Then again, I wouldn't normally compliment a female student on her looks. No matter how innocent it was intended to be, that just begged for problems.
I looked down at my scuffed shoes. My problem was the compliment had popped out of its own accord. Clarity had a way of eliciting responses from my brain and body that were not in any way appropriate.
That made me angry. In any other room, in any other place, she would just be an attractive young woman. Her maturity set her apart from other students, and the more times I talked to her, the more I connected with her on an intellectual level. But no one would ever see that, they would only see an old professor leering at a student.
Thirty-one was not old—I was practically a baby when it came to professors—but I felt old. I watched as Clarity joined her father in an animated and smiling conversation. That was the biggest difference between us—she was all hope and ideals while I was all cynicism and experience. The last thing I would wish on Clarity was a man like me.
"What are you scowling at?" Jackson appeared at my elbow. "Or whom? You know, she can't help who her father is."
I stiffened at his keen observation. "Clarity? She's lucky to have him as a father."
Jackson shrugged. "Yeah, I can see that. You know he raves about you, right?"
"What?"
"Dean Dunkirk. He's always going on about how you bring realism and experience to Landsman. The rest of us are sheltered scholars, but you've been out in the world and really seen some things." Jackson watched me as the server arrived with my drink.
I took a long sip. "He keeps pushing his daughter to wander off her path and explore a little. I'm not sure he knows how hard it can be to get back on the straight and narrow."
Jackson followed my eyes back to Clarity. "Maybe that's why you're his favorite. If anyone can do that, it's you."
CHAPTER SEVEN
Clarity
Racing waves of sensation rolled up my back and over my shoulders from the place where Ford's hand had touched my bare back. My body reverberated with the awkward stre
ngth I had felt from him on the dance floor. The masculine pull of his body during the waltz still tugged at me and my eyes sought him out again.
He stood with a colleague, an English professor, across the dining hall and I wished we were anywhere but Landsman College. In any neighborhood, in any city, our age difference would not be an issue and I wouldn't feel the bonds of an honor code strangling my natural responses to him.
My stomach warmed with a hunger to be near him again, but Ford was doing his best to avoid me. He had practically run off the dance floor. My cheeks burned with the thought that he had felt my attraction and dismissed it with distance, but my heart wondered if maybe he felt the same.
If only we had met in some big, anonymous city. I played over the cocktail party in my mind, an urban skyline replacing the manicured lawns and fall leaves of Landsman College.
"Having fun?" Thomas popped out of the crowd in front of me.
I clapped a hand over my chest as the fantasy shattered. "Sure, yeah, I guess," I said.
"I'm sorry we couldn't be partners. I tried," Thomas' smile was crooked.
"I thought Ford, I mean, Professor Bauer chose them at random."
Thomas scrubbed a hand over his opposite shoulder. "Yeah, but we would have written a great article. Don't you think?"
I shrugged. "What did you and Allison come up with?"
"She thinks the silent auction should include eco-friendlier items in order to raise awareness of global warming." Thomas crinkled his nose.
"That's a good way to spin the assignment to something you think is important." I shifted so I could see Ford again across the dance floor. He was heading out the door and my thoughts stumbled.
Thomas followed my gaze. "Professor Ford wants everyone to meet in the foyer so we can compare story ideas and make sure we're not overlapping."
"Oh, god, I was supposed to mingle with my father and get quotes from alumni for our story idea." I clutched my champagne flute with both hands. All I had done was stand in the corner and daydream.
Thomas brightened. "That's okay, I'll stay with you if you want. We can hear what Professor Bauer has to say then come back in here and try to have some fun."
I threaded my way through the crowd with Thomas close on my heels. "I haven't even come up with a good lead. I don't even really have my opinion fully formed. Oh, my god, I hope this assignment isn't due soon."