Page 34 of Virgin Sacrifice

However, she surprised me.

Instead of fleeing, as any sane person would, she remained at Hollow Oak. It made me even more intrigued as to what kind of secrets she was hiding that she appeared unfazed by the incident. How was it that she continued to march around the campus as if she owned it, her head held high with that subversive confidence still shining in her eyes?

Bleeding hearts would credit the resiliency of the young woman from a marginalized community. But while some became stronger in the face of adversity, I knew that others, like me, were made in the dark. The girl sitting in front of me, with the big amber eyes and soft pouting lips, she was forged in darkness. I wanted, no, needed to expose her secrets to the light.

From that moment, my ambitions shifted.

“Why are you here, Miss Torres?”

She looked at me with a true sense of confusion in her eyes. A fucking viper dressed like a schoolgirl. “Pardon me, Dr. Blackwell,” she said, her eyes wide like saucers, “but I believe I’m here because you asked me to be.”

Her tone was plaintive, but the subtext beneath her words was defiant to the end.

“And why did I ask that of you?” I said, my voice clipped.

For the briefest of moments her mask shifted, and I watched as she bit down on her tongue harshly before blinking a couple of times and taking a deep breath.

“It appears we have some profound differences in our approach to economics, Professor,” she finally replied after a moment, her voice soft.

“How dare you?” I hissed, my own wrath unleashed by her pretense of subservience. “I’m a tenured professor at one of the top universities in the world, Miss Torres, and you’re a first-year undergraduate student. I’m a leading authority in my field, and you’re a pathetic child who thinks she’s smarter than she really is.”

If I had hoped to provoke her temper with my own, I was sorely disappointed. Instead of firing back at me, she merely shrugged and turned her eyes down toward the floor.

Taking a deep breath of my own, I forced myself to sit back, my hands still gripping the arms of the chair tightly. Seasoned killers wept at my feet; I would not let my emotions be controlled by an insufferable child.

A change of tactics was required.

Commanding myself to relax, I sank back into my chair.

“Drop out of my class,” I said with a casual nonchalance as if discussing the weather, “and I won’t have to tear apart everything you hold dear trying to figure out what you are hiding.”

There it was, for the briefest, most delicious of moments. In her eyes, I saw not quite true fear but anxiety, apprehension—weakness. Her walls were back up within seconds, another woefully sincere look of bewilderment painted across her face, but we both knew what I had seen.

“I’m not sure what you mean, Dr. Blackwell.” She spoke carefully, looking up at me from under her lashes with the same curiosity one might study a lethal predator with from behind the safety of the glass. “But I’d very much appreciate the opportunity to remain in your class.”

My cock twitched to life, and although I refused to allow myself to succumb to the impulses creeping through me, a shiver of pleasure ran through me nonetheless. If Luz Torres wanted to keep playing games, then indulging her was only the gentlemanly thing to do.

I stood up, leaning forward on the palms of my hands. With less than the width of my desk in between us, I was close enough that I could make out flecks of gold and umber scattered about her whiskey-colored eyes, and my nostrils instinctively flared as I took in her sweet citrus and lavender scent.

A growl tore forth from the base of my throat. “I can promise you I won’t force you to drop out of my class,” I snarled. “I won’t have to.”

She started to open her mouth again, likely to protest her innocence once more, but I wasn’t done talking.

“You will keep those poisonous little lips of yours closed until I am done speaking!” I roared, causing her to shrink back. I was practically in her face at this point, and if she didn’t let me finish, she would quickly find my hands wrapped around that elegant neck.

Just because I enjoyed playing the game with her didn’t mean we were following the same set of rules.

Her eyes narrowed at me in response, and I watched as her shields suddenly dropped into place, the fire wholly extinguished from her eyes. She was retreating, for now, behind some mental wall. While it was clear that her withdrawal was strategic, what I couldn’t decide was whether she was aware of what she was doing.

In the end, it didn’t really matter. I wouldn’t get much more out of her like this unless I wanted to escalate things drastically, and it was far too early in the game to pull out all the stops.

I stood back slightly from where I towered over her and took a moment to straighten my tie before I finally continued. “As I was saying, I won’t have to do anything, Miss Torres. Because it’s obvious that you’re hiding something. And there’s nothing I love more than a secret . . .

“And when I find out yours, nothing will be able to protect your place here at Hollow Oak.”

Chapter sixteen

Luz

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