"Jo Ann, what are you talking about?" he snapped. "You're an 'A' student and you know it."

"Nevertheless, like Marilyn, I want to assure myself of getting that highest possible mark… "

"Cut it out," he angrily retorted. "You're just a kid. You have a lot of years before you begin to so much as think of something like that. You ought to be ashamed… "

"Dr. Joseph, I'm still a virgin," she said blandly. "To be frank, I find being a virgin very uncomfortable, at best. But I'm not going to find some inexperienced jerk my own age, or even a little older, and let him fumble around with me, hurting me. No, it has to be someone who really knows what it's all about. I decided it has to be you."

"Don't be ridiculous," he insisted. "There are laws… "

"I don't care about the laws," she insisted. "You're smart enough to find a way around them. Besides, no one has to know except me and you."

"You and I," he corrected.

"See," she told him. "I have to make sure of my 'A'."

He looked at her, aware for the first time that though her body was young, her conniving mind was more intelligent than many of the girls he had laid over the past few years. Admittedly, she had a hot little body, and the idea of scoring with a girl this young had always been a secret obsession of his. Until now, he had always controlled himself, satisfying himself with the older students and the female faculty members who appealed to him from time to time.

"Suppose I refuse?" he asked. "What are you going to do?"

"Me?" she asked. "I wouldn't do a thing. But I also won't tell you how I found out about Marilyn Kase and you, and how others, in the future, might find out about other affairs you might have."

It was a kind of negative blackmail. She wasn't threatening to expose him in any way, but at the same time he knew if she had found out about himself and Marilyn Kase, there had to be some kind of leak somewhere. Marilyn wasn't the kind of girl to blab about it, and neither was she the kind to talk in her sleep. There was definitely a leak, and Jo Ann was hinting that if she had found out, it was possible for other girls to find out, and worse, for parents to find out. His career as a teacher and dean might come to an abrupt end.