You Should Smile

“You should smile,” I heard him say.

Unsure, I squinted my eyes from the sun, used my hand as a shade, and turned toward his voice. “I’m sorry?”

“You should smile,” he stated louder. “It’s a beautiful fall day. Summer’s wrath is left behind. So smile.” He stepped out from the shadows and into the sun where I could see him clearly. My lord. I’d heard the phrase ‘sex on a stick’ before, but never knew what it really meant. I did then.

A smile slowly crept across my lips. “You’re not supposed to tell women to smile. It can be offensive,” I said, teasing him.

“But you are smiling now, aren’t you?” he teased back.

“True. Any more advice for me?” I met his eyes. They were deep blue.

He nodded his head slowly. “Yes. Ditch that guy and come with me...."


Graduate student Shay Elliott gets hit on by a sexy stranger in a gas station parking lot - and the sparks fly immediately. She's there with her boyfriend, though, so she declines the man's invitation to leave with him. She thinks she'll never see him again....

She was wrong.

He's just been hired as a professor at her university - and she's about to become his student.