Page 32 of His to Teach
“I was having a drink,” I mutter, looking away. His hand snaps out to grip my chin, forcing me to look up at him.
“I thought I told you that you weren’t to come back here.”
I push his hand away, stung by the anger in his voice.
“Are you really that disappointed to see me?”
He sighs roughly, running a hand through his hair. “It isn’t about that Harper.”
“Then what’s it about? You tell me that you don’t want to have a relationship with me?—”
“Can’thave a relationship, Harper,” he argues. “There’s a difference.”
I throw up my hands in frustration. “Well it comes to the same thing, doesn’t it? You don’t want to be with me in this setting. So where does that leave me?”
“Not with him,” he says, voice firm. “Not ever with him.”
“I was just talking to him,” I start but Nate cuts me off.
“He’s not good for you, Harper.”
I’m starting to feel really pissed off now. How dare he barge in here and try to control my life?
“That’s really not for you to decide,” I tell him, standing. Before I can take a step away from the booth, his hand is around my arm again, his grip almost painful as he pulls me back down. He leans over me in the booth, the intensity in his expression making me crouch away, truly afraid for the first time tonight.
When he speaks, his words send a chill through me, his fiery gaze trapping me under his power.
“Like hell it isn’t.”
NATE
It’s been a long time since I’ve felt so completely out of control. Walking into the club and seeing Harper there—after I expressly told her not to come back—would have been bad enough. But to see Aden Roth sitting so close to her, to see his hands on her, that had sent me into a fog of rage so strong it was dizzying.
And then his lips touched her skin and I thought, for the first time in my life, that I might actually be capable of killing a man.
When she told me I had no right to tell her what to do, the logical part of me knew that she had a point. But fuck logic. All I give a damn about is the fact that someone else was talking to her, someone else was touching her.
And knowing Roth, it wouldn’t just be casual flirting. He wanted to take her behind the steel door. And I doubt he would stop with a tour. That isn’t his style. He wants her, I could see it in his eyes, in the authoritative set of his body language.
And I’ll be damned if I’m going to stand by and let that happen.
“He’s dangerous, Harper,” I tell her, needing her to see reason. It’s not an idle accusation—Roth has just come off a suspension from the club for threatening his former submissive.The bastard is on his last chance at Wyld, and I for one won’t be at all sorry to see his ass kicked out.
Her eyebrows go up. “And you’re not dangerous?”
I scowl at her. “It’s not the same.”
“Why not?”
God damn it. If she was mine, I could put an end to this. She certainly wouldn’t be sitting here arguing with me. I wouldn’t allow it.
And as my brain, unbidden, starts to explore all the ways I would make her mind me, my body responds. Fuck. This night is not turning out the way I intended.
Except that’s mostly a lie. Though I had told Philip that I was coming tonight to watch his scene later with Cherise, the truth is, at least part of me had wanted to be here on the off chance that she disobeyed me and showed up.
And there was a part of me that hoped she would do just that.
“Look, Nate,” she says, her voice softer now, less confrontational. Almost sad. “I understand why you think this kind of relationship can’t work between us. Believe me, my academic career is just as important to me as yours is to you, and I have no desire to compromise my success.”
