Free TheProfessor by Jon Bradbury Page B

as he selected a bowl of cereal with a banana. He sat down across from me at the little bar by the island, grinning as he poured milk over his cereal. I blushed.
    Naomi smiled at Jeff. “Is there anything else you might want, sugar?”
    He looked at her. “No, thanks, Naomi. I’m good.”
    “And what about you, Miss Danielle?”
    “I’m fine, Naomi. Thank you.”
    “Well then, I’ll just leave you two kids alone.”
    I said, “Thank you, Naomi.”
    “Sure, Miss Danielle.” Naomi left us to ourselves, the sound of her high heels clicking down the hardwood floor in the hallway.
    Sensing an opening, I reached across and placed my hand on Jeff’s arm. I was rewarded with a glance up and a grin. “Good morning, Jeff.”
    His grin widened. “Good morning, Danielle.”
    “How did you sleep?”
    “I slept pretty good.”
    “Oh, pretty good?”
    He chuckled. “ Really good.”
    “Uh-huh, I’ll just bet you did.”
    “Yeah. What about you?”
    “Like a baby. Thanks to you, professor. Can I give you a hug?”
    He stood up. I did too, put my arms around him and gave him a long tender hug, raking my nails over his back, with a kiss for good measure. It felt good to be back in his arms again. After a moment we sat back down.
    I said, “I don’t think I’ve ever had such a great teacher.”
    Jeff grinned. “Well, I only had one student.”
    “You were very patient with me last night, professor.”
    “You were the best student I ever had, Miss Evans.”
    I giggled and blushed, fluttering my eyelashes, squeezing his hand. “Why thank you. That’s very sweet.”
    “While we’re alone, there was something I wanted to ask you.”
    “Why sure, baby. What is it?”
    “What’s with the professor nickname?”
    I shrugged. “It’s like I said. You were an excellent teacher. I’ll have you know I woke up with this huge grin on my face.”
    “Yeah. I did, too.”
    “But you know what else?”
    “What?”
    “I wish I could make love to you every night of the week.”
    He cracked a grin. “What’s stopping you?”
    Lightly, I said, “My period.”
    He actually sighed in relief. “To be frankly honest with you, I was a little worried about that.”
    I patted his hand. “Believe me, so was I. But my period started, right on time. Only problem now is, I have to wait until it stops before we can have any more fun. I might have to speak with my doctor about birth control pills.”
    “I’ll leave that up to you.”
    “It would be a small price to pay. Otherwise, yeah, you’d be waking up in my bed. It’s a big bed. Comfortable. But it gets lonely waking up by myself all the time.”
    “I know the feeling.”
    “I really like you, baby. I think I might even be falling in love with you.”
    Jeff’s eyes went wide for a second and then crinkled in a smile. “Me, too. I really like you, too, Danielle.”
    “ Really ?”
    “Really.”
    “Oh, professor …”
    “You know, the people at my office liked to call me professor, when they know I’m going on an assignment. I used to hate it.”
    I leaned forward and touched his hand. “And what about now?”
    “Now? I love it.”
    I kissed him. “Good.” I took a few dainty bites of strawberries and cottage cheese, and said, “So. What are you doing today?”
    “I’m going to try setting up the camera in the dance studio again. I tried doing some test video in there the other day and it came out too dark. I think I need to recalibrate something.”
    “Yeah, I was kind of hoping we could get that done. The dancers are coming over next month to get started on the choreography for the videos.”
    “I’ll do my best to get that completed for you.”
    “I’m sure you’ll do a great job.”
    “Thanks.”
    The silence that followed was comfortable. We ate our breakfast, then Jeff stood up, patting his mouth with a napkin.
    “Leaving so soon?”
    “Yeah. Have to get to work. What are you doing today?”
    “I’m going to be in the recording studio all