Teaching Harper (Tempting Mr. Bedford #2)

Fourteen

POV: Simon

"... so by next week, we should be discussing the late Roman Empire," I said, consulting my notes, "particularly the invasions by the Anglo Saxons and other people who spoke various Germanic languages ."

Looking up from my notebook, I was pleased to see my students paying attention to my introduction to course. I nodded and continued.

It was the first day of the fall semester, a day I'd been looking forward to since I moved here. Work was good. Teaching kept my mind off certain unsuitable women whom I couldn't seem to resist—

A pretty girl in a purple vest over a crisp white shirt and wearing oversize tortoise shell glasses smiled at me from the middle row.

I paused in the middle of the bit about the Visigoths and stared. She looked eerily familiar...

"What the—" The words came out my mouth before I caught myself.

Harper. What the hell was Harper doing in my medieval Europe class?

"Professor, will we be focusing on both rural and urban society?" asked a tall, serious-looking boy in the front row.

"Uh, yes," I said. "Including trade and manufacturing in both."

Harper raised her pen. "And the universities?" she asked.

I glared at her. She smiled sweetly back at me.

"Yes," I replied without enthusiasm. "And monasteries."

"I always thought monks were so interesting, don't you think, professor?"

I was not amused. "Very interesting."

For the rest of the class, I pretended to ignore her. What else could I do? She was obviously a student in this university. In my damned class. I couldn't recall her last name and even if I did, I didn't actually pay attention to my list of students registered in my class.

When I dismissed the class at the end of the period, I watched Harper, wondering if she was going to come over to talk to me. However, she only gathered up her things and walked toward the exit. She did, however, flash me a wicked grin on the way out.

***

By six-thirty p.m., I hadn't seen Harper again. Which was good, because I expect that any conversation we could have was nothing I wanted any student or faculty to overhear. It's not as though I wanted to speak to her. In fact, I was happy she didn't contact me again after that night with Ji-Hye. I was ecstatic, really. Maybe I could close this shameful chapter of my sex life.

Turns out, I was wrong.

After a too-long meeting with the department chair, I headed back to my office to find Harper sitting at my desk.

"Hello, Dr. Bedford."

I sighed. "Why didn't you tell me you were a student here?" I said.

"You never asked."

When I got to my desk, I set down my suitcase with an annoyed thud. "Did you tell anyone we slept together?"

Her eyes grew wide. "We did?"

"Harper."

She laughed. "Relax, I didn't tell anybody."

"Look, Harper." I leaned against the side of my desk and crossed my arms. "No one can know about ... what we did. All right? I'm going to get into trouble."

"Well, technically, you didn't know I was a student here."

"I don't think anyone will care about that little detail.".