resemblance—wide eyes and ready, dimpled smiles. But Audrey’s aunt had a slim frame and small shoulders swamped by the flowy fabric of her shawl and dress. It gave the appearance of the clothing wearing her rather than the other way around.
Whereas Audrey’s curvy figure was the one in charge of her simple blue dress and cardigan, no doubt about it.
“Why don’t you help the professor, dear?” the other woman said with a sly smile. “Show him those love intuition cards. Maybe he would like a sexual fortune reading?”
“Harriet,” Audrey rasped under her breath, her cheeks turning a bright shade of pink. “Why don’t you let him decide what he needs?”
“I’ll be out back if you have any questions.” Harriet stuck her hand out toward Ronan, and he took it, a stack of bracelets jangling on her arm as they shook. “Nice to meet you, Professor.”
“It’s Ronan,” he said.
A second later, the woman was gone in a cloud of something densely perfumed. Patchouli. He recognized it from the one time he’d been allowed to set foot in his mother’s art studio in the woods. Maybe that’s why he hated all this hocus-pocus shit…it reminded him of his mother.
“I’m so sorry about that.” Audrey shook her head. “She’s…”
“Unique?”
“Uh yeah, that’s one way of putting it.” She laughed. “Another way would be that the woman doesn’t have a filter and takes great pleasure in mercilessly embarrassing her family members.”
There wasn’t a hint of malice in Audrey’s voice, only warmth and affection. “Are you two close?”
“Very. We don’t always see eye to eye, but I know she has my back…unless there’s an eligible man around, of course.”
“How do you know I’m eligible?”
Audrey’s gaze automatically flicked down to Ronan’s hand, where, of course, he wore no ring. But she shook her head, pressing a hand to her cheek. “I didn’t mean to say…that’s not…I’m not assuming anything about you. It’s your business, not mine.”
“I am single.” The words popped out before he could fully think through the ramifications.
What ramifications? It’s not like you’re hitting on her or asking her out on a date. There’s no rule that says a professor can’t confirm his relationship status.
And all of that was true. But Ronan knew he wouldn’t be checking himself mentally unless there was some reason for the defense of his actions. Like, say that he found Audrey not only incredibly attractive but entirely intriguing.
He’d had a hell of a time getting through his class last Wednesday night. His eyes gravitated to her as if pulled by a magnetic force. He’d hunted out the details of her, like the way she scribbled notes with a furious curiosity that made him smile. He’d noticed the way she sucked on the inside of her cheek when he’d posed a thought-provoking question in class and how she’d twirled her hair, her gaze drifting toward something that nobody else could see. She got lost in learning. She was enamored by it.
And that only made her more attractive.
“Better keep that on the down low,” Audrey said. “Unless you want women lining up around the block to see if they can snag Kissing Creek’s newest bachelor.”
“I’m not looking for anything but a chance to work.”
“So no sexual fortune reading for you, then?” she teased.
He did not need those words coming out of her mouth—because the only sexual fortune he was interested in involved the woman standing right in front of him, and that was a very, very bad idea. Never mind the fact that he’d woken up with Audrey on his mind the last three nights since he saw her in class.
In fact, one particular dream had taken place at that very desk and rows of empty seats facing him while he took Audrey from—
Ronan coughed as if physically trying to dislodge the thought. “I like your earrings.”
It seemed like the safest thing he could grasp in order to move the conversation on. Audrey’s hand drifted up to her ear. The earrings were made of gold, with delicate wire wrapped around glossy black stones in a way that made them hang and catch the light. The effect was a striking contrast against her lighter hair.
“Thanks. They’re obsidian.”
“And what does obsidian do?” He raised an eyebrow.
“It’s a protective stone that shields against negativity, but it’s also a reminder that every person has lightness and darkness inside them.”
“Do you believe in this stuff?”
She didn’t strike him as the kind of person who put stock in woo-woo things like crystals and The Secret. Maybe she was