Unexpected Love (7 page)

“Ahh, yes, I left my watch in room two,” the professor stated.

TC’s gaze was drawn directly to the number two carved into her door and then to the watch that lay on the stand beside her massage table.

“OMG,” TC whispered while standing frozen to the spot in fear that she might get her wish after all. She was nervous that she and the professor might end up finishing what was about to get started during her massage. The door swung open, and the tall professor walked in and paused while picking up his watch.

“Hmmm.” He turned and walked out the room, closing it behind him.

“Ok, the bonus questions for five million dollars are—Why is he here? And was he my masseuse? We almost had sex. He touched me in all the right places, but man I don’t know how to do that. I still don’t trust him. I can’t allow that to happen again. I am here to have a good time, and he’s not going to stop me. I’m not even going to mention it to El or Dee because I don’t want to hear all the cynical jokes. So I’ll just find my tour guide for now.”

Chapter Seven

Surprised at Sunset

“Ok, I think I’m lost now. You would think someone with a huge map of the world on their wall would know how to read an island map. I’m about to receive a dual Bachelor’s degree, and I feel so stupid right now.” TC dropped her map in the water and wasn’t able to retrieve it. “Why did I opt to be my own guide of this stupid island where I’ve never been before? No, instead of staying on the boat trail Ms. Know-It-All Shaw had to take a detour.” She decided to calm down and take in the scenery. “This place is so beautiful. I just want to see everything. This place seems like an island within the island. I could live here forever. Then again, I might be here forever if no one comes to find me. Heck! It’s starting to rain, and very hard.” TC yelled as she ran toward a cave. “I’ll just stay inside this beautiful cave.”

Look at the reflections of the light, water, and shells on the walls.
Not paying attention to the bed of shells in the sand, TC twisted her ankle as she stepped onto a large seashell. “Ouch! Damn. What the hell! This shit hurts!” She tried to stand but to no avail.

Beginning to really get scared, she started to cry with anger and frustration until she heard a voice. Someone called her name. “I’m here! I’m here! I’m in the cave,” TC answered.

Is that Professor Howard I hear? “
No, say it’s not so. Please don’t let it be
.
Before she could finish her thought, Professor Howard appeared at the entrance of the cave.

“Casey, are you alright? There’s a search party out for you. Your friends are looking for you. The tour guide said you were last seen on the self-tour-trail. What happened? How did you get off track? Did you lose your map? I saw your canoe drifting down stream, then this beautiful lagoon, and I just assumed you would venture out to admire it. Even in the rain it’s beautiful here.

“Nonetheless, the river is too high and rough to leave now. We may be stuck here until the rain stops, and that doesn’t look like it will happen anytime soon. Plus, it’s sunset now.”

“No, I don’t want to stay here over night!” TC looked out from the cave entrance at the rain coming down harder.

“Wait! Why are you looking for me?” TC asked, knowing the answer already.

“You already know the answer to that question. You know I care very much about you,” Professor Howard answered as he moved closer. “Are you alright?”

“Do I look alright?” TC answered sarcastically. “What the hell are you doing here? Why are here the same time I am? Why of all the people on this island did you show up and find me? The way you take advantage of women is unheard of. So are you going to hurt me too? I won’t say a word about what you did to that woman in the complex. My mouth is shut. I am here just trying to relax before I graduate. Your business is your own. I want nothing to do with you.”

Professor Howard interrupted, “That’s enough, Casey! I think you said a mouth full. How can something so beautiful be so bitter?”

TC covered her mouth with her hand. “Bitter? I’m not bitter,” TC answered. “I just don’t take no stuff off pretenders, or people that are perpetrating the fraud.”

Oh my god he looks good. I can’t stop thinking about kissing him, and my foot hurts so badly. I wish he would massage it or hold it, better yet hold me.

“Look, Casey, can we talk like too adults here. After all we’re both stranded here on this lagoon together. We might as well clarify the misconceptions we’re apparently experiencing, and clearly you’re in a lot of pain. Is it your foot? I brought a backpack with me. I have an emergency kit and some survival tools. We will be alright. I’m a nature man at heart and a certified first respondent. I’m qualified and equipped for the situation at hand.”

He knelt down in front of her and held out his hand. TC looked at it as he reached toward her foot.
Just the touch of his big, strong hands make me melt on the inside. Oh my god. I want him to touch me all over. I can’t stop fantasizing about it. Yes, lord it’s been a long time. I want to give in so bad. I don’t know how much I can control myself. Oh Seth, I need you so bad. Please have your way with me.

TC hesitated. “Huh, it’s ok. I just twisted it. I think I stepped on a shell or a rock or something. I wasn’t watching where I was walking.” Seth caressed her ankle. “Ow! Got-dag-it!”

“I’m sorry. I’ll be a little gentler. I know you’re in pain. You’re trying to act tough, but it’s not necessary. I am a nice guy and I’m going to prove it to you. We are also going to talk about why you’re so hostile toward me. You’re so beautiful. I will handle you like a delicate flower. I’ve seen a lot of women in and out my classroom, and none of them exemplify the character you have. I love your feistiness. You remind me of the women in my family. You’re determined and strong-willed.”

TC listened with her mouth hanging open. “Ok, what’s going on here? What are you trying to pull?”

Seth’s eyebrows rose. “It’s obvious you don’t trust anyone, especially men, because you would not be so defensive with me.”

She rolled her eyes at him and tried inching away to put space between them. “Don’t try to analyze me. Oh, don’t tell me, you have a background in psychology too, right? Yeah, yeah, whatever, man.”

He sighed with impatience and held up his hands as if in surrender. “Ok, ok, stop. Let’s both take a deep breath, and then you can ask me any questions you may have, and I will answer them honestly.”

“Ok, that sounds great to me because I have a handful of questions for you too,” TC exclaimed.

She heaved a sigh and started. “First, question. Why are you so persistent?”

“Well, when I see what I want, I pursue it at all costs. I’m just about done. That’s why I have your leg across mine in front of me. I also thought it would help calm you down, so you wouldn’t focus on the pain,” Seth replied.

TC responded under her breath. “Yeah, it’s doing more than calming me down. It’s making me feel aroused.”

“What did you mumble?” he asked.

“Oh nothing. Anyway where were we? Oh yes, so why do you feel you have to have me?”

“When our eyes met, I felt something, and I wanted to know what it was, and the more I ran into you, the more I wanted to know you. The small encounters we had didn’t help either. So from this point on you can call me Seth. No more Professor Howard while we’re here. Is it ok that I call you Casey?”

“Hold on, I’m asking the questions now. You will soon find out. And no, you cannot call me Casey. You can call me TC. No more Ms. Shaw. Who was the woman you were arguing with in the next building in my complex where I live?”

“The woman is my brother’s ex-girlfriend. She and my younger brother had a bad breakup. My brother and I own the complexes that are across from your condo. We rent them out to some of the students and faculty at the University. However, he’s a player, and apparently he got involved with this woman. The woman is a bit on the wild side if you ask me. She didn’t want the relationship to end.” Seth ended his sentence and got quiet.

“Ok, keep it coming. What else? Don’t stop there. Tell it all,” TC demanded.

“What-else-what? What else do you want to know?”

“You know—why were you there, and what was going on during both incidents!”

“Well, my brother asked me if I could try to talk to her. So I went there. When I got there I knocked on the door and rang the bell a couple of times. She took a long time coming to the door. I could hear her inside. When she opened the door I saw that she was half dressed. I said to myself this is not a good situation.

“I just said to her, look Cherie, Heath is no longer interested in you and you know this. You two have been apart for months now. Just let it go and move on. Stop harassing him. Let it go. Then she started coming on to me. She grabbed my arm, and my reflexes made me pull away as I was walking away from her. When I looked from my peripheral vision, I saw that she made herself fall to the ground.

“She was out there in a see through robe. People were looking from their balconies and windows. I heard a lady yell for me to get out of there and she saw the whole thing. I knew I did nothing wrong, and I left.”

“Well did you look?” TC asked.

“Look at what?”

“Don’t play with me, her ass, her body? You noticed the see through robe. What else did you notice? I know how you men are. You all are raunchy.”

“No, what I did notice is some loud mouth woman on a balcony waving her fist at me. So again, I drove off.”

“And… I said keep it coming, sir,” TC commanded.

“You are a bossy little thing. I would never have imagined. You don’t take any stuff off of anybody do you?” Seth said laughingly.

TC responded sharply, “Oh you think I’m funny? I’m not here to amuse you. Just continue with your story.”

“Well, when I went back she was supposed to have been gone by then. When I arrived she was taking out the last of her things. My brother Heath and Cherie both were staying there together. When he left he told her she could stay until she found something else. I told him that was not wise. Sure enough she liked the community and dragged her feet about moving.

“We had to go to court and get an eviction notice served for her to move out. She was supposed to have been gone by 5pm. That’s why I came by at nine, because I figure she would be gone. When I walked up she was coming out with a vase. When she saw me, she dropped it. She started swearing and blaming me. She said I was going to pay for it. I simply told her that I am not paying for anything. I then left again. So that was that. I told my brother he needs to take it easy with these women. The college women are his weakness.”

TC mumbled, “Apparently yours too.”

“Hey, I heard that. That’s not true. I am very selective with the women I choose.”

“Well, why did you choose me?” TC responded quickly.

“Who said I chose you?”

She cocked her head to the side. “Well you’re the one who showed up here like some surprise at sunset.”

They both laughed as they stared at each other.

“Ok, tell me the reasoning for your questioning. Why do you think I am this bad person?” Seth inquired.

“Well, I was the woman on the balcony yelling at you. I thought you hit the woman when I saw her fall. Come to think of it, I didn’t see you hit her at all, but it raised some past memories of my childhood. My mother was in a lot of abusive relationships, and I was exposed to a lot of mess. It made me very bitter toward men. I’ve had my share of counselors and therapy, more than I care to share,” TC proclaimed.

“I recognized you when you were in my class. That was the last time I saw you before you were transferred. The Dean also summoned me. He’s a good friend of mine, and family. He informed me that my gigolo brother was getting too involved with some of the women on campus, and that he may be using my name to sound good to the ladies,” Seth replied.

“Oh, I see.” TC answered. “Well, your brother sounds like a jerk. Plus, I believe you because I heard a group of ladies as they walked past my car talk about Seth Howard and how he wanted to go all the way with her. Man, I was hot that day.”

“No, that was my brother alright. That sounds just like him. Why were you so angry? Were you feeling jealous?” Seth asked laughingly. “Here’s a blanket from my bag. Let’s sit on this. The sand is getting in my shorts. Plus you’re getting sand on that pretty dress.”

TC slid over onto the blanket.

“TC I was pursuing you so I could talk to you. I knew something was wrong, and by the way you were running from me I was sure of it.

Chapter Eight

Well, This is Rio, The Island of Love

“I could never hurt you or any woman for that matter. I am not that type of man,” Seth admitted. “Women are like gems to me. They are very precious, and so are you. But I’ll tell you something. You are a fast little number, even in stiletto heels.”

Laughing TC answered, “Yeah, and what do you know about stiletto heels?”

“I know that when I stood there in the doorway of the billiard room for a minute and stared at you from head to toe, I knew I wanted to get to know you personally and on a better note. I knew you were the most attractive woman I’ve seen in a long time. I would see you walking on campus, and the wind would blow your locks. I love your locks. They’re long, and you always have them looking very neat.