by Lola Taylor
He stopped abruptly, his mouth hovering over my own. Time froze as we stared at each other, panting and hearts beating fast.
As if coming to his senses, he blinked hard and slowly let go of me. He cleared his throat and ran a hand through his hair. “So, um, you see, that’s how you initiate a proper seduction.”
My shoulders fell. I didn’t know if I wanted to scream or cry or both. “Sure. Thanks. That helped a lot.”
His smile was tight. “That’s all for tonight. I don’t want to overwhelm you before you’ve even really begun. You should get back to your dorm before curfew.”
Disappointment stung me. “Oh, right.”
I started to go, still horny as hell, when I paused at the door. “Hector?”
His gaze shot up. “Yes?”
“I…” I “what” exactly? Want you? More than I’ve ever wanted anything or anyone in my life?
That was ridiculous. I barely even knew him. Yet I couldn’t deny I’d never felt this much of a pull toward anyone in my life.
My mom, a hopeless romantic, had been a firm believer in love at first sight. Now, I’d seen a lot of “lust at first sight,” which I had definitely experienced, but this felt different. It felt deeper than lust, akin to finding a soul that spoke to my own.
It scared the hell out of me, wanting someone this bad.
“Um, have a good night,” I said instead, smiling like an idiot as I closed the door and all but ran down the hall.
My breaths came in hard pants. Stupid, Sally! Why are you running away?
Well, honestly, what else could I do? Declare my undying love for a man I had known all of three days? Granted, Hector was probably used to such declarations, but he would still surely view me as a nutjob and possibly put a restraining order on my ass.
Yet as I walked, I couldn’t stop myself from replaying the way his hands had roved over my body, and the undeniable spark in his touch. More than that, I’d seen it, the want in his eyes as he looked me over.
Maybe I had imagined it, but there was a large part of me that argued I hadn’t.
That there was more between us than I was brave enough to admit.
Chapter 8
I COULDN’T GET HECTOR out of my mind after that.
He was everywhere - my dreams, my thoughts, that cinnamon scent refusing to leave my mind.
He was also unusually distant after that initial lesson. To my immense disappointment, I’d had nothing but heavy reading and video tape assignments of watching more adept succubi’s techniques and breaking down what makes them good at the game of sex. Not one touch, kiss, or caress. I nearly had to cuff myself to his desk to keep from running my hands through his hair or over his chest. And something about the cold treatment only made me want him more.
By week three, I could hardly stand to be in the same room with him, I wanted to jump him so badly.
It was a Friday night. I was in my room, staring at the TV. Realizing I had spaced out into another Hector sexual fantasy that involved hot oil, and that I hadn’t paid attention to the screen, I groaned. You have got to stop thinking about your teacher this way! He’s already made it clear he doesn’t want you like that. Forget about that night. It was only for teaching purposes.
Then why had it felt so real? Why did his touch awaken something in me, something I thought had been irrevocably broken?
Bored out of my mind while watching yet another homemade porno, courtesy a la Vixens, I paused the DVD with a frustrated sigh and went to the kitchen to get a snack. Delilah nearly ran over me on her way out the door, clad in spiky silver heels.
I eyed her skin-tight silver dress. “Where are you off to? There aren’t any red light districts around here.”
“Ha ha,” she said dryly. We hadn’t fought since our first meeting, but the hostility between us was no less hot. “I’m expecting company later. At which point, you’ll need to be gone.”
I gritted my teeth. “It’s my apartment too. You can’t keep kicking me out whenever you feel like getting laid.” She’d locked me out no less than six times for company’s sake, even going so far as to getting a witch to enchant the keyhole so that when I tried unlocking the door, my key either snapped off or melted. Replacing them had finally resulted in a formal slap on the hand for Delilah, but she’d forgone any serious punishment. It killed me how much special treatment the sup royalty got.
Delilah smiled coldly. “Little girl, don’t make me go all jaguar on you.”
With that, she left, leaving me choking on a cloud of fruity perfume.
“Bitch,” I mumbled, snatching an apple out of the fruit basket and taking a deep bite. “Who the hell does she think she is?”
I sighed and looked at the clock. Another half hour before I was supposed to meet Hector and turn in yet another report with my observations. Part of me was looking forward to seeing him, and the other half died a little every time. It was stupid. It didn’t make sense that I should feel this way. But from the moment we touched, something carnal stirred awake inside of me, growing every time I was in his presence. Never had I felt this strong of an urge to be with someone. It was driving me crazy, and it was depressing as hell, because I knew no matter what happened, it would never work out between us.
Things never did for a succubus and an incubus.
Resigning myself to the inevitable, I finished my apple and padded to my room. After getting ready and gathering my things, I set off across campus to the main building.
No other bodies had been found since the mutilated were a few weeks ago. Since it was a full moon, Dean Prescott and the D.P.I. were saying it was most likely pack-related activity gone wrong. Packs behaved much like gangs, having factions and initiation rites. Sometimes, those ended in the recruit dying, which is what they thought happened here.
I also hadn’t had any more demonic dreams. If anything, I was so tired by the end of the day that I slept like a rock. In addition to my studies, Hector put me on a rigorous workout routine, which I was fine with, because getting in better shape was something I had been meaning to do but could never seem to commit to. The first few days had sucked because I was so sore the next morning I could hardly move, but things got easier over time. I felt stronger and like I had more energy during the day, though I knew increased strength or not, I would be no match for Damien or whatever creature was lurking around the grounds should it come calling.
I was wary of my surroundings as I walked through the night, listening for any sign I was being followed. Call me paranoid, but I’d rather be safe - and alive - than sorry.
My breath clouded the air in fine silver mist, and I hugged my leather jacket tighter. Monique might have good taste in clothes, but while they excelled at fashion, they failed at being very functional. She’d argued otherwise, when I’d spoken with her over the phone the other day, along with reminding me how much she and Raoul missed me. The feeling was mutual. With only Delilah for company, if you could even call her that, the apartment was pretty lonely at times.
I inhaled a deep breath of fresh air to clear my mind. The sky was spackled with stars, and the gentle breeze coming off the plains smelled of earth and wildflowers. I had to admit it was peaceful out here. And also a bit spooky in a desolate sort of way. Sups overall didn’t like cold weather, supposedly because our senses were finer attuned to weather changes than humans’, so not many people were out tonight.
I’d managed, over time, not to dread seeing Hector, but tonight was different, and I couldn’t fully explain why. My stomach turned into knots when I stepped into the building. On one hand, I wanted more than anything to see Hector. On the other, I was so not looking forward to another evening spent discussing how much better my coworkers were than me at just about everything there was to being a succubus. I was probably reading too much into it, as Raoul would have told me, and though I tried not to feel slighted, it kept creeping up in the back of my mind.
Not in the mood to climb the stairs, I opted to be lazy and take the elevator.
Since it was just after dinner, a few students and staff lingered. I hadn’t managed to make any more friends since people first learned I was the one teamed with Hector. While the angry glares and scathing remarks had died away from his legion of hardcore fangirls, I was far from being a socialite on campus. Angela and I hadn’t gotten to hang out much either. Our schedules were so different, with most of her training sessions being during the day and mine at night, that we rarely saw each other except at meals.
A pang of loneliness hit me. While talking to Monique and Raoul over the phone was great and all, it didn’t compare to actually having them here.
Before I could let my feelings escalate into a full-blown pity party, I rapped on Hector’s office door.
He answered quickly again, like he’d been standing by the door, waiting. “Hi,” he said, sounding breathless.
“Hi,” I said slowly. I checked my watch. “Did I, uh, get the time wrong?”
“No, no,” he said, still sounding distracted. “It’s fine. You’re right on time. Come in.”
Odd.
I walked inside, and he shut the door behind me, then closed the blinds on his window. Huh. He’d never bothered with that before.
“I’ve, uh, been reviewing the tape you submitted for your project last week,” he said as he sat down behind his desk.
Heat rushed to my cheeks, and my voice hitched up. “Oh?”
Last week, we’d been working on the art of a striptease, and one of my projects was to tape myself performing one in my room. He said I would learn more if I could watch myself perform.
“Yeah, I thought we’d go over it together,” he said.
If my face got any hotter, it’d melt clean off. “Uh, sure,” I squeaked.
Oh, crap. Oh, crap. Oh, crap.
He rewound the DVD and pressed play from the beginning. There I stood, shifting my weight from side to side. I looked nervous as hell. Or ready to throw up, which was kind of how I felt now.
Hector smiled slightly. “You don’t like being the center of attention, do you?”
I stared at my hands. “It’s not that,” I said quietly.
“Then what?”
His voice was so gentle. Maybe unlike Elias, Hector would understand what I’d been through.
My heart started pounding harder, and I took a shaky breath, prepared to tell him what I’d told maybe two people. “I… when I was human-”
A rock tune filtered out through the speakers, interrupting me. On the tape, I’d pressed play on a CD and had begun bobbing to the beat.
“Now this is good,” Hector said, leaning forward and pointing to my knees. “You get more into it as you go, but music helps, because it feels like it’s taking some of the attention off you. That’s why I recommend using popular tunes, something the client is familiar with. That’s just what you’ve done. Nice.”
“Th-thank you.”
I watched, amazed, as the nervous, shy girl transformed before my very eyes. First came the tights, then the skirt and top. My movements became more daring, more fluid and assured. You’d think it would be the opposite, being the less clothes I had on, the more nervous I’d become. Which was usually what happened, but not this time. This time, I was in control. In the privacy of my room, there was no one there to taunt me, no one to make me feel inadequate.
I’d remembered how good it felt, how free and light to revel in my sexuality. When I was clad in nothing more than a lacy bra and underwear, I looked over at Hector.
He’d gone silent, stopping mid-sentence in his review. His large hand gripped the edge of the desk, making his knuckles whiten against his tanned skin. The whole time his eyes hadn’t left the screen.
“Um… Hector?” I asked.
When my underwear came flying off and I began caressing and touching myself, throwing my head back and moaning, Hector leaned forward on his desk, closed his eyes, and pinched the bridge of his nose.
I rose and went over to him, resting a hand on his shoulder. “Hector? Are you all right?”
He chuckled darkly. “No,” he murmured. “I’m not all right. I haven’t been all right since I first ran into you on the elevator. Your touch has haunted me since.”
I blinked, not expecting that. “What are you talking about?”
Finally, he opened his eyes and stared at me. “I’m talking about the way you’ve been on my mind ever since. I can’t stop thinking about you, Sally.”
I lost my breath, taking a step back. “But you - you’ve been so silent. So…”
“Cold?” he provided, standing and sauntering toward me.
I backed away, though not out of fear he would harm me. It was out of fear of having my heart torn in half if my instincts, my darkest, deepest desires, were wrong.
I wetted my lips and swallowed against my suddenly parched throat. “Yeah. Cold.”
“I had to be. Professional, that is. It’s the number one rule around here.”
My back hit the wall, and he threw up an arm on either side of my head, cornering me as he leaned in. His mouth was about an inch from mine. “And what I want is strictly forbidden,” he whispered.
I stared at his full lips, wanting to run my tongue along them, to fully taste him. “What is?” I breathed, trembling.
He smiled. “That a teacher will not lust after his pupil.”
I forgot how to breathe as his lips brushed mine in a questioning kiss. “I want you, Sally,” he whispered. “More than I’ve ever wanted anyone before. You’re intoxicating.”
That’s when it hit me - he was asking for permission to continue. “I want you too,” I said, then wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him deeply.
He kissed me hungrily, one hand tangling in my dark hair, the other roving around my back to pull me closer to him. Every inch of him felt rock hard beneath his silk shirt and jeans, and I wondered what he would feel like without any barriers between us. At our contact, our energy began siphoning into each other, draining and filling us up at the same time. It was the strangest sensation I’d ever felt, but it was more powerful than drawing from a mere human. I’d never been with another of my kind before.
“God, you taste amazing,” he breathed, blazing a path of kisses down my neck and along the top of my breasts. “Like honey and sugar. So sweet. So innocent.”
I wanted his mouth all over me. Waves of white-hot heat coursed through me as he slipped my shirt up to gently nip at my right nipple. Thank God I hadn’t bothered with a bra. The halter top had one built-in.
Hector cupped my breast, squeezing as his tongue worked the tight little cherry lump. I clawed at his back in an effort to pull him closer as I moaned. God, if it felt this good to have him play with my breasts, what would it feel like to have him kiss me down there, or feel him, hard and long, inside me?
“Take your shirt off,” I begged. “I want to feel more of you.”
He gave one long, hard pull on my nipple, shooting a bolt of pleasure through me that caused me to cry out. “Why don’t you take it off?” he challenged, grinning.
I smiled at him. I was up to this dare.
I nearly ripped off the buttons in my ferocity to get him naked. I stared in awe at his sculpted chest. No matter how many times I saw this, it never ceased to amaze me how perfect he was.
Once his shirt was on the floor, he took both my wrists and pinned me to the wall, taking my mouth with his again. His tongue forced my lips apart, tangling with my own as he ground his hips against mine. I wrapped a leg around his hips, and he ground harder, his long length pressing against my damp clitoris.
Closer. I needed to be closer.
I reached down and began unbuttoning his pants when a sharp knock at the door startled us both.
“Aurelius, are you in there?” Dean Prescott called out.
Hector swore, grabbing his shirt and shrugging it on. He gave me an apologetic smile as I pulled my top back down and looked at myself in the mirror. Good Lord, my lips were swollen. Not even thinking twice about it, I wi
lled my lips to return to normal. A few tingling seconds later, and they’d shape-shifted back to their original pink hue. I stared, surprised. It was the first time I hadn’t had to really work at shape-shifting. The question was, why?
Another knock, this one louder. Jeez, Dean Prescott sure didn’t have a lot of patience.
Once I was presentable, I grabbed my notebook and purse, and Hector opened the door. “Sorry about that,” he said. “We were caught up in a lesson, and I didn’t hear you knock the first time.”
Prescott gave him an irritable look and tapped the window. “This is supposed to be open at all times, Mr. Aurelius. You know the school rules.”
“Sorry, sir. Given the explicit nature of my assignments, I felt some people walking by might be offended at what was on the tape. You know how my kind are viewed in the paranormal community.”
As whores and sluts, I thought dryly, the scum of the Underworld, even lower than the Hunters.
The Dean’s smile stiffened. “Yes, I’m all too aware of your… reputation.”
My eyes narrowed. Was that a whiff of malice I detected?
He turned his black, cold eyes on me. “You must be new here. I’d think I’d remember a face like yours.”
I hesitated. His signature… no, it couldn’t be. I hadn’t been able to tell in the auditorium because there were so many people around, but now it became clear that his signature didn’t have a lock on it.
Just like Damien’s.
Dean Prescott arched a brow. “Something wrong? You look paler.”
I flashed what I hoped was a convincing smile as he shook my hand, and I introduced myself. “Sally Sanders. Nice to meet you, Dean Prescott.” Thankfully, my voice didn’t show my fear.
“A pleasure, Sally,” he said, the way he looked me up and down letting me know exactly what kind of a pleasure he was talking about.
Hector stiffened beside me, and a low growl escaped him. “Sally and I were just wrapping up when you knocked. She’ll be leaving now. I’ll see you tomorrow for our first field assignment?”
I blinked, having forgotten about that. “Oh, yes. Of course. Bye, Mr. Aurelius.”
