Page 27 of His to Teach
I try to keep from gaping at her in surprise and fail. “My attitude?”
She straightens her shoulders, nodding, and the anger I’ve barely been able to keep a lid on ratchets up. I jab a finger at the spot in front of my desk. “Over here,” I manage to grind out. “Now.”
I can see from her eyes that she’s intimidated, afraid even, but she manages to keep her chin high as she stares back at me. “You don’t get to order me around like I’m a dog.”
I take a deep breath, so close to flying off the handle I can actually feel my body straining towards her, wanting nothing more than to march across the room and throw her over my shoulder. She could use a good spanking right now, and God knows I could as well.
“We are not having this conversation across the room.” My voice is slightly calmer now. “So please come here.”
She finally does as she’s told, looking more and more nervous the closer she gets to me. She stops a few steps shy of my desk and I’m around the side of it in an instant, glaring at her as I lean closer. “You do not have a say in my attitude. I’m in charge of this project and?—”
“I know that.” She sounds angry but I’m too annoyed at being interrupted to care. “But that doesn’t mean you should be a jerk to everyone just because you’re pissed at me.”
Her eyes are flashing at me, anger and passion mixing in their chocolate depths, and all I want to do is grab her and kiss her until she can’t breathe, until she can’t argue with me anymore. “Iampissed at you,” I say, leaning even closer, my voice dropping to a hoarse whisper. “Do you know why?”
She swallows several times, the anger in her eyes fading away until she once again looks innocent. And more than a little nervous. She shakes her head.
“Because you let that asshole kid stare at you.” I lean closer still, close enough to see the flecks of gold in her warm brown eyes. “You let himtouchyou, Harper.”
“He didn’t,” she breathes out, chest rising and falling rapidly. The fact that she’s so breathless at my proximity has my own heart rate speeding up, desire mixing with the frustration in my blood.
“He had his fingers in your hair. I saw it.”
She just stares up at me, still breathing hard, and the urge to pull her into my arms is becoming unbearable. “Were you jealous?” she whispers, something like hope in her voice.
“Of course I was jealous,” I snap back. “It’s bad enough that I have to watch you all damn day without getting to touch you. Do you think I’m just going to sit here and let someone else do it?”
There’s a smug smile playing around her lips. Shelikesthat she makes me jealous. If she was my sub, I’d be spanking her for that smirk. “Don’t test me, Harper.”
Her eyes go even wider, but there’s no innocence in them now. “Why? What do you want to do?”
I groan. “So fucking much.”
She leans in closer—we’re only a few inches apart—and brings a hand up to my face, brushing her thumb lightly across my cheek. “You should show me.”
Everything in my body is screaming at me to do just that. To kiss her and claim her and punish her, all at the same time. To leave her with no choice but to realize that some twerp like George could never satisfy her the way I can. She’s too close and I’m too aware of her body heat, of the excitement flashing in her eyes, the way her chest is rising and falling with each breath and?—
“Hey, sorry I’m late.”
I pull back while Harper literally jumps away from me, her panicked eyes going to the door at my side. I look over, my stomach sinking as I take in Mason. He’s striding into the room, his eyes still glued to the phone in his hand, and I’m so fucking thankful that he’s perpetually distracted by the thing, unaware of what he had nearly walked in on.
“Hi,” Harper says, her voice high pitched. “I thought we were meeting on the quad?”
Mason finally looks up from his phone, smiling at us as he slips it into his pocket. “Figured I’d check here first, make sure Chase is treating you right.”
Fuck. His words hit me like a brick to the chest, the guilt making it hard to breathe right. Mason is one of my oldest friends, a truly decent guy who wants nothing more than for his sister to be happy. I remember when his parents died after graduation, the way he had stepped up without complaint to take care of her. There was nothing more important to my old friend than the wellbeing of the woman in front of me.
And this is how I treat him—nearly fucking his little sister on my desk in a classroom where anyone could walk in.
Before I can think of a single thing to say, Mason’s face is clouding over. “Harpy? You okay?”
I glance over and see how white her face is. “I’m not feeling very well,” she whispers. “Maybe we should skip lunch.”
Mason looks concerned as he crosses the room to her. “What’s wrong?”
Her professor is a fucking creepy asshole,I think, the guilt in my chest doubling.
“Just tired,” Harper manages, leaning into Mason as he slips an arm around her. “These first few weeks have been busy.”
