Page 28 of Forbidden Billionaires: Vol. 11

Friday

Penny blinked fast, holding back her tears.

It felt like there was a knife in my chest, slowly twisting. Tell me what happened. Put me out of my misery.

"So, I waited till class was over and went up to ask him what the assignment was. He pulled out the paper that it was on and asked me to come behind his desk so he could explain it to me.”

I couldn’t breathe.

“I had never really talked to him before. I sit in the back row. I usually get As on all my papers and tests. I never had any reason to talk to him."

I know, baby. Fucking hell, just tell me. I ran my thumb up and down each of her fingers, trying to distract myself from my racing heart.

"He put his hand on my back when I went behind his desk. I didn't know what to do. I thought he was just being nice. I felt kind of frozen.”

Breathe.

“I thanked him for the extra credit assignment and told him I had another class to get to.”

I felt like I was slowly dying. I could picture the scene so easily in my head. Breathe.

“But he said he thought we might be able to work out some kind of arrangement that would be better.”

Breathe.

“And he put his hand on my ass.”

All I could see was red. I was going to fucking kill him.

“And I didn't know what to do. I told him to stop. I eventually slapped him. But he grabbed my wrist. He said he had more connections than you at the university, so it would be more worth my time.”

He was a dead man. Did I look like a guy who needed to prey on students getting bad grades? He’d leapt to the wrong conclusion about Penny. And now he’d never get another chance to jump to a conclusion again.

“I told him that I was going to report him to the dean. But he said that if I told Mr. Vespelli, he'd say I had come on to him. Somehow he knew I had two strikes. He knew I'd be expelled if I got in trouble again."

I dropped Penny’s hand and sat up. "Did you want to stay here or do you want me to drop you off at the apartment?" I got off her bed and pulled on my shoes.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm going to go pay your professor a visit." Don’t you remember when Tyler touched you? I really enjoyed breaking his nose. I couldn’t wait to rearrange Professor McCarty’s ugly old mug.

"James, I don't want you to do anything to Professor McCarty. That wasn't why I told you about it. I need to know what to do. I can't go back to that class."

"He touched you,” I seethed. This wasn’t up for negotiation.

"And I slapped him."

I shook my head. That’s not good enough. "I'm going to kill him."

"James!"

"He shouldn't have touched you!"

Penny glanced nervously at the walls. I knew people in the rooms next door could probably hear me, but I didn’t fucking care. What were they going to do…report me to the dean? I didn’t work here anymore. And I could do whatever the fuck I wanted. Including killing Professor McCarty.

"No, he shouldn't have,” Penny said. “But that doesn't mean you should kill him!

He didn't even know that we were dating.

I just want you to help me switch classes.

I just don't want to see him. And I don't want to be expelled.

I don't want you to hurt him. The last thing I want is for you to do something that'll get you in more trouble. I just don't know what to do."

I looked down at her left hand. "Marry me." The words just tumbled out of me. That predatory asshole hit on her because he didn’t realize she was with me. And I wasn’t going to let that happen again. Everyone needed to know that she belonged to me and only me.

"What?"

"Let's get married." I ran my hand through my hair. "And move somewhere where no one knows either one of us. We can start over together." Please, Penny. I can’t breathe here.

"James, you just told my parents a few days ago that you weren't ready to get married. You just got divorced. This isn't what you really want. You're just upset."

"I don't want anyone else to touch you ever again. I don't want anyone else to flirt with you. I want everyone to know that you're mine."

"I am yours."

"Then marry me. We can go to Vegas right now."

"James, I can't just marry you. I want my parents to be there. I want my friends to be there. And what about your family? I haven't even gotten to meet any of them yet. I want them to be there too."

"I don't want a big wedding. I've already done that." I just want you.

"That's not what I said. I don't care about having a big wedding. I just want a few people besides us to be there." She was staring at me like I’d lost my mind.

And fuck, maybe I had. Or maybe I was finally seeing everything clearly. But this wasn’t what she wanted. She was telling me no. Breathe. "So that's a definite no?" I put my hands on her knees.

"No. I want to marry you. Just not...today. This was hardly a romantic proposal, Professor Hunter."

I looked down at her left hand again. I ran my thumb along her ring finger.

She needed a ring. As soon as possible. No other guy would ever touch her again.

"Romance, got it. Next time I ask, you'll definitely say yes.

" I met her gaze and smiled. She probably didn’t realize how serious I was about this. But I was damn serious.

"If you hadn't said we should go to Vegas right now I probably would have said yes."

Really? I pushed some of her hair behind her ear. "I wish I hadn't mentioned Vegas then." I smiled at her.

"Maybe we should just go somewhere that no one knows us, though," she said.

Yeah?

She wrapped her hands around the back of my neck. "I was prepared for other students being mean. I never expected my professors to..." she let her voice trail off.

"You won't be going back to his class. We can transfer you into a different one. Or you can withdraw from that too. I'll call Joe now."

"He's not going to let me do that. He's going to expel me."

"He's not going to expel you." I moved my hand to the side of her neck. "And if that creep wasn't on tenure, I'm sure I could get him fired."

"But are you sure you even want to stay here?" she asked.

No. I wanted to be anywhere but here. "If this is where you want to be, then yes."

She pressed her lips together.

I want to be in New York City again. Let me take you there. But for some reason, I didn’t say the words out loud. She’d already denied my proposal. I didn’t want another no right now.

"Can you wait to call Joe?” she asked. “Maybe we can see how we feel on Monday?"

"Okay.” I stared into her eyes that were still a little red. “Penny, I'm so sorry."

"You like to apologize when you've done nothing wrong."

I laughed. "I guess you're rubbing off on me."

My phone started buzzing in my pocket. God, what now? I kissed Penny’s forehead before pulling my phone out of my pocket. "It's Rob,” I said. “He's here early." When was he ever early? I figured he’d come on Sunday even though he said he was coming tonight. This couldn’t be worse timing.

"We should probably go then,” Penny said.

"Are you sure you're okay? Are you sure we're okay? I thought you might be mad at me.”

She just stared at me.

“I can't believe I gave them the fuel they needed for the investigation. I never even thought about them searching my office. I can't believe how careless I was."

"Wait, what? What are you talking about?"

I lowered my eyebrows. "Joe didn't tell you?"

"Tell me what?"

"About the paper with the bad grade on it that I gave you? The one that you crumpled up and threw at me in my office. I kept it. It was in my desk. With the cute note you left me after we had sex."

"Oh." The recollection flashed across her face. "Why did you keep that?"

"I just...I didn't want to forget. I thought it was just going to be a one time thing. And it killed me that it had to be a one time thing. I thought it was the only thing I could hold on to."

She looked up into my eyes. "That's so sweet."

"And stupid."

"No, it's sweet. Wait, didn't they need a search warrant to go into your office?"

"I would have thought so too. But the university gave them permission. My office at the school is technically their property."

"So that's how the detectives knew?"

"I think it was easy to figure out what happened after seeing those two pieces of paper. Especially since the white out on the paper with your grade on it wasn't even well done.” I frowned. “And if they did a black light test..."

"That's embarrassing."

I laughed. "Yeah, it is. But it all makes sense now.

I think I know what happened with the other girls too.

Did the detectives promise you anything if you cooperated with them?

" I already knew the answer to that. Because I’d watched the whole thing.

I still needed to tell Penny about the security cameras…

"Yes, they did. They said they could get my scholarship back."

"I think the detectives did something similar with the girls they interviewed.

I think they told the girls they would get As in the class if they agreed with their story.

I'm not sure if the detectives knew about the school's policy or not, or maybe they were just bluffing. But I think they pressured those girls into agreeing with the story that they told them. A story they inferred from your grade and the note you left in my office. All those girls had to do was say yes.”

"That makes sense. The detectives told me what had happened with the other girls and were just trying to pressure me into agreeing it was the same way you seduced me. Those assholes. We have to tell the dean."

"I already told Joe that. He just wants this to disappear, Penny. And so do I. I don't want you to keep having days like this. I want it to get better, not worse."

"Are you sure we shouldn't..."

"I'm sure."

"I'm not mad at you for saving the note I left you. It's ridiculous that you think I'd be mad about that." She smiled up at me.

"So we're okay?"

"Yes." She kissed me and slid off the bed. "I love you so much, Professor Hunter."

God, I loved when she said my name like that.

She let her hand run down between the zipper of my hoodie. I’d been in too much of a hurry to grab a shirt earlier and I loved the way her fingers felt pressed against my skin.

I smiled. "Try to remember to call me James in front of my brother, please." Because Rob would definitely give me hell. I lightly slapped Penny’s ass.

"I'll see what I can do. I'm so excited to meet him. Give me a second though, I'm sure I look like a hot mess."

"Just hot."

She laughed and walked over to the mirror on the wall. She wiped away the smudge marks from her mascara and added some more makeup that she definitely didn’t need.

She turned back to me. "I'm kind of nervous."

Nervous around Rob? Definitely not necessary.

"You don't have anything to be nervous about. He's going to love you." I wrapped my arms back around her. I wanted to be excited for this moment. This was the first time Penny was meeting anyone from my family. But I couldn’t erase the image of Professor McCarty’s hand on Penny’s ass from my head. I knew she didn’t want me to do anything.

But…I’d never promised I wouldn’t. Someone needed to teach that old prick a lesson.

"Are you sure you're okay?" I asked.

"I'm fine."

"James."

"I don't know what you want me to tell you. Of course I'm upset. I'm pissed. I won't feel better until I've punched him in the face."

"Please, please don't do that."

"Penny, he touched you."

"Can we please just focus on your brother visiting? Just forget about it for now. I don't want to think about it anymore. Let's just have a fun weekend."

"I'll try." It would be a fun weekend. Especially after I beat the shit out of a certain handsy professor.