Bending the Rules Read Online Free PDF Page A

the funeral. You're already into her."
    "It's hard not to be." I pulled into the parking lot of the restaurant and shook my head. "Why the hell haven't I noticed this before?"
    "You come from the other direction I bet, and honestly, you're a pretty distracted guy. All those rules running around your head, making you crazy all the time."
    "Really?" I got out of the car and handed him the keys as we walked in.
    The smell of maple syrup caused my stomach to grumble. When was the last time I'd eaten?
    I couldn't remember, which wasn't good.
    We sat down and gave the waitress our drink orders before Damon turned the conversation back to Dana. Something told me that he wasn't going to relent until I made a few promises to get my love life back on track. Sadly enough, she was the only woman I wanted to do that with, and she was officially off limits.
    "So tell me specifically what these rules say. It's the UT code of conduct? Like the exact verbiage."
    "I don't know the exact verbiage, but I know as a professor, I'm not allowed to date any student or another professor on campus. It's pretty simple. She's a student at the college I'm teaching at, and she's off limits." I narrowed my eyes at him, as if I had any hope of intimidating the dick in front of me. He'd been muscling me around since we met a million years ago.
    "So you sneak around." He shrugged and pulled his napkin into his lap. The look on his face said that his idea was not only brilliant, but something we should have thought about already.
    "No." I smiled up at the waitress as she delivered our drink.
    "Yes." Damon shrugged. "It's perfect. There's something so sexy about sneaking around to see the woman you love. I might ask Beth to role play with me, actually. That would be fun."
    I shook my head. "Do you hear yourself? Sneaking around is not at all fun. It's scary."
    "Exhilarating."
    "It's like cheating."
    "It's nothing like cheating." His smile faded. If Damon hated anything, it was a cheat or a liar.
    "How is it not like cheating? Please explain and enlighten me."
    "You and Dana like each other. If your bullshit rules weren't in the way, you'd be dating, right?"
    "Absolutely." I took a tentative sip of my coffee and tried to keep my thoughts on the conversation at hand. It would be so easy to slip off into another daydream about the beautiful Hispanic woman who'd stolen a part of my heart without even trying.
    "Then it's sneaking around the system, Kendal. It's like her being a part of an all-girls school and you wanting into her panties. You sneak around and get what you both want."
    "You're corrupt. You know that?"
    He nodded. "I'm aware."
    "Yes, but does Beth know that?"
    "Absolutely. It's one of the things that she loves most about me." He waved his hand around. "Look, I'm serious about this. You need some light in your life."
    "I have you." I picked up my menu. "It's tainted light, but you're doing a great job."
    "And I'm not going anywhere, but guys like us need a woman, and you know it." He tapped the top of my menu, forcing me to look up.
    "I know, man. It's been a long two years of sleeping alone, but if the lessons from my past have taught me anything, it's this... don't date anyone affiliated with UT. Period."
    "Then let's find you someone else. I'll start looking around."
    "What? No." The thought left my insides tight with disgust.
    "Why not?" He gave me a knowing look.
    "Fuck you too." I glanced back down at my menu. "I'm not sneaking around."
    "Then leave UT and go do something else. Fuck, come work for me. Stop hoping that you'll finally find someone off-campus when you never leave campus."
    "I don't want anyone else, Damon. I want Dana. She has eight months left. I can wait."
    "Right, but can she? Is she willing to? Do you really want eight months of your life to be gone when you finally give in to each other?"
    "I don't know, dude." I slumped down in my chair and let out a long sigh. "After losing Mandy, it feels like being without love and affection