Page 11 of Forbidden Professor

Success!

I spotted my clothes out on the floor in front of the couch and tip toed to pick them up. For someone who doesn’t sleep around, apparently I broke that rule last night. Easton and I weren’t dating. Sure, we had a past, but since when did I sleep with men I wasn’t in a committed relationship with? How was this going to work? I sure hope his report was fucking amazing because having to cut his project now… well, could we survive that?

Sure, he knew that my professional career was everything to me, and the man I fell in love with all those years ago would never expect me to compromise my integrity. However, it was different when it had to do with yourself. Personally, I had knowledge of what this project meant to Easton and the significance it had on his past. Should I remove myself from this consultation?

There were so many things swirling through my mind right now. Why did this have to happen now? I couldn’t have ran into him a month ago? I had been missing something in my life and the moment I saw his face, something changed. After going on dates and trying to find someone, maybe this was the way the universe was trying to wake me up. Show me that the right person was from my past.

“Isla?” Easton called out from the bedroom.

Oh, god. Please don’t come out here in all your naked glory. I might not ever leave.

My hand stalled on the doorknob to the front door.

12

Easton

The light from the morning sun shown into the bedroom. Last night was amazing. I rolled over and she was gone. Where did she go? She left without saying anything? I sat up and ruffled my hair lost. Did she regret what happened last night? I thought she was sure that this wasn’t going to be a one-night stand? My insecurities started to heighten and then footsteps were heard.

“Isla?” I called out from the bedroom. There was no reply. “Isla? Wait!” Without thinking, I got out of bed and headed straight for the living room, not thinking about the lack of clothing until I saw her eyes. “Fuck, sorry! I… uh.”

There was no reason for me to be shy about being naked in front of her. Especially after what we did last night. Her eyes strayed down my body and a grin took over her face once she landed on my dick. It was obvious I had been dreaming about her.

“Are you trying to make it harder for me to leave?” She licked her lips. “Seriously, put some clothes on. You better start getting ready for work or you are going to be late too.”

I grinned and walked over to her, placing a tender kiss on her lips. “I don’t even know what time it is. So we will talk later?”

She nodded, but something about her posture told me a different answer. It was like she couldn’t wait to get out of here.

“Are you okay?” I asked, taking her hand. “I can be late if you wanna talk now.”

She moved her hair behind her ear. “No, that’s okay. I can’t be late. See you later,” she said, shutting the door behind her.

I didn’t move, standing there pathetically, staring at the door. Our hearts were right to be guarded. It had been a long time and neither of us wanting our hearts broken again. Running into each other yesterday was great, but what did it mean for us long term? Were we going to start dating? After last night, maybe she decided it wasn’t a good idea. Like me, I was sure she had a lot of things going on in her life, and she seemed pretty focused on her career too.

Was it wrong of me to want more? Since college, I had always been my love life on the backburner. Chasing the chance at cure was always my priority. Now, Isla had walked back into my life and it made me want to find time. She gave me that feeling of wanting to change stuff around so that I could be with the one I loved. But did she feel the same?

Don’t get wrong. This whole situation was a bit crazy. How could I expect her to just up and change things? We both worked so hard to get where we were in life…

Whatever. Right now, instead of getting stuck in my head about this, I needed to get ready and rush to work. No reason to start being late now, but something definitely changed between last night and this morning.

Isla

My heels clicked on the linoleum to the elevator two minutes shy of being late. Crap! I throw my blazer on and fidget with my hair right before the doors open and all eyes were on me. Everybody knew who I was now, and that meant project managers would try to kiss my ass to be on my good side. Little do they know, nothing would change my mind. If they did what they were supposed to do, plead their cases through their reports, then they had nothing to worry about with the cuts.

“Good morning, Isla. Could I get you anything while you meet with Paul this morning?” his receptionist asked.

“I’ll take a coffee. 3 cream and 3 sugars, please.”

She nodded and took off to the breakroom while I went inside.

“It looks like things have been shaken up a big around here.” Paul said, looking out his windows behind his desk. “I’ve never seen project managers so on edge.”

“Well sir, that tends to happen when there are talks about budget and funding cuts.”

He shrugged his shoulders and turned around. “You are the expert in this matter. So we expect your professional opinion on what project to cut.”

He threw a stack of reports on his desk toward me. “Here are the financials. We expect your answer by end of day.”

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