The Professor - Ch. 14.3

Baron barely watched the show or listened to the music. He was too busy trying to keep tabs on Aurelia without his date knowing it. Too busy trying not to be jealous of all the men with the liberty to openly pursue her. And there were a lot of them, too.

Baron counted a total of twelve men that propositioned Aurelia so far. Were any available men watching the show? Or were they all trying to get with this one woman?

Some of the men sent roses over to Aurelia with their phone numbers. Others came to deliver their numbers personally and to hopefully get hers in return. One bold fellow even bought her a jazzy basket from the amphitheater’s attached gift shop.

Aurelia politely turned all of them down. Every last one. She was clearly skilled at turning men down easy because not one of them went away mad. Disappointed, yes, but not angry. All the gift-givers left their presents behind, perhaps wanting her to have something to remember them by.

Those multiple rejections would have done Baron’s heart good if they hadn’t led him to assume that she was turning down men out of her loyalty to Claude. How else could he explain her refusal to receive a single man’s phone number tonight?

Maybe she won her ticket through a local radio station contest, Baron thought, still trying to figure out Aurelia’s presence here in light of what he knew about her finances and had seen tonight.

One thing Baron was grateful for tonight was the darkness. He’d been able to cloak his I-Spy routine quite well in the night shadows. Having mastered the art of nodding in all the right places during his days of only half-listening to shallow Megan, he was able to keep Jordin clueless about where his real attention was tonight.

Suddenly Baron saw something that threatened to blow his whole cover. By the light of the moon, he saw Aurelia close her eyes and sway slowly in her seat as the current songstress sang Cassandra Wilson’s version of Time After Time. She looked so at peace. So at one with herself.

Baron wanted to be one with her, too. Or rather one with her again. He could still remember the blissful expression Aurelia wore the first time he entered her. He closed his eyes and moaned at the memory of how good her sugar walls had felt around him. Too good.

Aurelia, baby, why didn’t you just wait for me? Baron lamented, right before Jordin leaned over to whisper in his ear.

“I like Cyndi Lauper’s version better.”

“I’m kinda partial to this one myself,” Baron replied, not sure if he was bias because Aurelia enjoyed this version or if he truly preferred it over the original because it was slower and more sensual.

Sensual. That word described Aurelia to a tee and yet didn’t describe her enough. She was so much more.

So much more, Baron echoed silently, chancing a look at Aurelia again. I wonder if she’s as loyal as she appears to be or just hasn’t had the right man to tempt her yet, he thought, recalling the jealous look she’d given him earlier. Maybe I’m that man.

Whoa!

Baron snatched his eyes away. He couldn’t believe what just entered his mind. Was he actually starting to think like most of his older brothers who cared nothing for relationship boundaries? Where was his sense of honor? His sense of integrity?

Did Baron really want Aurelia this badly to go against his most fundamental principles? The same principles that allowed him to look at himself in the mirror each day?

The saddest part of all was the fact that Baron truly didn’t know the answer to those questions right now. What he did know was that his heart, body, and soul wouldn’t stop sending him the same message.

That message: Aurelia was supposed to be his. His!

© 2009 by Mi’Chelle Dodson/Suprina Frazier

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Cyndi Lauper’s Time After Time:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJ5LmQmQZqg

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Cassandra Wilson’s version of Time After Time:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySVWeao57m8

Which version do you like better?