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look, she added, “She’s one of the professors in my department. She’s also on the board, which means she’ll be one of the professors signing off on my final research paper. She has a reputation for being kind of mean, or at least harsh, but she always seemed nice enough. Or so I thought.”
    “The plot thickens.”
    “You have no idea. Because it turns out, she and Blake were…well, they were friends. Like friends .”
    Courtney cocked her head. “Why are you saying it that way?”
    “Some kind of relationship. It’s not like they spelled it out for me with a line graph or anything. It was just there between them, really obvious. They had clearly been close at one time.”
    “How awkward.”
    “Then Professor Jenkins—Melinda, that’s her first name—she starts going on about how they can go back to the way things were.”
    “Even more awkward.”
    “Then Melinda asks me to leave.”
    Courtney gasped. “She didn’t.”
    Erin waved her hand. “There was this weird excuse about me cleaning his office, because no one at the university is supposed to know about us, so she thought I was just working there. Anyways, I bolted before Blake could even explain anything, but I’m going over there tonight, and you have to tell me how to not freak out.”
    “Girl, you go ahead and freak out. I’m freaking out for you. I mean, you’ve been dating him for like two weeks. And then the ex comes back in the picture? No, that’s freak-out material.”
    “Surprisingly, this is not helping me calm down.”
    “You’re trying to be rational and mature about this? Sometimes I don’t know why we’re even friends.”
    “Trying is the operative word. I’m not succeeding very well.”
    Courtney looked sympathetic. “I know you were really into him. Are,” she corrected herself. “You are really into him.”
    “Oh God,” Erin moaned. “You do think it’s over. Should I not even go over tonight? I shouldn’t. Should I?”
    “Of course you should go. Be mature and rational, yes. But also be sexy and irresistible, and then ask him what the deal is. I bet he’s very happy with what he has now and was just taken by surprise when she was there. But if he turns you down, at least you’ll leave him wanting more.”
    Erin looked down at her plain T-shirt and well-worn jeans. Her sneakers had turned grey and scuffed two years ago. “I don’t really do sexy and irresistible.”
    Her friend smiled. “You do now.”
    *     *     *
    The lace-covered wire in the bra cut into Erin’s sides, making it hard to breathe. The high-heeled shoes pinched her toes. It had taken a whole extra hour to get ready, but it was all worth it, because she had to admit, even to herself, that she looked pretty damn sexy. It wasn’t an image she could keep up for any length of time, but then Blake was used to seeing her in drab, plain clothes. The slinky black dress and heels were Courtney’s. The lacy underwear was her own, something she’d grabbed in a bargain bin at the mall but forgot to wear for Blake before tonight.
    She was dressed for battle, primed and ready to wage a sex war, where the only rules were pleasure and both of them would be victors. At least, she only hoped it led to a night of hot sex…not her walking out the door, leaving him “wanting more,” as Courtney had said.
    She turned off the main paved road onto the rough gravel one leading to his house. This wasn’t exactly the country, still just twenty minutes from downtown. But somehow this area hadn’t been populated thickly. Houses were sprawled across gently rolling hills, invisible at night, as if they were far from civilization.
    Her old car grumbled softly as it bumped and jittered over the rough-hewn road. She patted the dusty leather dashboard. “You can make it, buddy.”
    She hoped so, anyway. She broke even every month, spending what she earned cleaning on her share of the expenses plus textbooks and food. There wasn’t any margin for