Otherworldly Bad Boys: Three Complete Novels (47 page)

I took a step backwards. How could he say that to me? As much as I wanted to fight my tears, I could feel them beginning to form in my eyes. I bit down on my lip, hard.

“Wait,” said Harper. “Professor, I really think you’re overreacting.”

I couldn’t stop them. I was going to start crying. I ran from the theater before the sobs escaped.

“Teagan,” called Harper. “Hold on.”

But I didn’t stop running.

* * *

Carter

“Professor, I hear what you’re saying,” said Melanie Flannigan, one of my directing students, “but I just don’t think it makes any sense.”

“You don’t?” I said.

“I don’t either,” said Harper Cannon.

I glowered at the both of them. We were sitting in the theater after the auditions that night. The house lights were up and the theater was bathed in brilliant light. The other directing students had gone home, but Melanie and Harper were still here, hashing things out with me.

“Yeah, I kind of think it’s insulting that you don’t think I’m capable of dealing with Teagan Moss in my play,” said Harper.

“Besides, she’s not even bad,” said Melanie.

“She’s got talent,” I said. “I never said that she didn’t. But she needs help. She’s a diamond in the rough. She needs a lot of polishing. And I think Miss Flannigan and her play are much more the avenue that Miss Moss needs.”

“Well, I don’t agree,” said Harper. “I think she’d be amazing as Ella in my play.”

No, he didn’t. Well, maybe he did. What I meant was that Harper was clearly attracted to Teagan. I could see the way he looked at her. He wanted her in the play because he wanted to fuck her. The fact that she was a good actress was a completely secondary consideration. And I didn’t like the thought of that one bit.

Even if Harper didn’t have designs on Teagan, his play was a three-person show in which Teagan would be the only female, which meant that she’d have two male co-stars who’d be eagerly trying to get in her pants, both of which she had to kiss on stage.

No. There was no reason for Teagan to be in
Moon and Moon
.

Melanie’s play,
If I Had a Heart
, was a much better option. It had an all-female cast and a female director. I’d feel much better if Teagan were cast in that play.

But I had to admit, my reasons
didn’t
make any sense.

“You were way too hard on her,” said Melanie. “I mean, you made me cry last year, but you never said I was stilted.”

“I said what I thought,” I told them. “You both know that I’m honest.” Of course, I wasn’t being honest with them right then. No, right then I was making an idiot of myself. That was what Teagan Moss seemed to do to me. She made me behave in ridiculous ways. I couldn’t control myself when it came to her, and I was going to lose it if I weren’t careful.

“It’s just that she’s going to make a much better Ella than Jasmine Reese would,” said Harper. “I mean, Jasmine’s good, don’t get me wrong, but there’s something about Teagan that’s very... I don’t know, sensual, I guess.”

Seriously? I threw him a pointed look. “So, you’re casting her because of her tits and ass.” I was deliberately crass, hoping to embarrass him, get him to drop the whole thing.

“No,” said Harper, his face turning red.

“Well,” said Melanie, “the truth is that an audience does come in with certain prejudices, and I think that if I cast Teagan in my play, that I’m going to have to work really hard to get them to sympathize with her.”

“What?” I said.

“She
is
like this sex bomb,” said Melanie.

“She isn’t,” I said.

“And the character she would be playing murders her abusive husband. Teagan just doesn’t look, you know, as fragile as Jasmine does. People are going to walk in, and they’re going to look at her body, and they’re going to think the wrong kind of thoughts. But Jasmine, well, she’s more... delicate.”

“Miss Flannigan, I think you’ve single handedly set the women’s movement back about fifty years with that statement,” I said.

She rolled her eyes. “Oh, whatever, Professor. I’m not saying it’s a good thing. But I’m a beginning director, and I don’t need to make things harder on myself than they already are.”

I dragged my hand over my face. What was I getting myself into here?

“I need someone who looks seductive in my play,” said Harper.

“And I need someone who looks innocent,” said Melanie.

“So, we want to switch,” said Harper. “I want to cast Teagan Moss.”

“I want to cast Jasmine Reese.”

I sighed. “Well, then I won’t stand in your way.”

“You won’t? But you’ve been arguing with us about it for forty-five minutes,” said Harper.

“I’ve made my points, then,” I said. “I’ll allow the two of you to make your own casting decisions.”

“Really?” said Melanie. “You’re not going to dock our grades because we didn’t listen to you, are you?”

“Of course not,” I said.

“Well, then, great,” said Harper.

Except it wasn’t great. It was a very bad sign. I might be losing my mind. I was beginning to feel protective of Teagan Moss.

No, that wasn’t the word. The word was jealous.

And why? I had no claim on her.

Not unless you counted the two times I’d had my hands on her. My lips on her. And they hadn’t meant anything. They’d been spontaneous actions. In both cases, I’d felt as if I’d lost control of myself. As if I were being swept up in something bigger than me. Those instances weren’t part of a courtship. She had no official significance to me.

But when I watched Harper Cannon’s buggy little greedy eyes drinking her in, I had the urge to start slugging him.

Which was ridiculous. I had no right. I was supposed to be leaving her alone.

But I had to admit I didn’t want to do that anymore. Maybe it would have been possible after the first time, but I’d tasted her again, and I wanted more. When she was in the audition earlier, glaring at me as she said those lines, all I could think about was pushing her back onto one of the gray blocks in the studio space, wrapping her long legs around my hips, and kissing her again. Not just her lips. I wanted my mouth all over her alabaster skin. I wanted to tear aside the shirt she’d been wearing, bare her creamy cleavage—

“... you think, Professor Alexander?”

“What?” I choked. I hadn’t been paying a bit of attention.

Melanie drew her eyebrows together. “You okay, Professor? You seem distracted.”

I closed my eyes. “I’m very sorry, Miss Flannigan.”

* * *

Teagan

Nell told me about how last year Professor Alexander had told Melanie Flannigan, who I knew as one of the senior directors, that she didn’t matter. He’d gotten in her face in front of the entire cast and told her that she had some silly idea that she was the focal point of the scene, when she was only there to be window dressing for another actor. Nell said that Melanie had been so upset about it that she’d nearly dropped out of the play.

“And he never apologized either,” said Nell. “He’s a jerk.”

She had three or four more stories about things that Professor Alexander had said to other acting students. Apparently, I wasn’t the first one to be reduced to tears by one of his tongue lashings.

But I had a sneaking sensation that I was the only one who’d kissed him the day before he did it.

Well. Maybe not. I mean, I didn’t know a thing about him. Maybe he always had secret affairs with students.

When I brought up the idea, Nell was shocked. “No way. Like I told you, he’s into older women.”

“But how could you know that?” I said. “Like, maybe it’s a cover.”

“Well, last year, people saw him with Dean Surber everywhere, and she’s ancient. They held hands on a couple occasions, so I think it’s safe to say there was something going on. And some people have seen him picking up townies in bars in town. They’re always, you know, older.”

That didn’t make me feel the least bit better. If he really did like cougars, then what was he doing with me?

“Why are you asking me this, anyway?” she said. “You don’t have a crush on him or something, do you?”

“No.” I wasn’t lying either. Truthfully, I wasn’t even sure if I liked him. He was very attractive and kissing him made me feel all fluttery inside. I had dreams about banging him. But he wasn’t exactly a nice person. I didn’t know why I kept kissing him.

But I wasn’t going to do it ever again. There was no way.

“You sure?” said Nell. “In my Human Sexuality Across Cultures class, we were talking about the idea that women are attracted to jerks. Because, like, they seem more virile or whatever. It’s all subconscious. Your ovaries think that he’d be a jerk to predators or something and your offspring would have a better chance of surviving.”

“Eww.”

“Maybe.” She flopped back on her bed.

“Neither me nor my ovaries want to have offspring with Professor Alexander, okay? He’s awful, and I hate him.”

“Okay.” She propped herself up on one elbow, grinning at me. “Maybe you hate him in that way where you want to rip his clothes off, though.” “No,” I said. I was feeling really uncomfortable. Was it that easy to see through me?

She sighed. “He does have the most intensely blue eyes, though, doesn’t he? It’s too bad that he’s Lucifer from hell, because he’s really fucking pretty.”

“Kind of,” I said.

She giggled. “Come on, Teagan, admit it. You know he’s hot.”

I swallowed, thinking of the way it had felt to have my hand on his chest. He was solid and firm and warm and.... I bit my lip.

She was still laughing. “See? You do know. And you can’t help it.”

But I wanted to help it. I did.

* * *

I nearly collided with Harper Cannon the next morning as I was coming out of my dorm room. I had an early English class, and I was heading to the dining hall to grab breakfast first.

Harper was looking down at a piece of paper, and he didn’t see me.

I almost didn’t see him either. I looked up just in time and moved out of the way.

He looked up. “Sorry.”

“It’s okay.”

“Teagan,” he said, recognizing me. “I, uh, I didn’t know you lived up here.”

“Oh. Yeah.” I pointed behind me at my door. “With Nell Sutton.”

“It’s just that you’re a freshman, and I thought you’d be in the freshman dorm.”

“Right,” I said, “well, they put me here, I guess because I’m older than most of the freshman.”

“You are?” he said. “Yeah, you seem... you know, mature.”

Whoa. Was it me, or was Harper acting a little nervous around me? I smiled at him. “Thanks, I think.”

He laughed. “Um, that was probably a really stupid thing to say.”

He
was
. Harper was attracted to me. How interesting. Was I attracted to Harper? I surveyed him. He had brown curls, an open face, a wide smile. He wasn’t quite as broad in the shoulders as Professor Alexander, but—

I had
not
just done that, had I?

I hadn’t compared him to Professor Alexander. Professor Alexander was off limits, and I knew it. I
hated
Professor Alexander.

“You’re fine.”

“Well, I live up here too,” he said. “Around the corner. I actually lucked out and got a single this year. So, if you want to run lines or anything, or just talk about the show—”

“What?” I said.

“Oh, right, you don’t know.” He held up the piece of paper he was holding. “I’m, um, going to make copies of the cast list. I cast you as Ella.”

Excitement coursed through me. I’d got the part? “But I thought that... I mean, after my audition—”

“Oh, you mean ‘cause
Carter
got his boxers in a wad?” He rolled his eyes. “I worked with him last year. He’s a jackass. He’s a good director, but he’s a jackass.”

I smiled a small smile. I thought it was funny that Harper called Professor Alexander by his first name.

“Don’t worry about anything he said,” said Harper. “He went overboard.”

“You think so? Because if he’s so good, maybe he really does know quality. And maybe I’m really bad.”

“Trust me, you’re not,” he said. “You’re a phenomenal actress.”

I blushed a little. “Um, thanks.”

“And I look forward to working with you,” he said. “First rehearsal’s going to be Thursday, but if you want to stop by my room sometime, I have scripts there.”

“Okay,” I said, smiling.

“Okay,” he said. “Well, then, I’ll... Uh, are you headed out?”

“I’m going to the dining hall.”

“Cool, I’m going to that side of campus too. We can walk together. I mean, unless you don’t want to, or...”

“Calm down,” I said, falling in step with him. This was nifty. I’d never really experienced this before. In high school, I’d been the weird Moss girl. Everyone knew all about my crazy family, and no one had wanted to associate with me. And while I’d hooked up with guys from the theater, it was rare that they were actually my peers. So it was really cool to have a guy—a regular, normal guy—actually seem interested in me.