Chapter One
Addison
“You’re cheating!”
Pausing in the middle of the hallway, Professor Addison Renard looked around, trying to figure out exactly where the raised voice had come from.
Her curiosity was rewarded a moment later when another voice, deeper but just as loud, responded from the room to her right. “I did not! I would never cheat!”
“You cheatallthe time! I’m not playing with you anymore!”
The voices were familiar, yet different at the same time in a way she couldn’t quite pinpoint. Running her finger down the list on her clipboard, she stopped when she came to Kylie Nichols’s name. And frowned as she tried to make sense of the information in front of her.
Kylie was one of her top students. Bright, inquisitive, engaging without being overly social during class unlike her BFF Eliza who, until last year, had been rather disruptive. But Eliza had gotten herself a Daddy and an ADHD diagnosis, and the combination seemed to have curbed some of her… less desirable behaviors.
But Kylie was another story. Not once had Professor Renard ever had a reason to discipline the pretty blonde. And, to her knowledge, the other professors at Rawhide University could say the same thing.
Which made her raised voice, now bordering on hysterical, rather alarming.
Fishing the keys she’d been handed as temporary Resident Advisor for the girls’ dorms at Rawhide University out of her pocket, Addison unlocked the door and pushed it open.
It was, as the clipboard had told her, Kylie’s room. But she barely recognized the woman standing in the middle of the chaotic space as her star pupil. Her bright blonde hair was pulled up into high ponytails on either side of her head, and her outfit, well, it was nothing like the stiff schoolgirl uniform Addison was used to seeing her in. For starters, she was wearing a t-shirt, which she never wore, even when she was dressed “casual,” and shorts. The shorts wereveryshort, leaving the expanse of skin from her upper thigh to her knees delightfully bare, while her calves were covered by colorful striped socks.
All in all, the look was… adorable was the only word Addison could think to describe it. Playful and fun in a way that was so very un-Kylie she had to blink to be sure she was seeing correctly.
Standing toe-to-toe with Kylie was Daniel Hollis. A good head taller than Kylie, but lanky with it where Kylie was all curves and dimples, he had his hands on his hips as he glared down at her. And unlike Kylie, there was nothing unusual about the jeans and t-shirt he wore. Addison couldn’t see what his shirt said, but she had no doubt it was something hilariously nerdy, possibly some double-entendre that tied his interests in all things nerdy to his love of kink.
Positioned as they were, they looked more like siblings in the middle of a brawl than the best friends she knew them to be.
Moving quietly, Addison closed the door behind her before stepping fully into the room and clearing her throat. “What seems to be the problem here?”
The pair leapt apart, both of their eyes widening almost comically. But where Dan simply looked embarrassed, Kylie looked as though she might actually pass out from the shock. Every ounce of color drained from her face as she tugged at her shirt—which Addison could now see sported a pair of cartoon dogs, one blue and one orange with their paws in the air as they shouted “Hooray!”—trying to pull it down low enough to cover her legs.
“Professor Renard!” Kylie’s voice had risen to a high-pitched squeak. “What are you doing here?”
Raising a brow, Addison tapped her clipboard. “Your RA had a family emergency, so I stepped in. I was doing my rounds and I heard screaming. I came in to check that everything was okay.”
“Oh, god.” Now the color rushed back to Kylie’s cheeks with a vengeance. “I’m so, so sorry. We were just playing a video game and Danny was cheatingagainand?—”
“I did not cheat!” Looking as red-faced as his partner, Dan once again fisted his hands on his hips and turned to glare at Kylie. “Just because you can’t figure out how to make a decent healing potion does not mean I’m cheating!”
“Screw you, Danny! There is nothing wrong with my potions!”
To Addison’s stunned surprise, Kylie stomped her foot. And it was in that moment she realized what it was about the entire picture that seemed so off to her. It wasn’t just that two of her best students were arguing over a video game.
It was that they were arguing likeLittles.
Shit.
Panic welled in Addison’s chest, but she managed to keep it at bay by drawing in a deep breath and pinning the pair with astern look. “I think some cornertime would do you both some good before you say or do something you can’t take back.”
“No!” Arms crossed, Kylie stomped her foot again, and Addison had the distinct impression she was about to be treated to a full on Little meltdown. “I don’t wanna stand in the corner!”
Moving purely on instinct, Addison tucked her clipboard up under her arm as she stepped forward, wrapping one hand around Kylie’s arm and guiding her firmly over to an empty corner, using her free hand to swat Kylie’s delightfully round bottom the entire way. “You will stand here until I give you permission to move, or you will be one very sorry Little girl by the time I’m through with you. Am I understood, Kylie?”
“Yes, Ma’am.”
The sulky tone was far from the respectful deference Addison was used to in a submissive, and unlike anything she’d ever heard from Kylie before, but at least she wasn’t being outright defiant any longer. “Good.”
