Hot Dirty Love (Copperline #5) (27 page)

I sorta had to smile back.

Looking back up to continue pleading my case, I realized that everyone had gone into complete shock.

“Oh my God,” Brannon gasped, disturbing his infant daughter as she lay sleeping in his arms.

“Does he realize they’re sitting on him?” Sophie whispered to her husband.

“What the fuck?” Felicity breathed.

“No-no wood,” Eoghan told his mother.

“You’re killing me, Justin,” Glenn said as he sat across from me in a booth at Jail House Coffee. “I got you the opportunity of a lifetime, and you’re pissing it away.”

“If Chicago is so great, why aren’t you there?” I retorted. “Why are you in Butte?”

“Because I wanted to teach. I’ve been out there and I didn’t care for it.”

“Well, I was out there, too.”

“For two months,” he said with a roll of his eyes. “You didn’t give it much of a chance.”

“Didn’t have to.”

“I thought you’d love the big city.”

“A year ago, I might have,” I conceded. “Now, though, it just seems so… big. You know, there’s twice as many people in Chicago alone than there are in the whole fuckin’ state of Montana?”

Glenn chuckled. “Yeah, more women for you to chase after.”

I didn’t want more women, just one.

So weird. For the gazillionth time, I wondered when I became this loser.

“So you’re coming back to Butte? What are you going to do? You know Dave won’t even think of giving you a second chance.”

“I don’t want to teach anyway. That’s your gig. I was thinking about consulting.”

“You being back wouldn’t have to do with a certain young woman from your class would it?”

I looked down into my cup, running my thumb over the handle.

“I heard she’s graduating,” I softly said.

“Yeah, she is. The investigation wasn’t easy on her. Dave was kind of on a witch hunt, but you really did a good job at keeping your relationship separate from class. In the end, it was quite evident that, if anything, you made her work a little harder. Her degree is safe.”

“Thank you.”

He gave a nonchalant shrug. “I didn’t really do anything.”

But he had. I knew he had. “You kept an eye on her. You became her advocate when she didn’t have one.”

“She needed one… and I could tell she was important to you.” He took the last sip of his coffee and toyed with the mug. “When you asked for my help, I saw a humanity in you that I never knew existed. I was starting to think you were going to float around aimlessly forever. No goals. Nothing to drive you. Nothing to fulfill you. I’m guessing you found something.”

“Yeah, I did.” I paused thoughtfully before continuing. “For the first time in my life, I want something. I really,
really
want something. I want it so bad I can taste it.”

Glenn smiled. “She’s gotten a couple offers from some of the same companies that were recruiting you, BP being one of them.” He eyed me with a knowing look. “She may very well end up in Chicago. If you stayed there…” His voice trailed off.

I tried to picture Rain working for BP. She would be good.
Hell
, she’d be awesome. I just wasn’t so sure she’d be happy. I know I wasn’t, but I also knew it wasn’t the place as much as it was the person I missed.

“So are you going to commencement?”

“What, so Dave can have me arrested?”

“He said he didn’t want you at Tech. On campus. The ceremony is at the Civic Center.”

Shit…
he was right. I could go. I could see her.

Except she hated me.

Fuck.

“Besides, I’m pretty sure it was his threats towards Rain that really made you leave. The investigation is done. She’s in the clear.”

I sat there, my mind whirling, as he stood and threw a few bills down on the table for a tip.

“Just saying… It’s the day after tomorrow. Saturday morning. Ten o’clock.”

There she sat. Sixth row, ninth from the end.

It was almost poetic.

I stood back by the entrance and watched her like a stalker. She’d cut her hair, about shoulder length in the front and shorter in the back. It lay smooth and straight, framing her face. At first, I felt almost bereft at the loss of her long, soft waves. How it had felt to tangle them in my fingers and pull. The way she’d tighten around my dick. Then she tipped her head slightly to look down, revealing the back of her neck, and my thoughts shifted to running my tongue up the delicate curve, placing soft kisses there as I took it to her from behind.

Okay, maybe it wasn’t so bad after all. It was actually kinda sexy the more I thought about it.

Throughout the ceremony, she smiled at all the appropriate times, albeit a bit sadly. She walked across the stage to receive her diploma cover and her masters hood. She tossed her mortarboard in the air with the rest of the grads.

When it was over, she searched the crowd for a moment, then headed towards a middle-aged couple. The man had a long gray ponytail and wore a flannel shirt and khakis. Oddly enough, at an engineering school, especially one like Tech, this didn’t seem terribly out of place. The woman had some sort of drifty, flowing dress and a wide-brimmed hat with a massive flower tucked into the band. I saw a little tiny bit of a resemblance as the woman smiled at Rain, looking at her with pride.

With love.

It hit me square in the gut right there, almost making me double over.

I’d seen that exact look in Rain’s eyes before…

…when she’d looked at
me
.

My breath caught. I suddenly knew what I had to do. I’d thought about it all day yesterday, wavering and thinking she’d be better off without me. Yet I’d still gone to check out the rental and signed the lease. I’d still had the cards printed. I’d still talked to the bank.

This morning after a sleepless night full of self-doubt, I’d come to commencement having completely talked myself out of approaching her. I had just wanted to see her once more before I went back to Chicago, once again leaving my band—my family—because I simply couldn’t be here and be a part of their lives. Not knowing I’d come so close to something so beautiful, only to lose it.

But that tender look on the face of a woman I’d never met kept me there by the door as the crowd began to filter out. My pulse raced as Rain and her parents came closer.

And then she saw me.

She went totally pale. Her fingertips splayed across her chest, fine and stark against the black of her gown. She suddenly seemed very faint.

She did faint, actually. Amid gasps and various other sounds of shock, she went down like a ton of bricks.

I’d seen her pass out before. Fuck, I’d
made
her pass out before. While it scared the bejeezus out of me the first couple times, she’d begged me to do it again and again over the time we’d spent together, and she was really fuckin’ hard to say no to, especially when she was working my cock. Eventually, we’d perfected the technique of getting her to that high and bringing her around after. I could feel it building up when I was deep inside her body.

And
Jesus fucking Christ
… as much as it scared me, it kinda turned me on.

Even now—here in the middle of a crowd of people—seeing her eyes roll back and watching her go limp actually gave me one hell of a boner.

Seriously, Cody was right.
I was a sick motherfucker.

As she went down, I went on autopilot, rushing forward to the floor and pulling her into my arms, completely oblivious of the pure astonishment of her parents and everyone else standing around us. I cradled her close to my chest, brushing my thumb up against her cheek.

“Rain,” I whispered, “Rain, baby.”

She turned into my touch just a bit, and her thick lashes fluttered open to reveal the hazy warmth of her deep brown eyes. She licked her lips, so soft and full, and I started to lower my head to taste them.

Until I heard someone standing over me clearing their throat.

Oh fuck.

Rain’s eyes widened at the sound, as well. We stared at each other, then slowly looked up to find we’d become the center of attention. Students, faculty, family… Rain’s parents. They all gawked at us. Even Dave, the provost, was completely stupefied.

And pissed. He looked totally pissed.

“Oh fuck,” Rain whispered in a shaky breath.

Jesus
, even that quiet whisper made me think of so many past whispers. Whispers she breathed into my mouth and against my skin while I fucked her senseless.

Fuck
, I had to focus.

I helped her stand, inadvertently giving her curvy ass a nudge as her dad pulled her up with an extended arm. She jumped a little at that touch, flying forward into her mom as she quickly turned to look back at me.

This was becoming incredibly awkward incredibly fast.

Another student from Transient Pressure Analysis class broke through the shocked silence.

“Professor Dorsey?”

If it was even possible, Rain’s dad looked even more flabbergasted. “Professor…” he muttered.

Rain looked up at him, then to her mom, and back at me. “Mom…” she murmured, “Dad… this is Justin.”

“But… a Professor?” her dad repeated.

“Yeah, sorry about that,” I said with a sheepish grin. “I know it looks bad, but I’m kinda in love with your daughter.”

Rain looked like she might faint again.

“Oh my goodness,” her mother gasped, seeming to go a bit pale herself.

Dave stepped forward from the crowd with a menacing glare. “You’re making a big mistake, Dorsey,” he snarled.

“You can threaten me all you want,” I shot back, “but you have no teeth now. That shit is final, and you can’t keep me away from her anymore.”

“Awe,” Rain’s mother softly sighed. “How romantic.” She wrapped her arm around Rain’s shoulder, giving her a quick hug.

Rain’s mom seemed really sweet.

“But Margie, he’s a professor,” her dad repeated…
again
.

Okay, I might have a problem with him
, I thought. I started to wonder if I should run. He was older, but his shock was beginning to give way to a father’s protectiveness, and that shit was lethal.

Through all of this, Dave was kinda turning purple with rage. Comically so. I’d have laughed if this whole situation wasn’t so vital to my entire world at the moment.

Then, I saw Glenn. The guy had a huge smile on his face.

“He’s right,” he told Dave as he stepped up beside him and began to steer him away. “Time to let it go.”

With a huff and a glare, Dave allowed Glenn to ease him back as they merged off into the crowd.

Now it was just Rain and I.

And her parents.

And the hundreds of graduates and their families.