Page 33 of The Professor's Possession (Crystal River Billionaire Brothers)

“How’s your day?” Ava asks me after I give her the chocolates. “Did you make it to class?”

I nod and take a bite of the confectionery. “Yep, I did. But I was late.”

“Ouch. Awkward.”

“Awkward, indeed,” I reply. “I had to do the walk of shame to my seat.”

“I did the same thing last week. That memory will stay imprinted with you forever. What class were you late for?” my roommate asks.

“English Lit.”

Ava smirks knowingly. “That’s Professor Penmayne’s class, isn’t it?”

“Doyouknow anything about Spencer Penmayne?” I ask, leaning forward conspiratorially. Ava’s expression clearly shows that she has some juicy gossip about the man.

“Everyonein Crystal River knows about the Penmayne brothers,” she replies, loving that she’s able to dish me this information.

“Everyone?”

“They’re the most elite of the elite when it comes to Crystal River,” Ava explains. “Leagues above anyone else.”

“Brothers? There’s more than one?”

“Yep. Six in total.”

“Six brothers?”

“They’re like a criminal gang or something.”

“And what makes them soelite?” I ask.

Ava smiles. “They are billionaires. Well, their family is.”

“Wow.”

“The dad owns a big media empire, I’m not too sure,” she says. “A lot of them have made their own fortunes as well doing all sorts of different things. I try to avoid anything to do with them, and so do most people in this town. And for good reason.”

I sit back and imagine Spencer Penmayne in that family. A brother with five brothers. All that testosterone. All of them rich beyond measure. What would that be like, I imagine.

“Why is he a professor?” I ask. “If he’s got all that money. Why teach at CRU?”

My roommate shrugs. “For the passion, I guess. No one knows much about him. The Penmaynes really keep themselves to themselves, and Spencer Penmaynereallykeeps his cards close to his chest.”

“I keep hearing that no one knows anything about him,” I remark. “He seems like such a mystery.”

“You want to know what I know?” Ava asks me.

“Sure.”

“It isn’t much, but what I know for sure is that he grew up here like all the other brothers. Then he went to Harvard, like, super young. Accelerated grades or something. He’s supposedly some wild genius or something. One in a million. He’s just moved back to Crystal River to teach here, of all places, like only a few months ago. It’s been super sudden, and as you can imagine, he’s been the talk of the town these last few months.”

“So I’ve heard,” I say. “It seems like everywhere I walk around here someone is talking about him.”

“He actually lives pretty close to the campus, actually,” Ava says.

“Oh? Where?”

Ava’s smirk widens. “You really want to know?”

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