Page 160 of Forbidden Billionaires: Vol. 10
Saturday
I pulled up outside Sussex Hall. Eight o’clock was early on campus on the weekends and there wasn’t a student in sight. Parties wouldn’t start until later. And the dining halls were already closed. It would be a ghost town until later when Main Street would be flooded with drunk students without a care in the world.
That was why I’d chosen this time. For just a few moments, Penny and I could be a normal couple dating on campus. No one would look at us like a professor and his student. Especially at the back entrance of her dorm building. I looked around once more to make sure the coast was clear and put my car into park.
The camera Ian had placed outside the dorm’s door was impossible to see. Even though I had designed it and had already seen the angle of the video footage. I smiled to myself. An undetectable high-quality surveillance system. That was the whole point.
Even though this use hadn’t been my intention, I was still pleased with the results. There were always consequences to new tech. The list was a mile long with this camera. The world was full of disgusting people. And there wasn’t a way to keep it out of their hands if I went through with production. Except for the exorbitant price tag.
I straightened my tie. I wasn’t going to think about business tonight. Penny was my sole focus. I needed to figure out whatever was going on between us. Whether it was all in myhead. Whether it was real. Whether it could and should be more than a one-time thing.
My body tensed when I heard her dorm door open. But then she appeared with a smile on her face and I breathed a little easier. It didn’t matter how the date went. I already knew we would be more than a one-time thing. That number would go up tonight if everything went according to plan.
For just a moment, I watched her walking down the steps, knowing she couldn’t see me through the tinted glass of my windows. She was wearing a strapless, summery dress and a brown belt that cinched around her waist. Not that she needed the belt to have a sexy hourglass frame. You could tell she was perfect even when she was wearing one of my sweaters. She took the stairs slowly and I smiled. She probably wasn’t used to wearing heels. There was something comforting about the fact that she was just a normal girl. Not one that spent the weekends at red carpet events and elite charity functions, more concerned with climbing social ranks than having fun. She was real. Down to earth. And despite what Ian thought, she wasn’t after me because of my money. She liked me for God knows what reason. And I couldn’t wait to know more about her.
Before she could reach the car, I looked around to make sure we were still alone and stepped out. She just stared at me as I walked around the car and opened the door for her. I got a whiff of her cherry perfume and remembered the feeling of my lips pressed against her skin. I swallowed hard. It had been too long. I wasn’t used to waiting for things that I wanted. And my patience was wearing thin.
"Hi, Professor Hunter."
I grabbed her face in my hands, leaned in, and kissed her. We were supposed to discuss us tonight, but instead all I wanted to do was rip off all her clothes again.Breathe. But even telling myself to focus on my breathing didn’t help. Not when all I smelled when I breathed in was her.
I forced myself to break the kiss. "Good evening, Penny." I tilted my head, motioning for her to get in my car. "We should get going. We have a reservation."
She slowly stepped back, like she’d rather be ripping off my clothes too, and got into the car. I closed the door behind her and took another slow breath. I needed to focus on her, not just all the ways I wanted to have her.
I climbed into the car and sped off without opening the conversation back up. I was worried that I didn’t have enough willpower to resist her. That we’d end up on the side of the road fucking instead of getting to our destination. And I’d spent a lot of money to make tonight perfect. She deserved that. Besides, I already knew we were compatible in bed. I wanted to know if we were compatible in other ways.
"Where are we going?" she asked, breaking the silence.
"Someplace where we can be alone." I merged onto I-95. The farther I drove away from campus the less wrong this felt. We were just two adults on a date. And there was nothing wrong with that.
"But I haven't had anything to eat."
I lowered my eyebrows. Did she seriously think I wasn’t going to feed her? What kind of dates had she been going on? "Yes, I'm taking you to dinner."
She settled into the passenger’s seat, looking more relaxed by the minute. "So you wanted to discuss what you meant by just this once?"
I was surprised that she jumped right into the heart of the matter. She kept surprising me. "I meant what I said." That’s all we were supposed to be.
"Oh." She turned away from me and stared out the window. "I don't understand why you asked me to dinner then." Her voice sounded small.
I wasn’t trying to upset her. I was just being honest. But I’d left off an important detail. "Because I've changed my mind."
"Why?" She turned back to me.
I took my attention away from the road for a second. "Because I can't stop thinking about you, Penny."
"I can't stop thinking about you either."
We drove in silence for a few moments. I tried to focus on the road instead of on her. She was wearing red lipstick which made her look a little older. It was like she was trying to be more sophisticated for me. I wanted to tell her it wasn’t necessary. That I liked her exactly how she was. She didn’t need to be someone she wasn’t for me. That wasn’t what tonight was for at all. I just wanted her to be herself.
I tried to concentrate on the road, but it was almost impossible when she was beside me. My gaze kept gravitating back to her, like I couldn’t resist. I watched her bite her lip as she looked out the windshield.
She turned back to me. "Did you grow up around here?" she asked.
"No. I'm from New York."
"What made you come here to teach then?"
