Dark Notes

by Pam Godwin

My chest tightens. The prettiest ones have the ugliest insides.

And sometimes they take more than they pay for.

He thinks I’m a teacher, and now he’s looking at me like guys do, his gaze dragging over my body and arousing a twisted sickness in my belly. It reminds me how different I look than other girls my age and how much I hate those differences.

I pull my satchel over my chest, hiding my most noticeable parts.

Blindsided. That’s the best explanation for the stern volume of my voice and tightness in my usually-composed expression. I wasn’t prepared for this. Not for a tall, voluptuous, sexy-beyond-all-reason woman to walk into my classroom.

My first thought? Beverly Rivard found the hottest music teacher in the country to place in my employ. To test me. But she’s not a teacher.

I relax my fingers on the edge of the desk. Christ, that would’ve been a terrible inconveni...

In my six years of teaching, I’ve never encountered a student who regards me as if she’s summed me up in a glance and disapproves of my intentions.

I worked my fucking ass off, you lazy little cocksucker.

Beverly Rivard wiped her file, a conclusion I’d already come to.

Under normal circumstances, being best in her class would get her into Leopold. But Beverly hired me to ensure that wouldn’t happen. Leopold will accept Prescott Rivard because I’ll make it happen. Everyone else from Le Moyne will be overlooked.

That sucks for Ivory, but life’s a bitch.

“What was her position on your father selling his business for you?” She hates me for it, so much so her lip curls whenever she looks at me.

If she requires an instructor who gives praise just to balance the criticism, she has the wrong guy. I’m a dick, and like I told her yesterday, I respect constructive feedback. I’m also not finished with my appraisal.

I thought he was different. Now I’m not sure.

The Leopold faculty is all in a buzz about the young virtuoso from Le Moyne. Yet not one person there has mentioned Prescott’s name.”