ear. She’d danced for the wrong guy—”
“No, she danced for you because you’re the sexiest professor in the West!” I blurted out. I couldn’t help it.
He scowled but continued, lowering his voice. “So get this. My freshman English class meets for the first time. I’m tired and cranky, pissed that I have to waste my time with a bunch of kids who couldn’t give a damn, and who’s in my class but this woman? The one from the club.” He slammed his hand on the bar for emphasis.
“The one who danced for you?” I was incredulous.
Why didn’t things like that ever happen to me?
He shook his head in disbelief. “It was one of the weirdest fucking things to ever happen to me. There she was, of course with more clothes on this time, but no less beautiful. I nearly fell over. I literally had to hold onto my desk.”
I guessed something like that was inevitable when you lived in a college town. But it would be weird nonetheless to stand up in class and look directly at the very woman who’d given you a boner the night before. If you weren’t expecting it, anyway.
“And want to hear something even crazier, Jamie?”
“Um, what? She stayed after class and gave you another lap dance for an A?” I laughed.
“Very funny. She’s a reader. We were going around the room, with everyone introducing themselves and saying what their favorite book was. Hers, it so happens, is the same as mine.”
He drummed his fingers on the bar with a dreamy look on his face. Christ, something about this woman had really gotten under his skin.
“Good god. What are the chances?” I said, shaking my head.
What a crazy coincidence.
And now I knew why she was getting to him. He was a sucker for a well-read woman. Stripper or not.
He nodded, clearly still blown away. “In all my years of teaching, no one has ever claimed a book by Somerset Maugham to be one of their favorites. Not once.”
I waved the bartender over for the check. “Much less a stripper claiming a book by Somerset Maugham to be her favorite.”
Benno reached for his wallet, but I stopped him. “You got the last round. This one’s on me. Drink up.”
He took one last swig of his beer. “Why are you in a hurry all of a sudden, Jamie? Do you have somewhere to be?” he asked.
I grabbed my bag and jacket. “Get your stuff. We both have somewhere to be.”
Chapter 9
PROFESSOR JAMES CARTER
“No fucking way, Jamie. We are not going to Club V right now. It’s late and besides, it would be a dick move to spy on this woman,” Benno insisted. “She’s my student for Christ’s sake.”
I steered my Land Rover onto the club’s crunchy gravel parking lot and chose a spot in the far corner, where no asshole could put a ding in my car.
“C’mon. Just for a couple minutes. I want to know who she is,” I begged.
Benno shook his head. “She’s probably not even there.” But he got out of the car anyway, grumbling, “This is such bullshit.”
Not two minutes later I’d paid the cover charge and selected a table as far in the back of the club as possible. I waved a scantily clad waitress over for a couple beers. I was tempted to go for something stronger like tequila shots, but I didn’t want to push Benno off the deep end.
I looked around the place. It really wasn’t that bad for a strip club. And the dancer onstage at the moment was stunning.
“Is that her?” I asked.
He shook his head.
“Hey, Benno, I’ve been meaning to tell you,” I said, leaning toward him to be heard over the pulsing music. “I have a business idea.”
“What’s that?” he bellowed.
“If I don’t get my professorship, I may open a bar.”
He looked at me like I was crazy. As I’d expected he would. He was a cool guy and one of my best friends, but thinking outside the box was not something many college professors usually did.
They didn’t have to.
I held my hands up. “Hey, don’t dismiss the idea outright. You know I have the funds to do it. I’ve toyed around with the idea for years.”
“How much do you think it would cost to get it up and running?” he asked, his ‘you’re crazy’ look fading slightly.
“Couple hundred grand to make it nice.”
Benno knew my situation. He was one of the only people who did, and certainly the only person at the university who