Page 17 of Forbidden Billionaires: Vol. 11

Thursday

"Close," I said and sat down next to Penny on the sofa. I scanned the math she’d done to solve the equation. She’d gone wrong somewhere… “Okay, there. You forgot to transform the random variable into a z-score."

"Oh. Oops. I knew to do that too." She bit her lip as she fixed the equation.

I loved watching her when she was concentrating. I liked it even better when she got the equations correct, because I’d been rewarding her with kisses. And I really liked rewarding her when she was good.

She lifted her pencil, stared at the equation for another second, and then handed the paper back to me. “How's this, Professor Hunter?"

Fucking hell. I wasn’t sure how I’d ever taught in a room with her. She smiled at me and I laughed. She really was distracting. I looked down at the sheet of paper. "Much better." I leaned down and kissed her.

My phone started buzzing again. It had been buzzing nonstop all morning.

"Are you sure you don't want to answer that?" she asked. "Maybe it would be best to just get it over with."

It was never a good idea to talk to paparazzi.

"Talking to them will make it worse. If I ignore them, they'll get bored and move on to the next thing.

" I stood up and walked back over to the T.V. mount I was screwing into the wall. It had been a long time since I’d done something like this myself.

I was sure Ian was laughing at the camera footage right now.

But it was good to be using my hands. I lifted the power drill.

When it stopped whirring, Penny filled the silence.

"But you don't even know who it is. You haven't listened to any of your messages. You could always answer and hang up."

"Which means I refused to comment. Which looks bad."

"Oh."

"Besides, if it's someone I know, it'll ring." And I didn’t have many contacts in my phone anymore. I’d gone through and deleted a bunch of people with Dr. Clark’s help. It started with my dealer and went on from there. I turned back to the T.V. and grabbed a screwdriver.

"Speaking of people we know...” Penny’s voice trailed off.

I turned around to look at her.

“I was wondering if I could hang out with Melissa tonight?"

We had gone to Penny’s dorm room this morning and grabbed a few things. But Melissa had been in class. I was pretty sure they’d been texting, but it was different hearing about all this in person. Like the fact that Penny was moving out of their shared dorm and into my apartment.

I set the screwdriver down. "You know that you don't have to ask me permission." But maybe she thought she did. Because I hadn’t let her go to classes today, despite her saying she wanted to. I was trying to protect her. But there was a difference between protecting her and controlling her.

"I know. I just wanted to make sure it was okay." She glanced toward the window.

Yeah, I was protecting her from the shit show outside.

Penny wasn’t used to reporters following her around, demanding to talk to her.

Even though she said she wanted to go to class this morning, I knew she was nervous about all of this.

And if she didn’t feel comfortable leaving the apartment, there was no reason for her to.

I cleared my throat. "Well, how about you just invite her over here?"

"Are you sure that's okay?" She looked relieved.

"Of course." I smiled and turned back to the T.V. mount. Now how the fuck did this thing attach to the T.V.?

"Do you want my help with that?" she asked.

"I'm pretty sure I can figure it out." I picked up the instruction booklet off the floor and turned the page.

My phone started to ring.

I glanced down at the screen. "It's just the front desk,” I said to Penny and then quickly answered. "Hunter."

“Mr. Hunter,” Ben said. “There are two men here who say they were sent by Joe Vespelli.”

"Regarding what?"

There was an awkward pause. “I made sure they weren’t with the media. They say they’re detectives. They’re here to see Penny Taylor. For an interview?”

I tried my best not to stare at Penny. "Do you mind putting them on the phone for a second?" I shoved my free hand into my pocket, turned away from Penny, and walked toward the kitchen.

“Hello, James, this is Detective Tim Reed. I’m here to speak to Penny Taylor regarding what happened in your class.”

"It was my understanding that she wouldn't be included in this."

“Well, then you must have understood wrong.”

"We've already disclosed our relationship to Joe. If you have any other questions then I'd recommend discussing them with..."

“My instructions have come straight from Joe.”

What the fuck, Joe? I removed my hand from my pocket and ran my fingers through my hair. I wanted to tell him to get the hell out of my apartment building. But I knew that would just make things worse. It was better to get this over with. "Fine. Please put Ben back on the phone."

“Do you want me to send them up?” Ben asked.

"Yes, go ahead and let them up. For future visitors please tell them I am out of town until further notice."

“Of course.”

I hung up the phone and tossed it onto the kitchen counter.

Seriously, what the fuck? Penny didn’t need to be part of the investigation.

We’d already told Joe everything. Unless…

I sighed. Unless someone had told them something during another interview that had them questioning what we’d already disclosed.

The first person that popped into my head was Tyler.

It was a shame that I’d only broken his nose and not his jaw. I heard Penny’s footsteps behind me.

"James?" she said quietly.

I sighed and turned around. "Apparently the people they hired for the investigation need to talk to you."

"Why would they need to talk to me? We already told everything to the dean."

"I don't know. But it probably isn't good."

"That's not necessarily true."

I pressed my lips together. "Well, I guess we'll find out."

"How do you think they knew I was here?"

"Maybe they already tried your dorm room. It doesn't exactly take a great investigator to assume you'd be here."

A dinging noise sounded through the apartment. I walked over to the elevator door and gave a subtle nod toward the small camera mounted above it to let Ian know everything was fine. I pressed the button and the doors slid open.

Two men in suits stepped out. One looked about my age and the other was probably 20 years older or so.

The older one put his hand out to me. "James Hunter, I'm Detective Tim Reed. And this is my partner, Scott Turner.

I shook Detective Reed's hand and then Detective Turner's. "I still don't see why this is necessary. Penny has already talked to Joe."

"It's a formality, really. We just have a few questions."

I hoped that was true.

Detective Reed peered around my shoulder. "You must be Penny."

I hadn’t even realized I was standing in front of her. I couldn’t protect her from this. I’d caused this. I stepped to the side.

"Yes, hi." She didn’t offer them her hand. Instead she crossed her arms in front of her chest. "You said you have some questions for me?"

I smiled. Maybe she could handle the paparazzi after all. Because it looked like she was ready to take zero shit.

"Right. Well, we're actually going to need to talk to you in private, Penny." Detective Reed turned to me.

Oh fuck off. I’m not messing with her mind. Penny was with me because she wanted to be. Not because I pressured her. And I didn’t like the insinuation. "I really don't see why that's necessary.” I didn’t bother to hide my chilly tone.

"Something has come up in our investigation. And we need Penny to be able to talk freely about your relationship."

For Fuck’s sake . I lowered my eyebrows. I was going to kill Tyler Stevens. "What has come up in the investigation?"

"We can't really discuss that with you right now. I'm sure Joe will be in contact with you shortly."

"I think that you both should leave,” I said.

"James, it's fine,” Penny said. “I'll talk to them."

"You don't have to answer their questions, Penny. Let me call my lawyer. He'll handle this."

"It's fine. I really don't mind." She gave me a stern look that I’d never seen her give before. It was fucking sexy. I knew she wanted to get this over with. And if she thought she could handle this…then I should let her. They’d never believe me. Besides, if I stayed in this room much longer, I’d probably end up punching a detective. And that wasn’t good for anyone.

I nodded. "I guess I'll be in my office then." I put my hand on her shoulder for a second and then walked away. I went into my office and closed the door behind me.

My phone immediately started ringing.

“Hey, Ian,” I said. “We have a camera in the living room, right?”

“Already adjusting the angles for you,” he said. “What do you think came up in the investigation?”

I sat down behind my computer and opened up the feed of my living room. “Probably something to do with Penny’s friend Tyler.”

“I thought the investigation was about sexual misconduct? Did you spank Tyler after you broke his nose?”

I knew he was trying to lighten the mood, but this shit wasn’t funny. I ignored him and turned the volume on my computer up a bit.

Detective Reed was smiling at Penny. "You know, when people act defensive, it usually means that they have something to defend."

She glared at him. "I don't have anything to hide."

“It looks like she’s got this covered,” Ian said.

“Yeah.” I smiled. I really loved when she was feisty. I kept watching the screen.

"Good,” Detective Reed said. “I expected as much. You're an open book, Penny. Straight As in high school. Same here except for the occasional B. You're a good girl. Respectable. A First State scholarship winner even. That must have made your parents proud."

"Yes, it did." She straightened her shoulders a bit.

"So the question is, what made you risk all that? What made you decide to sleep with your professor? Were you worried about…losing your scholarship?"