Chapter 1

Professor Adrian Sinclair sat behind a wide desk, every inch composed.

I stared at the paper, mouth opening and closing, too stunned to get a single word out.

It was the lab report my best friend Chloe had shoved into my bag last night.

She thought she might be pregnant, but she'd been too scared to read the result, so she'd shoved the printout into my bag and asked me to check it. In my rush to turn in my paper, I'd somehow bound it in with the assignment.

"P-Professor Sinclair." I swallowed hard, fighting for my voice. "This is all a misunderstanding."

"A misunderstanding?" Adrian let out a low laugh, though his tone betrayed nothing. "Vivian Harper, you didn't seem to think it was a misunderstanding when you left two hundred dollars on my nightstand."

My knees buckled, and I nearly collapsed right there.

So he really was here for payback.

"That night was an accident," I forced myself to say. "I was blackout drunk. I thought you were, you know... that kind of guy. That's why I left the tip."

The moment the words left my mouth, I wanted to bite my own tongue off.

Adrian's expression darkened instantly. He rose to his feet, his long legs carrying him toward me.

I backed away instinctively until my spine hit the wall.

"Two hundred dollars as a tip." He leaned in slightly, lowering his voice to something dangerous. "Vivian, you're quite the generous tipper."

I squeezed my eyes shut, bracing for his fury.

But Adrian didn't blow up.

His gaze drifted slowly downward, settling on my lower abdomen, something deeply complicated flickering through his eyes.

It looked like frustration tangled with some kind of reluctant acceptance. "So, what are you planning to do about this?"

He held up the pregnancy test between his long fingers and waved it in front of my face.

I froze. "I was going to..."

I was about to say I'd return the report to Chloe.

"Don't do anything impulsive." Adrian's voice cut me off.

His brows drew together, his tone leaving no room for argument. "The law is strict about this, and no private clinic is going to just perform that kind of procedure."

I stared at him blankly, my brain struggling to keep up.

"No, Professor, please listen..."

"I said, don't do anything impulsive." He rested a warm palm on the crown of my head and gave it a gentle rub. "This is my child, and I can afford to raise him."

He looked straight into my eyes, enunciating every word.

I stood there, frozen.

He thought... I was pregnant? And that it was his?

I opened my mouth, desperate to clear up the colossal misunderstanding. "Professor, that report actually..."

Just then, there was a knock at the office door.

"Professor Sinclair, the dean needs you at the trustees' meeting." The teaching assistant's voice came through the door.

Adrian released me and calmly adjusted his cuffs. "This course carries significant weight in your overall GPA."

He looked down at me. "Since you failed, you'll work as my research assistant. I'll tutor you myself. Report to my office after class every day until you're earning A's. Every minute you're late costs you a point."

I gaped at him. "Professor, that's not exactly by the book..."

"I make the rules." He tilted his chin up. "Now, you may leave."

I drifted out of the office in a daze. In the hallway, cool early-autumn air brushed my face.

I looked down at my perfectly flat stomach, then back at the closed office door.

I was doomed. There was no talking my way out of this one.