Page 6 of Forbidden Heroes

“Yeah, that’s what I thought. What the fuck do you think you are doing? She did say no. We all heard from across the parking lot. Thought your daddy taught you better. Then again money doesn’t make a man, isn’t that right, Emberly?” Elliot’s pissed off question only gets another high-pitched squeal as a reply.

Around us the crowd is growing and I want to melt into the gravel at my feet from embarrassment when I see the gleam of phone cameras popping up to catch the whole exchange. Blood roars in my ears and my heart jackhammers.

I’m ready to turn and leave when I catch Professor Elliot’s eye.

Sharp, primal and lethal.

My breath hitches and my eyes go wide.

“Stay,” he commands in the same husked baritone I’ve listened to for three and a half solid years and gotten off with on more than one occasion. Only this time something darker in his tone has my feet planting to the ground, but I’ll be honest. He could command me to do pretty much anything and I wouldn’t think twice about following every order. The power that fills the space he occupies is overwhelming and all-consuming at once. I’m not the only one who feels it either. Other college girls my age are eyeing him with the same hunger that has my insides in knots.

But it’s me he’s looking at. Me he’s commanding.

“Don’t you fucking move a muscle, Emberly, or so help me God I’ll hunt you down,” he grits out and I can’t tell if he’s laid down a promise or a threat between us. Or both.

What. The. Fuck. I nail him with a defiant look, but the signals between my feet and my brain must be jammed.

I silently wonder if I should test him. Push the man outside his comfort zone and get a reaction out of him. Something. All his hot looks and stolen glances are driving me crazy. Any more of this back and forth and I’m not sure what I’ll do.

“Emberly, I want to hear the words.”

My name on his lips does miraculous things to my body and I shiver.

I choke out a “Yes, sir.”

Suddenly the worried expression on his face turns lethal and dark. Problem is, I can’t tell if this shift in moods is bad or a terribly good thing. Will he storm across the short distance between us, pluck me off my feet and whisk me away to safety?

A good thing in my head.

Or will he beat the crap out of Thomas right here in front of tens of students armed with cameras and YouTube channels?

Still good for me, but Thomas might regret ever coming out this evening.

Satisfied I’m not going anywhere, he turns a dark gaze on my face where Thomas caught me with his backhand.

He swings his head around and buries his hands in the jock’s coat. In one smooth motion my professor hauls two hundred pounds of grade-A asshole up and thrashes him against the truck next to us. Towering over the piece of trash, he gives him another shake.

“Come on, don’t you want to play now? I thought you liked it rough? Throwing your weight around is fun, right?”

Something stirs within me as I look on and I can’t still my anxious hands clenched in front of me. I probably look like Sister Alice ready to break out in prayer.

“Jesus,” I hiss, mad at myself for not being able to pull my head together. Deep down the primal spark of something new fires bolts of electricity throughout my body. I’m not sure what kind of woman this makes me, but seeing the professor’s protective side sends a rush of excitement through me and puckers my nipples into tight, throbbing knots.

My pulse thunders in my ears as flames lick along the curves of my body.

Finding any semblance of calm is way past my abilities right now, but I fight for a few drops of whatever I have left all the same. I swallow around the dryness in my throat a few times, but it is not happening. Not when all I see are the older man’s broad shoulders bunching beneath his button-down dress shirt defending my honor like a knight.

I hold my laugh. No way my mind should go there. He was just a man doing the right thing. But damn if it did anyway.

All that rippling muscle and thick forearms do unspeakable things to my libido. That had to make me a freak of some sort because I like it. A lot.

Thomas’s eyes are wide. “Get the fuck away from me, old man. You know who my father is? He’ll show you what a loser has-been you are. Make that a jealous wannabe, more like it.” He slings his insults vehemently and I see the second Thomas realizes his threats fall on deaf ears.

Sadly for him, his new angle isn’t much better.

Cold eyes slant toward me as Thomas makes one mistake too many. “Hey, if you want a piece of her first, I’m game.”

“Wrong move,” Elliot roars, rearing back. Thomas’s pretty boy jaw does a glorious job of catching a meaty right hook and the professor lets the jerk fold to the ground like dirty laundry.

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