Read Pretty Face for Free Online Page B

turned and made her escape. Mechanically, she got through the morning, lecturing for two hours on the rates of nuclear reactions in stellar explosions. Her students, for the most part, were a joy. With them, she didn’t have the same qualms about her appearance. What she offered them was more than her looks. After class, she made herself available for office hours. Until someone showed up with a question or a problem, Cody turned on her computer. To her surprise, there was a ding! A message. It was Hunter.
    Hunter : I’m at work and I can’t stop thinking about you. I want to know how you haven’t been honest. Tell me.
    Her fingers hesitated over the keys. What could she say?
    Sage : It doesn’t matter. I can’t fix things.
    Hunter : Try.
    Evasion.
    Sage : Where are you working?
    Hunter : What does it matter?
    Sage : I was worried. I just wanted to know.
    Hunter : Do you care about me?
    Sage : Of course I care. My feelings for you haven’t changed. They won’t ever change.
    Cody realized she wasn’t helping anything, she was prolonging the agony.
    Hunter : You’re torturing me. When you tell me your feelings won’t ever change, you’re giving me hope. As long as I have hope, I won’t give up.
    Sage : See, that’s the thing. I don’t want to give you up. All of this is tearing me apart. You’re not the only one who’s suffering.
    Hunter : Nothing you’re saying is making any sense. Look, I have to go back to work before the client thinks I’m slacking off.
    Sage : I doubt she’ll think you’re slacking off. Everyone is entitled to breaks.
    Hunter : Can I call you tonight?
    Sage almost said no, but she was weak, so weak.
    Sage : Yes.
    Hunter : Good, at least I have that. I love you.
    Sage : I’ll always love you.
    Hunter didn’t respond. Sage knew she was frustrating the hell out of him. After the allotted office time was over and she’d conferred with two upperclassmen about their term papers, Cody walked across campus to the lab she’d been assigned to review one of her assistant’s experiments with photons, a glass fiber, and a bottle resonator. They were attempting to force two photons of light to interact with one another. Their work looked promising. Cody had been lauded for her vision using quarks, photons, and quantum entanglement. Bottom line, she was trying to create a small wormhole in the lab. If she did that, well, the sky was the limit—literally.
    When she returned home, Cody pulled her little red car into the driveway, parking next to Hunter’s truck. The animals heard her and she could hear them calling her from the yard. They weren’t in the elements, she had a heated outdoor kennel with pet doors which led into the fenced in area. When she was home, she allowed them in the house, so they had the best of both worlds. Once she arrived home, Cody usually spent time with them in the yard, throwing balls and playing chase.
    Today, however, everything was different. As she opened the back door, she could feel the change in the atmosphere. Hunter was here in Louisiana, in New Roads—in her home. Both excitement and dread bubbled in her veins.
    When she unlocked the back door, Cody could hear Hunter’s power tools humming. She fought the urge to go spy on him, just look in, and catch a glimpse of his fine form. But she couldn’t do that. As promised, she’d check in with him at four and go over the progress. Placing her hands on her head, she parodied a silent scream—Hunter was here! How could she function when the man she desired more than life was in her house? Turning to the wall, she gently beat her head against it. God! How could she get herself into such a predicament?
    Better to take herself out of the range of temptation. Slipping through the house like a troubled spirit, she made her way to the side door that led to where the animals waited. As always, they were ecstatic to welcome her home. Cody laughed—it was good to be wanted.
    After speaking with Sage and getting