Page 7 of Forbidden Heroes

Elliot’s eyes narrow on Thomas, and the smirk on his face reiterates what he just said with his fist. Some lessons are hard learned, I guess.

“Tomorrow morning report to the dean’s office. Your future at BU will be determined then. Looks like you just might have pissed away your full football ride, buddy. Daddy’s not going to be too happy about that news.”

Daddy referred to Thomas’s NFL quarterback father with several Super Bowl wins under his belt. I only know all this because it’s on every girl’s lips and apparently has gone to Thomas’ head.

“The rest of you, move the fuck on unless you want your names on the report too.” Professor Riley’s deep booming voice catches me off guard and I almost scream my surprise as he comes to stands so close I feel the brush of his body against mine.

Heat touches me first and then a light hand comes to rest on my lower back just above the globes of my ass. Not too intimate but close enough.

We stay like that a minute until all the twenty-somethings clear out with both men flanking me like a protective shield of muscle.

And let me say, nothing gets a bunch of college students moving faster than a pissed off professor dealing out free ass beatings. Legal or not. Elliot didn’t seem to care if putting his hands on a student in defense of another meant trouble for him.

Elliot starts to move me away from the crowd but I step around him to watch Thomas scurry off to someone’s souped-up muscle car. It peels out of the pub parking lot with a bunch of buddies.

What a loser.

My eyes lock on his, and my gut twists at the blast of hatred fired my way from the passenger window but I dig deep, steel my nerves, flicking Thomas a double-fingered salute.

“Douche,” I mumble under my breath, but obviously not too hushed because Samuel grins my way, those blue eyes of his flashing his approval.

My chest rises and falls evenly but I feel anything but the calm I’m working to project.

Try more like freaked the hell out. What was I thinking attacking someone that big with friends in the wings?

When the last set of headlights fade and we are alone, Elliot turns his full attention on me and I immediately freeze under all that intense power. He’s by my side in two strides and his brows are pinched in a stern angle. “Are you okay, Emberly?”

His tone matches his expression, but I am not expecting that kind of question. I feared something more along the lines of what kind of idiot I must be to try to walk home alone.

Fair question. But one that would still sting.

Warm arms encircle me and pull me against a firm chest, shoving my thoughts aside. Anyone looking our way would only see two men. We stood off in the shadows with a truck on either side, obscuring any nosy onlookers that might chance by.

“Fuck him. Don’t give the bastard another thought.”

The deep, low-pitched voice belongs to my foreign affairs professor and hits my ears, working in tandem with hints of Ivory soap and sandalwood reassuring me I’m safe. But that I’m also female and immune to a man like him.

Powerful. Rugged and enough sex appeal to kill me with an overdose of orgasms. If that’s a thing. If not, it will be in a few seconds.

I’m amazed at my sudden shift. While one male gives me the creeps, this specimen pushes all the right buttons.

I blush, looking down for a moment before I bring my hands up to rest on Samuel’s thick, exposed forearms crossed over my chest. His sleeves are rolled up and I run my hands up and down his warm flesh, uncaring who sees.

All three of us stand in silence for a few seconds and I feel the tension melt away from my shoulders and I relax even more into Samuel’s arms and Elliot’s nearness.

Samuel strokes my bare shoulder. “Feel better now, sweetheart? You were shaking like a leaf.”

I didn’t move to say it was anger making me shake and instead, accepted his touch in the quiet.

It might be wrong and forbidden to have any kind of relations with a professor, but that didn’t make this feel any less perfect. Maybe it makes it more so. I don’t know. I’m no psychology student.

When I try to move away, he tightens his arms a fraction to let me know I’m okay where I am and our eyes lock as I turn my head and peer up at him.

I freeze for a long moment, drawn in by the sudden combination of his hands on me and the feel of his hard body pressed against mine. Add the shock of his focus entirely on me and I can’t move.

I slowly look to the side and find Professor Elliot looking at me in Samuel’s arms and his eyes are on fire as if reading every dirty thought in my head.

He comes to stand beside us so close I can smell the same Ivory soap on him as I do Samuel, but instead of sandalwood, I smell the sweet hint of whiskey. I could be blindfolded yet still see a million questions on his tongue, but he keeps silent for now, content staring down at me like he can’t figure out what to do about me.

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