Page 75 of Forbidden Professor

“Young man, you are being extremely short-sighted. In a week or a month or six months, whatever feelings you have found for this student will fade. Trust me. I’ve sat on this side of the desk while twenty professors have been in your shoes, confessing to the same breach of ethics. Usually, I do not try to stop them from the terrible mistake they are about to make.”

She looks down her nose at me like I’m a bug that she’s about to squash.

“Dr. Mooney, I don’t think you understand. This student is… special.”

She heaves a sigh of disappointment. “You think that you’re the first one to ever feel that way about a student, Dr. Morgan?”

The back of my neck heats. I dip my head. “No…”

Dr. Mooney bangs her fist on her desk hard enough to startle me.

“I am trying to offer you the opportunity to recant. Now do me a favor, if you can’t find it in yourself to keep your mouth shut for your own sake. I am going to pretend that we never had this conversation. All right?” She pauses, giving me a chance to interject. But I don’t. My tongue is frozen to the top of my mouth, it seems.

“Do yourself a favor, Dr. Morgan. Find a girlfriend your own age. You’re a handsome guy. You have plenty of opportunities, I imagine. Stop sleeping with this girl. Stop responding to her calls and messages. Act indifferent like any other professor at this school. She’ll get the picture if you hold out for long enough and move on to greener pastures.”

I open my mouth and close it, startled. Did Dr. Finch go through this gauntlet?

Dr. Mooney stands up, startling me. She waves a hand toward the office door.

“If that’s all?” Her expression is empty, her tone disinterested.

I stand up and clear my throat. “Thank you.”

“Good. I don’t want to see you back here, Dr. Morgan. This matter is closed.”

I try not to look as though I’ve just swallowed my own teeth as she shows me out of the office. Once her door shuts with me on the other side, I mutter, “what the hell just happened?”

Dr. Mooney just completely ruined my resignation. So what do I do now?

ChapterThirty-One

Eve

Carter’s kissesfeel like promises.

Promises of the future. Promises of loyalty and commitment. Promises of sacrifice. Promises of forever…

And it all scares the shit out of me as much as it excites me.

How can Carter’s words incite such fear and wonder, all at the same time? He’s given up everything for something we’ve only just started. It seems too soon. Too much. Too fast.

All I can think is that someday he will take off his rose-colored glasses and reality will slap him in the face and he’ll see everything he’s given up for me, and resentment will set in and our relationship will slowly fester into a disaster of a bloody wound that will painfully and slowly die.

It’s terrifying.

And yet, thrilling, somehow, the idea of the future…

And Carter? Carter is nothing but comforting.

Tears stream down my face as a result of all of these emotions thundering inside of me. Carter is so sweet, so kind, so gentle with me. His arms wrap around me as he continues to talk, saying anything he can think of to make me feel better.

I want it to work.

I want the tears to stop.

I want the fear to wash away and reveal the courage that I know is lying just under the surface.

“I’m so sorry for all the tears,” I admit to Carter. “There’s so much to worry about.”

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