Temptation (the Hunted, #1)

The story follows Penny Taylor, a 19-year-old college sophomore who falls into a forbidden relationship with her professor, a wealthy and secretive man concealing a complicated past.

Penny arrives on campus early, hoping to reconnect with Austin, a noncommittal student she dated the previous semester who has been ignoring her calls. While waiting at his favorite coffee shop, a stranger bursts through the door, spills coffee on her shirt, and offers her his gray sweater. Penny is struck by his appearance and assumes he is a graduate student. She rushes to class without learning his name. When she walks into her Comm 212 (Oral Communication in Business) class on Wednesday, she discovers the stranger is Professor James Hunter, her new instructor. He is young, self-deprecating, and disarmingly casual. A classmate named Tyler Stevens, a charismatic Sigma Pi fraternity member, drops a penny on her desk and invites her to a party. After class, Professor Hunter apologizes again for the coffee incident and tells Penny to keep his sweater.

Penny's roommate, Melissa, persuades her to attend a Sigma Pi party. Penny and Tyler drink, dance, and kiss, but when Penny tells him she wants to slow down, Tyler ignores her and pins her hands above her head. Penny knees him in the groin and flees. Stumbling down Main Street in the rain, she runs into Professor Hunter, who gives her his leather jacket and walks her home. At her dorm door, Penny accidentally blurts "It's a date" before rushing inside.

Penny discovers a handwritten note from Professor Hunter in her syllabus containing his personal phone number, asking her to call if she ever needs an escort at night. Their flirtation escalates through increasingly bold text messages and charged in-class exchanges: He shares a dream about waiting in the rain; she describes a recurring dream of a man kissing her under an umbrella. When Penny visits his office, a well-dressed woman interrupts them, calling him "James." Penny assumes the woman, later identified as Professor Keen, is his girlfriend.

Melissa arranges a double date at a restaurant with her new boyfriend, Josh, and Austin. Austin acts attentive, but Penny catches him flirting with other girls and throws water in his face. Austin admits he deliberately ignored her calls all summer, and Penny tells him they are done. She texts Professor Hunter for a ride. He arrives within minutes, tends to her scraped knees, and drives her back to her dorm. In the rain outside her building, he pins her against his car and kisses her passionately, their first kiss, before pulling away and telling her she needs to stop.

The tension reaches a breaking point when Professor Hunter gives Penny a C- on her first speech, though she can see traces of an original A beneath whiteout. She storms into his office, accusing him of changing the grade out of jealousy after Tyler gave a speech clearly referring to Penny. Their argument ignites into passion: Professor Hunter sweeps the contents of his desk to the floor, lifts Penny onto it, and they have sex. He tells her it can only happen once, then leaves for class.

The "just this once" declaration proves empty. Professor Hunter admits he cannot stop thinking about her and takes her to dinner at Hunter Creek Country Club, a venue he owns. Penny learns he is extremely wealthy, having founded and sold a tech startup. He is 27 years old. They discuss exclusivity, and he asks her to stop seeing Tyler. Penny wants to confess that she is only 19, not the 22-year-old senior he assumes her to be, since Comm 212 is typically taken by upperclassmen and she never corrected the assumption. She loses her nerve when he kisses her. The date continues with escalating sexual encounters, and over the following days the relationship deepens further. Professor Hunter takes Penny on her "ideal date" to the beach, where they go skinny-dipping. He brings her to his penthouse apartment, an immaculate but nearly empty space. For the first time, he makes love to her slowly and gently, and Penny silently acknowledges she is in love with him. They discuss past relationships, and he promises not to make her feel worthless the way Austin did.

The next morning, Penny borrows a shirt from Professor Hunter's dresser and accidentally discovers a gold ring inscribed "James & Isabella. 4-30-13." Realizing he is married, she flees his apartment in just his t-shirt and runs barefoot through the rain to her dorm. She researches the Hunters online, finding photographs of a glamorous couple at charity events.

Penny pulls away from Professor Hunter and considers Tyler as an alternative. Melissa draws up a pro-con list comparing Tyler and James; Tyler wins on paper, but Penny's anguish at the thought of choosing him reveals where her heart lies. When Professor Hunter finally gets Penny to talk, he explains that his parents pressured him to marry Isabella, whose family was in their social circle. He married her despite not loving her, and she was unfaithful. He caught Isabella having sex with the dean of his previous university, filed for divorce, and confronted the dean, which explains a rumor about him being fired. Isabella has refused to sign the divorce papers, but he insists they are finished. Penny forgives him.

Her relief is short-lived. Penny discovers a magazine interview in which Isabella claims the couple has "never been happier" and that she plans to decorate their new apartment. The detail matches Professor Hunter's conspicuously bare penthouse. Furious, Penny delivers a rage-fueled speech in class, using marketing as a metaphor for his deception, before storming out. Tyler retrieves Penny's backpack and, while using her phone, sees an incoming call from Professor Hunter. He deduces the truth and tells Penny she is not the person he thought she was.

Professor Hunter comes to Penny's dorm and insists Isabella is lying and the divorce is real. He asks Penny to be his girlfriend, and she tells Melissa the full truth. Melissa is skeptical but supportive. Tyler later confronts Professor Hunter after class, telling him what he is doing is wrong and warning that he knows where the line is, "unlike some of us." Penny worries Tyler may expose them.

Their relationship reaches its most stable point as Professor Hunter fills a section of his closet with clothes for Penny, essentially inviting her to live with him part-time. But Penny knows she must confess her own secret. Sitting on his bed, she tells him she is a 19-year-old sophomore. Professor Hunter is devastated, not primarily by the age gap but by the betrayal of trust. He points out the hypocrisy of her fury over his secrets while she maintained her own lie. When Penny tells him she loves him, he responds that she does not know what love is. He calculates that instead of waiting two semesters for her to graduate, he would now need to wait six. He leaves for a bar where she cannot follow.

Professor Hunter cancels class that Friday. When class resumes, he does not look at Penny once. On her graded speech, however, he has written a personal note saying he is in awe of her passion and feels the same way she does. A postscript in different ink reads that he now understands how she felt and only needs time. The novel closes with Penny sitting alone in the coffee shop where they first met, rereading his note and crying, before walking out into the rain. As the first book in The Hunted Series, it ends with the outcome of their relationship unresolved.