Page 63 of Switching Graves

Rearing my head back, I gape at him. So many words sit at the tip of my tongue—insults and comebacks that would destroy our friendship if I were to mutter them out loud. He should be arrested for what he’s done tonight. How many other times has he used the same tactics to get other women to sleep with him because he’s incapable of offering them any sort of quality lay?

Poppy would do it. She’d tear him a new one and then walk out as if nothing happened. But I can’t do that. Not with Dr. Whitlock listening.

I’m so embarrassed that I almost fell for it. That I hooked up with a man even capable of such an atrocity.

I spot my heels on the floor and snatch them up, quickly slipping each one on to cool myself off before I offer a retort. Hayes doesn’t even seem to realize I haven’t responded, his head is swimming so badly. Once I’m fully dressed and ready to walk out, I throw my hair over my shoulder and lean forward, so my face hovers directly above his.

“Find a way back to your dorm and sleep it off, then come find me and apologize for being such a dick.”

33

Raze

“Fuck,” I mutter to absolutely no one as the Ellery girl stomps out the office door, slamming it behind her.

My useless assistant spins in his chair, his eyes droopy and clothes still in disarray. I’m nearly positive he sees me gawking at him from my office window, but the fear is squashed when his head collapses onto the desk and his body goes still.

Passed out.

Swiping a stack of student papers off my desk, I finally allow the weight of what I’ve just done to settle in. “FUCK!”

Raking my nails against my scalp, I try to find a way to pivot this. There has to be a spin somewhere. One that doesn’t involve my own personal walking nightmare costing me everything I’ve worked for over the past twenty years.

One word to the dean, and I’m out on my ass. He’s already trying to find a way to get rid of me. This would serve me to him on a silver platter. The Syndicate would have no choice but to punish me for such disgusting behavior. Never mind that theydecided to host their pathetic hookup inmyoffice. That detail will be left out of my termination letter.

What the fuck is it with her that makes me so malleable?

She’s nothing.No one.An insignificant piece in a very strategic game that I never saw coming.

I turn back toward my window and allow the memories to come flooding back.

The only reason I came here was to escape the nagging urge to follow her around. And perhaps to ensure Hatchcroft didn’t follow through with the sickening thoughts playing across his face the moment he saw her in that dress and became enraptured with her beauty. Suddenly, I’m understanding Divina Ellery’s thought process a little too closely, because I completely understand why she kept her away from this sick institution for so long.

When I heard them stumbling in here, I assumed Hayes was dropping in to pick up the lecture notes I texted him about earlier this afternoon. I realized rather quickly that there were two voices and instantly recognized the sultry symphony that only one person on this campus sings. The very person I was trying to avoid had gravitated toward me as some sick joke from the universe. Silencing my soft music, their words became much clearer, and I realized that toad of an assistant was trying to seduce her onmyfucking desk.

Something wild and primal awakened inside of me, then. She may be a nuisance, but she’s mine to deal with. Not his.

Why should he be able to touch her when I can’t?

Seeing her sprawled across the desk as he feasted on her like a blind dog at Thanksgiving dinner was torture enough. When those wide eyes locked in on me pleadingly, I knew I was fucked.

Because I couldn’t stop myself from rescuing her from the failure between her legs.

And what he said to her after? He’s lucky I didn’t walk right out and strangle him with my bare hands. Such a sorry excuse for a man.

The only option is to fire him and hope that she’ll keep her enormous mouth shut about what happened here tonight. By the time he was finished with whatever he was doing to her, he appeared wasted out of his mind. I don’t even think his dick ever got hard in his hand, even after spending an eternity with his face plastered against her. Whatever awkward exchange they had afterward proved that he was in no shape to continue, regardless of the bullshit spewing from his mouth.

Perhaps her fear of being caught in a public place will outweigh her need to be a constant pain in my ass. Or maybe the humiliation of the failed hookup will have her putting it all behind her.

34

Sonny

Whitlock begins our Monday morning lecture by walking directly up to my desk and asking me to stay after to speak with him. Naturally, every word he muttered after that was white noise in the background of my racing thoughts—specifically the ones that land back to the weekend.

Hayes never showed up for class, so it was up to Whitlock to deliver the entire lecture and all our homework assignments—something he appeared thoroughly irritated with as students peppered him with the usual line of questions. He ignored me the entire ninety minutes. Even when he quizzed the rest of the class, he overlooked me in the front row. It was a stark contrast to his usual tactics to call on me and attempt to humiliate me in front of everyone.

By the time class ended, I was fully convinced I’d show up to his office with the dean sitting beside him, ready to deliver my expulsion letters on top of who-knows-what other charges.

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