Page 115 of Bad for Me

Holy shit, his class is about to start soon.

Anxiety twitches my fingers, and my eyes widen as my stepbrother’s face wrinkles with concern.

“Your class will see me leave this office. There’s no reason for me to already be here on the first day of class, Woods. What do I do?”

“Fuck.” He stares at the door and sucks his teeth. Finally, he nods to himself and turns to the corner of the room. “Follow me.”

His command confuses me at first because his office is small enough that “following” him only means going a few feet. But when he stretches to pull a black metal bird on his bookshelf like a lever, a series of soft clicks resound through the walls and the entire panel of books swings outward.

My eyes bug out at the dark abyss in front of us.

“Um, Woods… where does that go?”

He grabs my hand. “Just trust me.”

I have no idea why I listen, but I squeeze his hand and enter the dark hallway behind him. Only the light from his office guides us, and I try not to freak out as that light fades. Just when our path is about to become pitch black, Woods presses something on the wall.

It hisses back at us as light creeps into the hallway through the hidden entrance that opens to a janitor’s closet. Our doorway to the small room looks like a normal wall on the other side, and inside to the left is a regular door with a large tempered glass window.

“Where are we?”

“A maintenance closet.”

I roll my eyes and point inside the small room. “No,that’sa maintenance closet. But where are wehere?”I gesture at the hidden path we’re still standing in. “Is this a hallway?”

He stills for the briefest of seconds before answering simply. “Just a short passageway between this closet and my office. Past professors realized it was a way to secretly escape students.” He looks at me pointedly. “So keep it asecret,alright?”

I pretend to lock my lips and throw away the key. His soft smile sends my heart fluttering, but before I can do something stupid like throw myself at him, I peer behind him into the dark passageway’s yawning abyss.

“Does this tunnel keep going?”

“It’snota tunnel,” he snaps. “It’s a passageway, and it ends right around that corner.

“Geez, sorry?—”

“This is your stop,” he interrupts and juts his chin toward the closet. “No one will know we were together.”

I wince, but I have time to blank my expression before he faces me again. My education at Graveston U is on the line if anyone finds out what we did in his office, so I shouldn’t want to be seen with him either. Hearing it come from him, though, and with that harsh delivery, still stings. I push past the hurt and pretend like I’m as unaffected as he is.

“Fine. But how am I going to explain leaving a maintenance closet?”

He seems to relax at the question and chuckles. “The hallway will be empty on the other side. It leads to a wing for upperclassmen lectures, and those don’t start until well after noon.”

“Perks of being an upperclassman, I guess,” I murmur. “Alright, well… see you next class,professor.Thanks for the escape route.”

I try to tug my hand free, but Woods brings me close to his chest. His eyes search mine and I swallow, trying to ignore the pull between us that begs me to close the gap.

This would be so much easier if I could hate him?—

“You have to leave, Everly.”

Well, that helps.

“Screw you, Woods.” I try to yank my hand away again only to be pulled so close that his amber and spice scent clouds my judgment. His body warms me in the cool passageway. The contrasting temperatures make me shiver.

“You don’t get it. I don’t know what this is, and I don’t know what the fuck just happened. But if you don’t transfer out of my class,this—” He grips my hip and pulls me against his hardened cock. Both the motion and the realization that he’s still turned on for me makes me suck in a breath. “This will happen again. And we can’t let it happen again. If anyone finds out, it could be dangerous?—”

“Dangerous?” I frown, and he curses under his breath.

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