Page 22 of Seven is Swell

“Yeah, I could do that. When's the deadline? Could you email it to me so I can check it out when I'm focused? I tend to miss more important things when I've been lecturing all day.”

“Maybe we could just go over it really quick in your office?”

I finally look at my colleague, wondering if I'm reading the situation correctly. “You…want to go to my office? How is that better than here?”

“Well,” she says, stepping forward, “we’d be alone, for one. There wouldn't be any students vying for your attention. I could give youallof my focus.”

A snort from the auditorium has me whipping my head around to see who is still out there. There are hardly any classes that run in the evenings, so my students are usually anxious to get out of this room so they can get home for the night. “Pretend I'm not here. Please, do finish this fascinating conversation.” Delaney clicks her pen and continues to read a textbook she has open, completely chill. Even while this other woman is clearly making a pass at me.

“That's all you have to say?” Is she not jealous at all that another woman is trying to get me alone?

She shrugs, still not looking at me. “Use protection? Don't get caught? Oops, sorry, looks like you blew that one already.”

My colleague, another professor in the shifter program, teaches about shifter politics to my shifter history. We've crossed paths a few times, interacted at department events, but we're not at all as cozy as she's trying to make us seem.

“You really shouldn't interrupt important conversations between your professors, miss. I need to ask you to vacate thehall as it is after hours now, and you have no business remaining here. One might assume you're attempting to do something inappropriate.”

Delaney starts laughing as she simultaneously packs up her stuff. Was she sitting there the entire lecture, and I was so zoned out I somehow didn't notice? Even with a hat on, I’d know it was her in a crowd of a million; and that’s nothing on the way our bond always tells me when she’s close by. I’ve just been so out of it that I’ve not been paying attention to it.

“Professor, respectfully, out of the two of us, I'm pretty sure that shoe is a closer fit for you.” Then she stands and walks slowly on stage via the stairs to the side and my mouth goes dry because I haven't seen her or smelled her in so many days and seeing her now in front of me is testing all my self-control.

My cock is hardening just from her near presence, and my lion is so loud in my head, demanding I claim her, that I can barely hear over the roar of him. I stare at her like a man starved, fingers curling over the lectern until it threatens to crack.

“I beg your pardon?” my colleague asks, 80% affronted.

“I can feel your bad musty lust from the audience chairs. Your proposition is completely one-sided, he's not going to give you what you want. Now, I suggest if you actually do have a grant proposal that you could benefit from him checking over, you accept the email offer and hightail it out of here before he snaps out of his dire need for me and rescinds it. Maybe you're a lovely person but set your sights elsewhere.”

“How dare you speak to me so! Wilder, do you know this student? She seems exceedingly troubled! I require your name so that I might ensure your student file is flagged for disrespectful behavior!”

Delaney completely ignores this other woman while she walks right up to me, and I watch her like she's moving in slow motion, until she’s right in front of me, twining her hands around my neck.

“Know her?” I ask with an incredibly fuzzy head. If I wasn’t so dumb on my mate I’d point out that everyone knows who Delaney is, but that would require far more words than I’m capable of right now.

“You cannot— this is against the rules! Youcannotfraternize with faculty! You'll be expelled for this, mark my words!”

“Should we tell her?” Delaney asks for just me to hear. Her lips brush the shell of my ear, and I bite back a whimper.

“I want very badly to put you up on this lectern so your ass is up in the air, and go to town on you.”

Delaney inhales sharply, pressing her hips into me more. “You think it could hold my weight?”

“Wilder, I must insist you step away from the student. She is not worth you losing your job over!”

I ignore my colleague because I have all I need in front of me. The days of unease melt away as her cherry scent soaks into me, and I know I won’t be able to do anything until I apologize and own up to my mistakes. “I’m so sorry, Delaney. You made the better call, bringing in your parents. Your mother is terrifying, and it’s even more terrifying that all of your fathers hang on to her every word because they scare me too.

“I never should have asked you to keep them out of it, because that was the only choice that could have been made— orshouldhave been made.

“I’m used to having control over my life and I find with you in it, I don’t have that. I thought it was just a matter of time and thenI could order everything neatly, but I’m realizing that you come with chaos.”

“That’s actually my middle name.”

“I can’t tell if you’re serious or not. Anyway, I’m deeply sorry. I’m proud of you for making that decision to go against me, for eradicating my father because the pride is better with him gone.”

Delaney turns her head sideways to address the intruder. “Why are you still here? Go. Anything that’s about to happen is completely consensual.”

My colleague strides forward and I act instinctively. I tuck my mate behind me, wrapping an arm around her behind my back. “Sheila, whatever you’re thinking, you’re wrong. The headmaster knows about us, this is my mate. Thank you for your concern, but it’s misplaced. E-mail me that grant request if you want me to look it over, but yeah, that’s all I can offer you. All I’m interested in. Now if you’ll excuse us, my mate and I have some important things to discuss. Have a good night.”

I sweep Delaney up and toss her over my shoulder, grab my briefcase, then look behind me to see her do a little finger wave to my angry colleague.

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