I pull away from him resolutely, trying to ignore the confusion on his face as I take a deep breath.
“Actually, there is something that’s sort of been on my mind…”
He frowns in concern. “What?”
“I just… I feel like I can’t stop thinking about my grade on that exam,” I sigh. “It’s really… distracting me.”
At this point, at least half of the professors would immediately say something along the lines of:Don’t you worry yourself about that grade. We’ll fix that right now.It saves both of us face if they volunteer to change my grade without having to be threatened.
But Conlon isn’t going for it. Damn. He has too much integrity. He’s not going to change my grade. He’s going to need to be persuaded.
This is going to get ugly.
“I’m sure you’ll do better on the next exam.” His face brightens. “I’d be happy to tutor you myself, Rachel. I do that all the time for students who are having trouble. It’s important to me that you do well.”
“Yes, but…” I run my hand over the inside of his thigh. “It’s going to be hard to pass with such a low grade on the first exam.”
“Rachel, honey.” He wraps his fingers around my wrist, stopping them from moving north. “I appreciate what you’re doing, but don’t you have some studying to do?”
Our eyes meet. And that’s when I realize it:
He knows.
He knows exactly what I want. And he’s not planning to make this easy for me.
Too bad he has no idea who he’s dealing with.
“Matt,” I say thoughtfully, “how do you think the dean feels about professors who have sex with their students?”
I watch him carefully for his reaction, expecting his face to drain of color. But it doesn’t. He looks completely calm and collected.
“They probably don’t like it too much,” Dr. Conlon says with a shrug. “I’ve heard of professors getting fired for that.”
“Really?” I say in mock surprise.
He nods. “Yeah, sure. And some of them end up wrecking their marriages too. I heard about a professor recently fromanother university whose wife left him after he slept with one of his students.” He smiles at me. “Actually, I believe he taught atyourformer university. Maybe you knew him? Dr. Michael Hirsch?”
Oh no. No, no, no…
He can’t know about that. It’s not possible.
Mike Hirsch was a middle-aged guy who was just as unattractive and balding as Mr. Pritchett had been, and he also happened to teach my biology class in college. He’d believed I really liked him and had thrown a fit when I suggested he alter my grades. I’d been forced to place an unfortunate phone call to his wife. The call to the wife always came first because a call to the university would have been much more of a scandal. Of course, as soon as I called his wife, Mike realized I meant business.
But how the hell does Dr. Conlon know about that? Nobody knows. Except, of course, for Mike Hirsch, Mrs. Hirsch, and me.
“He’s pretty pissed off at that student who wrecked his marriage,” Dr. Conlon continues. “Would you believe he was angry enough to call some of the professors here to personally warn us about that student? As if any of us would be dumb enough to get taken in by something like that.”
Oh, Christ.
I climb off Dr. Conlon’s lap and back away, staring at him. He’s not smiling anymore, that’s for sure.
“Personally,” he says, “I wouldn’t worry anyway. I’m not married, and I’m the only disabled member on the entire faculty and have been for quite a while. I can pretty much get away with whatever I want. I mean, it’s not like they’re going to think thatIseduced my student, right?”
“You knew all along,” I breathe, shaking my head.
“Well, it was nice of Dr. Hirsch to give me that heads-up,” he says. “But when you came in here yesterday wearing that short skirt… Come on, do you think I’m stupid, Rachel?”
I can’t believe this. Of all the professors I’ve been with, I can’t believeDr. Conlonis the one who finally caught on to me. The entire time we were having sex yesterday, when he was acting so grateful and amazed, he knew exactly what I was up to. It was all an act. I’m furious.
