Chapter 12

For what was probably the hundredth time since he arrived at the meeting, Sebastian wished he weren’t so vehemently opposed to controlled substances. Because the only thing that could make trying to get a group of undergraduates onto the same page bearable was some Vicodin. Or meth. Whichever.

Thankfully, Naomi had seemed to heed his demand that she deal with the volunteers because she’d taken the lead as soon as she’d arrived, dividing them into groups according to their responses on some survey she’d emailed them. Sebastian had looked at the survey long enough to decide that he didn’t want anything to do with it and deleted it from his in-box.

It wasn’t that Sebastian had anything against the students. Normally he enjoyed interacting with them, but that was insofar as they were interested in literature and writing. Trying to get them on task when it came to party planning was akin to trying to corral a group of pythons on acid.

Glancing at his watch, Sebastian sighed when he saw they’d been at it for two hours already. This was going to be torture. He and Naomi had ironed out what needed to be done, but now that they needed to share that responsibility, he knew this meeting would be the first of many. But for now, it probably was time to cut the students loose. Two hours in undergraduate time was equal to a week in normal human time. They risked losing some of them if the meetings ran too long. Not that Sebastian was particularly opposed to thinning the herd, but it probably wouldn’t look good to lose half of their volunteers after only one meeting.

His gaze skimmed over the crowd as he searched for Naomi. And when his eyes settled on her, Sebastian also focused on one volunteer he wouldn’t mind losing. Colvin Denning was an ass-kissing TA who’d been latched to Naomi’s hip since she’d arrived. He’d never been assigned to one of her classes, since neither Sebastian nor Naomi had ever been given a TA, but the kid seemed to know her somehow. Maybe he’d had her in undergrad.

When Colvin leaned in to say something in Naomi’s ear, his hand lightly touching her elbow, Sebastian found himself moving toward the pair. Maybe Naomi was okay with rumors circulating that she was getting chummy with TAs, but he wasn’t going to let it happen on his watch. If he was going to win the Distinguished Professor Award, it was going to be fair and square, and not because his competition had a scandal brewing.

“Dr. Price, we need to talk,” Sebastian said when he reached them. His voice was harsher than he intended, and he was sure his face made his disdain apparent as he bore his eyes into Colvin’s. Whatever. The little shit needs to learn his place.

Naomi looked like she wanted to call him out on what was basically an order, but she didn’t. Probably because she didn’t want to argue in front of students. It was a good thing that at least one of them cared about such things. “Okay. Excuse me, everyone.” They barely made it to an empty part of the room before Naomi laid into him. “Who exactly do you think you’re talking to?”

Sebastian put one hand into his pocket. “You obviously know the answer to that since you’re over here speaking to me.”

Naomi took a deep breath and shook her head. “What do you want?”

Some of the wind was knocked out of Sebastian’s sails when she didn’t argue. The fact that she didn’t fight back caused him to lose his train of thought momentarily. “I…thought it was time we let the kids leave. Some may quit on us if we keep them too long.”

“Okay. Does the same time on Thursday work for you?”

“Uh, yeah. Yes. Thursday is fine.”

Naomi rolled her eyes before returning to the group and announcing the time for the next meeting. Sebastian watched Colvin come up to Naomi as everyone was leaving and say something to her. What a cretin.

Once all the kids had left, Sebastian and Naomi closed up the space and exited the building in silence. Sebastian fell behind as she trotted down the front steps of the building, but he called out to her before she got too far. He saw her shoulders rise and fall with a sigh before she turned around.

“Yes?” she asked, impatience clear in her voice.

“I’ll walk you to your car,” he said as he caught up to her, though he didn’t stop walking until he realized she was still standing still, staring at him.

“Why?” she asked.

“Because if something happens to you I’ll have to deal with that crew by myself, and I’m not willing to risk that.”

She didn’t move right away, and he silently begged her not to press him on it. He might be an ass, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t capable of basic human decency. Sure, he joked about wishing harm would befall her, but he’d feel awful if it happened because he didn’t do something as simple as walk her to her damn car.

“Okay,” she finally said as she started moving again. “Thanks.”

“Don’t mention it,” he replied, sincerely hoping she took that as the directive it was.

They walked silently toward the parking lot. Sebastian wracked his brain for something to say because the silence felt so tense it was stifling, but his mind was blank. He listened to the way her heels clacked on the pavement beside him, and he was just about to ask an inane question about whether her shoes hurt her feet when her phone chimed, luckily preventing him from asking.

She pulled her phone from her coat pocket and looked down at it. “Oh my God,” she said, stopping abruptly. “Oh my God!” she repeated.

“What does God have to say?” he asked, leaning toward her slightly so he could see the screen of her phone, but she jerked it away before he could read it.

“It’s my agent. The editor you sent my collection to is interested and wants to have a phone conference. My agent thinks they’re going to make an offer.” She shrieked in excitement and threw herself into Sebastian’s arms. “Thank you so much!” she shrieked before she made all time stop for Sebastian by kissing him squarely on the lips.

It was over in a blink, but it seemed as if everything faded around him as his mind caught up to what had happened. Naomi Price was hugging him, and had kissed him. On the lips. And he’d been surprised as hell, but he had also tightened his hold on her after it happened. As if his body was trying to hold onto something his brain immediately wanted to forget.

Her arms were wound around him tightly, but he knew the moment she came back to herself because she went rigid in his embrace.

“Holy shit, did I just kiss you?”

Sebastian hoped to whatever deity was listening that his voice came out strong. “Yes.”

“Can we pretend I didn’t?” Her breath ghosted over his ear since she hadn’t pulled back yet, as if she were afraid looking at him would make the moment more real. At least that was how he felt. Maybe he was projecting.

“Yes,” he repeated, though he wasn’t sure it was true. Sure, part of him would like to forget it. But another part was getting a little lost in having her body pressed against his.

Her arms slackened a bit, but she didn’t retreat from him. “Seriously. You’re never allowed to throw this in my face. I was just excited and you were here.”

“Thank goodness for that, or you might have attacked a stranger.”

She laughed a bit at that and stepped back from him. The joy radiated from her, and it made him want to smile, but he bit back the urge. Clearing his throat, he said, “That’s great. I’m glad it worked out for you. Your poetry is good. It should be out there for people to read.”

“You’ve read my poetry?”

Shit. The truth was, he’d read everything of hers he could find since she’d been hired, but he sure as hell wasn’t going to tell her that. “I read some of the things in the collection,” he said instead. “I wanted to be able to sincerely put in a good word, so I had to see if you were as good as you think you are.”

Her lips pursed and she looked as if she was debating about whether or not to speak. After a few more seconds, she did. “Are you…you didn’t call in any special favors, did you? Beyond getting them to read it?”

He opened his mouth to reply, but she cut him off. “I’m not trying to sound ungrateful. I just want to know that if they do make an offer, I earned it.”

Sebastian pushed his hands into his pockets. “All I did was tell my editor that you were talented and to please make sure your manuscript made it into the hands of someone who would read it. That’s all.” And that truly was all. Besides, no publisher was going to waste money going to print with something that they didn’t believe in. Even if Sebastian had tried to pull some strings, Naomi’s poetry would’ve needed to be worthy of publication. She just needed someone who was going to give it the time of day—since he doubted the other houses her agent had sought out had taken much of a look at it at all—and he’d given her that opportunity. That was it.

She visibly relaxed at his words. “Thank you, Sebastian. Sincerely. It means a lot to me that you helped make this happen for me.”

Sebastian cleared his throat, uncomfortable in the face of her appreciation. “It’s nothing I wouldn’t have done for any other colleague.” Which was a damn lie. Sebastian had never put in a good word for someone before, and he likely wouldn’t ever do it again.

“Still, it was a nice thing to do.”

Putting up a hand to stop her there, he said, “If you don’t want me telling everyone about how you accosted me in a parking lot, then you’d better not tell anyone I did something nice for you. I have a reputation to uphold.”

“Deal,” she said with a grin.

By some kind of silent agreement, they resumed walking and when they reached Naomi’s car, she said a hushed but sincere “Good night,” which he returned as he watched her get in the car and drive away. And as Sebastian made his way to his own vehicle, he wondered if things with Naomi Price could get any more complicated.