Page 9 of Beneath the Beauty (Beauty 2)
God, what was she doing here? Her fingers flipping through Blake’s personal notebook stash. Her clothes—thankfully back in place but still rumpled.
“Cleaning,” she said.
Professor Jenkins blinked once, then twice. She spoke to Blake. “You have a maid for your office?”
Admittedly it was a bit strange, considering the room was smaller than the average bedroom. But Blake was smart—he caught on quickly. Benefit of sleeping with a Rhodes Scholar, she supposed.
“Erin cleans my house,” he answered. “I asked her to come by today. The office was a mess when I got here.”
Hah! And he didn’t even technically lie.
Professor Jenkins’s cool green eyes gave Erin a quick appraisal. Disheveled hair from their lovemaking, plain jeans and a T-shirt—standard fare for a student, but there were no designer labels here. Just as fast, the woman lost interest in her, her expression making Erin’s lack of appeal clear.
The maid. The hired help. Nobody at all.
Once again, she was dismissed for what she did to pay the bills. Erin was used to it among the other students at the private university. No one was gauche enough to say anything about it. Her old boyfriend had always paid for her, but everyone knew it was more than chivalry. She couldn’t afford the fifty dollar shots of sake or bottles of champagne they liked to order. Eventually she’d found different friends. Other scholarship kids or ones who had the money but didn’t flaunt it, like her roommate. But Erin never forgot how out of place she’d felt, how little.
Maybe she’d been naïve, but she’d expected more from a respected professor. Out in the world, Erin was a hard worker, someone who paid her bills on time, in full. But in this private university, where her tuition was covered half on scholarship and half on loans, she was just a charity case.
Professor Jenkins turned to Blake. “Well, then,” she said brightly. “I’m glad you’re taking your new position here seriously.”
Before Erin could process the sweet, almost personal tone, the woman stepped closer to Blake. The office was small, so perhaps the close quarters could be explained that way. But it didn’t feel like it. As if dismissing Erin from sight and from mind, as if Erin were as deaf and dumb as the file cabinet, the woman spoke intimately.
“Lord knows I tried to get you to come back here after the explosion. You wouldn’t budge.”
“It had been a week,” he said dryly.
“Well, the important thing is that you’re here, and things can go back to the way they were.”
Erin stared, giving up any pretense that she was cleaning, that she wasn’t watching. She finally put her finger on what she sensed from Professor Jenkins: possession. It was the same way Erin looked at Blake, like she knew him so well, like she owned some part of him intrinsically.
If she’d had her doubts, the dark expressi
on on Blake’s face sealed the deal. He and Professor Jenkins had definitely been lovers, she just knew it. Maybe more, maybe committed.
Which shouldn’t matter but somehow did. Erin trusted Blake, and they were together now. He wasn’t about to cheat on her the second her back was turned…or when she was right there in the room.
But then again, they weren’t allowed to tell anyone they were together. And though she tried so hard not to think about it…it was pretty close to what had happened to her before. Feeling shoved aside, being pushed out the door when she’d thought things were perfect.
“That was a long time ago, Melinda,” he said softly.
She hesitated, then laughed. “We were both young and stupid then. Things have changed.”
He shook his head. His smile was more of a grimace. “Not that much.”
A small sound escaped Erin.
Professor Jenkins looked over, as if just noticing she was still here. “Maybe you can finish up here another time. I need to have a private talk with Dr. Morris.”
“No, Melinda,” he said, sliding past her to open the door. “We don’t need to have a private talk, and she doesn’t have to go.”
He was going to tell her, Erin realized. Whether he said the words or not, he’d give it away. And somehow she knew that Melinda Jenkins was just vindictive enough to use it against him…and her. He needed this job to return to the world, to become part of it again. She needed to complete her final research paper and get it approved by the board.
“No, that’s okay,” she said quickly. “I have a class soon anyway. I’ll just go.”
He scowled, clearly ready to countermand her, so she grabbed her backpack and stumbled out the door before he could stop her. Melinda’s shrill laugh followed her down the hallway.
Erin sped up, the tiles under her feet blurring from her pace and the tears glazing her eyes.
