Humming, I grinned and sprinted ahead to hold a door open for him. He glared at me as he sailed on through, jerking his bag around to hang at his side from his shoulder, rather than using it as a shield. I easily caught up to him. If his goal was to keep from attracting attention, we were definitely doing the opposite. “It’s always inappropriate to agree to pay for sex.” He stumbled, and I winked at him. “Illegal, even.”
He slowed to nearly a standstill. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“Go out with me and I forget your tab for that kiss.”
A stricken expression on his face stole some of my amusement. I’d gone too far and wanted to kick myself.
“I would never—”
I grabbed his hand, and he shook me off, so I laughed and scratched the back of my head. “I wouldn’t hurt you like that. I thought it was funny, but I’ll stop with it. I... I’m sorry. Meet me somewhere tonight. That’s all I want.”
“I can’t.” His cheeks flushed a great shade of crimson I wanted to see again—for other reasons. He hadn’t even looked like that while I was fucking him. What was going through his head?
Well, anything was better than ano. “Give me your number,” I said softly, and tension visibly slid through his body. Fuck, he wanted to see me again, I could tell. The part of me that hadn’t totally gone to the dark side knew he could be uncomfortable instead of turned on, but I couldn’t believe he didn’t want me again after the way he’d fucked Friday night.
And he hadn’t exactly kneed me in the balls a minute ago when I’d kissed him.
“I can’t,” he said and started walking quickly again. He was even better to stare at in the sunshine than he had been in the dark club. Light glinted on the silver speckling his stubble and hair and it had my breath catching. He looked strong. Regal. Mature. Like he was ready to take anything I could possibly throw at him. I’d always worried about breaking the slim men who tended to come on to me. He was solid.
“Was that Torts?” I asked, hooking a thumb over my shoulder. “I haven’t taken it yet.”
He groaned and stopped again. The pleading in his eyes—the begging—nearly got to me. I was making his life difficult, but I couldn’t let this go. I would never forgive myself.
“Well? Was it?”
“The class is full.” His eyes blazed with something. Anger? Hm. I’d never known when to quit—just like Jury—and I wasn’t about to stop now.
“Even for a Daughtler? Doubtful.”
He began to race away again along the tree-lined sidewalk toward the four-story law library. The gray-stone facade glittered in the sunshine and the tall windows with round tops on each level reflected sharp points of light. For a second, excitement nearly flattened me. I had the beginnings of a long-term plan, one that would put him squarely in my sights five days a week. If we were around each other that much, he’d break eventually. I easily caught up with him, and he huffed as I stopped jogging to stroll with him.
“No one has ever ditched me, you’re my first for that.”
He grimaced and that beautiful red stain across his cheeks was back. “I’ve had it happen,” he murmured, bitterness dripping from his tone.
“Stop feeling sorry for yourself.”
He whirled around, and my heart jumped into my throat. My body tingled from head to toe. “Excuse me?” A couple of guys on the sidewalk ahead of us slowed, and he grabbed my arm and dragged me off to stand near an oak tree, not that it hid us at all. “How the hell do you—”
“Now you get a chance to trade up, and I’m not dumb enough to get rid of a good thing.” I tugged out my wallet and grinned as his face went redder. I opened the money pouch and removed a simple white card, handing it to him.
“Is this a fucking business card? How many guys do you fuck?” he snarked, and that had me snickering as he glared.
“I use them when I’m helping my parents do local political garbage.”
His eyes widened and he glanced down. I hated that his hand was shaking where it gripped my card, but he wasn’t making this easy. Shrugging, I felt that maybe I’d started to overload him and made my way back toward the sidewalk. I didn’t want to push him far enough that he would outright tell me to fuck off. “I gotta go. Send me your number.” My voice slipped low, I couldn’t help it, and I smirked at the shudder that ran through his body. If I could get him over his hang-ups, he would definitely be my good boy.
3
FLYNN
There wasno way in hell I was going to send him my number.Nope. Not going to happen.Yet, I couldn’t stop staring at his card as I sat in my office chair after a day of intense lectures that left me mentally drained. I liked teaching, but I was an introvert, and the students asked a lot of questions in the first few months of law school. It always happened—they pretended to show interest to be a “good student,” but I didn’t care either way. As long as I got paid at the end of the day, I was happy.
I didn’t know what to make of Judge. I’d thought after I’d left him in the bathroom that would be it, and I certainly hadn’t expected him to find me here at school. After the night at the club and my conversation with Brandt, I remembered the name Jury Daughtler from last year. He was identical to Judge, with the same pink cheeks and mischievous grin. I’d been attracted to him, but as with any student, I shrugged it off. It didn’t matter if a student was a tall muscled jock, I never went there.
This situation with Judge wasn’t going to change my conviction. I would never knowingly sleep with a student. I had morals, and unlike my bastard of an ex, I certainly didn’t date men half my age. I couldn’t bring myself to throw the card in the trash, though, and that frustrated me beyond words. Huffing, I grabbed my wallet out of my pocket and slipped the card into one of the slots before I closed it up again.
I stared back at my laptop, but the words were beginning to blur together. I’d been looking at the screen for too long, and all I wanted to do was go home and take a nice hot shower for my sore muscles. Unfortunately everything in my house reminded me of Chris and our time together. That’d been our home, our bedroom, and our kitchen. We’d drunk wine and laughed while making dinner. We’d fucked on the table and the couch and every other possible surface. We’d bathed together in that shower. And now he was gone and the life I’d built had crumbled around me. The man I’d loved left me. How could I ever trust another person again after I’d spent so much of my life with someone who hurt me?
