Bad Professor (An Alpha Male Bad Boy Romance) Read Free Page A

strong, steady heartbeat and my hair caught in the rasping caress of
a stubbled chin.
    What
was I doing? I paced around the four raised garden beds. A few stray plants
hung on despite the coming frost, but even they could not keep Ford out of my
head.
    Professor
Bauer.
    I
had to escape the party. Not only had my father neglected to introduce me as
his daughter, but he had gone on and on about wanting me to do something
reckless and passionate. Ford had listened politely but the wolfish curve of
his lips told me he approved of my father's out-of-character advice. I wondered
how many glasses of Scotch my father had drank. Maybe I should have dragged him
outside to clear his head too.
    It
wasn't working for me. I paced one more lap around the raised garden beds then
flopped onto our sun-bleached bench. Counting backwards was supposed to calm
me. I took a deep breath and started at twenty. By fifteen, I was struggling to
erase tall, dark, and handsome. By ten, my shoulders relaxed.
    At
seven, I heard boots on the stepping stones. My eyes flew open and Ford stopped
just past the low branches of our old apple tree.
    "Sorry,
I didn't mean to disturb you," he said.
    You
have no idea, I thought. "Too stuffy in there?" I asked him.
    Ford
laughed. "A little bit." He strode over and joined me on the bench. "Let
me guess: you're escaping from your boss."
    "My
boss? Dean Dunkirk?" I knew I should correct him, but we were so separate
from the party. There wouldn't be any harm in being my own person for just a
few, quiet moments. "Yeah, he's a big talker about breaking out and
bending rules, but what do you want to bet he'll have a dozen things for me to
do when I get back?" I said.
    Ford
leaned back and stretched his long legs out. He crossed his ankles casually and
sighed. "I know it's just the beginning of the school year, but I keep
thinking about grabbing the train and heading to the end of the line. Or just
riding until I feel like getting off and not caring where I end up. That's bad,
isn't it?"
    I
hitched an elbow up onto the back of the bench and turned to face him. "I
regularly dream about packing a bag, getting in my car, and just driving,"
I confessed.
    "Talk
to me when you have that bag already packed," Ford said. "We could be
past Chicago and on our way west in an hour. Not that I've studied the train
time tables or anything." His smile flashed like lightning in the dark
garden.
    "Why
the train?" I asked.
    "That
way I'm moving, but I can still enjoy the scenery." He looped an arm over
the back of the bench next to mine. His hand brushed the ends of my hair. "There
are lots of beautiful things I'd like to focus on for a while."
    His
leg pressed along my thigh and the autumn air couldn't cool me down enough. A
blush rose on my cheeks and I was glad for the shadowy garden. "Running
away on a train sounds so romantic," I said.
    "Exactly,"
Ford murmured. "Do you think Dean Dunkirk would approve of you jumping on
a train for a romantic getaway?"
    I
pulled back and stood up. "Sorry, I really should be getting back to the
party."
    Ford
stood up. "So, Dean Dunkirk's right, huh? You're always so good?"
    "Good
night," I said, and fled back to my father's house.

 
 
      
       

 
 
 
       

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
    CHAPTER
TWO
    Ford

 
    Clarity's dark-red hair was easy
to spot through the windows. I wasn't ready to return to the party. I wasn't
ready to admit that she was the reason I had stepped outside for some fresh air
in the first place. It was all the professors, so noble in their pursuits, and
the students, so fresh-faced and eager. It drove me crazy how the real world
was pushed outside of Landsman College.
    I
watched Clarity move through the party. She belonged there, smiled and chatted
with everyone, and looked at home. I felt a plume of warmth in my chest. Just
minutes ago, she had been outside with me, wishing for a way to get far away
and free of it all.
    I
knew the long hours and