“I said the fourth floor was our meeting,” I say instead of hello.
“Yeah, I know, but I lost my keycard to get in and no one would hold the door for me, so I was waiting for you.” He averts his eyes, unhappy admitting to me he lost his keycard, but I don’t care.
His incompetence is adorable. I should really hurry this study session along before I do something I shouldn’t. My jeans get tighter between my legs. What is it with hopeless submissives that turn me on so much?
“C’mon then,” I say as I scan my card and open the door. He slides by me so closely, and I inhale as discreetly as I can.
He smells of lavender.
I stalk ahead of him and take the stairs instead of the lift, which I can hear him huff about behind me. He is winded before we bypass the second floor, one hand on the wooden rail for support.
“Not a gym person?” I ask with a crooked eyebrow.
“I am, or I guess I was, but not since last year,” he mumbles, out of breath.
I’m guessing he doesn’t want to talk about it, but that makes me want to know even more, so I press on.
“Why? Has it also got something to do with why you’re dressed like a hobo and haven’t cut your hair?”
He mutters something that I miss, so I stop to take in his face. He’s red, but I don’t think it’s from the journey to the fourth floor.
My stomach pulls in a familiar knot. He’s humiliated by my observation and statement. Interesting.
“Yeah, I guess it does. I’m too busy for shit like that these days.”
He catches up to me and pushes through the double doors. He doesn’t even stop to hold the door for me, little shit.
After using the printer and catching up with a student from one of my TA classes, I find him in a corner cubicle at the back. It smells dusty back here, unused, which means it is private. I take the seat opposite him. His books are already everywhere and unorganised as he opens his laptop.
“You won’t need any of this today,” I state as I take out my laptop and make eyes at his.
“I thought this was a study session so you could look at my work and see where it needs improvement?”
He looks at me with that furrowed little brow of his, and I try to pull back the smile that threatens to expose itself.
“You thought wrong, Jamie. Today, you are going to tell me everything going on in your life right now and why it’s such a shit-show, and I will write it all down and come up with a plan to sort you out by any means necessary.”
Jamie looks at me over his screen like I’ve slapped him as his fingers hover over the keys.
“What are you going to do? Come and make sure I get to the gym and eat healthy foods? I thought you were tutoring me in math so I can pass Simmons’ next quiz.”
Oh, so there is some fight in him. Maybe he isn’t a lost cause after all.
“Simmons hired me to get you up to your full potential Jamie, so if that means making you get a new wardrobe and banging on your little dorm room door to make you eat something healthy, then that is going to happen, sunshine. I am here to push you until you cry, and then I’ll push you some more until you break. Then, we will build you back up and get you to where you need to be.”
His face drops as he takes in what I’m telling him. He didn’t think it would be as easy as me going through his worksheets and telling him the answers, did he?
“Why? Why go through that bother for a friend’s student?” Vulnerability clouds his features. He’s braver than he thinks he is, that’s for sure.
“Simmons saw something that I have yet to see. Are you not even curious to find out what potential he thinks he saw in you?”
He meets my gaze head on, no fear in his eyes but a quiet surrender.
The kind that begs to be tested.
“Okay, let’s do it. Show me what you’ve got, Arnie. Push me until I break.”
Fuck me, I might not want to let this one go when I’m done breaking him.
