The Ivy League (8 page)

“I see,” Banks said, trying to wash the lump in his throat down with a sip of whisky.  He really shouldn’t care.  What he had with Sara was
a perfect evening.  But that illusion had shattered the moment it was over.  He just didn’t understand why it bothered him so much. 

“
I didn’t think she would be your type,” Banks said, trying to act casual.

“
She is,” Dan said, taking a drag from the hand rolled cigar.  “That whole innocence thing she’s got going on is just what I need.”

“I don’t…” Banks said, leaning forward and setting his glass down on the table.  He was trying hard to hide his growing anger, but not doing a good job of it.

“So are we competing for the lady’s affections, then?” Dan asked, cocking an eyebrow.  “But tell me, friend, isn’t it against the rules to pursue one of your students.”

“This isn’t over,” Banks said, rising from the table.  He was done with this conversation.  He had come to relax and shake off some of the troubles of the week.  This was not something he wanted to confront right now.  Dan relaxed into his chair, taking a long puff from his cigar as he watched his friend leave.  The game was on.

“As I suspected,” Mr. Banks said as
he stared out at his class, trying with everything he had not to look at Sara, “some of you did well on the exam, and some not so well.”

He wanted so badly to
grab her by the shoulders and shake her.  To tell her to stay away from Dan.  But he couldn’t.  It wasn’t his place.  He had decided it was best for him to just stay out of it.  With the possibility of him loosing his position at the company, he had to consider his academic career.  Getting involved with a student, on any level, would sink him.  And he just couldn’t let that happen. 

Sara
waited anxiously to get her test back, watching Banks like a hawk as he took his time to get the small stack of papers out of his briefcase.  It had been a very difficult first few weeks in his class, much more difficult than she had expected it to be.  He clouded her thoughts, made it hard for her to concentrate.  Every now and again, he would walk by her and she would catch a whiff of his cologne.  Forbidden memories would flood her mind, completely wrecking her concentration.  But still, she had studied hard, and felt confident she had done well on the test.  She was hoping for a chance to prove herself to him. 

When he unceremoniously plopped her test in front of her, without even so much as a glance, her heart sank.  She could feel the bile rising in her throat
when her eyes fell on the low number that was written in red at the top of the page.  Not only had she failed, but she had done so quite miserably.  She flipped through the pages of the test, her eyes skimming all the red marks.  She didn’t understand how this could be possible.  It took everything she had to sit through the rest of the class. 

“I don’t’ understand this grade,” she said,
approaching him after the class was dismissed. 

“Well maybe if you
spent more time studying,” he said, “and less time dating, you would do better on the test.”

He wanted to slap himself as soon as the words left his mouth. 
The words came out a lot more jealous sounding than he wanted them to.  But the hurt that shone in Sara’s eyes made him really regret not choosing his words more carefully.

“That is none of your business,” Sara snapped, barely able to keep
her jaw from hitting the floor, “and I spent a lot of time studying.”

“You should study the end of chapter questions,” he
said, his voice softening.

“
I did that,” Sara said, looking up at him helplessly, “and I studied my notes, and the text.”

“I’m sorry,” he said, “I’m afraid I can’t help you.”

He wanted to help her.  He really, really did.  But just looking down into her deep blue eyes as she asked him for help made his blood burn and his hands itch to touch her.

“Aren’t you supposed to teach me?” Sara said.  “To help me if I’m hav
ing a problem with the material?”

Banks
used his body to pin her to the table.  The breath caught in her throat, she couldn’t do anything but freeze under the weight of him.  His hands rested on the table on either side of her as he pushed her backward with his body.  He pushed his hips into hers, and she could feel a hard lump pressing into her.  The thought of what it could be made her cheeks fire up.  His lips came to rest just beside her ear.

“Sara,” he whispered,
his own pulse rising as her small hands rested on his shoulders for balance, “I can’t risk being around you.”

Sara had to struggle to swallow the lump in her throat.  Her mind was so clouded with the desire that she couldn’t think of a thin
g to say.  She just stared, wide-eyed, back at him, like a doe in the headlights, with her mouth open slightly.  She was trying to form words.  Her mouth was ready to speak them.  But her mind couldn’t put two syllables together.  He was absolutely intoxicating. 

He could feel her entire body tensing.  He was well aware of the effect he had on her, and he couldn’t help but take advantage of it. 

“I don’t think this is appropriate for a professor,” Sara said in a whisper, finally collecting her thoughts. 

“
I want to be more than that,” he said, his voice husky, but his need came through.  His hand cupped her cheek, pulling her face close to his.  A year passed as he hovered over her, his lips just a breath from hers.  He wanted to kiss her so badly.  To pull her close to him and explore every curve and dip of her soft, supple body.  But the electricity that sparked between them needed to be stamped out. He was her teacher. He wasn’t sure if he could live with himself if he violated his integrity as an educator. 

Just as his lips w
ere about to touch hers, the door swung open.  Banks had just enough time to put an appropriate distance between himself and his student before the Dean poked his head in the room. 

“Hey, Banks
,” he said, his eyes darting from him to Sara, “everything ok in here?”

“Fine,” Banks
said, trying to ignore the rush of desire that was running through him, “I was just telling Ms. Weiss that she is in serious danger of failing my class.”

“He’s a tough one,” the D
ean said pointing a finger at Banks with a knowing wink to Sara.  “You’re going to have to study hard if you want to pass his class.  Banks, come speak with me when you finish.”

“Of course
,” Banks said, as the Dean ducked back out of the classroom.  “Excuse me, Ms. Weiss”

“It’s official,” Krista said, coming up beside her friend in the bookstore.  Sara turned around, a book in hand, to find a silly grin plastered on her friend’s face. 

“What’s official
?” Sara asked, giving a quick one over of her friend.  There was definitely something different about her.  But Krista often got over exited about the simplest things, and it was best for Sara to take a skeptical approach to anything with Krista. 

“I’m in love,” Krista said, her
eyes glazing over with the haze of new love.  Sara wanted to roll her eyes. That was something she never thought would come out of Krista’s mouth, and she couldn’t even see how that was even possible. 

“In love?  With who
?” Sara said, faking more concern than she really felt.

“He’s unlike a
nything I have ever experienced,” Krista said, entirely ignoring Sara’s question.

“Please,” Sara said, holding a hand up to her friend, “I don’t want to know any details.”

“What’s with you this morning?” Krista said, finally noticing her friend’s down trodden demeanor.

“I’m having trouble in a class,” Sara said with
a sigh.  “I’m trying to find some supplemental readings to help me on the next test.”

“I don’t know how the whole school thing works,
” Krista said with a scowl, “but can’t you just ask the teacher for help?  Isn’t that what he’s there for?”

“Yeah,” Sara said.  She hadn’t told Krista, or anyone, about her first and only client also turning out to be her most difficult professor.  “I just…don’t feel comfortable asking him for help.”

“Oh,” Krista said, a smirk developing on her lips as she noticed the blush on her friends cheeks, “do you have a little school girl crush?”

“No,” Sara said, a little too quickly with a firm shake of her head.  She realized as soon as she said it that it pretty much confirmed Krista’s accusation.  It was strange.  She had never thought of it before, but she realized in that very moment that it was true.  It wasn’t until right then that she realized why it was so hard f
or her to concentrate in his clas.  She had a massive crush on him.  This was bad.  This was very, very bad. 

“Tell me about him
?” Krista said, looping her arm around Sara’s and pulling her away from the bookshelf.  “And let’s get out of this bookstore.”

#

“I want to see Sara again,” Dan said, making himself comfortable in the seat opposite Madame Gwen. 

“I
keep hearing that,” she said, ignoring the glare that she was receiving as she picked a card from the pile in front of her.  She was playing a game of solitaire, like she always did, to pass the lull of afternoon boredom.  She made a little frown when the card didn’t match any of the ones she needed.

“Sara
is no longer an employee of mine,” Madame Gwen said, placing the card back on the stack and finally looking up at Dan with a forced smile.  The nature of her business meant she often had to deal with some unsavory character.  Dan had always been cordial, but something about him made her uncomfortable.

“Get her back,”
he said, as he flicked a piece of lent off his suit pants. 

He
stood from the table, stopping her response, and pulled a thick envelope from his blazer pocket.  He plopped it on the table in front of Madame Gwen.  His blue eyes bore into on her as she peaked into the cash stuffed envelope.

“That should be
enough to get the ball rolling,” he said, before taking his leave from the Madame. 

#

“No way,” Krista said, barely able to contain her excitement as Sara told her about everything.  Sara could see her regret hanging in the air as soon as she had told Krista about Banks.  It had taken a lot of prying, but her friend had finally gotten the truth out of her. 

“Keep your voice down,” Sara said, looking around to make sure no one
overheard their conversation.  She was absolutely positive that Banks would be lurking just around the corner, waiting to hear all the details of how Sara dreamed about him every night.  

“Sara,” Krista said, her face suddenly dropping into seriousness, “you have to tell Madame Gwen about this.”

“No,” Sara said, shaking her head as she leaned away from Krista, “I’m just going to ignore the situation until I’m out of his class.”

“
You really have to tell her,” Krista said, “If word got out, things could go very badly for you.”

“What’s the worst that could happen?
” Sara said, stirring at the cup of coffee she had been nursing.

“
Madame Gwen depends on discretion,” Krista said, “and trust me, you do not want to get on her bad side.”

It was taking everything Sara had to keep her heart
in her chest where it belonged. Now that she knew how she felt about him, it was even harder to concentrate around him.  She would have to talk to him when class was over.  She was getting nowhere reading her textbook and reviewing the few notes she managed to get down on paper.  She was going to need some serious tutoring to pass Mr. Banks’ class.  It had taken her an entire hour and multiple outfit changes to find something she felt looked good.

She anxiously approached him when the other students began to file out of the room.  Her fingers fidgeted with a low hanging curl as she opened her mouth to speak to him.

“Ms. Weiss,” he said,
stopping her words short without even glancing up at her, “if you need something, you can seek me out at office hours.”

“I have classes during your office hours,” Sara said, swallowing her anxiety.  She could feel his presence weighing on her.  She tried to shrug it off, but it fell even heavier on her as their eyes locked.  Staring so helplessly up at his intense grey eyes brought back memories of their night together and her stomach turned. 

“Y
ou can email me,” he said, picking up his briefcase and preparing to leave.  He couldn’t bear to be in the room alone with her.  Having to lecture in front of her for an hour was bad enough.  All he wanted to do was bend her over his desk.

“Please
,” Sara said, grabbing at his elbow to stop him from leaving, “I need help.”