Page 16 of Arrogant Professor

She studied me with her crystal blue eyes over the rim of her cup as she sipped her coffee. I’d lived in this family long enough to recognize a trap when I saw one. Anything I said would be reported back to Dad. I had to tread carefully here.

I shrugged and fiddled with my coffee cup.

“Just…thinking out loud.”

“Well, you don’t need to think at all. Just do as your told. I warned Daddy he kept you too long as an apprentice at the firm. It slowed you down, made you lazy. He should have put you in college as soon as you graduated high school.”

I shuddered at the memory. Shadowing my father around the firm while he spoke with clients and conducted meetings that made me so bored, I struggled to stay awake. It was supposed to give me an advantage when I went to college.

A leg up on the competition, Dad always said.

But I failed that, too. Instead of going to college at eighteen like the rest of my peers, Dad held me back to focus on the firm, to sharpen my business sense. When he gave me a rundown of his latest investment deal in order to teach me a lesson, he could have been speaking a foreign language and I wouldn’t have noticed the difference.

Helene picked it up easily—parroting back everything she’d learned, entrusted with more clients until she’d fallen into step alongside my father. If Dad surrendered the company to my sister’s care tomorrow, she wouldn’t even bat an eye. She was that good.

Meanwhile, I still didn’t know what an ETF was.

On my twenty-first birthday, my father announced I wasn’t shaping up to be the proper Roche he wanted me to be. So, he sent me to the only semi-prestigious school that would take me and I ended up at East Regent University.

I hope to God your professors can make something of you.

Helene snapped her fingers in my face.

“Are you even listening to me, Giselle? I said you need to do as you’re told.”

I recoiled at her sharp tone. A hot retort burned on the tip of my tongue.

Don’t do it. Don’t say anything. Don’t fuck it up.

“I’m going to change my major.”

Damn it.

Helene arched an eyebrow.

“You what?”

“I want to study something else,” I said, surprised that my voice sounded so steady when I felt so shaky inside.

Helene squared her shoulders and pushed her chair back, rising to her feet abruptly.

“This is just like you, Giselle. Daddy does everything for us. He works so hard, and you’re never grateful for it.”

“I didn’t say that—”

“All you ever do is complain,” Helene continued, gathering steam now. “It’s selfish. Daddy expects better from you.”

“Well, not everyone can be perfect like you, Helene,” I shot back.

“You don’t even try. If you made an effort, maybe you wouldn’t embarrass yourself along with the rest of your family.”

Turning on her heel, Helene marched out of the coffee shop. I slouched in my chair, feeling pissed off and stung.

Returning to my dorm, I dropped onto the edge of my bed. At least I had the room to myself, thanks to my father throwing money around. I didn’t have a roommate, so I could seethe in silence. The thought of doing homework after the visit with my sister made me want to scream.

My gaze fell on a swath of gray folded fabric, tucked in a plastic bag that rested next to my nightstand. Professor Stonebridge’s clothes. I totally forgot to return them.

Ever since I dropped his class, I sat outside his lecture hall, listening to him teach. Even though I couldn’t face him after that kiss, I still craved the soothing sound of his voice and the steadiness of his presence.

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