by Shayla Black
“But…school. Their policy would never allow—”
I cleared my throat. “I know the school’s rules. I also know I’m teaching as a favor to…to a friend.” I swallowed the word ex, unsure of why I wasn’t completely honest about my previous relationship with Faith. “Right now, I’m more concerned with getting to know you than a gig I care very little about.”
She blinked so rapidly it would have been comical if I hadn’t been waiting on eggshells for her response. “But—”
“I won’t do anything without you making the final call. But if we go to the department head together…”
Hazel’s eyes went wide as saucers and she shook her head, her mouth dropping. “We can’t. Professor Dercy hates me. She’s been waiting to kick me out of this program and this would give her the perfect opportunity.”
“Okay,” I said. I understood where she was coming from. And if we were going to try this…truly try this…it had to be her call. In every possible way. “What if I quit this teaching job? Then we’re not doing anything wrong.”
She sighed, swinging her legs over the edge of the bed. “You can’t quit. Then what? Me and my classmates are without a good professor for the semester?”
“They would find you all another professor,” I said. It was true. There were adjunct professors and plenty of people in New York City dying to get their hands on a teaching opportunity.
“Even so…that professor isn’t going to be a Broadway director who is planning to workshop a new show with us.” She stood, slipping her arms into a robe and tying it around her waist before padding into the kitchen, filling the coffeepot with water. Shaking her head, she spun, finally facing me and leaning against the counter. “It wouldn’t be fair to the class to lose that opportunity because you and I had one amazing fuck.”
Her words stabbed me in the chest. I didn’t think she meant that the way it sounded, but it hurt all the same. I took a step into her, resting my hand on her hip. The silk of her robe wrinkled beneath my rough palm and I squeezed her gently. “One amazing night,” I corrected her. “We had several incredible fucks.”
She blew out a breath through tight lips. “I just…I don’t see any good way this can end. Some love stories are long. Like three-book-trilogy-series sort of long. And…some are short novellas. But just because it’s short doesn’t mean it’s any less epic.”
I inhaled a sharp breath through my nose, my chest rising with the movement. “Love story?”
Her eyes darted to the right and she spun around to prepare the coffee. Or maybe to escape my inquiry. My gaze. “Not love. That’s not what I meant. Just, like, you know, a whirlwind romance thing that’s in every romance novel.”
“But that’s not what you said.”
She slammed the coffeepot against the counter. “I know what I said. I’m explaining what I meant.”
“I hear you,” I said. “Loud and clear. But if you change your mind…you know where to find me.” I leaned forward, sliding my hands around her waist and dropping my mouth to her neck. I licked my tongue across the gooseflesh rising up her shoulder and nipped at her ear. “And for the record…given enough time, I think our whirlwind romance could be love. Someday.”
Her ribs expanded beneath my hands with her deep breath as I stepped back and slipped out the door. “I’ll see you in class,” I said as it closed behind me.
Nine a.m. came all too fast and also not soon enough. When Hazel entered the theater in her jeans and black tank top, my pulse raced faster, slamming against my throat. She looked disheveled in a way that only I knew was her postcoital glow. When her eyes met mine, her mouth lifted in a coy smile that left my dick twitching from behind the zipper of my pants.
“Professor Bradley?” A sharp voice pulled my attention away from Hazel over to Jenna standing beside me, a notebook clutched tightly in her grasp.
“Yes, Jenna? You can call me Reid. In this environment, I consider myself more your director than your professor.”
“Well…Reid,” she said in a pointed way that left my hair standing on edge. “Did you receive my emails? I called you and emailed you.”
“No. I make a point of not looking at my email or answering my phone after I cast a show.”
Her eyes narrowed momentarily, but they quickly lifted back to normal and she batted her eyes, seemingly innocent. My stomach turned at how quickly her face morphed from anger back to sweet girl next door. “I understand that. But this is very important. It’s about someone breaking the integrity clause. It may change your casting and someone in the cast’s standing here at the school.”
My eyes darted to Hazel briefly before I forced myself to look away and scan all the students around her as well. “That’s a serious allegation,” I said, lowering my voice.
She pressed her sticky, glossed lips together and nodded. “I know.”
Shit. This had to be about Hazel. Hazel got the part Jenna wanted and now she was threatening to blow the whistle and get Hazel and me expelled and fired. I swallowed the knot in my throat.
“Let’s talk in my classroom across the hall.” I gestured toward the door, then leaned against the stage, calling out to the students. “Everyone take a few minutes. Chat with each other. Scripts are up here on the table. Come and check out one of the printed copies. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
I forced myself to take slower steps that were half the pace of my racing heart as Jenna and I walked silently toward my classroom. What the fuck was I supposed to do now? How did I get Hazel and me both out of this safely without damaging our reputations? And how in the hell did Jenna know about us?
I took a deep breath, unlocking my door and holding it open for Jenna. Maybe I was getting ahead of myself. Maybe she didn’t know anything. Maybe she had no proof?
I took a seat on the desk in the front of the classroom, dropping my elbow casually onto my thigh, even though I felt anything but casual. “Okay, Jenna,” I said. “You’re free to talk now.”
“Hazel Stone is a stripper,” she blurted out and then immediately pressed her lips back together.
I kept my face impassive, resisting the urge to correct Jenna that she wasn’t a stripper, but a burlesque dancer. I had to maintain no expression. I was trying to neither act shocked by this or like I already knew this. “Okay,” I said. “But my understanding was that this integrity clause is for faculty…employees of the university. Not students. Besides, even with the integrity clause, the school can’t dictate or fire her for having this other job. I’m pretty sure they’d have a lawsuit on their hands.”
Jenna’s fair eyebrows arched, waiting for more of a response from me. When she didn’t get it, she said, “She works for the department as an administrative assistant and at night as a sex worker. She might not get kicked out of school, but I can’t imagine Professor Dercy keeping her as an assistant once she discovers the truth.”
I exhaled a deep breath. I wasn’t sure that was true, but Hazel desperately didn’t want anyone knowing. And I wanted to honor her choices. This wasn’t a religious school, but the very fact that it was a private university meant they could basically create whatever rules they wanted to and get away with it so long as it wasn’t discriminatory. “You might be right. It might be against the integrity code for faculty. I’m not sure,” I said.
“Might be?” Jenna’s jaw dropped. “It definitely is.”
“Do you have proof?”
Jenna pointed to my cell phone that I set beside me on the desk. “Check the email I sent you.”
Shit. Shit, shit, shit. I opened up my email app, unlocking it and pulling up the email that was sent last night from Jenna. There was a long letter in the email body, stating what she had just told me. And at the bottom were several photographs of Hazel in various states of undress.
The pictures were clear shots of Hazel’s face. There was no denying it was her. My mouth went dry at the sight of her body, breasts bare, in a backbend. I fisted my hand in front of my mouth and cleared my thro
at. There at the bottom of the picture was a date…from almost two years ago. Jenna had been holding on to these pictures for two years? Waiting until she would need to use them.
I lifted my gaze back to her, narrowing my eyes. She was more cunning and cutthroat than I had thought. “Jenna,” I said carefully. “You’ve known this for some time. Why now?”
She shrugged in a transparently innocent way. “I always felt bad for her. I don’t want to turn her in. It was fine when we were just students and learning together. But now that we’re in a show together…”
“You mean now that Hazel got a lead role and you didn’t,” I said boldly. I’d seen Jenna’s resume at the audition. She’d been cast as the leading ingenue in almost every show this university had done. God, I hated this girl. She stood for everything I disliked in theater. Nepotism. Blackmail. Backstabbing under the guise of integrity.
“Well, I just think you should know who you’re casting. I still don’t want Hazel to get fired from her job here.”
I slammed my phone down on the desk and narrowed my eyes at Jenna. “What is it you do want, then?” I sneered.
That was the moment Jenna dropped the act. Her wide doe eyes narrowed. She stopped nibbling her glossy bottom lip. And she crossed her arms. “I want Hazel’s part as the nun. It fits me better and it’ll be better for my resume.”
I almost laughed in Jenna’s face. God, this girl was dumb. This blackmail shit might have worked with other professors and other productions. Teachers who likely weren’t going to be directing anything beyond these walls of the university. But to blackmail me? A Broadway director? She was basically sealing the tomb of her career. She might win this role unfairly, but I would never cast her again professionally.
I tried a different approach first though. “Are you sure you want the part of the nun? As a professional director, I think playing one of the prostitutes at the brothel would round out your resume better. You’ve been typecast as the ingenue and this will help you—”
“I want the lead role. The prostitute is a small role. I deserve better.”
My mouth twitched into a frown. “Are you sure this is how you want to get the role?” I couldn’t help but wonder how many times Jenna had pulled this stunt. How many of those lead roles on her resume were granted because of blackmail and back door dealings? It was despicable. And frankly, it wouldn’t get her far in her career. We were an egocentric people and I didn’t see many of my colleagues putting up with this shit outside of academia.
“I want to get the role however I can,” she said.
I wanted to annihilate this girl. Ruin her. Throw her blackmail back in her face. But then I thought of Hazel. I didn’t want her getting fired. I didn’t want her to be kicked out of school. Shit, what a mess. The fact of the matter was I could still cast whoever I wanted in the show outside of this school. And that would without a doubt be Hazel.
I nodded and pushed off of my desk. “So let me get this straight. If I change the casting and you are made to be the nun, you’ll keep those images to yourself?”
Jenna nodded. Fuck, I wished I could talk to Hazel about this before signing a deal with the devil. But there was no way to bring her into this conversation easily. “Okay,” I said. “I need to discuss the change with my playwright before I announce anything.”
“You’re the director. And our professor. I find that hard to believe that you can’t make this executive decision all on your own,” she said as we strolled slowly to the door. I paused, my hand halfway to the handle.
“Jenna, why did you think I would care about these pictures? About protecting Hazel’s job here?”
Her smile turned cold. “I have a friend who works at Hazel’s strip club. He sends me updated pictures. And it was the funniest thing…a couple weeks ago, there was an image of Hazel on stage dancing with a man. Dancing with you.”
Fuck.
“So? It was before my integrity clause began. I have nothing to be ashamed of.”
Her eyes narrowed at me. “Sure. You tell yourself that. Even if you’re correct that Hazel’s dancing isn’t in violation of the integrity clause, a student-teacher relationship definitely is. And before you tell me it was only that one time before you were her professor…I showed you her picture, without even blackmailing you yet, and you were willing to try to find a way to save her. So, something tells me that whatever is going on there, it wasn’t just that one night.” She paused, examining her fingernails on her outstretched hand. “So…are you willing to make the announcement today…now…or am I going to have to do it?”
I took a step toward her, seething. My face felt hot, like at any moment steam might emit from my ears. “You’re playing a game you can’t win, Jenna,” I said, smiling despite my dour mood. “I have a contract with the writer. I am legally not allowed to do anything without chatting with him first.”
Her gaze narrowed, trying to read the truth in what I was saying. And it was true. I had signed a contract saying as much. What Jenna didn’t know was that Clay had emailed me after watching the audition tapes stating that I could cast as I saw fit if something went wrong in the class. But she didn’t know that. And she never had to know that. “Fine,” she snapped. “Call him now. I’ll go back to rehearsal and await your announcement.” She reached into her bag and pulled out a box of chocolate truffles like the ones Hazel used in her act. “And give these to Hazel when you give her the news.”
“Jenna?” She paused, turning to face me, her hand still resting on the doorknob. “This shit may work now…in undergrad. But I’m not just your professor. And you’ve just made an enemy who is very high up in the food chain.”
Her smirk dropped briefly, but just as quickly as it fell, the armor was back up again. “Maybe you should make casting choices with your brain and not your dick.”
My smile grew. “Oh, Jenna. My dick didn’t win me five Tony Awards. But you keep telling yourself that’s why you didn’t get this part if it makes you feel better. Now get out of my classroom.” Because, for now, at least…it was still my classroom.
11
Hazel
God, they’d been gone a long time. I sat in the front row of the theater, script in my lap, reading over my lines. But honestly? I couldn’t concentrate. Why had Jenna and Reid left together? What was so important they had to meet now?
Jenna was a little snake. She’d always been. She kissed up to the professors and managed to swoop in and get so many of the lead roles, sometimes even after cast lists were announced. And now, for perhaps the first time in my student career, I was a threat to her. Was that why she was meeting with Reid?
Melanie slid into the seat to my right with a sigh. “Do you think she’s back there giving Professor Bradley a blow job for your part?”
I nearly coughed up my sip of coffee. “Excuse me?”
Melanie rolled her eyes. “Where have you been living? There’s a rumor that’s why Professor Seder gave her the lead in last year’s musical. And why Professor Lewis always casts her in his fringe shows.”
I spun in my seat to look at the door once more, but it still didn’t move. Silent as ever… Reid and Jenna were talking about God knows what somewhere. I cleared my throat and faced front again. “I doubt Professor Bradley needs help in that department.”
“Oh my God, I know, right?” Melanie kicked her feet up on the chair in front of us. “He’s fucking hot. I wonder if he’s single.”
I took a deep breath. I had no claim to Reid. It was his right to hook up with Jenna if he wanted… Oh, who was I kidding? I’d be pissed if he was even holding her hand, let alone getting fellated by her stupid glossy lips.
I pushed off the armrest, launching to my feet. “I’ll be right back,” I said…sort of to Melanie, but really to no one in particular. As I reached the door, it swung open. The abrupt motion caused a gush of wind to blow my hair off my shoulders. Standing there was Jenna, a cocky smirk plastered onto her mouth. I thought about smiling at her. Being nice. Giving her
the benefit of the doubt, only my mouth wouldn’t curve. It was set into a hard, firm line and my eyes narrowed at her. Yeah, I guess I was never good at the whole diplomacy thing.
She glanced at the script in my hand. “Did you already highlight your lines?”
“I started to.” My breath was heavy and fast as I looked into her cold eyes.
“Well, then, I’ll take that,” she said, sliding the script from between my clammy fingers. “You’re not going to be needing it as Pam the Prostitute.” Panic flooded my chest. Reid wouldn’t demote me. He wouldn’t replace me with Jenna…not without a good reason and certainly not without talking to me first.
“What do you mean?” My panic was met with rage. Indignant rage. Who the fuck did she think she was?
“It’s not your part for much longer.” She glanced at her phone. “Probably only for another five minutes while Reid calls the writer to confirm the recasting.” She paused, wiping her finger to the corner of her mouth. “You know, he was much easier to convince than I expected.” She swiped her tongue across her bottom lip. “Professor Dercy was right when she said he wasn’t likely to ever settle down again. Not after Professor Faith broke off their engagement to marry his best friend.”
My jaw almost dropped, but I refused to give Jenna the satisfaction of seeing me flustered. He was engaged to our professor? Was that why he’d taken this gig? Something that was so far below his status? And did Jenna know Reid and I had been together last night? How did she know that information would hurt me? She was heavily implying that something sexual had just happened with him…but I didn’t buy it. Jenna was a snake. Reid wasn’t.
I swallowed and forced my spine to stay straight and not collapse under the pressure and emotion that was weighing in my gut. Jenna couldn’t know she affected me like this. It would give her way too much power over me…now and in the future. I rolled my eyes at her. “Jenna, you seriously don’t expect me to believe that you just fucked Professor Bradley in his office for my part, do you?” I leaned in closer to her and whispered, “Because you are not that talented. As an actress or in bed, if I had to guess.”