Page 44 of Prosecco with My Professor
I groan internally. Emma is lying. I frown and rub my forehead, thinking. This is why you don’t get too close to students. Hell, I haven’t even slept with her, and I am tempted to give her leniency on her assignments.
Or am I overcorrecting? I’m not a harsh professor, and I like to think of myself as fair.
Except for propositioning Emma.
Enough time has passed that either she isn’t interested—totally fair but extremely disappointing—or she is either so secure in her decision not to go back to Bruce that she doesn’t need convincing or she’s so secure in her decisiontogo back to him she doesn’t need convincing.
I’ll show you exactly how good it can be myself.
With Emma having been sick, my brain had gotten a reprieve from repeating those words over and over again, but now that she stands before me hale and healthy, my mind can’t leave it alone again. What exactly had I been thinking? I was possessive just because the woman told me how disappointing her sex life had been in the past.
And now I can’t decide if I am showing favoritism or overcorrecting and being too harsh.
This is yet another reason why professors and students together is an all-around bad idea.
Emma is gnawing on that lip of hers again, and I realize I am flat out glaring. I gentle my gaze. “When do your other professors have you handing in your make-up work?”
“One of my professors gave me until Friday, the rest next Monday. And, um, you know I’m flying back home for Christmas, so…”
So, she’s trying to spend time with her family, and we’ve all given her enough to do that she’ll be working full-time over the holidays.
But then she’ll just be back in the third term. It was a hell of a lot of work to catch up on. I suppose if push came to shove, I could argue that she’d received an extension for all her courses, and what’s the harm in an extra week?
“How about the Friday after that, then? Do you have colleagues who can help you?”
She nodded. “Shonda and I study together. She said she would help me catch up.”
“All right.” I realize, after all of this debating with myself, that I probably need to apologize to Emma about the proposition. But there’s a knock on the door, and one of the faculty pokes their head in.
“We are on schedule for the OUT meeting in here, yes?” Professor Wang surveys the empty room and raises an eyebrow.
That’s fine. An empty room at the university wasn’t an appropriate place for me to apologize for propositioning her, anyway.
I apologize to Professor Wang and follow Emma out of the room.
“Anything else, Professor Offredi?” she asks once we are in the hall.
“No. Please contact me if you have questions.”
Emma waves and walks off, and I’m left alone in the hallway, still berating myself.
When I get home,I change clothes, sit on the couch, and spend a fruitless few minutes trying to get Zola to curl up onto my chest like she always does. She refuses because I reek of procrastination and desperation, so instead I go knock on Emma’s door.
“Professor,” she greets me in surprise. She’s changed for the night, wearing cozy pajamas and her hair up in a bun.
“May I come in?”
“Sure.” She steps back, letting me into her little apartment, then folds her arms over her chest, right under her breasts, and leans her hip against the couch. Her place still smells vaguely like cleaning supplies, and there are books and coursework scattered over the kitchen table. “Is there a problem with the make-up assignments?”
“No, this is a personal visit. I wanted to apologize for my proposition to you the other week. It was out of line, and I want you to know that nothing will come of you saying no. I won’t behave improperly around you at the university, and I will do my best to treat you like any other student.”
Emma’s gaze drifts over my shoulder, a small frown on her face as she thinks. “Did I say no?”
That’s not what I expected, and I clear my throat. “Technically, no.”
“What exactly did your proposition mean, anyway? ‘I’ll show you exactly how good it can be myself.’ What does that entail?”
I pinch the bridge of my nose, having some choice words with myself in my head. Well, I guess I have, technically, licked her pussy. “One night. I would make you come any way you’d like. Finish what we had started.”
