Page 6 of Hello Kitten

“I’ll get them!” I volunteer immediately.

“No, I’ll take care of it,” Dr. Spence says. “If you’d like to sit in, Adrian.”

“If only I could,” he bids. “Another time.”

Dr. Spence nods with a smile and the second she leaves the room, he focuses on me. “Emily.”

“Is there something about class you want to discuss?” I ask immediately.

He takes a slow breath, then sets his bag down. He reaches in and hands me the paper I wrote on our reading. An A+ is in bright red across the page.

“Even though grades are delivered electronically. I still wanted to give it.”

I stare at it, then glower at him. “You better not be improving my grades just because—”

“I don’t grade based on personality or the past,” he says, his hand brushing mine gently. “You earned this, Emily.”

“No, I didn’t. I have at least six typos in there. I have a run-on sentence and—”

“You’re an exceptional writer. Typos and grammar issues are easy to edit. You have grad school quality arguments and observations. That’s what got you the A,” he emphasizes despite the fact his thumb is rubbing into my wrist.

I swallow and meet his eyes. “Don’t do this.”

“Do what?” He knows exactly what he’s doing, and that little hint of a smile proves it.

Stepping back is a totally normal thing to do if a professor touches someone, but I don’t want to. I force myself to think of him doing this with every other girl in class and manage to step back and he arches a brow.

“Something wrong?”

“You know exactly what’s wrong. You’re bumping my grade up. You’re ...” I glance at the open door. “I don’t want any special treatment.”

“And I’m not going to give you any.”

“Bullshit,” I growl, shoving my paper back into his hands. “Give this to me tomorrow and mark it down for the typos. Circle them, fix them. Rip my essay to shreds.”

Adrian’s eyes darken, and I see that warning in his gaze. I have a feeling that if the door was closed, if he wasn’t worried about Dr. Spence coming back in, his harsh palm is coming down on my bare ass ... again.

“If I remember right,” he says, edging closer as his voice stays a low, husky growl. “I was the one giving orders and you were following them eagerly.”

“When I was drunk. When you were a sexy stranger and nothing else. Now you’re my professor, and I’m not going to accept—”

“That is your grade, Emily,” he says evenly. “You had the best essay in class, and that’s how I grade. I cover all the names and read the papers. Yours was the top, you get the highest grade. Take it like a good girl.”

My jaw tenses, my hand balls into a fist, but my words don’t come as I hear the sound of heels coming closer.

“I hope you two are getting along,” Dr. Spence says.

“I was giving Emily her paper back a day early. I hope you don’t mind. Apparently, she doesn’t believe in her own work,” Dr. Hayes says, completely unbothered. “But my grades are fine. The second it’s committed to red ink, it’s done.”

“We’re done,” I say to Adrian before smiling at Dr. Spence. “Put me to work.”

“Don’t I always?” she says brightly. “Adrian, if you’re sure you don’t want to stay ...”

“I have a class of my own, but I’m definitely eager to sit in one day,” he says politely.

He heads out, leaving Dr. Spence glowing from his interest in her class while I’m still trying to read into everything he said.

four

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