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  As Baron headed toward his car, he turned his head once more to glance back at James Hall.

  And collided with someone in front of him.

  The woman huffed and dropped a pile of papers, and Baron bit back a curse at the jarring surprise.

  Then his eyes focused on who he’d run into.

  “Leila!” His heart jumped oddly. She looked beautiful and discomposed, her hair slipping out of a long braid, her glasses slipping down her nose, and more papers slipping out of her hands.

  His heart jumped again when she broke into a smile when she processed his presence. “Baron,” she said, sounding glad to see him, “I’d have thought you’d be a little better at watching where you walked.”

  “Sorry,” he said, leaning down to help her pick up her scattered papers. He wasn’t about to admit that he’d been looking behind him toward her office, and he couldn’t think of any acceptable excuses for being so inattentive, so he just glossed over the issue. “Although I notice that your powers of perception left something to be desired as well.”

  She snickered and straightened up with a messy pile of papers in her hands. “I was reading,” she admitted with blithe sincerity. “You won’t believe some of these papers that students turn in.”

  “I thought you didn’t teach on Fridays.”

  “I don’t. I was just proctoring an in-class essay for a colleague.” Leila gazed up at him, her expression torn between interest and something that looked almost shy. “What are you doing on campus? Another meeting about the purchase?”

  He wondered if she thought—hoped— that he might be here to see her. After all, he had kissed her last night.

  He wanted to again, his body reacting to sensual line of her lips, the fragrance of something fresh and floral that surrounded her, the hint of cleavage he couldn’t help but notice above the V-neckline of her draped top.

  He cleared his throat and managed to remember her question. “Yes. Another meeting.”

  “Is everything still on with that?” For the first time, she sounded slightly hesitant.

  His defenses immediately rose. “Why do you ask?”

  “I don’t know. I just heard a couple of vague things, and I wondered if that was…if that was what had upse—what had bothered you about the message you got Saturday at the park.”

  He registered the word she had first intended to say. He’d known he hadn’t done well at hiding his emotions, but he didn’t like the fact that she’d known how upset he’d been at learning of his brother’s involvement. “I’ve got everything under control.”

  Her expression didn’t really change—and certainly her posture didn’t—but something intangible in her presence seemed to shrink away from him at his cold, distant tone. “Good,” she said lightly. “I’m glad to hear it.”

  She smiled up at him again, but it didn’t seem quite so sincere. “It was good to see you. Maybe I’ll see you around.” Then she walked past him, back toward James Hall.

  Baron stood frozen in place for a moment. This was good. It was what he’d wanted. She’d gotten the message. He could withdraw from her now without incident, without entanglements, without distractions.

  But something stronger, deeper than that inner cringe rose up as he processed her expression and realized that he’d hurt her feelings.

  He’d kissed her last night. And treated her like shit this morning.

  A glimmer of recognition told him this was something he’d done to other women innumerable times before.

  It shouldn’t matter. He needed to break free of this and return to the man he knew himself to be. In control of who he was and what he wanted.

  He turned around. “Leila,” he called out. “Wait.”

  She stopped and turned back, a question on her face.

  “Sorry about that.” He took four steps over so he was beside her again. “I have a bad habit of being an ass sometimes.”

  “I know that.” She peered up at his face, her vivid eyes observant, searching, still slightly distrustful. “So what’s changed?”

  He swallowed, not even close to being able to answer that question. “Maybe I’m not always an ass.”

  For a few seconds, Baron wasn’t sure how she would react. Then she finally broke out into rippling laughter. Holding her pile of papers to her chest with one arm, she patted his chest with the other in a gesture that was both casual and frighteningly intimate. “You’re a very confusing man. Did you know that?”

  “I had my suspicions.”

  She laughed again. Then glanced down at her watch. “Hey, my old dissertation director is on campus this weekend. She’s giving a lunch lecture today. Since you’re interested in my research, you might find the lecture interesting too. You want to come?”

  Baron had a conference call scheduled in a half-hour, and he was supposed to be cutting Leila out of his life completely.

  “Sure,” he said, “Sounds fascinating.”

  About the Author

  Noelle handwrote her first romance novel in a spiral-bound notebook when she was twelve, and she hasn’t stopped writing since. She has lived in eight different states and currently resides in Virginia, where she teaches English, reads any book she can get her hands on, and offers tribute to a very spoiled cocker spaniel.

  She loves travel, art, history, and ice cream. After spending far too many years of her life in graduate school, she has decided to reorient her priorities and focus on writing contemporary romances. For more information, please check out her website: noelle-adams.com

  Table of Contents

  One

  Two

  Three

  Four

  Five

  Six

  Seven

  Eight

  Nine

  Ten

  Eleven

  Twelve

  Thirteen

  Fourteen

  Fifteen

  Sixteen

  Seventeen

  Eighteen

  Nineteen

  Twenty

  Epilogue

  Teaser from Revival (Coming Soon)