Patrick Ch. 01

In the end, she went to the bank and then to breakfast at a local family owned restaurant. While she waited for her order, she took out the A&P textbook and reread the answers to the questions at the end of the first chapter. When she reread the syllabus, she saw that Dr. Sinclaire gave pop quizzes. Her first thought was that there would be one tomorrow night; he would want to see who had done the reading which meant she had to get that second chapter read.

Kevyn mentally kicked herself for taking such a hard class but sucked it up and formed a plan. She would go to the bus station first and buy her pass, and then she would go to the grocery store before heading home to bed. Her hope was that she would be able to stay awake to read the very dry textbook and answer the questions at the end.

******

"One more night." Patrick thought to himself as he wrote the questions for the pop quiz the next evening. Most of the professors used a test bank to pull their quiz and test questions from but not him. He tried it once and didn't like it finding that the answers to the questions were often wrong or there was more than one right answer. Writing the test himself eliminated the process of deciding whether to toss a question out or not. Of course there was always the student who argued about a question or answer but Patrick always took his questions directly from the text and from time to time he would make a concession if the argument was compelling enough.

He finished writing the quiz around eleven, double checked it for content and clarity before printing off thirty copies although he was sure that he wouldn't need that many. He let the students keep the quizzes to use as a study guide and because he wrote new quizzes with each new group of students, he didn't care that they passed them on to the next group.

Usually what happened was that most people failed the first pop quiz which always caused an uproar.

"This isn't fair! You didn't tell us that you gave pop quizzes!" to which he always responded, "If you had read your syllabus, you would have seen that vital piece of information." After which he would launch into his "you are not children anymore." speech.

After that initial quiz, people caught on and at least attempted to be prepared. He wasn't trying to make life difficult and he understood that some of the students did have to work. With that in mind, he had a list of projects that could be done for extra credit. Many students had saved themselves from having to repeat his class because of it and as was all of the other information, it was included in the syllabus. As with all of his past classes, no one would notice it and would call him or email him in a panic asking how to help their grade. Those panicked calls and emails wouldn't start until after midterms.

He thought about Kevyn and wondered how she was doing with the reading and in general. He continued to get emails from the other students but still none from her. The emails were mostly mundane questions that he would address with the class as a whole and he emailed everyone telling them that which stopped the stream of questions with the exception of one student, Melissa Hunter.

The thought that the girl was going to be trouble resurfaced in Patrick's head. It wasn't that he was afraid that he wouldn't be able to resist her when she got around to trying to seduce him, he wasn't even remotely attracted to her and even if he was, Kevyn trumped her in spades. No, this was a smart girl, she had already noticed him watching Kevyn and he needed to be more careful.

*******

Melissa read the brief email that Patrick sent to all of the students and then logged off of her laptop. She was still pissed at the way he had shut her down last week. He had barely looked at her and he called her a teenager to boot! Technically he was right but she would be twenty in two weeks still not old enough to legally drink, but he couldn't call her a teenager then could he?

She got up from her desk without looking at the open textbook and walked over to her full length mirror. "How could you not look at and not want this this?" she asked out loud as she examined herself in the mirror. She was a beautiful girl with naturally red hair and green eyes that she could make fill with tears at a moments notice. That ability had gotten her out of many a tight scrape. She palmed her firm breasts and ran her hands down her flat stomach not understanding Patrick's obvious lack of interest. "I'll just have to try harder." she murmured as she turned so that she back faced the mirror and looked back over her shoulder.

She went back to her desk, looked at the textbook, sighed and then opened it. Whether she got Dr. Sinclaire into bed or not, she still had to pass this class.

*******

Patrick thought about calling Ethan and Martin to let them know that he had found his mate but decided not to. He wanted to keep it to himself for awhile and he didn't want any advice. He wanted to find his way on his own and ask for help if and when he needed it. He also decided not to call his mother for the same reason and because she would start asking him on a daily basis how it was going and when he planned to bring her home. It was stress and pressure that he just didn't want or need.

The lesson plan for the next class was already done leaving the rest of Patrick's evening free. Now that he knew that Kevyn existed, the house suddenly seemed larger, colder and lonelier. He wanted her here with him. To pass the time, he began to rearrange the dresser drawers to make room for her things although he had no idea of how much space she would need. The thought that she wouldn't want to be with him never crossed his mind even with all that he needed to tell her. He rearranged the closets next, moving all of his things to one side and then realized that she might not even like this house.

"Well, if you don't like this one we'll choose another one." he said out loud as worked to make room for her. By the time he was finished rearranging everything, it was two am. For him the night was still young but he hoped that Kevyn was resting well. He wondered what she did for a living, where she lived, who her friends were and if there was or had been a lover. Then he had another thought, he knew as soon as he saw her who and what she was. Neither Ethan nor Martin recognized their mates until after they raped them, would it have been the same for him if he were still raping? He wondered.

He knew that the twins Vanessa and Veronica were working on figuring out that part of the puzzle and would be interested in knowing that he recognized Kevyn immediately but he just wasn't ready to share the knowledge of her. They had only just begun working on the puzzle so it could wait he decided. He was keeping Kevyn to himself for a while longer.

Patrick passed the rest of the night by reading and watching movies from his extensive DVD collection. As far as he was concerned, the movies were his only vice that and his own personal movie theater that he had designed and built himself down in the basement.

The room could hold twenty people comfortably and had everything that a movie theater would have including a candy counter complete with the candies that were sold at a movie theater. At the end of the semester, he always invited his students here for an evening of movies always erasing the memory of where he lived as they left to go home.

He popped in a movie without looking at the title, it didn't matter, they were all good movies. While the movie played, he found himself wishing that Kevyn was sitting next to him and that he was touching her in ways that he could never get away with in a public theater. He felt a tingle between his legs and made himself concentrate on the movie.

********

Kevyn listened to the recorded lecture from the last class and found herself relaxing. The material was stuff created to make one want to fall asleep but it was the voice that was relaxing. She liked the sound of Patrick's voice and cursed herself; "You're too old to be getting a crush on the teacher!" she mumbled and then laughed as she remembered the girls trying to get Dr. Sinclaire to look at them. The laughter stopped when she remembered how he had stared at her.

The tape finished playing and she fought the urge to play it again instead she opened the book and read the second chapter. What she was coming to realize was that there was a lot of memorization something that she was good at. By three, she had read the second chapter and answered the questions in the syllabus and at the end of the chapter. One thing was for sure, the next class was going to be an easy peasy one so that she didn't have to wrack her brain so much.

She closed the book, got a glass of water and turned on the television. She fell asleep to the drone of the television playing some old western.

She woke up around ten, fixed herself a bowl of cereal and read chapter 3 of the A&P book. Her goal was no longer to just pass the class; she wanted to pass it with at least a "B". The higher her grades the better her chances of not being put on the waiting list for the nursing program.

She got dressed around four, wearing a tee shirt and a baggy sweatshirt over it and a pair of comfortable jeans and sneakers. She was going to class and not to a party she reminded herself as she looked at her clothes and thought about changing into something nicer. She ran a comb through her hair and then decided to braid it, by five she was out of the door and on her way to class although it didn't start until seven.

*******

Patrick waited until six before heading to class, he would arrive forty-five minutes early and if Kevyn didn't show up early, he would just have to bide his time until he could find a way to talk to her without being obvious. He was pleasantly surprised to see Kevyn already in her seat reading through a notebook.

"Hello." Patrick said when Kevyn looked up at him.

"Hi." she replied and looked back down at her notebook.

Patrick wanted to hear more, her voice was soft, melodic making him wonder if she was a singer.

"Are you prepared for tonight's lecture?" Patrick asked.

"I guess, I read the material if that's what you mean." Kevyn replied.

"Good, keep doing that and you'll do fine."

He was going to say something else when Melissa came in. She totally ignored Kevyn not seeing her as competition and focused her attention on Patrick.

"Hi Dr. Sinclaire." Melissa said with exaggerated cheerfulness.

"Hello Miss Hunter." Patrick replied. He always addressed the students as Miss or Mr. and the students were never allowed to address him by his first name, it kept things professional and indicated that there was a line that was not to be crossed. What he was going to do about Kevyn he didn't know yet.

"You can call me Melissa or Mel if you like."

"Thank you but Miss Hunter will suffice." Patrick replied.

Melissa sat down directly in front of Patrick's desk so that he couldn't help but look at her. When he didn't, she fumed and wondered if he wasn't gay. By this time the class room was beginning to fill and just as he had anticipated, there were ten students missing including the two girls who sat in the front row with Melissa last week.

"Alright class, pop quiz." Patrick announced.

"What?" Melissa asked. "You didn't say anything about a quiz."

"I beg to differ." Patrick said as he handed her a quiz. "Did you read your syllabus?" he asked.

Melissa glared at him as she took the quiz from him and muttered "not fair."

Normally he would have had someone pass the quizzes out but he wanted to get be close to Kevyn if only for a second and made a point of handing her the quiz last. Still standing next to her desk Patrick spoke.

"It's just a shirt quiz and we'll grade them after everyone is done. You can keep your quiz after I've recorded your grade and I should tell you that if you pass the quiz on to someone who is going to take this class, it won't do them any good as I write new quizzes for each class. You have fifteen minutes starting.... Now."

Patrick stayed where he was for just a moment longer before going to his desk. He now knew what she smelled like and would be able to find her in a room with thousands of people without a problem. Patrick watched as Kevyn chewed on the end of her pencil, made a mark, wrote something and then erased it and started over.

"I'm done." Melissa said standing in front of him and obstructing his view of Kevyn.

"Have a seat and we'll grade them together." Patrick replied.

Ten minutes later, the last pencil was lying down.

Kevyn nervously laid her pencil down. Her quiz paper was a mess from erasing so much and then rewriting and erasing again.

"This quiz also tells you what my tests are like." Patrick was saying as he looked around the room. His gaze stopped on Kevyn, he could feel her anxiety and cut his speech short.

Of the twenty students who took the quiz, only five passed with Kevyn and Melissa being part of the five. Patrick glanced up at Kevyn relieve that she had relaxed. He was also very aware that Melissa Hunter was watching him with a curious expression on her face.

"Before you leave, stop by the desk so that I can record your scores." Patrick said and then launched into his lecture on what he considered to be the most difficult body system the endocrine system.

"I divided this section in half because in my opinion it's the most difficult of the systems to understand." he said.

Melissa kept her eyes glued to Patrick after awhile she began to wonder what he found so interesting on the right side of the room. There was no one up there except for the black woman who sat in the same spot last week and..... "No way!" Melissa thought as she remembered how Patrick stared at the woman last week. True the woman was close to his age and true she was pretty in a very ordinary kind of way but she wasn't beautiful and thin like she was. It was then that Melissa decided that Patrick Sinclaire was going to make love to her no matter what she had to do to make it happen and who knew? He might even fall in love with her and that would make things so much easier.

At the end of the class Patrick admonished the class to do their reading and reminded them to stop at the desk so that he could record their quiz score.

Kevyn was shocked; she had passed with a 100%. She knew that things would get more difficult but this was a morale booster. The only thing that ticked her off was that she hadn't paid close enough attention to the syllabus to realize that the endocrine system was next. She had wasted time by reading the text in order but at least she had a week to get it done. She packed her backpack and waited for the crowd to thin before she approached Patrick's desk. She liked how he said an encouraging word to those who failed the quiz and how he acknowledged those who had taken the time to prepare.

"Miss Morris." Patrick said as he took her quiz. "Well done."

"Thanks." Kevyn said softly as she took the paper and hurried away.

Melissa was the last student to have her grade recorded.

"Well done." Patrick said as he took her paper without looking up at her.

"Dr. Sinclaire, some of us are going out ...."

"Miss Hunter." Patrick said quietly. "Thank you for your attempts to include me in on your activities but I don't socialize with my students especially those who are young enough to be my sister."

Slammed again, Melissa thought as her face burned not with embarrassment but anger. She snatched the paper back from Patrick, grabbed her bag and stomped out. Patrick watched her stomp out and hoped that she would be among the ones who would drop his class during the week.

********

Sister? Melissa fumed. Just how old was he anyway? He didn't look any older than thirty-five and granted that was young for him to be as accomplished as he was with a doctorate in several fields and a PhD in a couple of others but then she thought that he "bought" his degrees. Maybe he was younger than she thought and he looked but the question still remained how was he able to not look at her other than to answer questions or in passing.

She thought about how Patrick always seemed to be looking at the black woman and discounted her. The ones who were her true competition dropped out of the class the day after the first class saying that they just didn't want to work that hard so soon.

She wanted to send him an email but couldn't come up with a good enough reason. She changed into her Pajamas and began to read, she had been lucky to pass that quiz, she might not be as lucky the next time.

*******

Patrick left the classroom right after Melissa. He wanted to know where Kevyn lived and decided to follow her. He put his briefcase in the car, looked around and vanished from where he stood. He waited with her at the bus stop and rode the bus with her until she got off. He looked at the building where she lived and decided that it looked safe enough but even so he didn't want to take any chances. He vanished back to his car, drove it home and went back to Kevyn's building and sat across the street until early morning.

While he watched the building, Patrick began to plan how he was going to tell Kevyn about his past. That and not the fact that he was a vampire were going to be the main issue. How did one tell his mate that in a past life that he was a rapist? He wondered.

*******

Melissa soon tired of reading the textbook; she couldn't concentrate because she couldn't stop thinking about Patrick and his lack of attention to her. Every other male in the class was drooling over her and he acted as if she was nothing more than a bug on the wall. It was worse than that; a bug would have gotten more of a reaction from him. "There has to be something that will trip his trigger." Melissa murmured to herself and then wondered if Patrick was more intrigued by what he didn't see. Her mother who taught her everything she knew about men told her that there were men like that but Melissa had yet to meet one of those...until now.

She revamped her plan, next week she would cover up and see what happened. If that didn't work, she would go to plan B which she hadn't even begun to think about as she had never needed a plan B. She could hear her mother in the hallway talking to her third or was it fourth husband Dean. Patrick Sinclaire was worth more than all of her mother's husbands past and present and future combined. She knew this because she googled the Sinclaire family as soon as she signed up for his class. If she could get him into bed...."

*******

Kevyn changed into her pajamas and made herself a cup of tea with the intent of at least trying to read a few pages of the textbook. She had just read the first paragraph when she started to laugh.

"You can call me Melissa or Mel if you like." she said in a fairly decent imitation of Melissa's voice and laughed again. She tried to remember if she had ever thrown herself at a man like that and decided not. When she was Melissa's age, she was with Lonnie and wasn't interested in looking at another man.

She could hardly wait to see what the girl would try next week. Kevyn closed the book, turned on the television and got ready to sleep unaware that she was being guarded by Patrick.