Page 24 of Monster's Mistake

“I thought I was just going to make you hard,” she muses.

“If you’re not careful, I’m going to start thinking that you like my terrible gorgon jokes,” I murmur, mostly to distract myself from the way her words are affecting me. They shouldn’t, I’m old enough that I should have control over my reactions, but when it comes to Nati, that doesn’t always seem to be the case.

“I’mallowed to make them,” she points out. “I’m a gorgon. And sometimes the situation just calls for one.”

Professor Bishop walks into the room before either of us can say anything else, which would be disappointing if we weren’t still working on reading tea leaves and that means that we’re going to be able to talk more.

“All right, class, let’s get started. I know that there are some of you who are struggling to get to grips with this, so today is going to be about practice. If you need me to give you somepointers, let me know and I’ll come over to help,” he announces to the class.

Some of the girls titter from the back of class.

Nati rolls her eyes. “No one else is going to be able to get a moment of his attention.”

“What do you mean?” I ask.

She snorts. “You’re such a guy.”

“Something I hope you like.”

Her lips quirk up into a smile. “Believe me, I’m sure I will. But they’re going to find every excuse they can in order to get the professor to stay with them. They’re trying to attract him.”

“As in...”

“Yes. They want to sleep with the professor.” She rolls her eyes. “In clear violation of the academy rules.”

“Because you’ve never broken any of them?” I ask, curious about her answer.

“Not yet. Unless you count staying out after curfew, but I’ve not done that very often either.”

I’m briefly interrupted by the student next to me passing me two of the cups. “You sound certain that’s going to change.”

“Well, if Anja and Cethin do it...” She takes one of the cups from me, purposefully brushing her fingers against mine as she does.

It makes my entire body come alive. If this is whatonetouch from my fated mate can do, I can’t imagine what a kiss is going to be like. Or more than a kiss.

I shift in my seat, hoping she can’t tell why I’m having to rearrange myself, because that would be kind of embarrassing.

Nati raises an eyebrow. “Really? Just a touch?”

I groan. “It’s the fated mate thing,” I murmur.

“Even so, that’s a bit extreme, isn’t it? I mean, if I touched your leg, maybe that would be enough...”

I swallow hard as she reaches out and places her hand on my leg, much higher than she should be doing when we’re in the middle of class. “You’re going to have to stop, Nati.”

“Okay.” She pulls her hand back and picks up her tea, blowing across the top of it.

It’s slightly easier to think without her touching me, but I don’t think there’s any changing the direction of my thoughts. But from the expression on her face, I think that’s what she was trying to do.

“So, when are we going on our next date?” she asks.

“Saturday?” I venture. “We could go down to the town...”

“No. I mean, yes, that sounds nice. But I was hoping we could go to one of the secret rooms again.”

I drink some of my tea in an attempt to collect my thoughts before I say anything that makes either of us uncomfortable. “I’m not sure I’ll be able to control myself if we do that.”

“Maybe that’s the idea,” Nati responds. “My tea leaves did say I’d learn something new.”

---