LOGINWhen I missed the passing grade by one point, my best friend dragged me to a bar. She said there was nothing a drink couldn't fix. I drank until I blacked out. When I woke up, a man lay beside me, all cool eyes and tightly leashed control. I left two hundred dollars on the nightstand and ran for my life. I thought I'd never see him again. Then, on the first day of the new semester, the class I'd failed had a new professor. I looked up at the podium. The man from that night stood at the lectern, opened the roster, and read my name in a cool, even voice. "Vivian Harper, come see me in my office tomorrow." The color drained from my face. Convinced he was here for payback, I stayed up all night writing a transfer application. The next day, I clutched my transfer application all the way to his office. Before I could work up the nerve to speak, he pulled out a sheet of paper and studied me with an unreadable expression. "I've read the assignment you turned in." "Care to explain why a positive pregnancy test was bound into your term paper?"
View MoreThe semester finally drew to a close.Thanks to Adrian's brutal tutoring schedule, I didn't just pass my finals. I finished in the top three in my department.Chloe hugged me and cried, calling it "a double win in love and academics."But the day before winter break, explosive news ripped through the department.Adrian had resigned from his visiting professorship to run his family's investment firm full-time.The shirt I was folding slipped from my hands. My mind went blank.He was leaving? Why hadn't he told me?I called again and again, panic rising, but every call went straight to voicemail.I ran to his office. It was already empty, apart from a few textbooks he hadn't packed.Panic hit me like a wave.Had every promise, every tender look, every declaration been nothing more than a passing amusement?Now that the game was over, was he simply walking away?I stumbled out of the building in a daze. Thick snow had begun to fall."Vivian!" Chloe ran toward me and caught my arm. "Come o
After the gala, we returned to the apartment.Adrian had drunk quite a bit tonight. The faint scent of whiskey mingled with his usual cedarwood cologne.He loosened his tie, tossed his jacket onto the sofa, and leaned back, rumpled and devastatingly attractive.I poured him a glass of warm water and held it out. "Drink some water. You'll feel better."He didn't take the glass. Instead, he seized my wrist and pulled.I let out a gasp as I tumbled into his arms.He buried his face in the curve of my neck, his warm breath ghosting across my skin and sending shivers down my spine."Vivian," he murmured, his voice low and rough."Hmm?" I ran my fingers through his tousled hair."Do you think that night at the bar was an accident?" He lifted his head and held my gaze.I blinked. "Wasn't it?"I'd been blackout drunk. I had no idea how I'd even ended up talking to him.Adrian laughed softly, trailing his fingers over my cheek. "It wasn't an accident."His expression turned serious, almost stub
That evening, Adrian was taking me to an important charity gala.I studied my reflection in the full-length mirror. The burgundy velvet designer gown hugged every curve.A diamond necklace worth a small fortune rested at my throat. Adrian had fastened it himself."Beautiful." Adrian slipped his arms around my waist from behind and rested his chin against my shoulder."Isn't this a bit much?" I tugged at the hem of my dress, a little uneasy."You're my date. I want everyone to know it." He laughed softly and kissed my earlobe."Shall we, princess?"The moment Adrian appeared, he became the center of attention.Guests approached him one after another. Through it all, he kept a hand at my waist and introduced me the same way: "This is my partner, Vivian Harper."I did my best to maintain a gracious smile and not embarrass him.Midway through the evening, several executives pulled Adrian into a conversation. I wandered over to the dessert table on my own."Can I get you a drink?" one of th
Campus IT eventually traced the anonymous post to Anna. After the university concluded that she'd deliberately spread false accusations, her scholarship application was denied, and she withdrew before transferring elsewhere.As for Adrian and me, our relationship was no longer a secret.The entire department knew that the untouchable Professor Sinclair was hopelessly, incurably protective of his girlfriend.That weekend, I went shopping with Chloe.Chloe had been miserable lately. A follow-up test had shown the original result was a false positive, but somehow her ex had heard about it.He was a spoiled trust-fund kid who coasted through life on family money and bullied everyone around him."He's blackmailing me," Chloe said, eyes red, voice shaking. "He says if I don't pay, he'll tell everyone I sleep around and practically live at the OB-GYN. He'll claim I faked the pregnancy to scam him and pin everything on me.""Let him try!" I was shaking with rage. "We're going to the police rig






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