Professor Dragon's Virgin (Irish Dragon Shifter Brothers Book 5)

by Brittany White

  Could evil beings be reformed? She wasn’t sure. What made someone evil? These questions ran through her mind on a nonstop loop. Witches put a lot of stock into bloodlines. Was it possible that Niamh’s blood ran through her veins, and yet, she would not turn out like her ancestors? She voiced these questions to Niall, and he just smiled indulgently at her.

  “You should change your field of study to philosophy,” he said. “You like asking hard questions.”

  “Maybe I’d be better suited for psychology,” she said.

  He grinned, showing off his perfectly straight teeth. “You can try out all the subjects. I highly recommend that.”

  His smile was killing her. Now not only did she want to touch his face, but she wanted to unbutton his shirt. She wanted to press her lips to his neck, his collarbone, and the hollow of his throat. Her pulse jumped. Could he hear her rapid heartbeat? Did he know what she was thinking about?

  “Maybe I will.” She licked her lips. “What if I keep taking your classes too?”

  Good Lord. She was flirting with him, and she liked the way it felt. A buzzing feeling started in her brain, shot to her gut, and ended with a flutter in her stomach. Unless she was mistaken, he was flirting right back.

  “Believe it or not, I like it when people take my classes. That’s how I get to stay on staff.”

  “Aren’t you tenured?”

  There was that dashing grin again. “Well, yes.”

  “So you can do whatever you want and not get fired.”

  He bobbed his head from side to side. “Within reason.”

  That buzzing feeling surged lower in her belly. It shot down between her legs, warming her most private spot. She smirked up at him.

  He shook his head. “Don’t get any ideas.”

  Oh, she had plenty of ideas. She just wasn’t sure if she was ready for any of them or how he’d feel about them. She wasn’t certain what had gotten into her.

  All these years, she’d remained a virgin. She hadn’t wanted anyone to touch her. Yet, now that she was being guarded by a dragon shifter, she wanted to put her hands on his body. His professor’s dress clothes were stylish and hot, but they covered up every inch of his skin. She hadn’t even seen his arms. She’d only imagined them.

  Dammit. He’d apparently carried her to bed last night, and she’d missed it. Her subconscious must really trust him because she never fell asleep deeply enough for any of the werewolves to get anywhere near her.

  A witch, trusting a dragon shifter—if her mother could see her now.

  They made breakfast together, and Niall let her help this time. Then they left for her dorm room. She went to his class again and relished sitting in the front row. Without the blind panic of being caught, his class was her favorite. She tried to behave herself and kept her eyes on her notes. Mostly. Occasionally, she would look up at him, and they’d make eye contact.

  It sent a thrill straight down her spine, but she suppressed her obvious reaction because the last thing they needed was a nosy student or another profession noticing that she was flirting with him. Neither of them needed any more attention at all.

  After his class, she had English, math, and science, and then they were both done for the day. On her lunch break, she usually came to his room and ate with him. As much as she loved her classes, eating lunch with him was the best part of her day.

  They developed a routine. They cooked breakfast together, he drove them to the school, and then they both met for lunch. In the evenings, they hiked, read, or strolled around downtown. Her barren dorm room sat empty.

  For the first time in her life, Nora was content. For the first time, she was happy.

  She would tell Quinn the truth—about everything except for the werewolves.

  8

  Niall

  Having Nora in his home every day and every night was intoxicating. For all her worldliness and all her travels, she seemed inexperienced in romantic matters. Sometimes, she was quite flirtatious. Sometimes, he’d catch her staring at him when she thought he wasn’t looking. Other times, her heart would race, and her breathing would pick up. He’d turn toward her, ready to fight off whatever threat was there, but no threat existed. Instead, her eyes were glassy, and her cheeks were flushed.

  He’d started touching her more—little pats, hugs, and shoulder squeezes. Each day, he took it a little further. Nora lit up when he touched her, but she never pushed him any further. Was it possible that she was a virgin? It didn’t seem likely, but the more he watched her, the more he wondered.

  He also wondered about getting entangled romantically with a student. He’d always steered clear of that kind of arrangement. It seemed like only heartache could result from sleeping with a student. He was also supervising Nora for Quinn and his clan. If they thought he wasn’t able to be objective, one of them might come to Ireland and take over.

  The thought made his dragon growl. Niall didn’t like the idea much either.

  Mine, his dragon insisted. That was his dragon, letting his feelings be known. Niall had spent years trying to repress and control his dragon, but now he was breaking free. He wanted Nora just as much as Niall did. Yes. It wasn’t practical, and it made little sense, but Nora was his.

  Nora wasn’t just a regular student, though. She was a twenty-two-year-old witch. Their circumstances were unusual enough that he didn’t put a stop to the time they spent together outside of the school.

  On a Wednesday evening, the sun was unusually bright. “Let’s go for a walk,” she said. “It’s nice out, at least fifty degrees, which sounds lovely, compared to Russia. It was already snowy there when I left.”

  “Where were you?” he asked. She never spoke of her time in Russia.

  “All over. It was often sunny, but it was always cold.”

  They pulled on their coats and scarves and set out on the path. “I have a small fishing boat on the pond. We can go out.”

  Her eyes were alight with interest when she looked at him. “Really?”

  She’d traveled the world, yet she was always entertained by the smallest things. He couldn’t help but smile at her enthusiasm for a simple flat-bottomed boat. He held the boat steady while she climbed in. He picked up the only oar and gently paddled them toward the middle of the small lake.

  “Dragons have super strength, right?” she asked.

  “We’re pretty strong. Rowing takes no effort. What about you?”

  “I don’t have much extra strength, but I can do something else.” She gestured toward the bottom of the boat. “Put the oar down for a minute.”

  He did, and she inhaled. A faint smile turned up the corner of her lips. Her smooth skin glowed just a little, and the boat began to move.

  “How difficult is that?”

  “It’s not. It barely takes any concentration.” She licked her lips. “Now, if I were to lift your house up off the ground, that would take most of my concentration. I probably wouldn’t be able to hold a conversation with you at that point.”

  “You could lift my house?”

  She nodded. “Yes.”

  “Without a spell?” he asked.

  “Yes. I don’t generally need spells.”

  “I didn’t know that was possible.”

  She explained to him that her mother had been a witch, and her father had been a wizard, and they’d had a child, which was a rare occurrence.

  “So you have more abilities than most witches,” Niall guessed.

  She cast her eyes up at the sky and didn’t answer for a few moments. “The ones I grew up with, yes.”

  Maybe she didn’t want to boast, but he’d never heard of a witch who could do the things she did. From his estimation, she was one of a kind. “I’m guessing that wasn’t always a good thing.”

  “No. It was not. Witches are jealous, and they’re territorial. They have families, but they don’t function like a human family, or even like a dragon shifter family.”

  He moved to sit beside her on the tiny bench in the
boat. It was so small that they were sitting very close together with their thighs touching.

  “Thank you,” she said.

  “For what?”

  “For bringing me out here. It’s so peaceful. I grew up here, in this beautiful country, but I never knew any peace.”

  Niall vowed that he’d do a better job of taking care of her than her own family had. He brushed his thumb over her cheek. He pressed his lips to hers, just barely touching her mouth. She didn’t move away, but she blinked up at him with her lovely dark eyes. He pulled her closer, moving his lips over hers, waiting for her response.

  She didn’t move. Not at all. Her lips didn’t move against his. Her heart rate did pick up noticeably. He was now certain that she had never done this before. He was almost certain she was a virgin. He pulled back and put his hand on her cheek.

  “Have you done this before?”

  She ducked her head and looked down at the water. “No, I haven’t. I haven’t been with anyone.” Her voice grew quiet. “That’s one reason I came back home. There was someone in Russia in the village where I lived.” She hesitated for a moment. “He wanted to marry me.”

  The way she spoke told Niall that she had not been interested in whoever this person was. It sounded like he had made unwanted advances without her permission. His usually placid temper spiked. Niall knew that his eyes would be yellow if he looked in a mirror. He wasn’t it violent at all, especially not for a shifter, but he could not tolerate that kind of abuse.

  “Was this a human who wanted to force you into marriage?” He couldn’t rule it out. Humans had their ways of trapping witches, especially if they knew they were doing, but he imagined she would be difficult for a human to control. His own experience of being brainwashed by the witch had left him on guard. “Did he hurt you?”

  “No, he wasn’t human.” She didn’t offer any other explanation, and he didn’t want to push too far into unpleasant memories. Whatever had happened, it was her story to tell when she was ready. Niall wondered if the male in question was a witch or wizard. After all, she had gone to Eastern Europe to look for her father, who was a wizard.

  “And no, he didn’t touch me,” she said. “He gave me a deadline of the winter solstice, which is in December. That’s why I left Russia. That’s why I came back home. My magic is even stronger in this land where we’re from.”

  Niall could relate. He felt strong and capable in Portugal, but when he returned to Ireland, he felt more like himself. Both he and Nora had ancient ties to Ireland. For their kind, that could not be ignored or understated.

  No matter how calm she might seem now, he wasn’t going to take advantage of her. She was a young virgin who had almost been forced into an arranged marriage. And he was responsible for her now. He could be her friend and her friend alone.

  He pulled her close and kissed her on the forehead. He put as much care into the kiss as possible. He wanted her to know that he would take care of her and that he would never force her to do anything she didn’t want to do. He would never take that power from her or even try to seduce her. If there was anything between them, it could wait until she was comfortable.

  He moved back to the bench across from her and smiled. “What else can you do with your magic?”

  “I can fly, I can breathe fire, I can destroy bricks, and I can bend steel. That’s about it.” Her cheeks flushed. “You can see in the dark, and you can hear really well too. I can’t do those things unless I use my magic.”

  “That’s true. I do see in the dark, and I can hear really well. I can smell really well too.”

  She frowned.

  “What’s wrong with being able to smell really well?” he asked.

  “Nothing is wrong with it. It would be a nice treat. But some of the groups I encountered in Russia also had a heightened sense of smell. They used it to track people down. They were predators.” The smile disappeared, and her lips turned up. “I can do this.”

  Directly overhead, small firecrackers burst into flame. Little white lights that resembled fireflies danced overhead. They swarmed to form a picture of a dragon with flames billowing from his mouth. Then the picture changed into the landscape they were currently on, featuring rolling green hills and a little fishing boat with a male and a female sitting inside.

  The image faded, and he smiled at her. “Now that’s a skill worth having. That’s really cool.”

  “It’s cool, for sure. That’s the kind of stuff I like to do. I don’t like violence, and I don’t like fighting. When I was growing up, I always wondered where I really came from. I didn’t meet another witch who wasn’t at least a little malicious. Are dragon shifters always peaceful unless provoked?”

  “I don’t remember hearing any stories of dragon shifters instigating a battle or a war. I can’t speak for other shifters or clans, but our clan was peaceful. We all trained to fight, but we didn’t ever want to use it. In fact, our clan was destroyed because our leaders wanted to maintain peace. They wanted to use diplomacy to solve our problems,” he said. “They didn’t think the witches would escalate into a battle. They truly couldn’t understand why anyone would harm a human or why they would break our pact. Our clan never wanted control. We just wanted to live on the Cliffs of Moher and interact peacefully with others, whether they were human, Fae, vampire, or witch.”

  “That is really unusual,” she said. “Have you ever met a werewolf?”

  “No, I haven’t. There are none here, and there were none in Portugal where I went to university.”

  “Do you know any vampires?”

  “Yes, one of my professors at the University of Portugal was an ancient vampire. He was born in fourteenth-century Spain.”

  “Did he admit that he was a vampire?”

  “Not at first, but I can tell the difference. I can hear when someone’s heart isn’t beating. So once I told him that I was a shifter, he was honest with me. Most of his kind are living in New York City right now. They love financial investment. He actually teaches economics.”

  She laughed as they both joked about the vampires running Wall Street.

  He was still aroused, but his libido was not important compared to how she felt. At least his body had calmed down somewhat while they got to know each other.

  9

  Nora

  She might have been a virgin, but she wasn’t born yesterday. She could tell that Niall wanted her. She could tell he was aroused. But when his warm lips had met hers, she had frozen. She’d only been kissed once, and that was by the alpha. It didn’t feel right to even call it a kiss. Luckily, he had left her alone after she had threatened to set his tent on fire.

  Niall was totally different. It wasn’t fair to compare kiss to the one Maxim had forced on her.

  Nora had never been attracted to a male before. There had not been many males around as she was growing up. She grew up with only female witches in her coven. They very rarely interacted with human beings. She remembered the dragon shifters, but she was only a child when she was around them. By the time she was old enough to want to date, she was planning to run away to look for her father.

  After four years with the alpha hovering over her, the thought of dating made her sick when she fled Russia. But now that she met Niall, the feeling of contempt toward dating and romance was starting to fade away. She was attracted to Niall. He was strong, brave, and determined, and he turned her on.

  But she was scared. She had no idea what she was doing. Niall had been nothing but kind and considerate. As soon as he felt her freeze up, he backed away. He didn’t say a word. He didn’t try to shame her or control her or convince her to kiss him back. It just made him all the more appealing. Maybe, one day, if things worked out between them, she would enjoy him taking charge. She knew that as a dragon shifter, he would enjoy that too.

  For right now, she appreciated him taking a step back. She had lost four years of her life to the alpha and his pack. She wasn’t going to lose any more of her life to those monsters
. She was going to let Niall know that she was interested in joining him in bed. Just because she was scared didn’t mean she wasn’t interested.

  She wasn’t ready to talk about the bullshit she’d endured, but she knew she needed to tell him she was a virgin. They were both consenting adults. There was no reason they shouldn’t both have what they wanted—and she wanted him. She followed him to the doorway.

  She licked her lips. “I want you to kiss me again.”

  “I don’t know if that’s a good idea.”

  “Why not?” she asked.

  “Because you’re staying here with me for the time being, and you didn’t have any choice in the beginning, even though now you’re free to go now if you choose. I’m also your professor. There’s a power imbalance.”

  “Yes. You are my professor, but we hardly have a traditional relationship. Those rules were created by humans. We are not human. And we haven’t had human experiences in a very long time.”

  “You’re right, but when I kissed you, you were terrified.”

  “Yes, that’s true. When I told you I hadn’t done this before, I meant that I hadn’t kissed anyone willingly. There was someone—not a human—who kissed me against my will. It happened about a year ago. It was an awful experience. I could not overpower him, physically. He was much stronger. But I did threaten to set his home on fire, and he relented. I often think about what would happen if I were a mage or someone with only a little bit of power. I would be his mate right now.”

  Niall gritted his teeth. “I suspected something like that from your reaction. If you’ll give me his name and his location, I’ll make sure that he never does anything like that again to anyone.”