The Professor - Ch. 45.6

Although Megan wanted to snatch the phone to her ear, she let it ring three times before answering. She didn’t want to appear too eager, though she needed this alliance with Earl like she needed to breathe.

“What’s your decision?” Megan asked, cutting to the chase.

“Count me in,” Earl replied, formerly accepting her proposition. “However, I’d like to make a slight addendum to our deal.”

“What kind of addendum?” Megan frowned.

“I’d like us to resume our affair until you and Professor get back together.”

“What?!” Megan exclaimed incredulously, causing her limo driver to lower the glass partition to check on her.

“Is every-ting a’ight, ma’am?” the dreadlock-wearing, mahogany-skinned man asked in a thick island accent.

“Yes, everything is fine, Kingston,” Megan told her driver, prompting him to raise the partition again. “Now back to you, Earl. I know you didn’t just say what I think you said,” she stated angrily upon returning to her phone call.

“I certainly did,” Earl replied, revealing no remorse about betraying his brother again. Not on a romantic level. Not on any level.

Earl had always been jealous of Baron. He was jealous that his youngest brother was half-white and thus carried around less social stigma, grew up to be more handsome than him, and had won Megan’s heart without even trying to.

Earl was even jealous of Baron’s name. Yes, all of the brothers had been named after English peerages, but it was Baron’s name that garnered the most female attention over the years. Not even Marquess held that honor.

“I will call this whole deal off right now and demand prompt repayment of that loan I just sent you if you ever and I mean, ever proposition me that way again,” Megan told him through tight lips. “What you and I had is over, Earl. Over! Do you hear me?”

“Don’t make me tell my brother about us,” Earl countered, returning to his old way of trying to control her – through blackmail.

“Then we’ll both forfeit what we want. Except your losses will be greater. Yes, I will likely lose your brother forever, but you will lose the opportunity to finally get out of debt, your wife, kids, close family ties, and the respect of your peers,” Megan replied, unaware of her similarities to desperate Jordin. “Matter of fact, how about I tell Professor myself and just get it on over with,” she bluffed, knowing full well that that was the last thing she wanted to do. But Earl didn’t have to know that.

“No!” Earl shouted into the phone, inadvertently startling his receptionist in the next room. “I’ll do what you ask,” he added in a much quieter and humbler tone.

“Everything I asked?” Megan prompted with a triumphant smile.

“Everything,” Earl agreed, sounding like a defeated foe. He was. And it was his own fault.

“Good. Now tell me everything you know about Baron’s so-called wife,” Megan replied, frowning at the memory of how maliciously Meadow had delivered Baron’s wedding announcement to her – through an animated email full of laughing hyenas.

Pushing that painful memory aside, she forced herself to listen very attentively as Earl shared basic facts about Aurelia. Things like the fact that she was black, from the Virgin Islands, a student, a former exotic dancer, and part owner of a budding perfume company.

“An exotic dancer, huh?” Megan asked, focusing on the thing that interested her the most. The frown in her forehead was so deep that she was sure to need Botox treatments soon. The kind that Earl specialized in at his office.

“Yes, that’s how they met. She danced for him at Count’s bachelor’s party. She was really good at it, too. Made a lot of money that night from Professor alone. He was so impressed by her that he took her to the next room and…” Earl paused to chuckle. “Well, let’s just say that whatever she did to him in that room was enough to make him want to marry her.”

Megan cringed. “Do you have any idea what she did to him in that room?”

“I know what she didn’t do.” Then Earl revealed that there were certain things that Aurelia refused to do in the bedroom based on the conversation he had with Count just one phone call ago. Things that Baron enjoyed doing…thoroughly.

A calculated smile slithered across Megan’s lips at that news. She’d just garnered her first piece of ammunition against Aurelia. She planned to use it at the first available opportunity.

Concluding her call with Earl after promising to wire more money to his secret account, Megan leaned back against the limo’s black leather seat with a satisfied smirk on her face. Keep denying him the kind of pleasure he deserves, island girl. That will make it even easier for me to get what I was always intended to have, she mused.

“Baron,” Megan whispered aloud.

Then as her luxury vehicle continued to cruise through the streets of Bel Air, she closed her eyes and recalled happier times with the man of her heart’s desire. Sexual times. Times when Baron had looked into her sparkling blue eyes and declared how much he loved and adored her.

Oh how Megan wished she had just eloped with him like he wanted. But no, she just had to prolong the engagement in order to plan a wedding that would have put her cousin’s elaborate ceremony to shame.

Megan wouldn’t make the same mistake twice.

© 2009 by Mi’Chelle Dodson/Suprina Frazier

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Kingston looks likes Lamman Rucker (except with dreadlocks):

http://www.fanpix.net/picture-gallery/688/160688-lamman-rucker-picture.htm

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The free portion of The Professor is officially over. The rest can be found on the VOD blog!