Prologo-------

Prologue
―. . . Miss Swan?‖
The professor‘s velvet voice laved across the seminar room to the brown eyed young woman who was seated at the back. Lost in thought, or lost in translation, her head was down as she scribbled furiously in her notebook.
Ten pairs of eyes swung to her, to the pale face and long lashes, the small, white fingers clutching at a pen. And then ten pairs of eyes swung back to the professor, who stood perfectly still and began to scowl.
―Ahem.‖ A modest cough at her elbow caught the woman‘s attention. She glanced in surprise at the broad shouldered man sitting next to her. He smiled softly, and then flicked his eyes to his right, back to the professor.
She followed his gaze slowly, and then looked up through her lashes into a pair of angry, peering green eyes. She swallowed noisily.
―I expect an answer to my question, Miss Swan. If you‟d care to join us.‖ His voice was ice cold.
The other graduate students shifted in their seats and stole furtive glances at one another. Their expressions said, ―What crawled up his ass?‖ but they said nothing.
The young woman opened her mouth minutely and then closed it, her eyes wide as she stared into those unblinking green eyes, like a frightened rabbit.
―Is English your first language?‖ He mocked her.
A dark haired beauty seated at his right hand tried to stifle a laugh, smothering it into an unconvincing cough.
All eyes shifted back to the frightened rabbit, whose skin exploded into crimson, as she ducked her head, finally escaping the professor‘s gaze.
―Since Miss Swan seems to be carrying on a parallel seminar in a different language, perhaps someone else would be kind enough to answer my question?‖
The dark haired beauty was only too eager. She turned her body to face him and beamed as she answered his question in great detail, making a show of herself by using her hands as she quoted Dante in Italian. When she had finished, she smiled acidly at the back of the room and then proceeded to gaze up at the bronze haired professor and sigh. All that was lacking from her display was a quick leap to the floor and a rubbing of her back onto his leg to show that she would be his kitten forever.
Not that he would have appreciated the gesture.
The professor scowled almost imperceptibly at no one in particular and turned his back to write on the board.
The frightened rabbit blinked back tears as she continued scribbling, but mercifully did not cry.
A few minutes later, as the professor droned on and on about the conflict between the Guelfs and the Ghibellines, a small square of folded white paper appeared on top of the frightened rabbit‘s Italian dictionary.
At first she didn‘t notice it, but once again, a soft Ahem drew her attention to the good-looking man beside her. He smiled more widely this time, almost eagerly, and glanced down at the paper.
She noticed it and blinked at him.
Carefully watching the back of the professor as he drew endless circles around endless Italian words on the board, she brought the paper to her lap where she quietly unfolded it under the table.
-
Masen is an ass.
-
No one would have noticed because no one was looking at her at the back of the room, but he noticed. As soon as she read those words, a different kind of flush appeared on her face, two pink clouds on the curve of her cheeks and she smiled. Not enough to show teeth, or what could be dimples, or a laugh line or two, but a smile, nonetheless.
She raised her large, chocolate brown eyes to the man and looked at him shyly. A wide, friendly grin spread across his face.
―Something funny, Miss Swan?‖
Her brown eyes dilated in terror. Her new friend‘s smile quickly disappeared as he turned to look at the professor.
She knew better than to look up at his green eyes now. Now she put her head down, and worried her plump, lower lip between her teeth, back and forth and back and forth.
―It was my fault, Professor. I was just asking what page we were on.‖
―Hardly an appropriate question from a doctoral student, Peter. But since you asked, we began at the beginning. I trust you can find it without Miss Swan‘s help. Oh, and Miss Swan?‖
The frightened rabbit‘s pony tail trembled ever so slightly as she brought her eyes up.
―See me in my office after class. Immediately.‖