by Marian Tee
Anytime now, he thought. Three, two—
“It’s your fault,” Kassia burst out.
The possessive thread in her voice was beautiful to hear, but the misery in her gaze slayed him. He softened against his better wishes, and instead of disciplining her, as he had meant to do, he found himself wanting to comfort her instead.
He reached for her, using just the smallest fraction of his Lyccan power as he yanked Kassia to him. She gasped as she stumbled onto him, and he immediately caught her lips in a kiss.
She gasped again, her lips parting, and he promptly slid his tongue inside her mouth. This time, he didn’t bother to be sweet or gentle. He kissed her with possession in mind, kissed her to remind Kassia whose property she was. It took only another second before she surrendered to him, her tongue mating with his, her hands clutching his shoulders to keep her balance.
When he pulled away, the dreamy look on her face and her kiss-swollen lips filled Alessandro with the most intense form of satisfaction. It was almost frightening – if he felt this good about kissing her now, how much more possessive would he be once he had claimed her body?
Kassia chose that moment to try pulling away, and his attention went back to her. She was sulking again, the pouting shape of her lips unmistakable. “Enlighten me,” he said coaxingly. “What do you think is my fault?”
“You were smiling!” She paused right after, her cheeks flushing. It was as if she, too, realized the absurdity of her words.
“Smiling?” He was more amused than puzzled, but he did his best not to show it.
She pointed accusingly at his mouth. “Like that!”
His lips curved more widely.
Kassia released a gasp of outrage. “Exactly that!” She glared at him. “You’re not supposed to be smiling at any girl like that. You’re not supposed to be flirting with anyone—”
He cut her off, asking, “Whom am I supposed to flirt with then?”
Her eyes narrowed, as if she wasn’t quite sure his words posed a trick question.
Alessandro returned her suspicious gaze with a lift of his eyebrow.
She said finally, “Me.” The next words came out in a mumble that was both determined and embarrassed. “You’re only supposed to be flirting with me.”
And if it had been any girl who said that, he would have dumped her on the spot.
But it wasn’t any other girl.
It was Kassia, and for some reason, he saw her as different from everyone else.
Her lips were pursed again, and her gaze was a mix of resentment and misery. This time, he traced her lips to soften it, murmuring, “Stop sulking.”
“I’m not sulking.”
“You are.” He kissed the corner of her lip, and as she gasped at the unexpected contact, he whispered, “You’re sulking because you’re jealous...” Pulling away, he looked into her eyes and said simply, “But you don’t have any reason to be.”
It was the most assurance he had given any woman, but his young jealous chick refused to believe him. “I don’t like it when you flirt.” A tone that was both mulish and hurt, and because it was so, the wolf and man in him made Alessandro want to eat her up.
“I wasn’t flirting.” His voice was mild, but his touch was bold, his fingers stroking the slender column of her throat.
As he started drawing an invisible line on her body, his fingers moving past her throat and towards the valley between her heaving breasts, he heard her say, “Well, she was flirting with you.” Her tone was a little breathless now, but still with a thread of hurt and jealousy that he found so damn irresistible.
“I can’t even think of who you’re talking about.” It was the truth, and Alessandro privately thought it was proof of her sheer inexperience that she could even think he was interested in any other woman but her.
“How can you not?” A frown lined her forehead at his words, and he was tempted to kiss it away even though he knew he was undoubtedly the cause of it.
He said patiently, “But I don’t—”
“Natalie Creswell!”
“Ah.”
“That’s all you’re going to say?” she cried out.
He tightened his hold on her when she tried to pull away. “Be still,” he commanded.
She did so, but the fiery glint in her eyes told him she wasn’t happy about it.
Ah, fuck.
Her defiance would be the death of him, the way it had his cock ruling his mind. Right now, all he could think of was fucking her, but of course he couldn’t, and it wasn’t just because it wasn’t the right time or place.
She wasn’t ready yet, and until she was, his honor forbade him from doing anything.
“Forget about that twit.”
Her eyes widened, as if she couldn’t believe he had used the word to describe the other girl.
It almost made Alessandro shake his head. Foolish little chick. Did she really think he could be so easily swayed by a girl opening her legs for him? Thousands had done more to seduce him, and he had never been tempted by any of them.
“Forget about all the other girls,” he continued. “I don’t and will never find them desirable.” He looked straight into her eyes. “You’re the only one I want to fuck.”
She gasped, her lips parting in silent surprise. A moment later, and her shock turned into delirious joy.
Silly little chick, he thought. She was so damnably easy to distract, and it was a quality he strangely found endearing.
Kassia was gazing at him dreamily now. “You really mean it?”
He said right away, “Of course, darling.” He stroked her cheek. “And I will fuck you. Hard. Harder than you’ve ever dreamt of me fucking you.” Her heartbeat started to race at his words, his acute hearing picking up on it. “I’ll fuck you in every way you want me to and more. I’ll fuck you the entire night and the day after that.” She was wetting her lip now, her eyes cloudy with arousal, and goddammit, but it made him want to laugh and fuck her at the same time.
“By the time we end, you won’t be able to think of anything but my cock.”
“Your cock,” she echoed dreamily, her body swaying towards him now. “Your twelve-inch cock.”
Alessandro almost smiled. “Yes,” he purred at her. “All twelve inches would be yours…”
Her body swayed closer to his.
He let the penny drop. “But only if you pass.”
She froze.
His smile turned into a smirk, and his voice was silky when he asked, “Surely you have not forgotten about our bargain, Ms. Summers?”
She only blinked at him.
His gaze narrowed. There was something about that look in her eyes…
“Kassia…”
“Umm…”
“Don’t you fucking tell me you’re really in danger of failing those two subjects?”
She stepped back from him. “Well…”
Alessandro was exasperated. “Do you want me to fuck you or not?” And was he seriously asking that question?
Kassia was nodding vehemently. “I do, Professor. I still want to fuck you.”
The earnest response made him want to groan. Goddammit, how could this girl be so innocent and seductive at the same time? Looking back at her, he saw the way she was tugging the tips of her strawberry blonde locks and knew the worst was far from over. “Spill it,” he said grimly.
She tried to prevaricate, asking, “Spill what?”
“Kassia…”
His warning tone made her gulp. “Well, the thing is, I really tried to study last night, but all I could think about was…umm, never mind about what I was thinking.”
But her blushes spoke for her, and he knew exactly what she had been thinking.
“Anyway, I was thinking, the only way I can pass now is if…” She took a deep breath. “Could I drop by your place, Professor, and have you tutor me privately?”
****
Hours later, Kassia was sliding into the passenger seat of the professor’s sports car.
He closed the door after her, and when he joined her inside she said nervously, “You have a beautiful car, Professor.” It was such a lame thing to say, especially since she didn’t actually know what kind of car the professor’s was. But she said it anyway, just to give her something else to hear besides the loud erratic sound of her heartbeat.
As the professor started the car and drove out of the school’s parking lot, Kassia found herself babbling even more.
“Thank you for agreeing to tutor me.”
Crickets.
“I hope I won’t be a bother to anyone. I mean, if you’re living with anyone in your place.”
Still crickets.
“And, umm, you don’t have to worry about where I should sleep or anything. I’m not picky, and I’m used to roughing it since my grandparents and I love to go camping every spring break.”
More crickets.
“I think I should sing a song,” Kassia blurted out. Anything was better than this too-awkward silence, she told herself. Anything. And so she opened her mouth and started to sing. A country song, of course, because she was proud of her roots.
Alessandro almost gaped at his passenger as the most god-awful sound on earth filled his car. What. The. Fuck? Who would ever have thought that someone as angelic-looking as Kassia would have a voice like, well, a squealing pig?
It literally hurt to listen to her, and if he weren’t so bent on keeping his distance from Kassia, he would have told her so. But since he was, Alessandro simply gritted his teeth and told himself to bear it. He mustn’t talk to her, mustn’t let her get too comfortable under his skin.
Even now, he wasn’t quite sure how Kassia had ended up having her way. All he knew was that allowing Kassia to spend the night in his place was madness, but it was a folly he hadn’t been able to resist.
Beside him, Kassia was still singing, and it had only gotten worse in the past ten seconds. He waited for the urge to throw her out of the car to come, but it didn’t. Instead, he found himself wanting to shut her up…with a kiss.
The thought had Alessandro gritting his teeth some more, his fingers gripping the wheel more tightly. What. The. Fuck. Was. Wrong. With. Him?
A sly voice inside his mind taunted him about déjà vu. Perhaps this was how it started with his older brother and his wife?
Alessandro rejected the thought as soon as it occurred to him. Fuck no. He was taking Kassia home with him because he was in lust with her.
But then, the sly voice continued, why is Kassia the only girl you’ve taken to your home? Why nobody else?
Because…because it was all part of the plan, the answer to the challenge his older brother had thrown at Alessandro. Kassia was the woman he needed but hadn’t bothered to look for, the one to make Domenico Moretti stop acting like a lovesick fool and return to being the alpha of their clan.
That was it. Just that.
She was nothing more than a means to an end, never mind if she also got him talking to himself.
Kassia started in her seat when she heard the professor mutter an expletive under his breath. It was uncommon for the professor, and she paled at the sound. Knowing that there could only be one reason for it, she forced herself to adopt a lighthearted tone as she asked, “Do you want to turn the car around?”
The professor stiffened. “Have you forgotten something at school?”
“No.” She lifted her chin. “But I think you’re being too quiet, and I d-don’t like the idea that I’m forcing myself on you.”
The professor gazed at her broodingly.
Kassia started to panic. Oh, no, no. Hell no. She averted her gaze, warning him shakily, “Don’t think that’s going to work on me.” And it wasn’t, she told herself firmly, even if she was still trying to catch her breath right now.
Alessandro patiently waited for the lights to turn red before asking, “What are you talking about?”
Ha! Did he really think he could fool her that easily? I’m on to you, Professor, Kassia thought. She wasn’t going to let herself be swayed by that mysteriously brooding air about him, wasn’t going to give in an inch even if he had the whole James Dean thing down pat.
Alessandro watched Kassia sneak a glance at him before quickly averting her gaze again.
“Sneaky, Professor, very sneaky,” Kassia muttered.
Alessandro didn’t even know how to answer that. “Will you please explain what you’re talking—”
Kassia cut him off with a snort. “Stop pretending, Professor. It’s not going to work.”
This time, he didn’t bother hiding his exasperation. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“That. All that.” She gestured to the professor, head to bottom, without looking at him. “I’m on to you, Professor. Even though your brooding good looks are making me feel like I have asthma, I’m not going to let it work.”
Her words were starting to make sense. In a crazy way, but at least he was finally seeing things from her point of view, and once he did, Alessandro’s lips started to twitch. “Are you saying,” he said slowly, “that my, err, brooding looks can make you do anything?”
“Hmph.”
He waited patiently, driving in silence until they reached the gates of the Moretti compound. Knowing he had a few minutes while personnel worked on verifying his identity and scanning his vehicle for any possible threat, Alessandro turned to Kassia and decided to put his theory to the test.
Kassia jumped in her seat when she felt the professor’s hands settle on her shoulders. What the—
But she was already being spun around to face him.
Alessandro looked into his student’s eyes…and brooded.
Aaaaaaah!
The full force of the professor’s brooding looks was too much.
Kassia quickly covered her eyes, crying out, “Unfair!”
He burst into laughter. “God, Kassia…” He cupped her face and, ignoring her half-hearted struggles, he pulled her to his lap and kissed her. He kissed her open-mouthed to let her know how much she turned him on, kissed her hard so she would know he considered her his property, kissed her hungrily so that she would also know he was a slave as much as she was to the passion burning between them.
The kiss swept all common sense away, leaving Kassia with nothing to do but surrender to the professor’s touch. She kissed him back, shyly but with the same amount of hunger, and she didn’t notice at all that the professor had started driving until she heard the gates outside the car swing open and she felt the car start to move.
She immediately tried to get off his lap, but the professor only said, “Stay.” His voice was a quiet command, and she acquiesced, mostly because she loved the feeling of being commanded. She couldn’t explain why, she only knew that it was how she truly felt.
Another set of gates were ahead of them, and unlike the previous ones, there was nothing opulently beautiful about it. No family surname carved on the top, no scrollwork, no anything except fortified metal that seemed more like it belonged to a military fort than a mansion belonging to one of the Fortune 500 families.
“The gates seem bulletproof,” she murmured.
“It is,” the professor confirmed in a casual voice.
She gulped but told herself that there was nothing wrong about it. Maybe rich people were just quietly paranoid like that.
As the professor’s sports car sped further down a winding driveway, Kassia’s curiosity knew no bounds when she saw men marching, dressed in what seemed like private combat uniforms. “Are they soldiers?”
“Bodyguards.”
Oh. Well, that told her then. The rich were indeed a paranoid bunch. She didn’t ask much after that, finding herself intimidated by everything about the professor’s…place. The entire property was just too vast to be called a home.
With Kassia so close to him, Alessandro could not only hear her heartbeat, he could practically feel it, too, the way her heart slammed against her chest with each beat. She was nervous, and it was…cute of her. Before he
knew what he was doing, he was already asking – hell, he was teasing her – with a barely suppressed smile, “Are you nervous?”
“Nope.”
He smirked at her high-pitched tone. “You asked for this, remember?” But his smirk disappeared right away when his words made Kassia twist around to face him, causing her to wriggle on his lap and waking his cock.
Alessandro bit back a groan.
Kassia was making a face at him. “I wouldn’t have asked if I had known you lived in Fort Knox.”
Unable to stop himself from responding to the genuine worry darkening her eyes, Alessandro slowed the car to a stop before pressing a kiss to her nose. “Everything will be fine.”
The quiet assurance in the professor’s voice relaxed her, but then the door on the driver’s side suddenly opened, and she found herself face to face with a composed-looking man in uniform.
“Mr. Moretti, mademoiselle,” the man murmured, his face remaining stoic even at the sight of Kassia on the professor’s lap.
“Ronnie,” the professor returned the greeting calmly. He tightened his hold on Kassia when she tried to get off his lap again. “Let me help you down.” No sooner had he said it than he was already stepping out of the car, Kassia still in his arms. He lifted her up, princess-style, stepping aside to let his retainer close the door to the car before slowly allowing Kassia to slide to her feet.
The moment her feet touched the ground, she didn’t waste any time, trying to put a little more distance between them, but again the professor didn’t let her. His hand captured hers, and firmly pulling her to his side, he held her to him while he made the two of them face Ronnie.
“I’ll take care of this, sir,” Ronnie said, accepting the keys from Alessandro.
“Ms. Summers also has her belongings inside. Make sure it’s delivered to my study, please.”
“Yes, sir.”
The entire exchange was conducted in such a business-like manner it was almost like listening to a general rap out commands to his soldiers. It was very…surreal, and even that felt like an understatement. Looking around her didn’t help since everything seemed more surreal up close. The professor’s home was a three-story complex with a stark white façade. Like the rest of the “place,” the building looked more like it belonged to a CIA agent than one of the world’s most eligible bachelors.
