Page 105 of Bad for Me

“I see my reputation precedes me.” A smirk teases my lips. I don’t give a shit about attendance, but I do give a shit about disrupting my class. If a senator’s son or daughter makes so much as a peep while I teach, I have no qualms with banishing them until test day.

“I’m Professor Woods. As you’ve read in your syllabus, there are no computers in my classroom. The greats didn’t need them, so you certainly don’t need anything more than pencil and paper in English 102.”

“English102? Eek! Wrong class,” a short girl with blue hair squeaks before gathering her things and rushing out of the room. She leaves behind a collective laugh from the remaining students.

“Silence!”

The laughter chokes to a stop and the very air in the room seems to still as many hold their breaths.

Fuck, the power feels good when they listen.

“You think it’s funny that girl was in the wrong classroom? By the end of this course, I guarantee half of you will wish you’d run out right behind her. In fact—” I wave the papers with the class roster. “Let’s compare and contrast attendance from the first day and see who makes it ’til the last, shall we? Aarons?”

“Present.”

I don’t meet the eye of whoever declared their presence and instead glance around the room for my prey with each name. “Gable” isn’t too far down the list, but I’m itching to find her before I call out her name.

My eyes glaze over every drab expression until I’m blinded by sunshine. My heart skips as a young woman’s gaze catches mine and her brilliant smile captures me.

I can’t tell what color her eyes are, but they trap me all the same. Her gorgeous blonde hair cascades like a shimmering river down her shoulders, around the collar of her white blouse, and over her tan, sleeveless sweater dress. Her perfect smile raises the apples of her tanned cheeks as excitement beams back at me, as if I’ve hung the moon for her. A strange fluttering sensation in my chest makes me suck in a sharp breath.

“Professor Woods?”

One of the brown-nosers in the front row startles me, and I shake my head free from my trance.

No one has burned me from the inside out like that before, but my skin is on fire merely from this student’s gaze alone. I’m thankful the air cools my cheeks now that I’m no longer under her spell of whateverthatwas. But I hate that the warmth of her attention is gone.

I glare at the annoyance that ruined the moment that could’ve ruinedme.

“What?”

The brown-noser’s smile wanes and her light skin reddens at my gruff tone. She tucks a black curl behind her ear and tries to recover by giving me a coy look that means shit to me. For one, I’m her professor. And two, there’s already someone in here who’s stolen my attention.

No. I can’t think that way. I won’t be the idiot professor who gets fired because he can’t control his dick and stop himself from fucking a student. Let alone a freshman.

“The roll, sir? Um… you were on the F’s.”

“Fine,” I mutter as I glance down the roster for where I lost my place.

Fuck it. I don’t care about the rest of them, let’s get right to the point.

I lift my gaze and analyze the audience before I say the only name that matters.

“Gable.”

“Here.”

My focus snaps to where I heard the melodic voice, and I find the raised hand… and the stunning blonde with the brilliant smile that hand belongs to.

Goddammit.

The one student I’ve ever been attracted to is my fucking stepsister.

“Everly.”

2

EVERLY

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