Page 33 of The Revenge

It’s impulse.

I have a type, and Tori wasn’t it. She wasn’t close to it.

And then, suddenly, she was.

She is.

As my hand snakes around her waist, pulling her close, I dip my head and capture her lips.

Tori gasps, trying to take a step back, but I hold her in place. Her resistance is only momentary, and then she’s clutching at my arms, kissing me back. It’s her who teases me with her tongue, and I welcome it greedily.

She tastes of whiskey, bad choices, and zero regrets.

I slide my hands down and cup her ass. As I squeeze at her firm flesh, she moans into my mouth, and I scoop her up, turning so that I can deposit her onto the desk.

Tori raises her legs, wrapping them around me.

My cock is already getting hard, but the moment she rubs up against me, the only thought going around my mind is that there are too many layers between us.

Like she’s thinking the same thing, Tori claws at my jacket, quickly shoving it over my shoulders. She pulls away, breaking our kiss, but only so she can get at the buttons on my shirt.

Instead of helping her, I reach for the bottom of her sweater, grabbing that and the top beneath, tugging them both up and over her head.

Before her hair is free of the sweater, she winces.

I step back.

The bruises aren’t limited to her face. Her arms and shoulders are spotted with black, blue, and yellowing marks.

“Fuck,” I mutter. “We shouldn’t do this. I’m sorry.”

“It’s worse than it looks,” she tells me. “But I can put my sweater back on.”

Anger bubbles up in me, and I feel like a volcano that’s about to erupt. “This isn’t about your looks, Tori. There isn’t a single bruise or blemish that could hide any of your beauty.But don’t you dare tell me it’s worse than it looks when you’re flinching when I touch you.”

Tori leans forward, grabbing my wrist. Gently, she pulls me to her.

I know I should step out of her reach, but instead, I allow her to pull me back to her.

Without breaking her gaze, she slides my hand down over hers, directing it to her hip and down onto mottled skin. “The sweater caught my cheek, and it surprised me,” she says, softly running her hand back up my arm, over my sleeve, and to my bare chest.

Her hand feels like it’s leaving a trail of fire over me, and while I don’t have enough willpower to move away, I don’t pick up where we were, like she wants. “We still shouldn’t do this.”

“Because I’m a student?” She tilts her head. “I’m leaving in two days, and this place won’t have me back, even if I wanted to come back.”

“It’s not about you being my student.” Somehow, that feels like it should be simpler. “Look at you, Tori. I say this without any judgement other than my own, because Lord knows, I’ve had a part in pushing you into this, but those bruises and marks over your body barely scratch the surface of everything you’ve been through these past couple of months. The more time I spend with you, the more incredible I find you, and the more I’m falling for you.”

Tori’s hand continues to glide over my bare chest as she looks up at me through her eyelashes. “What if I feel the same way?”

“Then what would it hurt to wait until we’re out of here?” I counter.

Her hands still, then she drops them to her lap. “Because, when I leave here, I want to have one memory to hold onto where I know that there were no hidden agendas, no gamesbeing played, and no deception. One memory where I was with somebody who wanted to be with me as much as I wanted to be with them. Unless, you only said what you said to make me feel better.”

Maybe if I had become a professor through the more traditional route, I might have received more guidance about what to do in this kind of situation.

I’m not naïve enough to think professors getting involved with their students only happens on TV. Apparently, Iwasdumb enough to think it wouldn’t happen to me.

Despite the background of the majority of the students at this college, in the few years I’ve been here, I don’t think there’s been a single day where ten or so years’ age difference between me and them hasn’t felt like a wider chasm. Maybe it’s because of what she’s been through, but I don’t feel that with Tori.

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