The first time I met Caine West was in a bar.
He noticed me looking his way and mistakenly read my
scowling as checking him out.
When he attempted to talk to me, I set him straight—telling him
what I thought of his lying, cheating, egomaniacal ass.
You see, the gorgeous jerk had wined and dined my best
friend--smooth talking her into his bed, all along failing to mention that he
was married.
He deserved every bit of my tongue-lashing and more for what
he'd done.
Especially when that lazy smile graced his perfect face in
response to my rant.
Only it turned out, the man I'd just told off wasn't the
right guy.
Oops. My mistake.
Embarrassed, I slunk out without an apology.
I was never going to see the handsome stranger again anyway,
right?
That’s what I thought…until I walked into class the next
morning.
Well, hello Professor
West, I’m your new teaching assistant.
I’ll be working under you…figuratively speaking.
Although the literal interpretation might not be such a bad
thing—working under Professor West.
This was going to be
interesting…
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An excerpt from Beautiful Mistake…
The class was
completely empty. I wasn’t even sure he knew I was still in my seat. If he did,
he was good at ignoring me as he packed up his laptop.
“Contrary to the
rumors you’ve probably heard, I don’t bite.”
I jumped when he
spoke. Now that the lecture hall was no longer filled with students, the
acoustics of the large space bounced his deep voice all over the walls.
I stood and began
my walk of shame down to the front of the classroom. There was no doubt I owed
the man an apology, even if he wasn’t a professor—a professor who would be my
new boss for at least the next fifteen weeks. I wanted to kick myself in the
ass for not apologizing last night before I left the bar. Now it would seem
like I was only doing it because of the situation I was in.
Which was true,
don’t get me wrong, but I didn’t want it to seem
that way.
I took a deep
breath. “I’m so sorry about last night.”
His face was
unreadable. “I figured you might be, right about now.”
“I obviously
thought you were someone else.”
“So I assumed. You
thought I was the asshole. The one with the big dick, was it?”
I shut my eyes.
For the last ninety minutes, I’d replayed the entire exchange from last night
over and over in my head. I thought I’d remembered everything I said, but
apparently I hadn’t. When I reopened my eyes, Professor West was still watching
me. His stare was pretty damn intense.
I started to
babble. “My friend Ava went out with this guy Owen for a month or so. He was
full of shit from day one, but she didn’t see it. Actually walked up to her
when she was leaving work one night and said, ‘Do you mind if I walk you home? My
mother always told me to follow my dreams.’ She fell for it, the entire act,
from the first day. Then one Saturday, he was supposedly out of town on
business, and she was across town running errands for her mother. She took a
shortcut through Madison Square Park on her way back from the grocery store and
ran into him. He was with his wife and kids.”
“And you thought I
was him, apparently?”
I nodded. “She
came in during my shift and started drinking Long Island iced teas. When Owen
walked in, she pointed to where he was standing and said he was the one in the
blue shirt.”
“And we were both
wearing blue shirts, I take it?”
I couldn’t help
but smile, thinking of Ava last night. “Actually, no. Ava’s not much of a
drinker. Turned out she was more sloshed than I thought. Owen’s shirt was
brown—not even black that could be mistaken as navy or something.”
I saw Professor
West’s lip twitch.
“Anyway, I’m
really sorry. I barely gave you a chance to speak, and then when I realized
what had happened, I was so mortified I didn’t even stop to apologize.”
“I accept your
apology for last night. Even though you shouldn’t be approaching a man in the
hallway to tell him off alone, your intentions were admirable.”
I should have shut
up and been grateful he’d accepted my apology. Should have. “Why can’t I approach a man in the hallway?”
He leveled me with
a stare. “Because you’re five foot nothing in a loud bar, and no one would have
heard you if I’d dragged you into the men’s room and locked the door.”
I folded my arms
over my chest. “I can take care of myself.”
“I didn’t say you
couldn’t. I said you shouldn’t put yourself in those situations.”
“But you
insinuated that I couldn’t by making that statement.”
He zipped his
leather bag closed. “Ms. Martin, I just accepted your apology for calling me an
asshole last night. Would you like me to retract that acceptance?”
God, I really was
an idiot. Being around this man seemed to turn me into a psychopath. “No. I’m
sorry. I acted like a jerk, and I’d like to start over, if that’s possible.”
He nodded.
“Everything prior to this morning is forgotten.”
“Thank you.”
“But this morning
is not. I won’t accept lateness. Don’t let it happen again.”
I swallowed. “It
won’t.”
He lifted his
worn, brown leather laptop bag over one shoulder. “Meet me here at five
tomorrow. We’ll go over the syllabus and the classes you’ll teach, as well as
my grading rubric.”
That was smack in
the middle of my shift, but I’d figure something out. “Okay.”
“Are you done for
the day?”
“I am. I actually
have to get to work. I’m covering Ava’s shift because she isn’t feeling too
well after last night. We both work at O’Leary’s.”
“You waitress
there?”
“Waitress,
bartend, occasionally tell off patrons.”
That earned me a
full smile from Professor West. God, he
should do that more often. No, forget that. He definitely shouldn’t.
“I’ll walk out
with you.”
We walked through
the halls together and out to the parking lot. When we arrived at my car, I
stopped. “This is me. So…five o’clock tomorrow?”
Professor West
looked at my beat-up old Subaru. “You’re parked in a spot reserved for the
Provost. You got a parking ticket.” He squinted. “Actually, it looks like you have
two parking tickets. Was your
inspection expired or something?”
Crap. “Umm…no. I keep an extra ticket in
the glove compartment and stick it on my windshield when I’m forced to park
illegally.”
His brows shot up.
“Inventive.”
“Obviously it
doesn’t always work.”
“Obviously.”
“They need more
parking. When you’re late, it’s impossible to find a spot.”
He studied me.
“Lateness is a frequent occurrence for you, I take it?”
“Unfortunately, it
is.”
“Then I should
clarify something I said earlier.”
“Oh, no, that’s
not necessary. I won’t be late for your class.”
He took a step closer and leaned in. “I’m glad
to hear that, Ms. Martin. But that’s not what needs clarification.”
I swallowed. God, he smells good.
“Earlier I told
you I didn’t bite students.” He smiled, and I felt the wickedness from it shoot
down to some interesting places. “I don’t. But I make no promises about not
biting feisty TAs.”
★★★★
We hope you enjoyed this extended preview!
Vi Keeland is a #1 New York Times Bestselling author. With more than 1.5 million books sold, her titles have appeared in over eighty Bestseller lists and are currently translated in sixteen languages. She resides in New York with her husband and their three children where she is living out her own happily ever after with the boy she met at age six.
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