Page 2 of The Naughty Professor
“Hold that thought.”Juniper darted out of the lab.
Alone with the bubbling glassware, I tried to focus, but dread twisted my stomach.When she returned, she was carrying a small box, glossy purple with bold silver letters across the front that readBuzz Bracelet.A little plastic window on the side showed the thing itself nestled in molded packaging—black silicone, shaped in a way that made my ears burn just looking at it.She set it down in front of me like it was a live grenade.
“Just so you know,” she said, pointing at the label, “this isn’t jewelry, despite the name.It’s a vibrating cock ring.”
My face went nuclear red.“Oh.Um.Th-thank you?”Was I supposed to put it on my… oh, God.
Juniper smirked.“You’re welcome.”
“Why,” I squeaked out, voice cracking, “do you keep giving me sex toys?Aren’t these things expensive?”
She didn’t miss a beat.“Because of all the people I know, you could use them the most.”
I opened my mouth.Closed it.Opened it again.Too afraid to ask what exactly she meant.
“Anyway,” she went on breezily, “it didn’t cost me anything.Not really.”
I stared.“What does not really mean?”
“A customer returned it.”
I yelped, dropping the box as if it had teeth.“That doesn’t sound sanitary!”
Juniper sighed, scooping it up.“Relax.They never took it out of the box.Carly broke up with her boyfriend before she got the chance to use it on him.”
“Oh.”
She shoved it back into my hands.“Instructions are inside.And don’t even think about asking me how to use it like you did with the anal beads.Once was enough.”
My entire body was a bonfire of embarrassment.
Sometimes I wished I could be more like Juniper—confident, assertive, unbothered by anything.She could explain a Treasure Seeker in broad daylight without blushing.When it had fallen out of her backpack last week, I’d asked what it was, and she’d explained that it was designed for the G-spot.I’d nodded like I knew what that meant, but honestly?I still wasn’t sure.
Juniper clapped her hands.“All right, Dr.Sterling, enough dilly-dallying.Finish setting up your bomb before the students arrive.”
I froze.“Bomb?”
She gestured at the precarious array of chemicals and tubing.“This thing is going to explode.Twenty bucks says so.”
“You’re supposed to encourage me,” I muttered, setting the Buzz Bracelet box on the corner of my desk.
“I am,” she said sweetly.“I’m encouraging you not to commit arson.”
The door creaked open, and students began filing in.I scrambled to adjust the Bunsen burner, double-checked the clamps, and tightened the glass fittings.
Please, I begged the universe silently, don’t let me blow up the lab again.
Juniper leaned against the wall, arms folded across her chest, a smirk firmly in place.
The first student through the door stopped dead in his tracks, eyes zeroing in on my desk.More specifically, on the small purple box withBuzz Braceletsplashed across it in shimmering silver.His eyebrows shot so high I thought they might launch into orbit.Without a word, he jabbed an elbow into his friend’s ribs.The friend looked, blinked, then stifled a laugh that came out like a dying hyena.
I wanted to die.Right there.Chemical fireball, meteor strike, spontaneous combustion—anything would be better than this.With a strangled noise that was supposed to be casual, I snatched the box and dumped it into the nearest desk drawer so fast I almost slammed my own fingers.
By the time I straightened up, more students were filing in, the room filling with chatter and the squeak of chairs against tile.Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Juniper leaning against the counter, smug as a cat that had pushed a vase off a shelf.
“Uh—” a voice piped up.One of the freshmen, a gangly boy with a mop of curls and a perpetual smirk, was staring at Juniper.“Uh, June, can I—”
Juniper didn’t even glance at him.
