Page 26 of Forbidden Billionaires: Vol. 11

Friday

I walked out to my car. I had a feeling I knew why Penny was upset. She’d probably gotten an email from Joe similar to the one I’d received. I hit the button to unlock my car as I called Joe. He couldn’t hide behind his computer forever.

“What now, James?” he said after only one ring.

“An incomplete? Really?” I started my car and pulled out of the parking lot.

“That’s all you have to say about the matter?”

“What do you want me to say? I told you those girls were lying. Anyone else coming forward is lying too.”

He sighed.

“You’re giving everyone else an A who doesn’t deserve it. Including the girls that are lying. At least let Penny withdraw from the class instead of giving her an incomplete on her transcript. That’s bullshit and we both know it.”

“And we also both know that it’s past the window to withdraw from…”

“Joe. Don’t make me give you hell.” We both knew I would.

He sighed again. “As if you haven’t already?”

True. “What if I double that donation I discussed in our meeting the other day?” I was starting to like the idea of a Hunter Hall.

“Fine. I just want this all to go away.”

“Thank you.”

"You really owe me one, James. I can’t believe you were so careless leaving that note in your desk. It was just waiting there for the detectives to find.”

Shit. “Note?” But I already knew what note. Fucking hell.

“You had a paper with a bad grade you gave Penny just sitting in your desk. With a saucy little note that she wrote to you underneath. Ring any bells?”

Yeah. I’d lured Penny to my office with a bad grade.

She’d crumpled up the paper and threw it at me.

And then she’d left me a cute note after we had sex for the first time in my office.

I’d uncrumpled her grade and saved both it and her note.

Because I was obsessed with her. And the two things together were pretty damning.

So…that was how the detectives knew what happened. And how the narratives of the girls that came forward were all so similar. Because those shit detectives fed it to them. It all made sense now.

I breathed a sigh of relief. I was starting to worry that they’d bugged me or something. I’d never once thought about my office… “Wait, didn’t they need a search warrant to search my office?”

“It’s university property, James. I gave them permission. I didn’t think you were dumb enough to leave evidence all over the place.”

Fair. I sighed. "Well it’s pretty obvious what happened now.

The detectives must have pressured those girls into agreeing with their theory.

They promised Penny she could get her scholarship back if she went along with it.

Did you know that? They must have done something similar with those three girls.

They probably just offered them As. Joe, we can clear all this up… ”

“I just want it to go away,” Joe said with a groan. “And if you didn’t want this to happen, you shouldn’t have left those papers in your desk.”

“Sorry about that.” I knew the detectives were in the wrong here, but I just wanted this to go away too. For Penny’s sake. Shit, is this what she’s upset about?

“Please tell me you’re in your apartment lying low like I requested?”

I pulled up outside Penny’s dorm. Joe did not want to hear about this. “Yup,” I lied.

“Great. Keep doing that. I have to go.” He hung up the phone.

I really hadn’t meant to create a shitstorm for Joe. But honestly, it could be worse. After all, I’d beaten the shit out of the last dean I’d worked for. Hmm. Maybe that was why he’d sent an email instead of calling.

I parked my car and shot Penny a text: "I'm here. Do you want me to come up?"

My phone buzzed with her response. "I'll come let you in."

I slammed my car door closed and kept my head down as I walked up to the back of Penny’s dorm. It was between classes so no one was around. But I’d try my best to be discreet for Joe’s sake, even if he had pissed me off this morning with that idiotic email and the sham investigation.

Penny opened the door. Her eyes were pink and her nose was swollen from crying.

Screw discreet. I took the stairs two at a time and wrapped my arms around her. "Penny, what's wrong?"

She immediately burst into tears.

"It's okay," I said and kissed the top of her head.

"It's okay, I'm here." I lifted her into my arms and carried her through the hallway of her dorm and up the stairs. She melted into my chest. I was glad that she felt safe in my arms. But I had a sinking feeling that her tears weren’t about a withdrawal from class versus an incomplete. I would have guessed she was pissed at me about keeping that note. But wouldn’t she be pushing me away instead of clinging to me? Something else must have happened.

I opened the door to her room, kicked it closed with my foot, and then set her down on her bed. I put my hands on the bed on either side of her so that I could stare right at her.

She just blinked and stared at me.

"Penny." I grabbed her chin in my hand. "Talk to me."

"I just wanted to see you. Can you hold me?"

I smiled. "I'm all sweaty." I’d been freaking out this morning and had gone straight to see Dr. Clark after my workout. I was still in my athletic shorts and a hoodie.

"I like when you're sweaty."

My smile grew. "Okay, move over." I kicked off my sneakers and climbed into her bed next to her, wrapping my arms around her.

She sighed and pressed the side of her face against my chest.

"If you're upset about your conversation with Joe, I convinced him to change the incomplete to a withdrawal. It looks better on your transcript."

"But Mr. Vespelli said you couldn't withdraw from a class that was canceled."

"Yeah, well Joe was being an asshole."

"Thank you,” she said. But she still seemed tense.

"If that isn't what's bothering you, what is it?"

"It's nothing important."

Anything that had upset her was important to me. But I could wait for her to tell me. I ran my fingers through her hair and looked around the dorm. "Why did you come here?" If she was upset, she could have come… home. To me.

"I don't know. It's cozy."

Which meant our apartment was not cozy. I swallowed hard. But we could fix that. Together. "Okay." I tilted her head up to look into her eyes and pushed a strand of hair out of her face. Tell me what’s going on. Let me in.

"I'm sorry. Your apartment is so big and it's always cold. And it was farther away and I was crying."

"Why were you crying?"

"It doesn't matter."

"Penny, no more secrets. Just tell me."

She put her hand under her head to prop herself up. "It's harder than I thought it would be. I don't know if I can do it, James."

I could hear Dr. Clark’s voice in the back of my head.

Telling me to tell her that I didn’t want to be in this town anymore.

That I wanted to go back to New York. And maybe Penny might want that too.

But this didn’t feel like the best moment.

Not until I knew why she was having a change of heart. "Tell me what happened today."

"It wasn't just one thing. It was everything. It was awful."

"Tell me." I put my hand on her cheek. "Please tell me."

"On my way to class I got a text from Professor Nolan telling me not to come to class. And that the investigation went south or something. He said Mr. Vespelli would be calling me with details."

"Well, it's good he told you not to come. I'm sure everyone had a lot of questions. You didn't need to be there for that."

"Yeah. And I ran into Tyler. He took me to breakfast."

Tyler fucking Stevens. He was like a gnat that I couldn’t swat away. What the hell was that kid’s problem?

I must have made a face, because Penny said, "Stop. As friends. He was being nice. He knew I was upset."

"Okay. I'm glad that he was there for you.” I really fucking wasn’t, but what else could I say? “You could have come home though. I want to be the one that's there for you." I never wanted her to feel the need to run to someone else. Especially Tyler.

"You are that person. That's why I asked you to come."

After talking to Tyler . I clenched my jaw. I needed to drop this. She was with me now, that’s all that mattered. I pushed another strand of hair out of her face. Penny couldn’t help who she ran into on campus.

"And at breakfast I talked to Mr. Vespelli. He told me that there were now three girls who accused you of..."

"I know. I talked to him too. Penny, if that's why you're upset, we've talked about this. You know me. You know how I feel about you."

"It did upset me. How could it not upset me?

But I know it isn't true. And it was more upsetting that Mr. Vespelli was just going to give up the investigation.

I don't understand why they don't want to find the truth.

They're going to put it in the paper, James.

They're going to tell everyone, and then people will think it's true even though it's not. "

"Penny, I want them to stop the investigation. It's fine. It'll make the news vans go away."

"But those girls lied. Clearly they just wanted to get As. Mr. Vespelli even said that they all had bad grades in your classes. It's ridiculous."

Yeah. It was a sham of an investigation. But I’d already resigned. I already looked guilty. And I didn’t care what anyone said about me. "It's fine. The sooner it's over, the sooner things will go back to normal. Isn't that what you want?"

"I'm not sure anything will ever go back to normal."

I sighed. "I know. I told you to take the rest of the semester off.

You can switch schools, Penny. You can pick up where you left off somewhere new in the spring.

It's okay. We can go wherever you want." I stared at her. That’s what I wanted. To go somewhere and have a fresh start. I’d put it out there.

"That isn't why I don't think things can go back to normal. At breakfast, Tyler warned me that it was going to be bad. Apparently everyone loves you. Which makes sense. You're very loveable."