Drowning Studies (Artemis University Book 2)

by Erin R Flynn

“I ever hear you doing that to any woman and the next knife I throw at you will slice your throat open. Do not test me and do not pull any shit like that or you will pay a life debt and I will gladly collect it. Do get you get me?

  “I don’t care your family or who you got in your pocket. If I ever hear—even in your head because I’ll be listening now—that you drug a woman and take pictures of her naked or force her to perform for you, I will drain every drop of your blood all over the fucking quad.”

  “I get it,” he bit out.

  “Glad we understand each other. I suggest this is the last issue we have or my lawyer will be in contact again.” I glanced around the large cafeteria. “Which is why he started the bet and rumors with payouts if people could get compromising photos of me.

  “He was already in trouble and couldn’t make the move so he was playing you to do it and get in trouble with me. Be smarter next time. And that betting pool ends.”

  And then I went back to my seat, practically daring any of the administration or faculty to start shit with me. They didn’t, probably glad it was “handled,” which annoyed me as it wasn’t handled if I had to do it myself.

  “You can’t bust a guy on his thoughts or bring charges to the headmaster on that,” Mel muttered under her breath as people got back to lunch, the sideshow over.

  I gave a firm nod. “I get it, but now I’m really glad no one knows what I am as that was his thought. If he could just figure out what I am he would know how to drug me and take me down several pegs and handle me. That’s a very specific thought for someone who’s only thinking about things.”

  “It is,” Izzy agreed. “Well, on the bright side, I think you just warned every woman here to stay the fuck away from him.”

  “Yeah, but how many didn’t get that warning and instead were his victims?”

  “I’ll look into that,” Mel promised, nodding when I glanced at her. “You’ve got enough going on, Tams. Leave this one to me. I’m the scary adult.”

  “Yes, you are,” I agreed, glad to kick it back to someone.

  “What the fuck!” the guy roared.

  I glanced over and my eyes went wide when I saw he was getting pegged with shit… By the hobgoblin kids. Oh fuck.

  I was up out of my seat and racing towards them before I even realized what I was doing. I slid in the way and they immediately stopped.

  “He wants to hurt you!” Elasha wailed, all of them red with anger.

  There were several other shouts and I bobbed my head, no clue how to handle this one.

  “I know, I know, guys, but now so does everyone else and now he can’t, okay? I promise it’s okay now. Do you want to go ask the big dragon to watch over me?”

  She nodded, and while I’d meant Mel she dropped what was in her hand and glanced around. “Prince Hudson, save Tamsin!”

  “Well, that backfired,” I groaned, feeling him behind me before I could even quiet them.

  “I promise,” he told them firmly.

  “I actually meant Mel,” I drawled, thumbing in the direction of my best friend, who was dying of laughter.

  “I still promise to keep you safe.”

  “Stalker,” I grumbled as I reached for Elasha. “It’s okay. I promise it’s okay.”

  I lifted her up but then the other kids wanted me to hold them as well. Hudson’s expression was hysterical when I passed him Elasha, but then Izzy came and helped me, loudly saying we could have another picnic next weekend if they wanted.

  That seemed to appease everyone as to why the hobgoblins were being so nice to me, but much more of this and people were really going to wonder.

  “Oh dear, I apologize, Prince Hudson, Tamsin,” Irma said as she came racing over with several other hobgoblins. “You’re the first students to be nice to the children. Normally others complain there are children around or when they play outside. Others have bullied them when we won’t do their laundry or other chores that aren’t part of our job as they’re used to their servants at home.”

  “If anyone’s mean to you guys, you tell me and I’ll beat them up, okay?” I told the kids, smiling when they nodded. “Good deal, but I gotta fuel up after having that fun, right? Irma’s going to lecture me about not eating enough again if I don’t.”

  One grabbed my hand and tried to drag me back to my table, but since he was so small I almost landed on my face when he yanked me down.

  At least the current situation was handled but it made me realize there really was a need to handle something else. People were not just going to accept I wasn’t going to declare what species I was and they would keep digging unless I did something.

  Something smart that threw them off the trail for good.

  Something that would appease them as plausible but without having to say a lie.

  No pressure.

  I stuffed myself to replenish fuel but also stress eating because that was quite the task I was giving myself there.

  Campbell’s class was good, interesting as she outlined the chapter we’d been assigned over the weekend. She really was a font of information as she gave more details and interesting tidbits that weren’t in the book, which glossed over a lot.

  She kept giving me weird glances though and after a moment, I realized it was jealousy. Oh shit, my play in the cafeteria had made Craftsman happy… In a way she couldn’t.

  Nice.

  She was put together and pretty, well educated and proper, and yet he wanted me. I could go right to him and demand he do whatever I wanted and he wouldn’t give her the time of day.

  Shit, that was hot. I wasn’t a jealous person and I tried not to be petty, but after being treated like trash most of my life, knowing I was top pick was enough to damn well turn me on.

  Then I actually got turned on thinking of all the fun I could have with him that she couldn’t. I wiggled in my seat a bit, wondering what was wrong with me in the head.

  I decided it was the stress and bullshit. Everyone needed an outlet and if mine was being dirty with the professor who wanted me and others wanted him, so be it.

  When class was over, I decided to do one even better and headed for his lecture hall. He was there when I walked in, going over notes and with a stack of papers that probably needed grading. He glanced up but then did a double take when he saw me.

  “What did you need, love?” he asked quietly.

  “Nothing, just wanted to give you something.” I gestured towards the door. “You might want to take care of that.”

  His arm flew up and he muttered as his magic surged. His nostrils flared as I walked over to him. I set my bag on the floor and let my hand go under my skirt. I teased my panties but he couldn’t see, looking like he was dying to.

  “I was thinking about you in class,” I admitted as I stepped closer. I moved behind him and nuzzled his neck. “Campbell was shooting me glances and I think she’s jealous of whatever you said at lunch. But you don’t want her, do you?”

  “You know I don’t, love,” he murmured. “I want you.”

  “I just bet you do,” I purred in his ear, licking the shell of it. “You got me so wet. I squirmed in my seat thinking of what I wanted you to do to me and I got all wet. You want to see?”

  “Yes,” he hissed.

  I moved away so my back was to him. Then I hooked my thumbs in my panties and pulled them down my legs—sticking out my ass as I did—and pulled them off under my skirt.

  I carefully got them off over my wedges and turned to face him. Then just to make sure they were extra wet, I wiped them between my legs before leaning in and giving him a soft kiss.

  “I wanted to give you those since you got them all wet really,” I murmured against his lips. “Use them tonight on yourself thinking of me, okay?”

  “Bloody fuck, love, I never thought that my thing but apparently it is now if it’s you,” he groaned as he took the panties. He brought them to his face and inhaled. He set them on his desk and shivered. “I need to taste you. Please? Give me another tas
te of you, Tamsin.”

  “Well, since you asked so nicely,” I teased. “No swiping off the desk and making more work for you later. Where can I sit?”

  “On my cock,” he grumbled as he moved his bag off the other side and made room for me. I hopped up and he kissed me silly before laying me down and burying his face between my legs.

  “I can make noise, right?” I checked as I got close.

  “Please do.”

  I did. A lot. Almost obnoxiously he was so good at that.

  “That good?” he teased me.

  “Do I taste that good that you’re trying to devour me?” I threw right back.

  “Yes, you do, my sweet fairy,” he growled. “And I was so hard for you as you showed that little cunt how amazing you are. All the faculty were talking about trying to get you but I said you demanded me. You’re mine, aren’t you, love?”

  I nodded, knowing he didn’t mean as his golden ticket but we had something that not just any student or any teacher could switch in for. “Better treat me right then, huh?”

  He moaned and got back to work. Shit, he was so fucking hot to push that far. When I couldn’t take any more, I slid off the desk and straddled his lap, making out with him for a bit. His hands on my breasts drove me fucking insane and it was taking everything I had not to give in to what we both wanted.

  “We can go as slow as you want,” he murmured as he hugged me.

  I flinched. “Doesn’t seem fair when I jumped right into having sex with Hudson.”

  “I’m not Hudson and our situation is different. I want your trust more than your body, love. When you know without a doubt that I would never touch any other student besides you, then we can progress, but not until then.”

  “I realized you’d have another golden ticket next year that you’ll be working with closely and it didn’t make me happy.”

  “Hmm, I might have other freshmen I work with for power assessment but none will be my golden ticket. That’s you, love, and I don’t mean for the prize money. I hope you know that.”

  “Not quite yet. Maybe you should eat me out a few more times,” I teased.

  “Gladly,” he growled and tried to move me back to the desk, but I hopped off his lap.

  “How is it fun for you to just take care of me?” I wondered as I quickly fixed my skirt.

  “Because it’s you and I know we’re going somewhere,” he promised. “You’re not taking advantage of me any more than I am you but we’re just having some fun. Which you need, even if it means pushing all my buttons constantly.”

  “I do like doing that,” I agreed, smirking at him. I nodded to the panties. “You’ll let me know how that goes?”

  His eyes flashed shock. “Are you asking me for a dick pic, love?”

  “Well, now I am since that apparently is an option on the table.” I blew him a kiss, grabbed my bag, and headed for the door.

  Sometimes life was so fun amongst the crazy.

  10

  The next day in class I teased Craftsman and then after all the other students left, I took off my panties for him again. He just groaned, saying he wanted a collection if I kept getting wet for him.

  I snorted. “That might be too much. Wash them after you use them too and get them back to me. Maybe I’ll let you put them on me soon too.”

  “After I’ve had my cock in you?” he asked hopefully.

  “We’ll see. I didn’t get that dick pic someone offered.”

  “I chickened out,” he admitted when I was almost to the door.

  I shrugged like it was no big deal and I wouldn’t push for it, but I could hear the vulnerability in his voice too. He’d never hooked up with a student either and for all he knew, I could make a fool of him in the end.

  It made me think I needed to change his contact in my phone just in case anyone ever unlocked it.

  See, I could do the smart thing.

  And I proved that again the next day when I was sitting in Campbell’s class. The answer I’d been searching for hit me like a ton of bricks when she was talking about a warlock who had a love for dragons that wasn’t accepted in his time and his people killed him and his family because of it.

  “Was the child a hybrid? Has there ever been a hybrid?” I blurted, sounding excited—which I wanted for the ploy—but really it was for finally having a plan.

  Campbell’s eyes flashed shock but then she shrugged. “We don’t know. It was never recorded if their child was or it was simply hysteria. To my knowledge there has never been a hybrid child of an interspecies mating, though there are lots of interspecies matings over our long history. It is believed the gods decide which species the soul should be.”

  “And science? Is there like some scientific reason? Could there be a hybrid of that blending?”

  There, I said it without saying it. If even one person in this class was a gossip, it would be all over the school by dinner that I was a hybrid of witch and dragon and that’s why I wouldn’t say what I was.

  A dangerous gamble, sure, but better than anyone thinking I was a fairy.

  “Some have postulated that the stronger genes of one parent or the other win out and it’s not my area,” she answered. “In theory, yes, there could absolutely be a hybrid of two of our supe species.” She blinked at me as if saying she thought she was looking at one.

  “Could they shift forms then, I wonder?” I muttered more to myself, making it clear it wasn’t just a hypothetical to me.

  It worked though because when Darby met up with me for tutoring, he seemed amused in a way I hadn’t seen before.

  “So a witch/dragon hybrid, huh?” he muttered.

  I shrugged. “I never said any such thing.” I smirked at him. “Come on, if they’re going to be such idiots and fixate on something like this, I cannot be held accountable if I feel the need to fuck with them.”

  “If you desired to throw fuel on that fire, I wouldn’t object to that.” He set a book next to me that I glanced at.

  The Genetics and Possibilities of Hybrids.

  Nice. It was a real book that looked scientific and everything. Oh, this was going to be fun. But there were some not on board or upset with the rumors according to my phone.

  Edelman: I received a few calls demanding your blood and samples after you “declared” you were a hybrid. I made it clear you did no such thing and bored, privileged children are starting another round of trouble because they don’t like to be told no by someone under them. They don’t like the attention away from them and staying undeclared annoys them. But I wanted you to have the heads up this is going on.

  Tamsin: Thank you, I didn’t think of that, only that guy was never going to stop digging, mostly so he knew what drugs to use on me so he could post naked photos of me all over school. That’s not only disturbing, but it also gives cover with the hobgoblins being nice to me as they love unique things. Or so I was told. In my defense, I was actually interested and Campbell is a great teacher who encourages those questions.

  Edelman: I didn’t think about the hobgoblins. Well done. Good to know about Campbell. Anything else I should know as long as you’re in the rare sharing mood?

  Tamsin: Richardson is a racist, elitist, POS. Khan is a SERIOUSLY sexist Alpha Male. White and Craftsman are awesome too. Nelson needs to keep it in his pants and not lead his conquests on. Tate has a gambling problem and needs help.

  Edelman: … I didn’t think you’d answer and certainly not with that.

  Tamsin: I’m a reasonable woman when ASKED things instead of being demanded of. I didn’t go snooping and there was no reason not to tell you. ;)

  I had just replied when the rest started.

  Craftsman: Campbell just came in my office and demanded to know if you’re a hybrid. That was bloody genius, love. You keep them guessing and on a fake trail!

  Tamsin: Thanks, I do my best.

  But he wasn’t the only one.

  Izzy: If you are some witch/dragon hybrid and didn’t tell me, I’m not going t
o be happy. Oh, and the hobgoblins are looking for you. They want to thank you for their gift?

  Tamsin: I’m not. I thought it fun to fuck with some assholes. Cool, I’ll find them at dinner. I may have bought the kids a huge sidewalk chalk set to have some fun with.

  Mel was next and was dying with amusement. Hudson even said he was trying not to laugh at how it had everyone in an uproar. He also added that if it was true and I was something that would be hunted, or that people would try to abduct and do research on, he would protect me.

  Oh, and where was I so he could do that?

  Brat. I told him he’d have to find me like we agreed. I had just slid my phone in my pocket when it vibrated again.

  Geiger: I spoke with Ryfon and after speaking with Claudia, we think your property outside Phoenix is the right one to start with. It’s not a Townsend or overly wealthy fairy property and can easily be packed up and sent to another estate so no one is looking into things they shouldn’t. Someone could recognize a Townsend property but these were fairies of no mentionable status.

  Tamsin: That’s smart. Really smart, especially if we might deal with Katrina Calloway. What are your thoughts on that?

  Geiger: That you’re a brilliant, kind young woman that I expect great things from if this is your start in our world. Can you get away this weekend to let people on the property and get it started?

  Tamsin: I’m sure Darby would work around that. How are we going to manage all of this? I mean, get the good ones out and not get caught? Not have a house full of hobgoblins the humans don’t find? Get them what they need if they can’t accept deliveries or go shopping?

  Geiger: I will have it all handled by the time you land there, I promise.

  Land there? Huh?

  Tamsin: Land there?

  Geiger: Yes, you’re taking one of your jets out of Kansas City.

  Tamsin: Wait, my jets? Tell me they’re not twenty years old and sitting somewhere in stasis?

  Geiger: No, one of Townsend’s many investments was in a private charter flight company so half of the planes are yours and that’s part of the estate’s income. The other owner does not know someone has claimed Townsend’s assets but I have a deal with them that I do all the company’s legal work for free flights when I need them as only Townsend’s half was covered in the trust.