Page 53 of Raise Hell

He doesn’t look at anyone but me.

What the hell is going on?

I don’t breathe normally again until he finally breaks his intense assessment of my face to look at the rubric.

“The assignment is to create a business plan based on the description provided with special emphasis on how we intend to influence consumer behavior. We have to present the advantages and disadvantages of our particular choices and the factors used in our selection.” He flips a page, expression pensive. I actually get the impression he’s taking this seriously. “Our business is a family-owned candy shop with franchise potential.”

“I’m sure you’ll find some way to include a predatory corporate takeover that enriches shareholders without providing any benefit to consumers.”

“You sound like a talking head on MSNBC.” Drake flips another page in the handout and makes a note in the margin. “There isn’t anything wrong with wanting to make money.”

“You sound like a sociopathic CEO justifying taking a hefty bonus in the same year as massive layoffs.” It reassures me that there is such a fundamental disconnect between our world-views. I need to remind myself of how disgusting I find him whenever my vagina starts playing tricks on me. “At least you’ll only ever go morally bankrupt.”

“I was wrong.” His voice is mild, but I see the flash of annoyance in his eyes. “That sounds like something that only comes out the mouth of someone born rich who doesn’t realize just how far they have to fall if things turn bad.”

I literally bite my tongue hard enough to make it bleed. The shock of pain is all that stops me from spitting out how much I’m not the poor, little rich girl, regardless of where I started off in life. It doesn’t matter how rich your family is when they completely cut you off. “You don’t know anything about me.”

“Ditto,” he replies grimly. “Maybe we should just focus on the assignment.”

“Fine.”

His pen is poised over the page. Instead of writing, he turns to look at me.

“Or, we could talk about last night.”

My mouth throbs, and not just from the pain of biting my tongue. “There isn’t anything to talk about.”

“You sure? I seem to remember someone with their legs wrapped around my waist and grinding on my dick. Something tells me you weren’t drunk enough to forget about that.”

The classroom is small. I know people are listening to this, even though the students nearest to us act like they’re engaged in their work when I risk a glance at them.

“You’re the one with alcohol-induced memory loss if you think—”

He has the nerve to put his hand over my mouth, muffling my words. I bite down on the base of his thumb, and he pulls his hand away. “Don’t say something stupid like I wouldn’t fuck you if you were the last guy on Earth or anything like that. That will just make you look silly later when you’re begging me to fuck you harder.”

I choke on my laugh. “You cannot be serious.”

“Why not? I don’t have to tell you how hot you are, even if the inside doesn’t match the outside. Wanting to rip your panties off with my teeth just means I still have a pulse.”

“Is that supposed to be negging? Because you suck at it.”

“It’s not negging, if it’s true.”

“You don’t even like me.”

He waves that thought away like he’s batting a fly out of the air. “I’m a guy. A girl’s personality has never been a consideration for whether or not my dick gets hard, I promise you.”

This cannot be happening.

When I glance up front, Dr. Hewey isn’t paying attention to the class. His face is buried in today’s edition of the Wall Street Journal.

We might as well be on Mars for all he seems to care about what his students are doing.

If only he would display that same inattention when grading our assignments.

When I turn back to Drake, he stares at me with that same mocking half-smile. Only now, the heat in his gaze is unmistakable as it travels down the front of my body where I left a few buttons of my top undone.

It would take an idiot not to realize he’s trying to play me. He’s being a little smarter about it than I would have anticipated. If he had made some sickening protestation of love, there is no way I’d buy it.

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