“Logan brought me, said I needed a night out. I swear, I didn’t know you worked there, he didn’t either, not this time.”
“I hate working here so much, but you wanna know how I get through it, the stripping, the lap dances?” she asks before looking up to meet my eye. “I imagine I’m dancing for you.”
“What?”
“Dwight, for so long I’ve had this like… hole inside me, since my parents died, and I feel so empty all the time. But… but then I met you…” her voice cracks, “and since I met you, it’s like that hole has begun to close up, and I don’t feel so empty anymore. When I’m with you, it doesn’t hurt so much. I probably shouldn’t be telling you this, because I know nothing can come of it... of us, and I think I can live with that, I mean, we have to.”
I feel exactly the same. When we’re together, the pain of losing Grace eases. Quinn’s like a balm that numbs the pain inside me, and finally allows me tofeelagain.
Fuck being her professor. I need this girl as much as she needs me.
“Well, I don’t think I can, not anymore.” I close the space separating us and drop to a crouch in front of her, taking her hands in mine. “The truth is I’m feeling things for you, Quinn, things I haven’t felt in such a long time, things I’ve only ever felt for my wife and it’s screwing with my head. It scares me. You’re my student and it’s wrong for me to want you this way. It feels like I’m taking advantage. But I can’t fight it anymore. You might be able to live with it, but I can’t.”
I grip the back of her neck and smash my lips to hers in a deep punishing kiss. I waste no time in slipping my tongue inside her mouth, and she meets me halfway. I take her waist and pull her up to standing so we’re flush up against one another. Her hands dive into my hair, tugging gently, and a moan from deep in my throat slips past my lips.
My hands slide down to squeeze her ass before I grip her thighs and lift her into my arms, her legs wrapping around my waist.
My heart thumps in my chest, my blood pumping through my veins so fast I feel light-headed.
I pull back a little to rest my forehead against hers, panting for breath. “Everything I said before, it was all bullshit. I fucking need you Quinn, and I was wrong to push you away. I'm so fucking sorry I hurt you. Fuck the rules and the consequences. Fuck that you’re my student, I don’t care anymore. All I know is, I’m not about to let this go, I couldn’t even if I wanted to.”
“I want you too, more than anything.”
“You were meant to come stumbling into my classroom that first day. You were sent to save me, and I was sent to save you.” I lean forward and press my lips to hers softly, my hand cupping her cheek. Her hand reaches for my face, and I melt into her touch.
“What happens in class?” she asks against my lips.
“No one can know. We have to tread carefully. We keep this between us and carry on as normal, but when we’re not in class…” I squeeze her ass and crash my mouth to hers, making her gasp. “...You’re mine,” I growl against her lips.
“So we’re really doing this?”
A wide smile stretches across my face. “We really are.”
∞∞∞
I drop her home and lift her to sit on the kitchen counter where I help her clean up the blood on her face, before pressing a bag of frozen peas wrapped in a towel to her cheek that’s beginning to bruise.
“I guess peas are good for something after all,” she jokes, a smile pulling at her mouth.
“Yes they are. I told you.”
She looks me deep in the eyes, cupping my cheek in her hand. “Thank you for earlier, I don’t know what I would have done had you not been there.”
“I’ll always be there to protect you.Always. You’re stuck with me now, baby.”
Chapter 26
Dwight
The second Quinn steps into the lecture hall, I don’t even see her, Ifeelher. The hairs on the back of my neck stand on end and my skin instantly warms under her stare, the way it always does when she looks at me.
I have to force myself to not look up, to not make any direct eye contact with her, instead I keep my head down, my attention locked on my computer as my students filter into the room, but in my periphery I can see her, chattering away to her friend, Amy, but every now and again I see her glance my way.
She’s probably wondering why I haven’t looked at her, why I haven’t made any attempt to.
But I can’t risk it. I can’t risk drawing any attention to us. It kills me that it has to be this way when all I want to do is hold her and not have to worry about who might be watching.
After what happened a few days ago at the strip club, I’m still mad as hell. The face of that prick at the forefront of my mind, the thought of his hands on Quinn. Forcing her…
