I backed out of the studio, using my butt to push the door open. I headed down the sidewalk and rushed to my car, only to find someone leaning against it.
“Salem.”
“You don’t get off that easily.”
My shoulders dropped, and he pushed off my car. Salem ran his hands up and down my arms. “Relax, baby girl.”
“What are you doing, Salem?”
“Checking on you,” he replied, gripping my chin.
“That’s not what I was talking about. Why are you working here?”
“Modeling is something that I do on the side. Anyway, I could tell you were rattled in there tonight.”
“If anyone got wind of this, or what happened before?—”
He covered my mouth with his, and I almost dropped my art bag. One hand clutched the strap of my bag tightly, and my other hand went to his shirt and gripped it between my fingers. I found that I couldn’t pull away, nor could I lean in. I just stood there, lost in his rapturous gaze and demanding lips.
It was only seconds before my mouth yielded to his lips’ urgent demand. When I opened my mouth for Salem, he took control and led the way. I had no choice but to follow his commands. The way he stared into my eyes as he kissed me felt hypnotic. I couldn’t close my eyes if I wanted to. A fire that had been quietly smoldering suddenly flared to life with a combustible spark.
I wanted this man so desperately. Damn. Why did he have to be my student? When he pulled back, Salem stared into my eyes.
“Why’d you kiss me?”
“Didn’t want to hear the shit that was coming out of your mouth. Look, li’l mama. I don’t know how much longer you think I can hold out. But all that shit about waiting till graduation is out the door. Now get ya ass in the car and head home.”
He released me, and I stood there in a daze. People skirted around us, going to the cafés and bars up and down the street.
“Now,” he demanded.
I did as he ordered and started the ignition. Once I was secured in my car, Salem walked up the street and tucked his hands into his pockets. He jogged across the street as I pulled away. I struggled to get my brain to work again. And when it finally did, I drove home in silence with my heart thudding out of my chest.
I shiftedmy backpack to my other shoulder and finished my smoothie before I tossed the plastic cup into the trash. Jogging up the steps to the library, I mentally tallied how much I needed to accomplish before I would be ready to launch my business full-time.
I pulled the glass door of the library open and held it for another student. She smiled at me and winked over her shoulder as she passed through. I watched as she put an extra sway in her hips as she walked. Shorty was bad as hell in those denim cutoff shorts and cropped off-the-shoulder CSU sweatshirt. Wraparound sandals with a tiny heel wrapped up her shins and calves.
Her long, auburn ponytail bounced with each step she took and swayed from side to side, brushing her ass. I shook my head and chuckled. Why were women such a tease these days? I loved my women with their natural beauty. They didn’t need extra hair and ridiculously long nails to get my attention. I preferred a woman who was confident in her beauty, however God blessed her with it.
Maybe that shit worked for these other little young college boys, but I wasn’t a traditional student. I had spent too much time in the streets to differentiate between what was real and what was fake.
Nah, I preferred a strong woman who didn’t play games or try to tease every man she passed for a little attention. I preferred women like the one who was walking my way and wasn’t paying a damn bit of attention to where she was walking.
She wasn’t what most might normally consider short, although she was exactly a foot shorter than I was. I only knew that because of an experiment that she conducted at the beginning of the semester about people’s perceptions based on looks.
She was studying something and pushed the wireless glasses up the bridge of her nose. Another student walked past her and spoke, and she smiled that beautiful smile of hers that showed off that slight overbite.
Professor Pisces, as I liked to call her, looked back down into the book she was studying and kept walking. My eyes dropped to take in her hips and thighs in the jeans she wore. She wasn’t a big woman, but rather petite. And still, in spite of that, she was curvy.
The CSU T-shirt she wore molded to her body, showing off the curve of her breasts and a flat tummy. She didn’t need to show an inch of skin to be fine and beautiful, and she knew it.Her curly hair was pulled up into a messy ponytail on top of her head.
“Professor H,” I called out, trying to warn her that she was about to collide with me. There were rails on either side of us, and I couldn’t move to the left or right. I could only keep going.
“Professor H,” I called again. I didn’t want to get too loud because we were in a library, after all. I tried to speak loud enough for her to hear me. She still kept her nose buried in her book, and that was when I realized that she wore AirPods in her ears. She couldn’t hear me.
I put my hands out to brace for impact.
“Umph!” She huffed when she collided with me. I quickly moved my hands from her arms down to my sides. She removed the AirPods from her ears.