Page 37 of Lost Paradise

Yet, do I want to know?

“Do you put yourself in that equation too?”

Her question catches me off guard, causing a flicker of surprise to fill my face, and I quickly compose myself.

“I’m your teacher, Eve. I can’t be in that equation,” as the last word spills out of my mouth, I regret my defensive tone almost immediately. I’m desperately clinging to the boundaries of our roles as students and instructors.

“You’re full of shit,” she declares, her voice firm and unyielding. Her words slice through the air like a sharpened blade. "For starters, you're probably not that much older than me. And secondly, we're stranded on an island far from the civilized world, where rules don't apply."

Her words hang in the air, a challenge thrown down in the face of convention and expectation. As I glance around at my remote surroundings, a sense of liberation washes over me, like chains falling away from my conscience.

Slowly, hesitantly, I begin to consider her words, allowing myself to entertain the possibility of stepping beyond the confines of our preconceived roles. Here, on this isolated island, with the rules of society stripped away, perhaps there is room for something more, something unexpected and undeniably real.

“No,” I say sternly. “Someone has to be responsible here. I was given that role.”

“I agree with you,” she says, and I cock my head curiously at her. “I think you should maintain that role. It suits you,” she grins.

“It’s not about suiting me, Eve. By not participating in their antics, I’m keeping myself above them.”

“And what about me?”

“I’ll do what I can to maintain the authoritative role.”

“Not if someone fucks me first, you won’t.”

My eyes widen at her brassiness.

“I can solve that issue,” she says, and without warning, she leans over and crashes her lips on mine, seizing the moment in a bold move that closes the gap between us and takes my breath away.

As her lips meet mine in this passionate collision, I feel a surge of electricity course through me, igniting a fire that has long smoldered beneath the surface.

For a heartbeat, I hesitate and am ready to pull back from her, my mind racing with a thousand thoughts and questions. But it’s not long until I abandon those judgments and surrender to the kiss, my lips responding eagerly to hers.

Nothing else matters but the intoxicating taste of her lips and the warmth of her touch as she bravely slides her arm around my body. Lost in the heat of the moment, I wrap my hand behind her head, gripping hard as I kiss her deeper. Each brush of our lips is a silent testament to the undeniable chemistry that crackles between us.

I break from her, breathless and flushed with desire.

What the bloody hell have I done? There’s no turning back from this.

Fuck, fuck, fuck.

Sensing my shock and withdrawal, she grabs my arm as I get up to leave and try to find some sense of what I feel. She yanks me back down.

“Stay here,” she says. “Don’t you fucking dare try and deny your true feelings! You enjoyed that as much as I did.”

“We crossed a threshold into uncharted territory. I shouldn’t have—”

“No!” she interrupts, putting a finger over my mouth. “I’m eighteen, for fuck’s sake, and you’re what, twenty-five? Twenty-six? Big fucking deal. What’s important is that I’m old enough to decide this for myself. And I want you. I want you bad.”

“I’m twenty-four,” I say quietly.

“Even better,”

“How is six years olderthan you better?”

“Because I like all of you. I want to fuck all of you. I don’t know how that happened. But I know you like me, and I’m attracted to you. A lot. Fuck. I find you breathtakingly gorgeous. And you going all alpha on Jack yesterday, asking him to challenge your place as leader in the group was sexy as fuck. I know it sounds brash to say it like this, but you’re right. They will fight over me and be assholes about it. Jack already made a verbal claim on me. Zane is one step away, and we all know Astro’s morals are loose as a screw in a rusty old machine. But you’re the one to set the pace for them.”

I’m stunned.

---