Page 17 of Gothikana

Oh, he was doing something for her but boring wasn’t the word she’d use. She shook her head, her words stuck in her throat as those eyes rested on her for a split second longer.

‘Then let’s continue.’ He looked out to the class again just as the bell rang.

‘Alright, we’ll pick back up on Monday. I expect you all to have read about the motifs that emerged during the Middle Ages over the weekend. Stay back for a minute, Miss Clemm,’ he ordered, picking up the diary he’d kept on the desk, reading something inside as the classroom emptied, students giving her odd looks before exiting.

Corvina stood frozen to the spot for a second. She felt an elbow nudge her in the side and looked to see Jade mouth ‘good luck’.

Swallowing, she picked up her brown bag, slinging it over her shoulder, hugging her notebook to her chest. Taking a deep breath, she turned to the front of the class and walked down the levels toward where he sat on the table, still reading something in his diary.

Corvina observed him in his dark black jeans and a shade lighter black sweater, the V-neck exposing the thick yet somehow graceful flesh of his neck, the fabric hugging the broad expanse of his chest, defining his pectoral muscles. She quietly watched as he read, tapping the pen on the side, a pen that looked tiny in his large hands with the long, skilled fingers. She wondered how those fingers would feel siftingthrough her hair, stroking the side of her face, sliding over the skin of her neck down to her breasts, playing her like the piano she’d seen him work on that first night.

Her nipples pebbled.

‘That’s not a look you give your teacher, little crow.’

It took her a second to realise he’d stopped reading and she’d been fantasising as his hand simply rested on the diary. Chest heaving slightly, she looked up to find his intense gaze on her. Her hand tightened around the bag’s strap. She liked it when he called her that. She didn’t know why but the familiar way he used the words, the fact that it felt special just for her, oh yes. It made the warmth in her stomach move lower.

‘That’s not a name you call your student,’ she retorted quietly, wanting to use a special name for him as well but knowing that vocalising it would make it much more real. ‘How am I looking at you?’ She tilted her head curiously.

His eyes seared her. ‘Like you’re inviting me to play.’

She wasn’t the only one. Her breath hitched. ‘You look at me like that, too, Mr Deverell.’

He tapped his finger on his diary, observing her. She gripped her notebook tighter.

‘Did you want something?’ she asked after a long moment of silence, realising a second later the words could be construed in a deeper, moreerotic way.

Before he could respond, something flickered in her periphery. Corvina looked to the corner of the room, the space where the wall met the window, seeing a silhouette flicker for a moment in the sunlight filtering in before it disappeared.

Her palms began to sweat.

‘What?’ His voice came to her, but Corvina couldn’t look away from the corner, focusing, trying to understand what she had seen.

‘What are you looking at?’

She didn’t know. God, she needed her mama to tell her what the hell was happening to her.

A firm grip on her chin turned her face, her eyes locking with his silver ones.

‘You were looking at that corner during class, too,’ he said quietly, his voice dripping with authority. ‘What were you looking at just now?’

‘I don’t know,’ she told him honestly, letting the sensation of his warm thumb on her chin anchor her, relishing the touch she’d never felt like this. ‘It was probably a trick of the light.’

He considered her for a few seconds before letting her face go, and she bit her tongue to keep from calling the touch back.

‘You need to be less obvious when you drift off. We all do it, but I can’t let that slide without a reprimand in my class. And I don’t want to bring attention to you.’

Corvina bit the inside of her cheek. ‘Why?’

‘Because you’re bewitching,’ he murmured, his eyes roving over her entire face. ‘And I don’t want others fantasising about you during my class.’

‘Others?’ she asked, her heart pounding. He fantasised about her?

She saw the pupils in his eyes expand, a black hole consuming the silver, but he didn’t say a word. Hopping off the table, straightening to his full height, he kept his gaze steady on her as he’d done during the week. Corvina tilted her head back, her heart battering in her chest as their bodies communicated in the age-old way — quicker breaths, blown pupils, flushed skin. She saw his Adam’s apple bob as he swallowed, his lips pursed tightly.

‘Steer clear of me, little crow,’ he muttered, his eyes piercing, flaying her open. ‘You might be a luring siren but I’m no ordinary sailor. I’m a mad pirate and I’m trying to resist your call. If I land on your shores, I will plunder and take away everything worth having. Be very careful giving me those eyes.’

With that, he pivoted on his heels and headed to the door, pausing on the threshold to sear her with an intense look, before leaving in silence.

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