Compliments (18 page)

Hawk takes up the explanation from there. “I guess someone did see you going into Harrison’s room at the conference after all. Seems Betsy was there.”

“I had a paper accepted, but didn’t decide to go until the last minute.”

“She saw you go into his room,” Hawk adds.

I look between the two of them in confusion. “But I checked the hall, I didn’t see anyone.”

“I was following you, but I managed to stay out of sight,” Betsy replies, blushing. “Okay, I admit, I was a little jealous, so I decided to offer him a booty call.” She must notice the way I flinch, because she quickly tries to soften the blow. “Look, small departments are like small towns; it’s really hard to keep secrets. I thought you were doing the same thing I had done with him, and hey, I don’t judge. Then you came to the office and told me what he did. I don’t care what I think about you. I don’t care what you think about what I did. However, I don’t care
who
you are, you don’t attack a woman and force her into something like that. I knew Hawk was still going through the trash every night looking for evidence, probably even more so since what happened to you took place. I left him a note and told him I was there when it all happened, and I’d be happy to stick a needle in Harrison. Just because he was able to manipulate Fi and figured out I’d go along with it doesn’t excuse what he tried to pull with you.”

“But I don’t get it,” I say. “If you were really there, you know that Hawk hit him. Hawk’s even told me. Why would you lie?”

“Weren’t you listening to anything I said?” Betsy asks, tapping a cigarette out of her bag as she turns toward the exit. “He gave me a B on my final.”

A smile falters across my face as she turns away and takes a few steps.

“Betsy?”

“Yeah, Lewis?”

I motion toward her body as a whole with a jerk of my head. “You look really, really good. You’re beautiful, Betsy. Why do
you
always make yourself look so frumpy at the office?”

“We’re women in the math department,” she says. “If I dressed like this each day, the majority of the student body that has a set wouldn’t be as likely to take me seriously as a scholar.” She winks, “Isn’t that why you do it, too?”

Hawk draws me under his arm. “Okay, off with you, Wade. I’m actually starting to like you, but you’re about to ruin it.”

“I better run then,” she says. “Besides, it’s like I once told Robin, we don’t want Hawk Stephens mad at us.”

...∞...

I’m not even sure how I ended up straddling Hawk, but it’s not like I’m looking for an excuse. All I know is that I came down to the shipping-receiving room when he took his break at ten-thirty to hang out. At ten thirty-four, he took my book out of my hand and put his lips to mine. At ten thirty-five, my shirt ended up on the floor, and then his shirt joined it.

His hands knead my hips. The rhythm of his tug normalizing into a tempo. “Robin …”

“Hawk,” I say, as though by saying each other’s names, we’ve covered all the necessary conversation.

I feel the restraint of my bra loosen as his hands run up my back and undo the hooks. I fold in my elbows and allow it to fall off my arms. I wonder if he planned for things to go so far, and if that’s why he locked the doors the moment I came in.

I’m drawn in even closer as his arms tighten around me. Looking up with a smolder that sets me ablaze, he leans forward and draws one pebbled peak between his lips. As he suckles and his tongue dances about, my back decides to arch, forcing him to insistently instruct my body on where he wants it right now. Wisely, it listens.

We’re both still half-clothed, but amazingly he has me already dancing on edge. His hands survey the contours of my body, measuring the angles of pleasure and complimenting my curves with his planes. Our trajectory shifts from parallel reflection, to perpendicular rivalry. I shift my hips, inducing a frustrating friction where I want nothing more than smooth harmony. My fingers loosen in his hair as my hands journey down, trailing after a suggestive path until I find the button at the top of his jeans and undo it.

Hawk freezes and his eyes go wide. His head, a moment ago rolling back as he stared at the ceiling, comes whipping forward.

“What are you doing?” he pants.

I answer in actions, feeling we’ve had enough words for the night. Through a cocky half-smile, I continue the effort to bare his sex, pulling down the zipper and reaching into wrap my fingers around him. He sucks in a breath through grinding teeth as I stroke. I conduct his body through a crescendo, but I’m careful not to bring an end to the movement too fast.

I’ve rested myself back a bit, sitting so that my backside balances on his knees, allowing his lap to be open for my movements and observation. His eyes take turns, first watching how I work him, before looking up at me with admiration and desire.

“You have no idea how much I want you right now.”

My glance temporarily dips. “I have
some
idea.”

He stifles a laugh. “That’s just the manifestation. I mean I want all of you. I want to feel myself in you. I want to explore the intersection of your body and my soul.”

My hand stops as I raise it to his shoulder. Using his body for leverage, I slide forward and position myself. My skirt might still be on, but my thong panties will easily move out of the way. Bliss consumes me as I lower onto him, and, as though choreographed, his eyes fall closed as I sink down, enveloping him within me.

We vie for control. I try to rush him to climax; he anchors his hands on my hips and draws down my pace. His grasp almost hurts, but pleasure pulses through me with every upward thrust. In a few minutes, civility and courtship is thrown to the wayside as we both descend into an animalistic need to wax and wane. As I crest, I lose the ability to maneuver, my body becoming consumed in feeling. Without missing a beat, Hawk flips me on to my back, not breaking contact. I hear a throaty incantation of my name as I wash over the edge. He chases me just a few moments later. In the wake of the storm, he collapses on me and dots my chin with feather-light kisses.

A few minutes pass as we both bring our breath under control. I’m surprised when I feel Hawk’s frame shake, and wonder if he’s crying. To my astonishment and shock, he turns out to be laughing.

“What?”

He looks at me, all dopey-faced and red-cheeked. “We just had sex in the shipping and receiving room. In our department. In the middle of the night.”

“And that’s funny …” I move a lose strand of his blond hair back behind his ears. “Why?”

“It’s just that I can’t believe we did something so ...”

“Excuse me, but I’m not complaining,” I assure him.

He shakes his hand as his arms bury beneath me. “You should be,” he says as he pulls us up to sit. “You’re better than this. You deserve to be wooed and romanced. Not given a quickie between shifts by a janitor.”

“A janitor who’s graduating with honors,” I reply. “A janitor who’s earned a PhD in Applied Mathematical Theory. And more importantly, with a man who loves and cherishes me. It doesn’t bother me that we had a quickie on the couch.” I press a kiss to his lips. “I only care that it won’t be the last time.”

“I promise it won’t be. Maybe not even the last time tonight.”

I slide off and pick up my bra from the floor. As I get myself dressed, Hawk does the same, pulling his uniform top back on. It surprised me when he said he was going to keep working his night job, even after his student status was returned. It wasn’t for the money, he said, though I know for certain he’s saving up for something secret. No, the reason was simpler than that.

“You know,” he had said when we discussed it, “it’s something I never would have pictured myself doing once upon a time. All I could see was myself in front of a classroom. But I have to admit, I like it a little. There’s something very satisfying in doing something that most people look down on, and doing it well. I can’t explain it, really. It’s like …”

“Pride before ego, not because of it,” I’d said. “I understand. It’s being given a chance to show humility, and discovering what it really means to take pride in your work.”

“You know, Miss Lewis, you keep being all insightful like that, and I’m probably going to fall in love with you.”

Hawk comes up behind me as I’m buttoning my shirt and kisses the back of my neck. “You’re coming to my house tonight.”

“That doesn’t sound like a question.”

He reaches over my shoulder and tilts my chin back. “It’s not.”

“Then I’ll just swing by home to pick up a few things and drive out to the lake. I have that report due to Lamertus on Monday. As he’s told me, ‘a woman should never be late on anything or she misses an opportunity to show that she’s the superior sex.’”

“That’s something you don’t have to convince me of,” Hawk helps slide the straps of my backpack over my shoulders. “Hey, here’s a thought. Why don’t you just bring everything over?”

His question stops me dead in my tracks. Slowly, I turn, examining his face. There’s nothing but sincerity and hope in his brimming eyes and quivering lip.

“What?”

“Bring everything. Move in with me.”

The backpack drops with a thud, much like the smile from my face. “Hawk, we talked about this. You’re leaving soon enough anyway, so what’s the point? You’ll graduate next month, and as soon as you find a job you’ll have to move. It’s not like I can afford the rent on your house on my income from the Outreach Program anyway. I’m happy to stay over, but—”

“Remember that time you said you’d learned your lesson about dating faculty?” he interjects.

Confused, I acknowledge it.

“Do you think you’d ever be willing to reconsider that?”

My barking laugh must shock him, but the plainness of his features as he awaits a more serious response nullifies my sarcasm. “I told you, Hawk, I never had any feelings for Harrison.”

“I know that. What I mean is … Robin, I got a job offer this morning, and I hope you don’t mind, but I was so excited about it, I didn’t even wait to discuss it with you first. I said yes right away.”

The buoyant bubble walls of my happiness tremble and burst, washing away the silly idea I had in my head that this moment would never come. I suck in my bottom lip and try to school my features. This is excellent news, and I’m determined that I’m going to be happy for Hawk’s success.

“That’s wonderful. I … I’m so proud of you, Hawk. I knew you’d be … Yeah, so proud.”

“I have to start immediately after graduation,” he clarifies. “My official first day is three weeks from Monday. And that’s why I’m asking, Robin. I’m not ready to let you go. In three weeks, I’m going to be on the faculty at a university. I’ll be a professor. And I don’t want that fact to break us apart. I said yes to the job, but I’ll go back and turn it down in a heartbeat if that’s going to come between us.”

“Don’t be silly. You can’t turn down a perfectly good job just because of me. Of course, I’ll still date you, but it doesn’t change the fact that you’ll have to move. That’s a bigger issue than anything to do with my feelings.”

“It isn’t.”

My gaze turns steely. “
Is,
” I insist.

“It isn’t, because I’m not moving.”

“But there’s no other universities in this area that could offer you a faculty position. Manderson’s the only …” My tongue goes numb as I put the pieces together. “You were offered a job here? At Manderson?”

“It’s temporary,” he says. “They offered me a one-year appointment as an adjunct faculty. Seems they need someone who can step in and take on the coursework normally taught by a professor who recently resigned under suspicious circumstances.”

“You mean you’re getting Harrison’s job?” I ask. He nods. “Wow, talk about your quick-change karma. So, wait, that means you won’t be moving away after all? You’re staying?”

“I’m staying,” he declares. “It’s a great job, even if just temporary. But you know that’s not why I’m really staying, right?”

I trace a finger down his chest. “I have a suspicion, but I’d really like to hear you say it.”

He takes my hand and presses my palm flat against his, like we’re high-fiving and someone’s pressed the pause button.

“We’re two equations, you and I. Arranged different, each with our own set of variables, but somehow, we add up. You and I together equal each other.”

And we do. Somehow, we just add up.

About the Author

In her imagination, Mari K. Cicero is an expert sou chef, an international aide worker, a fantastic lover, a belly dancer, holds dozens of international patents, and is a geeky-tech wonder. Sadly, in the world of bricks and mortar, she’s actually only one of these things. Mari lives in the Valley of Silicon with severally genitically-similar beings and a canine surrogate.

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