Page 19 of Savage Surrender

“It’s obvious that you’re going to need some help.”

She huffed, giving me a look of contempt. “Oh.”

That attitude. Oh, I was really liking the idea of spanking it right out of her. Fucking it out of her.

“If you’re not aware yet, I’ll be taking over the poetry course Mr. Gannon was teaching.”

She lifted one shoulder and let it fall in a half-ass shrug as she stood. “I am aware. The email came through during your lecture—as scintillating yet bone-dry as ever.”

I smiled, amped up with the thrill of her trying to goad me or taunt me.

Bring it on, sweetheart. Try me.

“And you’re also blowing through the quizzes in this course.”

Letting her coat hang over her bag, she dropped her arm as she shrugged again.

Her indifference was confusing, and it intrigued me. She was clearly smart. I saw the evidence of that fact in the scores from the things she actually applied herself to. It seemed she harbored some kind of a laziness, though, not caring at times but then willing to do her work at others.

“College is a waste of my time,” she admitted.

Because you’re only here to spy for your father?To act as an agent for him?

“Fine. But I warn you not to wastemytime.” I leaned over the desk at the front, staring at her intensely. “Or else.”

She blinked once, showing that I’d cracked her. It was the barest and slightest reaction, but I saw it.

“Or else?” she parroted, disbelief in her breathy tone.

Desire swirled in the depths of her blue eyes, and I had to remind myself not to growl. To lunge for her. To act on this attraction that simmered between us like a live wire.

“Yeah.” I tipped my chin up higher, relishing the idea of being able to carry out that promise ofor else. She could benefit from discipline, but she’d absolutely soar from pleasure if I treated her to my idea of discipline.

“Or. Else,” I repeated.

10

IRINA

Or else?

Damn him.

Damn this cocky bastard.

My professor had no business issuing a threat like that. If any man could get away with telling meor else, it’d be my father. And he only had that power over me because he’d demonstrated time and time again that he could do whatever the hell he wanted to my younger brother and it would be insurance against my ever disobeying.

But Professor Remi? How the hell did he think he could punish me for wasting his time?

Iwasn’twasting his time. If I wanted to blow off my classes, that was my prerogative. No one else’s. He couldn’t care. He didn’t have any stakes in my grades. I was—for all he could assume—one student among hundreds that he’d grade and decide to pass or fail.

I refused to entertain the idea that he could care. He didn’t know me to care, but then again, no one ever really knewme.

“And just what does that mean?” I asked, playing with fire and loving the giddiness that came with it. This was like poking the bear. Like skating on thin ice. Dangerous, but so damn exciting that I couldn’t pass up on the opportunity.

“What do you think it means, Irina?”

Oh, he was playing dirty now. “Irina?”

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