Page 36 of Directing You
She slammed the coffeepot against the counter. “I know what I said. I’m explaining what Imeant.”
Fuck. Her words, her decision was like a hot blade slicing through to my core. It hurt a hell of a lot more than I expected it to. “I hear you,” I said. “Loud and clear. But if you change your mind…you know where to find me.” I leaned forward, sliding my hands around her waist and dropping my mouth to her neck. I licked my tongue across the gooseflesh rising up her shoulder and nipped at her ear. “And for the record…given enough time, I think our whirlwind romance could be love. Someday.”
Her ribs expanded beneath my hands with her sudden, deep breath as I stepped back and slipped out the door. “I’ll see you in class,” I said, closing it behind me.
* * *
Nine a.m.came all too fast and also not soon enough. When Hazel entered the theater in her jeans and black tank top, my pulse raced faster, slamming against my throat. She looked disheveled in a way that onlyIknew was her post-coital glow. When her eyes met mine, her mouth lifted in a coy smile that left my dick twitching behind the zipper of my pants.
“Professor Bradley?” A sharp voice pulled my attention away from Hazel over to Jenna standing beside me, a notebook clutched tightly in her grasp.
“Yes, Jenna? You can call me Reid. In this environment, I consider myself more your director than your professor.”
“Well…Reid,” she said in a pointed way that left my hair standing on edge. “Did you receive my emails? I calledandemailed all weekend.”
“No. I make a point of not looking at my email or answering my phone after I cast a show.”
Her eyes narrowed momentarily, but they quickly lifted back to normal, and she batted her eyes, seemingly innocent. My stomach turned at how quickly her face morphed from anger back to sweet girl next door. “I understand that. But this isveryimportant. It’s about someone breaking the integrity clause—someone in the cast. It may change their standing here at the school and, therefore, your casting.”
My eyes darted to Hazel briefly before I forced myself to look away and scan all the students around her as well. “That’s a serious allegation,” I said, lowering my voice.
She pressed her sticky, glossed lips together and nodded. “I know.”
Shit. Thishadto be about Hazel. Hazel got the part Jenna wanted, and now Jenna was threatening to blow the whistle and get Hazel and me expelled and fired. I swallowed the knot in my throat.
“Let’s talk in my classroom across the hall.” I gestured toward the door, then leaned against the stage, calling out to the students. “Everyone take a few minutes. Chat with each other. Scripts are up here on the table. Come and check out one of the printed copies. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
I forced myself to take slower steps that were half the pace of my racing heart as Jenna and I walked silently toward my classroom. What the fuck was I supposed to do now? How did I get Hazel and me both out of this safely without damaging our reputations? And how in the hell did Jenna know about us?
I took a deep breath, unlocking my door and holding it open for Jenna. Maybe I was getting ahead of myself. Maybe she didn’t know anything. Maybe she had no proof?
I took a seat on the desk in the front of the classroom, dropping my elbow casually onto my thigh, even though I felt anything but casual. “Okay, Jenna,” I said. “You’re free to talk now.”
“Hazel Stone is a stripper,” she blurted out and then immediately pressed her lips back together.
I kept my face impassive, resisting the urge to correct Jenna that Hazel wasn’t a stripper, but a burlesque dancer. I had to maintain no expression. I was trying to neither act shocked by this or like I already knew. “Okay,” I said. “But my understanding was that this integrity clause is for faculty…employees of the university. Not students. The school can’t kick her out for having this job. I’m pretty sure they’d have a lawsuit on their hands.”
Jenna’s fair eyebrows arched, waiting for more of a response from me. When she didn’t get it, she said, “She works for the department as an administrative assistant and at night as a sex worker. She might not get kicked out of school, but I can’t imagine Professor Dercy keeping her as an assistant once she discovers the truth.”
I exhaled a deep breath. I wasn’t sure that was true, but Hazel desperately didn’t want anyone to know. And I wanted to honor her choices. This wasn’t a religious school, but the very fact that it was a private university meant they could basically create whatever rules they wanted to and get away with it as long as it wasn’t discriminatory. “You might be right. Itmightbe against the integrity code for faculty. I’m not sure,” I said.
“Might be?” Jenna’s jaw dropped. “It definitely is.”
“Do you have proof?”
Jenna pointed to my cell phone that I had set beside me on the desk. “Check the email I sent you.”
Shit. Shit, shit, shit.I opened up my email app, unlocking it and pulling up the email that was sent last night from Jenna. There was a long letter in the email body, stating what she had just told me. And at the bottom were several photographs of Hazel in various states of undress.
The pictures were clear shots of Hazel’s face. There was no denying it was her. My mouth went dry at the sight of her body, breasts bare, in a backbend. I fisted my hand in front of my mouth and cleared my throat. There at the bottom of the picture was a date…from almost two years ago. Jenna had been holding on to these pictures for two years, waiting until she would need to use them?
I lifted my gaze back to her, narrowing my eyes. She was more cunning and cutthroat than I had thought. “Jenna,” I said carefully. “You’ve known this for some time. Why now?”
She shrugged in a transparently innocent way. “I always felt bad for her. I don’twantto turn her in. It was fine when we were just students and learning together. But now that we’re in a show together…”
“You mean now that Hazel got a lead role and you didn’t,” I said boldly. I’d seen Jenna’s resume at the audition. She’d been cast as the leading ingenue in almost every show this university had done. God, I hated this girl. She stood for everything I disliked in theater. Nepotism. Blackmail. Backstabbing under the guise of integrity.
“Well, I just think you should know who you’re casting. I still don’t want Hazel to get fired from her job here.”
