I pulled out of him slowly, my hands trembling as the full weight of what we’d just done crashed down on me. The scent of sex and satisfaction hung heavy in the air of my office, mixing with the lingering traces of Archer’s arousal and my own desperate need that had finally been sated.
My student. I’d just fucked my student. On top of my desk. During office hours.
And the worst part was… I feltfucking great. The sexual energy was already coursing through my veins, making me feel more alive than I had in decades. It was… addicting.
But Christ, what had gotten into me? One moment I’d been trying to maintain professional boundaries, and the next I’d been buried balls-deep in the most responsive, gorgeous man I’d encountered in centuries. The way he’d begged for it, the way he’d taken everything I’d given him and asked for more...
I stepped back, my legs unsteady as I watched Archer slowly straighten up from where he’d been lying on my desk. His dark hair was mussed, his cheeks flushed, and there was a satisfiedsmile playing at the corners of his mouth that made my spent cock twitch with renewed interest.
“That was...” he started, turning to face me with that post-orgasmic glow that made him look absolutely edible.
“A mistake,” I finished, the words tasting bitter even as I said them. “Fuck, Archer. This was exactly what I said I wouldn’t do.”
His smile faltered slightly. “You didn’t seem to think it was a mistake two minutes ago when you were telling me how good it felt to be crammed balls deep inside me.”
Heat crept up my neck as I remembered the things I’d whispered against his ear, the praise I’d lavished on him as I’d fucked him senseless. The way I’d completely lost control the moment he’d pushed me too far.
“That’s not the point,” I said, reaching for my discarded clothes with hands that were still shaking. “This can’t happen again, Archer. It can’t.”
“Why not?” He made no move to get dressed, just stood there naked and gorgeous and completely unashamed. “We’re both adults. We both wanted it. And it was fucking incredible, you can’t deny that.”
I pulled on my shirt, not trusting myself to look at him for too long. Even now, with my rational mind screaming about all the ways this could destroy us both, I wanted to push him back down on that desk and take him again. Slower this time. Make him absolutely fall apart under my touch until he was sobbing with pleasure.
“Because you’re my student,” I said, forcing steel into my voice. “Because there are rules. Because if anyone finds out about this, it won’t just be my job on the line. Your family, your reputation, and your entire future could be destroyed.”
“My family doesn’t get to dictate my sex life,” Archer said, finally reaching for his clothes. But there was something in his tone, a bitterness that made me look up sharply.
“What happened?” I asked, noting the tension in his shoulders as he pulled on his shirt. “Before you came here. You were upset about something. I could smell it on you.”
For a moment, I thought he wasn’t going to answer. Then his jaw tightened, and I caught a flash of the same vulnerability I’d seen when he’d first walked into my office.
“My father showed up at my summoning exam today,” he said quietly. “I lost control of the spell because I panicked when I saw him. Made a complete fool of myself in front of the entire class.”
My chest tightened with an emotion I didn’t want to examine too closely. “And?”
“And he humiliated me in front of the entire class and then threatened to make me quit the fencing team if my performance doesn’t improve.” Archer’s hands stilled on his belt buckle. “He thinks I’m distracted. That I’m not focusing on what matters.”
The irony wasn’t lost on me. His father was right, in a way. Archer had been distracted. By me. And now I’d given him even more reason to lose focus, more secrets to keep, more ways for his carefully constructed life to fall apart.
“Maybe he has a point,” I said, hating myself for the words even as they left my mouth. “Maybe you should focus on your studies. On meeting your family’s expectations.”
Archer’s head snapped up, his blue eyes flashing with hurt and anger. “Is that what you really think? That I should just fall in line and be the perfect little Quinn heir?”
“I think you should protect yourself,” I said, pulling on my jacket and trying to ignore the way his expression crumpled slightly. “From me. From this. From anything that could jeopardize your future.”
“What if I don’t want that future?” he asked, stepping closer despite my obvious attempts to create distance between us. “Assoon as I graduate, they’re going to marry me off, Valen. This is my last chance to have something I actually…want.”
The raw honesty in his voice nearly undid me. For a moment, I let myself imagine what it would be like to give in completely. To stop fighting this pull between us and see where it led. But then reality crashed back in, cold and unforgiving.
“It doesn’t matter what you want,” I said, the words cutting through the air like a blade. “This ends here. Now. We go back to being professor and student, nothing more.”
“Bullshit.” The vehemence in his voice surprised me. “You can’t just fuck me like that and then pretend it meant nothing. I felt how you responded to me, Valen. This isn’t just physical for you either.”
He was right, and that terrified me more than anything else. What I’d felt with him went beyond simple sexual gratification. He was basically a food source for me, and one of the most succulent ones I’d ever tasted. But he didn’t know I was that kind of vampire and I had a feeling things had gone too far to ask for permission to feed from him now.
“Get dressed,” I said instead of acknowledging his words. “And leave. Our next lesson will be strictly academic, or there won’t be any more lessons at all.”
For a long moment, we stared at each other across the small space of my office. I could see the hurt in his eyes, the confusion and frustration that mirrored my own. But underneath it all was a determination that made my stomach clench with dread.
