Page 2 of The Virgin and the Patient Professor

I pause, my spoon cupping my tongue while I stare at him, waiting breathlessly for whatever’s next.

“And every time I saw her, I felt more and more attached. Then, over the summer, I happened to see her out on a date. Which she had every right to do.” His fists clench and I watch with fascination. “Except seeing her there with that idiot filled me with rage.”

“Jeremy,” I whisper. “It was only one date.” Jeremy wasn’t anything to write home about, and I turned him down when he asked me out again.

“I know.” This time, he looks up at me, something indescribable in his eyes.

“Is that why you…” I gesture helplessly, not sure how to put it into words. He raises an eyebrow in inquiry and I flounder. “Wouldn’t grade my papers the next year? And you hardly ever made eye contact. All because I went on one date with a guy?”

Professor Malone sighs. “No. Your date with Jeremy made me aware of how fast and far I’d fallen. I wasn’t trying to punish you. But a friend convinced me that you didn’t deserve an older man swooping in and stealing you away. That you should have the full college experience. Fall in love, study for a career, whatever you felt like, without undue interference. Including not having any rumors of favoritism or special treatment. So reluctantly I gave all your papers to Fred for grading and I waited. Impatiently. Until today.”

“Oh.” I stuff another spoonful of ice cream in my mouth while I process his confession. “I don’t even know your first name,” I blurt out, realizing I was about to call him Professor, which doesn’t exactly fit in this scenario. All his publications are signed J. Malone, but I’ve no idea what the J stands for.

He smiles wryly, his dark eyes crinkling at the corners. “Technically, it’s Jacob, but my friends and family call me Leo.”

“Leo.” I say it softly, testing it on my tongue. “Leo, I… I thought you were trying to cure me of my crush. And now you’re saying you want… what?” I’m so confused.

Professor Malone, Leo, growls softly and takes my hand, bringing it up to his lips to place a kiss on the back. “What I want is to lay you down on this bench and slide into you, but you’re not ready for that and getting arrested for public sex wouldn’t help my cause.”

I giggle in shock. He wants to… oh. Oh, my. Suddenly I crave that too. In a way, I’ve never needed to be intimate with anyone before.

“So…” I prompt, not wanting to be the one to make assumptions now.

“So assuming you aren’t telling me to get lost and stay there, I’d like you to spend the summer with me, letting me convince you that we belong together.”

My heart sinks. “But I start a new internship on Monday.”

He smiles slightly. “I know. It’s with that friend I mentioned. Which you can keep free and clear. Or the internship can transfer to me and you’d help me with research.”

“You want to pay me to spend time with you?” I say slowly.

“It sounds bad when you say it like that.” Leo smiles wryly. “Yes, and no. I did think of the implications of trapping you in a job. So the plan is, if you accept it, that you get the agreed salary up front. Free and clear. We can make it for one week’s work if you like because I need to gather research materials before we go into the mountains. That way, you’re free to leave early if you decide you’ve had enough of me. And any fucking, Dani? That’s your call. I’d like to give us both time to get to know each other without an audience and rules. But I wouldn’t ask you to do anything you don’t want to do. Or aren’t ready for.”

He’s watching me, his face more relaxed than it was earlier. I guess this speech was weighing on his mind.

I bite my lip, thinking furiously. I get up to throw my empty cup in a nearby trash can. Leo stays where he is, not moving, but I can feel his gaze tracking my movements. When I come back, I sit down closer to him.

“I need to think about it.”

“Of course,” he concedes, a little wariness creeping into his eyes.

“But I also require some more information.”

That surprises him. “What do you want to know?”

“I need you to kiss me. I won’t know if I really want this otherwise.” I bite my lower lip again, feeling anxious. Because I just freaking asked Professor Malone to make out with me. Could this get any more surreal?

His face softens again. His hand comes up to free my lip from my upper teeth. His touch sends tingles down my spine and now I think a single kiss could wreck me, but I need to know.

3

Leo

I appreciate where Dani is coming from. It’s more than a little surreal to me that I’m sitting on a park bench in broad daylight, about to kiss a former student. It’s not her innocence that has me wanting to claim her, it’s the way her pulse is fluttering while her face instinctively turns into my hand, the one cupping her jaw. She knows she’s mine. She just needs to re-orient her perspective.

That doesn’t mean I’m taking her for granted. I’m not. The last thing I want to do is bully her. Instead, I claim her lips as she asked me to, aiming for something adult enough not to be condescending but also firmly leashed. She’s not a teenager, but all indications are she’s been studying books and not boys. Thank fuck.

I tease her sweet lips gently with my tongue, curious to see if she’ll open for me. She does, sighing softly into my mouth. I let her set the pace, to explore as she wishes and when she pulls back, I don’t stop her.

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