“Then—”

  “She was a virgin.”

  He was quiet for a second. “So?”

  “So she left me to get cleaned up and never came back.”

  “Again, so? If it’s a quickie that she was into, even if it was her first time, what’s wrong with that? I mean, your first time was quick. I bet you were a two-pump chump with Brittney Mendez.”

  He wasn’t too far off but I wasn’t going to tell him about my youthful performance. Instead, I said, “Fucker.”

  “I don’t understand what the problem is.”

  Yeah, why was I so pissed about being stood up? We’d both gotten what we’d wanted. It had to have been pretty uncomfortable for her because I hadn’t gone slow, yet she’d still come.

  “You should have seen her. She’s fucking gorgeous. Red hair. Curves for miles. Passionate. A tiger when she gets going. Once wasn’t enough.” I dropped into my desk chair, swiveled it to stare out the window. My view was of campus and the Bridger mountains in the distance. That was a problem in itself. Once was always enough for me. Even with Brittney Mendez. I didn’t do relationships with women. Or love.

  While I’d kept up with my siblings since I was the only one who didn’t live on or near the ranch, I was just reconnecting with North, South, and West in ways we never had before. Without Macon fucking with all of us, we were free to be… normal. To hang out and be a real family and it was something we all wanted. We didn’t have to tiptoe around Macon and his shit.

  But a woman? Short term attraction and ball emptying were my only requirements. Until now. Frowning, I said, “She ran out and left me with only her panties. It’s like it never happened.”

  He laughed. “Did she have little mice and forest creatures scurrying around her?”

  “What the hell are you talking about?” I snarled. I hated when he fucked with me. I was trying to be serious and he was talking shit I didn’t even understand.

  “Did the clock strike midnight when she ran out? What’s her name?”

  “Ella.”

  His laugh got deeper and went on longer. “Now you’re fucking with me.”

  “Whatever. I’m glad you’re finding this funny,” I muttered over him.

  “Let me get this straight. You had fun at the ball with a beautiful woman who left you with nothing but her panties to track her down. And her name is Ella.”

  “Right. Except for the ball part. It was at the bar.”

  “I guess you’re going to have to put those panties on every woman you meet to see if the panties fit perfectly.”

  “Are you insane?”

  “Are you stupid?” he countered. “Good thing you’re a math professor instead of English. Ever heard of Cinderella?”

  I pushed back in my chair, set my feet on my windowsill. “Oh shit, that’s fucking crazy.”

  “If you want to see her again, then I’m sure you will. It happened for the prince, and he had his happily ever after.”

  “I don’t want a happily ever after,” I snarled. I wanted more of Ella. To find out what got her hot, got her off, then give it to her.

  “Then what the hell’s the matter?”

  “I haven’t told you the problem yet.”

  “There’s an actual problem? How hard did you get hit the other night?”

  “I don’t have to go searching for her. I’m covering for a fellow professor on maternity leave. Turns out Ella’s now one of my students. Which means I can’t touch her.”

  When West didn’t stop laughing this time, I hung up on him.

  3

  ELLA

  * * *

  I fled the building as soon as class was over. Not only because I had thirty minutes to get to work, but I couldn’t spend another minute eye fucking my professor. How had I never seen him at school before? I’d taken a math class freshman year, but not since. I was a sociology major and spent most of my time in a different building. What were the chances of him being the sub?

  Why now? Why the day after I picked him out of a bar and propositioned the pants off him?

  Why didn’t he do a statistics problem about that?

  The entire time I’d sorted and loaded boxes and packages at my job—I worked the swing shift in a shipping warehouse by the airport—I’d expected a call or an email from the university, telling me I’d been kicked out. That I’d been a hussy with a professor which was against the rules.

  Was it?

  Of course it was. I couldn’t sleep my way to an A.

  It wasn’t against the law. I was well over eighteen and Dr. Wainright couldn’t be more than thirty. We were consenting adults, but teacher-student relationships?

  I needed my scholarship. If I got kicked out, or even reprimanded because of a temporary professor of a math elective and I lost that money, my degree would be gone. All that hard work down the toilet. Everything I longed for… poof. Over.

  My fingers shook as I worked and I only hoped I’d focused enough to have loaded the trucks correctly. I’d definitely get fired if things ended up on a flight out of town headed to the wrong city.

  That panic had kept me tossing and turning. Expelled from college and fired. It was so easy for both of those things to happen. It was like I was spinning plates and if I let one thing fall...

  Was I irrational? Probably. I’d been killing myself to get where I was. Close to graduation, all lined up to transition to the master’s program for social work. I was right on track with my dream job. No, it wouldn’t make me rich, but I’d be paid. Settled. Helping others through a rough time just like I’d had.

  I couldn’t derail it now for anything. Not even a man. Especially not a man.

  No matter how much I wanted, I couldn’t skip this class. I needed it for graduation. That meant the next day I slunk in, settled into the back row this time, sweating and losing my shit all the while he—Dr. Wainright—completed another complicated problem about predicting the first snow date of the season. Taking notes was easy. I wrote the shit out of the topic directly off the white board. It was far easier than staring at the man who’d made me orgasm all over his dick.

  This morning I’d run into Leah and Lynn, who’d wanted to know all the details about the other night, every naughty one. As I poured some cereal in a bowl, I’d told them it hadn’t worked out, that while the guy was hot, I hadn’t been able to go through with it. They bought it since I was not only introverted but had no time for extracurricular fun. Telling them I’d actually had a quickie in a bar would have been more surprising.

  More importantly, there was no way I could tell them he was my fill-in professor. I couldn’t risk a peep of what went down spreading across campus. Fortunately, they were all in different majors, none of them math. Leah was in Economics, Sarah in Psychology, and Lynn in Spanish. I doubted they ever came in this specific building and if I hadn’t seen Dr. Wainright before, then I was sure they hadn’t. They hadn’t said anything about knowing who he was at the bar. Or any time after, thankfully.

  When class was over, I packed my bag like everyone else. Before I could duck out, my name was called. “Miss Taynor.”

  My heart leapt up into my throat and I turned in the doorway, stepping back to let the other students pass as I looked to him.

  “I need to speak with you a moment.” He was still behind the podium, hands in pockets. Relaxed.

  Swallowing hard, I started to shut the door.

  “Leave it open, please.”

  I nodded, then joined him at the front of the room. I worried the strap of my bag and tried to stand still. Tears pricked my eyes, but I willed them back.

  He flicked his gaze over my shoulder, then said, “About the other night. Are you o—”

  “Am I being kicked out?” I asked, cutting him off. I had to know.

  He frowned and studied me. My jeans and university sweatshirt weren’t as cute as my outfit from the bar. I was only wearing lip gloss and my hair was pulled back in a ponytail. “What?”

  I stared down at the metal trash can beside the podium. I couldn’t look him in the eye. Cowardly, yes, but I just couldn’t do it.

  “I’m twenty-five credits from graduation,” I explained. “If I’m kicked out now it’ll kill my chances of getting into the grad program. I know I approached you and all, but I need this class to stay—”

  He shook his head. “You’re not kicked out, although I should.”

  My cheeks heated and I wanted to puke.

  I looked him in the eye. He was watching me intently, although I couldn’t read his expression. His jaw ticked, but otherwise to anyone passing by in the hallway who looked in, would see two people casually chatting.

  “You should kick me out? I offered for you to pretend. God, this is why I don’t get involved with men. You hold all the power. You could destroy my life all because of some stupid prank, which wasn’t even really anything.”

  My lip was trembling, and I took shallow breaths to try and calm down.

  His eyes assessed me, moving over my face. “I meant I should reassign you to a different teacher, but it wasn’t my class to begin with and I’m only temporary, finishing off the semester.”

  Well, fuck.

  “Actually, you’re the one with all the control here,” he continued. He still had the little cut above his brow, but the bandage was gone and it had healed some. “You could complain to the dean, and I’d probably be the one in trouble, at the least reprimanded. I might be in the position of power, but you hold it all.”

  He pulled his hands from his pockets and moved from the dais to stand before me. There was an obvious space between us where he couldn’t span and touch me. He wore tan pants that fit his larger frame all too well. The cotton was taut over his thighs. A pale blue button up matched his eyes and the sleeves were rolled up showing off his forearms and hands he’d used to make me come.

  “I need this class to graduate,” I whispered.

  “We have done nothing wrong,” he said. “If it came before the dean, which it won’t, she couldn’t argue it happened while I was your teacher. We were strangers before the other night and I was randomly chosen to fill in for Dr. Newburgh. It appears you agree with that.”

  I could only nod.

  “No matter what I wish to do with you, the only thing I can be is your teacher, and I don’t mean in the art of fucking.”

  My mouth fell open and my pussy clenched. Had I understood him properly? Should I be taking notes?

  “You—”

  Yeah, I couldn’t get out more than that. I remembered where we were and I glanced over my shoulder. No one was in the room and even the hallway was quiet. We were alone, but not inappropriately so.

  “You ditched me,” he said.

  I hadn’t expected explaining myself to him, but here we were. “I only wanted you to pretend.”

  The corner of his mouth tipped up, the first time I saw any real reaction.

  “Neither of us ended up pretending, did we? No way could you fake that orgasm, the way your newly-opened pussy rippled around me.”

  I gasped, because… wow. He was a dirty talker.

  “You can’t talk like that,” I hissed, not because I didn’t like it, but because I did.

  “Don’t get all prudish on me. Not after how passionate you were. You were safe with me the other night and you’re safe with me now. It will be our secret. I have no choice but to remain professional when I want to be anything but.”

  I blinked, although that didn’t make me hear him better. “You… you want… more?”

  He ran a hand over his face. “I wanted you to go home with me. Now I shall have to wait.”

  “Wait?”

  “December tenth.”

  I frowned. “December?”

  That was weeks away.

  “The day classes end, doll. The day I will no longer be your professor and I can give us both what we want.”

  4

  EAST

  * * *

  What the hell had I told her? I was going to wait? For almost two months? I’d made it four days and I was losing my mind. It seemed my balls had started to do the talking for me because seeing Ella up close, having her sit in the same seat in the third row—she’d settled into that spot after one day in the nosebleed section—was too fucking much for me. I had to pretend she wasn’t in the class just to keep my dick down and to stay on topic. Yeah, that pretending shit was what got me into this situation in the first place.

  After our little post-class chat earlier in the week, Ella had left, hurrying off she’d said so she wasn’t late for work. Since then, she’d come to class and hadn’t looked up from her notetaking once.

  Even the top of her auburn head was the hottest thing I’d ever seen. I couldn’t get her out of my mind. I hadn’t called West since I’d hung up on him. All he’d do was laugh some more. If I couldn’t release this pent-up need through fucking, I did it through fighting. I spent more time at the gym sparring until I was beyond exhausted. My opponents had more bruises than usual.

  There wasn’t anything different about her than the other students. She blended in, going casual in jeans and sweaters or sweatshirts. Sneakers or boots. Laptop open. She hadn’t answered any questions yet, but I hadn’t tossed too many out there. I wasn’t the most seasoned of teachers—only joining the math tenure track two years ago—but I had my rhythm and knew everyone needed a few days to warm up, to settle into the groove of a new professor, especially in this situation when I took over late in the semester. Statistics was more topic and problem driven than open discussion. Thankfully, I stared at the white board more than the students.

  It was a struggle to glimpse those lush curves I’d gripped, the long line of her neck when her hair was pulled up in a bun on the top of her head.

  I wanted another round with her in Mike’s office. No, in my bed. That was impossible. There wasn’t an official no-fraternization policy, but it was frowned upon. I’d asked. Casually. Hypothetically.

  It was the fact that I had to wait weeks to have her. I was a fucking caveman knowing I was the only guy who’d been with her. I needed her like a drug addict needed another fix. I didn’t even dig deep into the why of that. All I knew was that this need for her would burn out after we fucked. A few times. A weekend.

  Then we could move on. But no. No. I had to have blue balls for the rest of the semester.

  What kept me sane was reminding myself I didn’t do relationships. I just needed to work her out of my system. She had the most amazing pussy, but it wasn’t that powerful.

  “Dr. Wainright.”

  I was sitting in my desk chair, feet up and staring out the window. Again.

  I spun around at the voice. Valerie, the department PA, stood in my open office doorway. She’d started working at the university when I’d been in middle school, so I deferred to her expertise on most things administrative. She handled all of the department’s professors. Our schedules around classes and office hours. I thought of her as North’s Julian, although I doubted she’d sleep with Macon or try to kill anyone like Julian had.

  I popped to my feet because Valerie wasn’t alone. Besider her was— “Miss Taynor.”

  Ella held onto her backpack strap in a grip so tight her knuckles were white. Her green eyes met mine… for just a moment, then flicked away.

  It was a warm day for October and she had on a green sweater, a jean skirt and those cowboy boots she’d had on that night at the bar. She looked… good enough to bend over my desk and push the denim up around her waist. Spank her ass for being impossible to resist.

  Inwardly, I groaned.

  I blinked, looked to Valerie and hoped to God she didn’t pick up on the fact that I was a total idiot lusting after my student.

  “I’m introducing Ella around, although I forgot she’s in your stats class,” the older woman said. “She’s picked up a work/study program here in the Math office. Six hours a week.”

  I nodded at the right moments, but internally I was rubbing my hands together in glee. I’d be able to consistently see Ella outside of class. Talk with her. Watch her. Get to know her.

  Get to know her? Why had I even thought that? The only knowing I wanted to do was if she liked to have her ass played with or if she had a gag reflex.

  “Good,” I said finally, my voice a little rough. I cleared my throat. “Welcome.”

  Ella nodded and stepped back and turned to move down the hall and onto the next introduction.

  “If she’s not busy now, I have some copies to make for that grant proposal,” I said to Valerie.

  Her salt and pepper eyebrow winged up as I had yet to use any work/study resources in the past. I wasn’t a needy professor and I was younger than most of my peers and knew how to use a computer and a printer and social media.

  “Great, then you can show her how to use the copier,” Valerie said with a smirk.

  She thought she was getting the upper hand, pushing the complicated duty of explaining the passcode access system of the copier onto me. Little did she know she was sanctioning alone time with Ella in a small copy room.

  “I’ll show you where you can store your bag, Ella,” Valerie said, herding her away and toward the department’s central room where Valerie’s desk was, as well as several other unassigned ones used for tutor times and work/study resources.

  I spun on my heel to face the window again and shifted my dick in my jeans, willing it to remain a semi.

  Macon. Think of Macon.

  Yeah, that worked.

  I ran a hand through my hair and took a calming breath. “Get your shit together,” I whispered to myself. I had a big fucking problem if this was how I was going to react to having Ella nearby.

  Shaking my head, I grabbed the folder out of my desk drawer that held my notes for the grant proposal I’d been working on.

  I didn’t see Ella in the doorway since I was facing away, but I felt her there.

  Yeah, I was fucked.

  I pasted on a smile. Pretended I wasn’t lusting after her, then approached.

  “The copy room is down the hall,” I directed, keeping my voice neutral and my hands to myself.

 

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