed that you're fucking your Comm professor?" The words just came out of my mouth. I wasn’t even sure why I was suddenly so pissed off. I clenched my jaw so I wouldn’t say anything else rash.

"That's not really the way that I think about it. I'm definitely not ashamed. I really like you, Professor Hunter."

You don’t know me. And if you did, you’d be ashamed. You’d fucking hate me.

"If that's the way that you think of me, then I guess you've gotten all that you want from me." She folded her arms across her chest, putting a distance between us that I didn’t like, and looked down at the table.

I’d pissed her off, but fuck. She was pissing me off too.

I wanted her to want me without worrying about all this other nonsense.

Wasn’t that enough? "I knew I wanted you since I first ran into you in that coffee shop.

But I wasn't going to pursue you because you're a student.

When you showed up in my class it complicated things, though.

Every time I saw you, every answer you gave for the daily assignments, and every time we spoke made it impossible for me to get you out of my head.

I knew I wanted you. I thought if I let myself give in to the temptation I could move on. "

She abruptly stood up. It looked like she was going to flee.

"Penny, sit down." I was trying to open up to her, didn’t she see that? I was doing my best. This was hard for me too.

She didn't move, and that just pissed me off more.

"Sit down, or I'll make you sit down." Breathe.

Her throat made that adorable squeaking noise. She sat back down in her chair and stared at me.

"I don't understand why you're upset,” I said. “We've already talked about all of this. Everything is different now. I couldn't move on. I don't want to move on. You’re all that I think about." I ran my hand down my face. "Geez, you have this way of crawling under my skin."

"Why, because I want to know more about you? That's what people that are dating do! I don't know why you always get upset when we try to talk."

"Because I don't want you to know what kind of man I am."

"I think that you're exactly the kind of man that I want."

That couldn’t possibly be true.

She grabbed her glass and took another sip of champagne. "Can you please just try to answer a few more questions without exploding?"