Page 40 of Sinful Professor

“I see.”

He looks at the rest of the band. Something isn’t right. Then he looks at Bianca before addressing me again.

“Is there anything you’d like to tell us, Dr. Rush? About your songwriting?”

“What is it that you’d like to know?”

With that, Lee gestures for Bianca to start talking.

“You’re using my songs, Brock,” she says coldly. “Why?”

“That’s a lie and you know it, Bianca,” I say as I stand with clenched fists.

“So, you do know her,” Liam says.

“Yes,” I growl out. “We were a couple for a time.”

“And she wrote songs with you?” Chase asks.

“I wrote the songs,” I grit out. “The meat and potatoes of them. She may have contributed to some of the lyrics, but I considered them mine.”

“That’s a lie, Brock,” she snaps. “But one that I’m willing to overlook if you drop out of this competition and help me finish my album. I’ll see to it that you get paid for your time.”

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” I growl.

With that, Lee rises and holds up his hands for us to be quiet. Then he turns to Bianca and asks her a pointed question.

“We asked you for some new material three weeks ago,” he says. “Why haven’t we gotten anything from you yet?”

Her eyes prick with tears at this. Her mouth opens and closes but she can’t form any words. And while I know why, I refuse to speak it out loud. Instead, I clasp my hands behind my back and wait.

“I’m just working through a rough patch,” she says.

“A rough patch?” Eli asks. “Or you haven’t been able to convince Dr. Rush to write for you again?”

“How dare you,” Bianca hisses. “My songs are-”

“Clearly not yours,” Chase interrupts. “When you started stalling, we had someone look into your files. Every single one of them was authored by Dr. Rush.”

“Only because I don’t know how to use the software,” she counters lamely.

“You’re a phenomenal singer, Bianca,” Lee says. “But you led us to believe that you wrote your own material. That violates the contract you signed. And besides, Dr. Rush’s songwriting style has its own signature. A signature that is on every single song you’ve agreed to record with us. How long were you going to try and lead us on?”

She has no answer for this. Lee turns back to me, his expression slightly pained.

“I’m sorry about that, Dr. Rush,” he nods. “You can go back to the auditorium and wait for our decision.”

“Thank you,” I nod.

I avoid meeting Bianca’s eyes when I turn to leave. In another five minutes, Sadie is in my arms. I bury my face in her neck as I tell her what happened. She’s shocked, but also relieved that the band found her out first.

“I couldn’t agree more,” I sigh.

With that, I take her hand and settle us in the front row. The rest of the contestants are milling around. And I’m not surprised when John comes over.

“You okay, Dr. Rush?” he asks.

“Yeah,” I nod. “Just ready to hear the results.”

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