Page 70 of A Lesson in Deceit
“This conversation is over.” He looked at my mouth, his chest rising and falling with calculated breaths. His hands flexed at his sides as if he was trying to regain his composure. Composure that was slipping little by little by the looks of it.
River let a soft laugh leave his lips. “Fuck, Asher, your thoughts are loud as hell.”
Asher put his hand out, letting his palm face his brother. “Shut. Up.”
River leaned over, whispering something in Grayson’s ear. Grayson's eyes widened but he just licked his lips, remaining against the wall.
“You are allowed to invade my daydreams at your leisure, but you won’t share your thoughts with the class? You don’t play fair.” I let out an exhaustive laugh.
“Maybe I don’t want to play with you,” Asher shot back.
“Of course you do,” River said, staring at the ceiling. “Let’s stop pretending like we’ve never shared a bed with the same girl. While we’re at it, how about…”
“River, please stop fucking talking!” Asher balled his hands into fists.
I furrowed my brows. “You two have had sex with the same girl before?” There were things I knew River had in common with his brother, like their dislike for their father, but I wouldn’t have considered this to be something to add to that list.
“It doesn’t happen frequently, but yeah, we have. And he’s usually way less pretentious while we have that dynamic. Youlike when you have someone to boss around that isn’t me,” River pushed, eyeing his brother and then me.
Asher ran a hand through his hair, looking as if steam would start to blow out of his ears. His jaw worked like he was grinding his teeth together. He moved to try to leave the bathroom again and I found myself wanting to stop him…again.
I reached out to grab his arm. “Are your incredibly wild thoughts about me? Is that why sometimes in class, you can’t look at me, because you’re thinking about me a certain way?” He turned around, removing my hand as if my touch burned him. Asher was looking at the ground, refusing to give attention to anything else.
I peeked over at Grayson who flicked his eyes to Asher, nodding his head towards his best friend’s older brother. I licked my lips, wiping my hands down my dress. “Do you really dislike me or is that how you hide how much you actually…. want me?”
“You keep my brother and his friend. That’s perfect for you to handle.” He looked at me, that resolve of his shrinking.
“I don’t think what I’m able to handle is really for you to decide, now is it?”
“Don’t test me, Riley.” His words came out through gritted teeth.
I was so close to figuring out the answers to my dad’s death and even finding out that this school had a much deeper fucked up foundation than I thought. Things were going in a good direction for me and I wasn’t about to back down because my teacher has chosen to keep me at arm’s length in hopes that he wouldn’t think inappropriate thoughts about me. To his higher ups sure, those looming thoughts were against school policy, but to me…I wanted to know every detail of what his mind consisted of. I wanted to know if every time he snarked and disciplined me, he was just trying to push down his need to bring me closer.
“Do you sit in your office and try to remember all the reasons you shouldn’t like me just to be reminded that—” I stepped a little closer, mustering all the courage I had, “all you really want to do is fuck me.”
The look he gave me could have sucked all the oxygen out of the room. Our mutual breathing surrounded us.
Asher licked his lips slowly. “You shouldreallyquit while you’re ahead.”
My lips twitched into a tiny smirk. “Oh, but good students always go the extra mile. Isn’t that right,sir?”
He didn’t move, but his eyes flicked over to the wall at the men next to us.
“Tell me I’m wrong. Tell me you aren’t attracted to me. Tell me your brother hasn’t caught you thinking about me. Tell me that you didn’t enjoy making me almost come during your class. I will go home and we can go back to our everyday back and forth dynamic if that’s the case.” I raised one of my eyebrows. “Or…”
“Or. What?”
My voice was soft. “Or you see what I can handle.”
I was starting to think this entire situation was a waste of time. If Asher was this stubborn, I truly wondered how their experiences with women together had gone. I was happy with Grayson and River; I was excited to keep exploring what that was, but as much as I wanted to be settled with just the two of them, there was something that was telling me I wanted this broody fucking man to be involved.
I huffed, turning slightly to tell River to take me home, when Asher released a sharp breath. He reached out and grabbed my waist, yanking me to his chest.
“Fuck it,” he groaned, his lips crashing down on mine.
33
Riley
