Page 36 of Playing By Their Rules

PARADISE

Chance

I face the students assembled in the lecture hall. It’s nearly impossible to ignore the tug on my awareness toward the left side of the front row. Maisie sits there. No schoolgirl get-up today. No lollipop.

Somehow sexier than ever.

I don’t know how she does it, and I don’t care. All I know is I need to make her mine again—mine and Ethan’s.

Today’s lecture is on the classification and diagnosis of mental disorders. I say the right words, click through the proper slides, ask questions of the students and help them elaborate on their answers. To all outer appearances, I’m cool. Calm. Professional.

Inside? I’m raging to get my hands back on my girl. She came apart so sweetly in our arms on Saturday night. I need to do that again, I need to see her face as she succumbs to pleasure, I need to listen to her breathless moans and feel her body tighten during her climax.

The lecture ends, and we spend a few moments discussing upcoming assignments. Because this is an undergrad course, I have to reiterate that a proper citation of sources is required. I point the students to several resources where they can find help with citations. These are principles that should be hammered into their skulls in their English composition and academic writing courses, and yet there’s always one or two students who somehow never got the message.

Eventually, class is over and everyone begins to shuffle out of the lecture hall. Maisie stands up and smooths her clothes. Jeans and a sweatshirt, with her black hair pulled up in a ponytail. She looks so wholesome, it makes my heart squeeze in my chest.

I don’t want her to leave with everyone else. I want to say, Miss Kanne, if you would give me a moment, I need to have a word with you.

No. I can’t call her out in front of her peers. It would be an abuse of my role as her professor, and there are lines I refuse to cross…as much as I want to.

But she lingers after everyone else has left. Thank fuck. She waits next to the door, leaning against the jamb and staring back at me. I grab my briefcase and hurry forward meet her.

A smile on my lips, I say quietly, “What are you doing, looking so beautiful in my class, Miss Kanne?”

“Why, professor,” she murmurs. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“We’re going to need to discuss your grade.”

There’s a gleam in her light green eyes. She’s enjoying this game. “I’ve been working really, really hard.”

“I can see that. You’ve made all kinds of progress. However, there are certain aspects of your work that need improvement. I would like you to attend an extra tutoring session with a colleague of mine. And with me.”

“If…if you think that’s necessary, sir.”

The gleam in her eyes grows brighter. She really likes this game. Given that my cock is pressing painfully against the front of my pants, I like it too.

“Friday night,” I say.

“I work on Friday. Saturday?”

An extra twenty-four hours should be manageable. My need for her, though, is great. I touch the curve of her elbow. The fabric of her sweatshirt separates our skin, but I can feel the heat of her body through it. I can inhale her sweet scent.

She shivers and gazes up at me, biting her bottom lip.

“You must know how irresistible you are,” I say.

“Not irresistible enough, if you aren’t dragging me to your office for a spanking,” she whispers.

I sigh and risk leaning over, pressing my forehead against the top of her head. “You tempt me in all the wrong ways, baby girl.”

“All the best ways.”

So fast that I couldn’t have stopped it if I wanted to, she turns her head, stands on her tiptoes, and kisses my cheek.

Before I can react, she darts out of the classroom.

My heart goes with her.

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