by Melissa Blue
Her sister threw down the package of steak on the counter. “Fine.”
She grabbed her purse, her steps sure and staccato in the silence that followed her announcement. When she left, Lauren made sure to slam the door.
Bad guy. Once again.
Two years ago, she would have buckled, laid out like a welcome mat. Four years ago she wouldn’t have thought her sister’s initial reaction was a problem at all. Eight years ago, if her sister had spoon-fed her, Eva wouldn’t have noticed. If she did, guilt and appreciation would throw her into a fit of sobbing.
Times changed. So had she. She just wished her sister could do the same. Silver lining though, the mini-drama with Lauren had completely wiped the big huge problem out of her mind.
Grady. The man she’d been crushing on for four months, spilling out secrets to, laughing with, sharing stupid little parts of her life, frustrations and trusting him but not fully trusting him…Their worlds connected much closer than she could have ever imagined.
She’d kept a lot of details back out of fear something could go wrong. Well, she was right, and now, she’d have to think of a way to extricate herself from the malformed but oh-so-full-of-potential relationship.
Another American History course had to be offered in the summer. Though, by now, the wait list would be ridiculous for any other class. She only needed six more courses to graduate.
Yeah. ’Cause that would fix everything with a neat bow.
A jagged laugh bubbled up. Grady knew her sister. Had Lauren babbled nervously about her unhinged sibling in order to strike up a conversation? Did it matter? Eva might just come face-to-face with Grady well before she was ready.
Her heartbeat went thready followed by shaking hands. She closed her eyes and breathed, like she’d learned to do.
In.
Out.
In.
Out.
Perspective.
Having to change her class wasn’t the end of the world. It was a hiccup. No need to make the molehill a mountain before she knew she was well and truly screwed.
Don’t forget you sent him a dirty audio tape. Your fucking professor.
In.
Out.
Yeah. There wasn’t perspective for that one yet.
Her heart agreed and sped up just a little bit more. So she placed her head on the table and breathed.
CHAPTER THREE
Grady didn’t bother to greet the students as they filed into the lecture hall. He was too busy face-planting on the wooden desk. It was unprofessional. Probably made him look like he didn’t give a shit about teaching, much less his students.
But last night, his brother had fallen asleep on the love seat while their friends continued to play Call of Duty until well past two in the morning. They worked, too, but most of the bastards were freelancers in one way or another. They could have stayed until early morning, gotten their eight hours and went on about their merry way.
And now Grady had to stumble around on campus then teach a class on three hours of sleep. The only sense of satisfaction he received was shaking his brother awake before waltzing out the door for work. Once awake, his brother couldn’t go back to sleep. A dick move, but one that put a pep in Grady’s step.
His phone beeped, alerting him that he had one minute left of wishing he could nap or die—whatever gave him better rest. With bleary eyes, he lifted his head to take stock of his summer students. Undergrads, which meant a crapload of them were still in their teens, filled the lecture hall.
Most wore tired or bored expressions. That was okay. By mid-semester most would look forward to class because he did care, he gave a shit otherwise he could work at a museum and likely get paid so much better even with just a Masters.
His gaze skipped to the student way in the back trying to hide in her seat with her ball cap pulled down low. His heart beat thudded and his hands dampened. Dark ringlets of hair covered most of her face except for her delicate chin and full, pink lips. He squinted as his head swam. He knew that mouth, that hair. A roar whooshed in his ears. But it couldn’t be her. No way could that woman be her, here.
Getting a grip, he picked up the roll sheet. Eva hadn’t called him and that was screwing with his head. She’d been hesitant in sharing personal information. Couldn’t blame her. A woman meeting someone on the Internet had to be careful. So his classroom was the last place he’d find her.
He gave himself a moment more to calm the sudden spike in nerves before speaking to the class.
“For the next six weeks we’re stuck with each other unless you drop the course or miss too many classes.” He didn’t have to raise his voice. The acoustics in the forum hall was great. “You can call me Addison, Instructor, Uh-um as you try to remember my name.” A smattering of chuckles filled the room. “Let’s make this quick. I’m going to go through the list. I’ll likely butcher your name, correct me, then we’ll get started.”
Grady stopped long enough to take his glasses out the case on the desk. He was a pro at putting them on one-handed. Once the black-rimmed frames were situated, the room came into better view and definitely the tiny print on the roll call became readable. It wasn’t until he got to the M’s that his hand tightened on the paper.
March, Eva.
“Eva?” her name came out on a tight whisper as his gaze sought her out.
The woman trying to hide in her hat raised her hand. Son of a bitch. He swallowed, cleared his throat. “No hats in the classroom.”
Yeah. It was a legit rule, but his reasons for invoking it on a non-test day had everything to do with him needing to know if it was his Eva. The woman pulled off the hat, ran a hand through her hair and met his gaze. It was her.
Eyes as rich as chocolate and wide as a doe’s met his, a flicker of fear dimmed the light in her irises. Only for a moment did he think she’d hunted him down. But how could she? They hadn’t bothered with last names or identifying details. Well, she hadn’t and he’d followed her lead.
And here she was. He could cross the room and touch her, smell her…taste her. This kind of happenstance had never crossed his mind. She was in her late twenties, well past the co-ed age.
His brother would probably rattle off his theory about the universe being connected. Or, depending on the mood, tell him to end the class and do something a little more educational.
“Thank you,” he said instead of doing everything he had the urge to do.
He tore his gaze away, blinked, trying to remember what he was doing before everything in his life coalesced. Right. Doing something as mundane as calling roll for his students.
Grady continued down the list, only half paying attention to the responses. The picture hadn’t done Eva justice. She’d looked like the girl next door in her grainy photo. In person she was lush enough to encourage dirty fantasies.
And even the recording was lacking. Her voice was much more sultry, smooth. Fuck, he’d have to stand during this class and hope to hell his dick behaved. Rocking a hard-on for two hours on the first day of school wouldn’t leave the best impression.
The high point: he was awake now.
Stick to the lesson plan and somehow he’d get through this. Once the two hours were over…that was a different story.
*****
The smart thing for Eva to do was run. Class had ended. The back exits were much closer than the front of the room. Even if Grady mowed over the crush of students spilling out, she’d be gone by the time he reached her. But she didn’t run from hard situations anymore. She faced them, no matter how painful. Yeah, she avoided having to face hard situations in the first place…
Sighing, she stuffed her things into her backpack, waited for the crowd to thin out and walked down to Grady who stood behind his desk. He was chatting with another student and that gave her all the time to look at him up close.
The scruffy beard couldn’t hide the chiseled angles of his jawline. Lauren had accused him of having piercing blue eyes and her sister had pegged that descriptio
n. The black-rimmed glasses amplified the fact his irises held every shade of blue.
The way he focused on the student in front of him, no one and nothing else existed. If anyone, he could see right to the core of her. She almost backed away. Screw facing the consequences of her actions. There were still secrets she’d yet to confess to him.
But the student departed, leaving them alone in the room. He tilted his head, his face blank of any telltale cue of how to proceed. From his non-reaction, he’d known she’d been standing there the whole time.
Finally, he broke the intense stare and murmured, “We finally meet.”
Her fingers threatened to shake so she shoved her hands into her jean pockets. Shaking alerted her brain this was something to freak out over. She would not have a moment in front of him. It was one thing to say she’d had a rough time in her early twenties, another for him to witness exactly what she meant.
Eva sucked in a low breath and nodded. “Let’s cut to the chase.”
“I’m a fan of that.” He rounded the desk.
Her heart jumped into her throat, fear and anticipation warring at what he’d do next. He crossed his arms and leaned against the wood. Still, she couldn’t relax.
His face was perfect so she tried her best to find flaws elsewhere. He sported a plain black T-shirt, faded jeans and shit-kicker boots. He wore a card-carrying hipster’s uniform.
Well, if hipsters believed in going to the gym. Fine, sandy brown hair sprinkled his muscled forearms that only a strict workout routine could have achieved. Because even with the black shirt, she could tell he had abs you could wash your clothes on. He was a ten. Masculine sex appeal oozed from his pores and he wasn’t even trying.
And because they’d talked for four months, she knew he was wicked smart, funny, a bit of a hard ass and thoughtful. Hipster uniform aside, there wasn’t anything unattractive about Grady.
Yup. She needed to abandon this insane idea of being a responsible adult and just leave the lecture hall. His voice during the last two hours had already put her into a hypnotic state of yearning. God, she needed to hate him.
Unfortunately, those thoughts had seemed to cross her face because he smiled. He had a great smile. And why wasn’t he freaking out?
She cleared her throat. “Like I told you in my message, my sister came by last night. She saw your last name on my class schedule, and then for the next little while I heard all about you.”
His eyes narrowed behind the black rims. “Who is your sister?”
“Lauren March. She works here in admin.”
He frowned. “Doesn’t ring a bell.”
“Tall, blond and chesty. Probably flirted with you a time or two.”
His mouth thinned into a line. “Small fucking world.”
His wry, slightly bitter tone totally meant he knew her sister. Probably even thought about asking her out at one point. The March girls were pretty.
“Yeah,” Eva said. “I’m here to get my Bachelor’s. I need this class. It’s a GE course, and I don’t…” Her heart refused to slow. She was not going to freak out in front of him. It wasn’t even an option. She sucked in air and blew it back out. “I don’t get entangled with teachers.”
Wrong wording. She knew that the moment the words left her mouth and his brows shot down, forming a deep furrow.
She spoke up to keep him from asking the question that must have formed by now. “I’m going to check with the other professors who are teaching history to see if I can switch—”
“I’m only your professor for the next six weeks,” his voice was flat.
A fact she’d definitely rolled over in her mind in the middle of the night, but it didn’t change the complications. Things were simple when she’d flirted online with him. Nice guy with a sharp humor and dirty imagination. Even with the sexy audio changing things between them, she wouldn’t be on his bed putting on the same show under his watchful eye. It had been a whim, a kinky whim. One she regretted now with her very being.
But when she’d sent that message to him, she’d known he’d have time to think up a reply. He hadn’t expected that, so shock would give way to something more thoughtful. Online he was a red X box to click out of if things turned to shit.
Much to her shame as her face heated at the very thought, he’d been a fantasy, not real. Now he was, and reminding her of mistakes she’d made before. Why she was broken. Why her sister never respected her boundaries or understood that Eva was fine and didn’t need hand holding. Eva’s stomach lining started to close ranks and ache.
“Grady…” She bit her lip to keep the tremble in check.
She didn’t want to cry but nerves were getting to her. Worry, uncertainty and anticipation kept battering at her defenses.
“Hey.” His voice was soft as he dropped his arms to his sides. Stepping forward into her space, he closed his hands on her arms. His thumbs rubbed back and forth on her exposed skin. The touch was warm, gentle and arousing.
Her nipples peaked, tingling the longer he caressed her with just his fingers. A trail of heat was left in the wake of his touch.
Which was wrong, so wrong because Eva was trying to end things with him. Not spark something deeper. “Grady…” her voice wavered as every emotion coursing through her churned into a cocktail.
“Hey,” he said again, somehow softer than before. In one word he was offering comfort. “Eva, it’s okay.”
She was shaking hard enough to make her teeth chatter. Well, at least she wasn’t grabbing at her chest, screaming she couldn’t breathe. That was a silver lining. Her vision dimmed, but he’d taken another step. The warmth and hardness of his body pressed into hers.
When did he move his hands to her face to cup her cheeks? Still, the simple touch grounded her. Their gazes clashed and the comfort slipped further away. She parted her lips to form the lie of I’m fine but then he brushed the corner of her mouth with his. The rasp of his five o’clock shadow shot a shiver through her.
Maybe he’d meant for the connection to be soothing, but in the next second he left opened mouth kisses along her jaw, sucking hard enough for a sting of pleasure to pinprick her skin until he reached her ear. His hot breath tickled the shell of her ear.
“Eva.”
There was nothing soft or comforting in that whisper. He’d uttered her name in a hungry plea.
“Eva,” he said again, this time leaving a sharp threat of teeth when he nipped her lobe. “I’ve imagined doing this so many times.”
So had she. She’d dreamed of kissing him and doing so much more. She trembled but it wasn’t from the onset of a panic attack. He made wet, hot silent promises with his mouth as he traced his tongue down to the crook of her neck. She was losing herself in the heated sensation.
And just like that her surroundings shifted. Eva was twenty again. Her professor touching her for the first time—she jerked back, but it was too late to stop. Grady closed his mouth over hers.
The spurt of fear melted away. It was Grady’s lips, hungry and bruising, devouring her soft sighs. It was Grady taking yet another step until she could feel his cock as a hard, heavy reminder that he’d already heard the sound of her moans. Sweet, God, it was Grady, and in the flesh he was better than any fantasy she’d conjured up in the last four months.
In six weeks the obvious complication may disappear, but he was still a man who had the power to turn her inside out. And she’d beg for it. Even knowing that truth, she clutched at his shirt to drag him closer. She inhaled, ready to do the same to him and his scent hit her.
He had a fresh but woodsy scent. The kind that could drive a woman to bury her face into his shirt, just to get a better whiff of him. She bit into his bottom lip to taste him, take him in.
He closed his fingers around Eva’s waist, lifted and turned her until her ass rested on his desk. How had he taken this from a sorry but not sorry we’re done into Sweet baby Jesus, he could have me any way he wanted me?
Right. He’d touched her and that was
all it had taken. Eva had been right. She should have run when she had the opportunity.
She wrapped her thighs around his hips until she could practically feel the pulse beating in his cock. Tilting her pelvis up then down, she ground her pussy against him. He growled, his fingers digging deep into her.
Some part of him must have seen reason because he pulled back. His glasses were lopsided, face flushed and he panted. She righted the glasses and licked her lips, because the darkness flashing in his eyes told her, maybe, he wasn’t done devouring her mouth.
He said, his voice gruff, “This is going to be a fucking problem.”
She huffed out a small laugh. “Exactly what I was trying to say before you kissed me.”
His gaze dropped to her mouth. Once again he leaned forward to whisper into her ear, “So help me, before you walk away, we’re going to get to one.”
It took her a moment to catch the connection of his words to the game she’d played for him. He was going to make her come as she counted backwards to one. The hunger, the conviction in the promise could have melted any sane woman. Did he not care about the potential conflict? About his job?
“Grady, I…it’s…” She sighed, unsure what to say. Hell, there was too much to say and none of it could change the fact this was the end. She hated this.
He pressed his hand to the small of her back before stepping out from between her legs. Those eyes of his penetrated her. She dropped her gaze before he saw the truth. He’d see her not as the smart woman who’d gone back to school to give herself a better life, but as the dumb, young girl who believed an older man’s lies. Who had let that man take who she used to be and reshape her.
Grady was a complication, and he could do the same. With what dignity she had left, Eva said, “That’s not a promise you can keep.”
He didn’t try to stop her when she left the lecture hall.
CHAPTER FOUR
Grady hoped to enter an empty, quiet house. He had a make-out session with a student. Met a woman he’d held an online flirtation for four months. They happened to be the same woman. He needed silence to process it all.
