by Mia Watts
He leaned against the wall, folded his arms over his chest and waited. She had to come out some time, and when she did, he was going to get an explanation for her sudden departure.
Mina took a deep breath after shutting her office door. The stricken look on Derek’s face, filled with longing and confusion, spoke to her heart. It spoke too well, making her heat in places she should have left unexplored.
The problem was she knew more now. Not the biological aspect of it. That she had studied. She knew that he knew all about the female orgasm. Not just the pieces and parts of a woman’s body, but how to use them, and how to manipulate them so that even a clinical examination under his fingers rocked her to orgasm so hard that her abdominal muscles were sore the next day.
The thought of what he could do to her if there were an emotional connection and tenderness behind the touches blew her mind.
“You feeling all right, Dr. Lasky?” Henry stepped away from the small desk she’d set up for him and took the three long strides he needed to reach her.
“Fine, Henry.”
“You look,” he studied her, a smirk twitching the upper line of his lips, “flushed.”
“No, I’m fine.” Mina pasted on a sunny smile.
“You know, maybe if you relaxed a little. Unpin your hair. You look great with it down,” he said.
Henry reached up and unclipped her twist. Her hair spilled around her shoulders. Mina stood motionless, not sure which surprised her more: that Henry had touched her or that he had moved to within a predatory distance and had a leering gleam in his eye.
She brushed past him, offering up a weak laugh as she reached for her hair clip. But as her shoulder aligned with his, he caught her elbow.
“Did you enjoy Dr. Link’s lab?” he whispered seductively. “What am I saying? Of course you enjoyed it. I witnessed that for myself.”
Her throat clamped tight a she felt the telltale rise of blood to her face, making her ears ring and her head swim. “Excuse me?” she choked out.
“I didn’t think a professor could expose herself like that to students at the university. Even for the benefit of science.” He released her arm.
Mina bid her feet to move and quickly put her desk between them. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Sure you do. I saw you leave the other night.”
She pulled up her chair and stacked the papers on her ink blotter. It wasn’t enough. Next she lined up her pens and randomly searched her lap drawer. If she looked at him, however much he suspected now, he’d know without a doubt he was right.
That night cascaded over her in memory. What part had he played again? Her nipple. He’d touched her nipple and asked to suck on it. Dear God, she had begged him to do it, and Link had rejected him. Had he done it because Henry was her T.A., or because it moved the sexual experiment too quickly?
But her nipple had been tasted, pinched, pulled by another. She owed Link gratitude for keeping Henry from engaging more in her—she mentally stuttered on the word—fulfillment.
Henry had still seen her open and bound. Naked, shivering, and wet with need. He had still played a part in her clinical arousal. Renewed heat blossomed in her cheeks. What did he really know?
“I often work late. You know that,” she said coolly, schooled her features into a semblance of calm, and steeled herself to look at him.
Doubt touched his forehead.
“Did you need me for something?” she asked.
“It was you. I know it was.”
“Where is it you think you saw me?”
“At Dr. Link’s lab on the sexual arousal of the female organism.”
Mina forced a laugh. Near hysteria carried until there were tears in her eyes. “Really, Henry, why would I participate in something so tawdry? Dr. Link uses that lab as an excuse to get laid, but don’t tell him I said so.”
Henry scratched his head, the wind taken from his argument.
She twisted her hair up and clipped it back into place. Mina smiled placidly. “But you were saying? If you were here a few nights ago, I must be giving you too much work to manage. Unless you—you didn’t participate in that lab, did you? Oh, Henry.” She tsked.
He walked back to his desk, his face colored with confusion, and darted silent looks at her while he went over quiz papers.
“I’m going to go get some coffee. I was in such a hurry I forgot. Do you want some?” she asked, suddenly rising to her feet.
“Sure.”
Mina couldn’t get out of there fast enough. Unfortunately, closing the door on one problem reopened the door on another. Link. He smiled warmly when she stepped out.
“I was hoping I wouldn’t have to wait too long,” he said, pleased.
“Coffee.”
“I’ll walk with you.”
“Don’t.”
“I want to,” he insisted.
“Don’t.” She shot a pointed look toward her office.
Derek folded his arms across his chest.
Cornered by a male.
Again.
Mina choked on a frustrated cry.
“Why did you run from me?” he asked.
“You mean like this?” Mina turned and walked quickly down the hall, her heels striking the linoleum and echoing down the long corridor.
Derek jogged to catch up. “Almost exactly.”
“I don’t owe you an explanation.”
“You signed up to participate. Frankly, I’m glad you did.”
“I’ll bet,” she gritted out.
“I am.” Derek caught her around the waist and ducked into an empty room.
“Let go.”
“I will.”
“You haven’t yet,” she pointed out.
“Damn if you aren’t the prickliest woman I know.”
“I bite, too.”
“Tempting, but let’s start with a kiss.”
Derek backed her against the wall of the darkened room. She meant to turn away—she truly did—but watching him close the space stupefied her. God, he was handsome. Her eyes widened as though to take the moment in and record it for posterity.
Derek’s dark brown eyes swallowed her like black liquid licks to her body, staining her to the soul with longing. The heated, half-hooded look and slow sweep of his black lashes when he blinked in anticipation, the way his mouth relaxed into serious, loose lines, and his dark blond hair fell forward over pitch eyebrows spoke of desire.
She hadn’t seen that look on a man’s face in a long time. She had never seen that look from someone who made her insides melt and her panties damp with the smallest recognition. What he did now—the way he looked at her—sent pre-orgasmic tremors straight to her straining clit.
“Oh God,” she whispered.
And then he kissed her. His forelocks tickled her brow and time slowed as body heat and breath and the indefinable scent of a kiss, unique to each person, curled around her lips as tangibly as an embrace, a wispy ghost of a promise.
She lost awareness of her limbs, knowing only that she needed to hold on. His warm palm cupped her cheek. His fingertips brushed her earlobe, yet the kiss stayed sweet, with his lips barely touching hers. He captured the barest moisture where her lips parted with a trace from the tip of his tongue, which was more contact than his mouth gave.
Mina swayed toward him. His lips were a tease, a test of her fortitude to keep her distance perhaps. Either way it revealed her weakness for him. And what shivered inside her was the thought of this mouth, this kiss, between her legs. This ticklish contact with the lightest wet taste between other lips that already ached and moistened in preparation.
His lips parted. Hers followed, though she felt little more than the suggestion of his movement for the light touch he maintained. They kissed with hungry breaths, and when his tongue touched hers, the open splay of their mouths left her feeling naked and needy, vulnerable in a way that being tied to his lab table hadn’t.
She had no recollection of closing her eyes bu
t she needed to see him. Needed to know he felt it too.
Derek’s eyes were closed. Though his brows had drawn together, they pushed up in the middle as though he were fearful of breaking her, or himself, as if kissing her were crucially important and terrifying at the same time.
Was it real?
Was it the experiment?
Was it worth the risk of believing in it?
…before I embark on the emotional journey of sexual stimulation as it applies to the female form…
“No,” she said pushing hard at him. She tore from his arms and dashed down the hall.
Derek groaned with loss. Propping both hands on the wall where she had been, he bowed his head low and tried to get a grip on his raging hard-on. Mina Lasky was going to be the death of him.
He knew her intelligence and her dry humor, had felt the bite of it when she refused him, and the pleasure of it when he laughed in spite of the refusal. He respected the way she spearheaded the department’s fundraising efforts, and the way she demanded respect and got it. He knew her tenaciousness and her dedication to the students. Knew her inability to back down from a challenge when questioned about her lack of tenure despite her publication credits and knowledge.
And now he knew so much more.
All prim attire with barely leashed sexuality, held in check by marching buttons up her middle. He knew what treasures they held back, too. Knew the tiny perfect nipples and the full pink breasts. Knew her nipples colored toward mauve when aroused and the blood flowed into them, plumped them for a man’s mouth to feast upon.
He knew her grasping sex and every beautiful pearly-pink crevice of it. Knew her smell, had savored her taste from a stolen lick of his fingers. He knew her body’s distinct reaction to arousal, from the clenching of her sex to the tremble of her limbs as orgasm took her and shook her control until she dissolved in its power.
And he knew that whatever had scared her off, he was in for a fight to get her back. If he’d ever had her in the first place.
Chapter Four
By the following Monday, Mina thought she might have regained some of her very slippery control. Two full days to think about what had happened between her and Link. The knowledge that the man finished everything he started reaffirmed her belief that, lab or no, she was still figuratively on the man’s table and signed on as the experimental guinea pig.
He probably hated that she’d backed out after the first stage. Blast to his ego and all that. Unfortunately, that put her squarely in his sites as a conquest, and on her own personal shit list for stupid choices.
Mina turned the corner, prepared to face him as she took the long walk toward her office. She had reached her door without event when Link walked up behind her.
“Good morning, Mina.”
And his silky, dark voice hit her squarely between the legs. Mina wasn’t able to withhold the gasp when her pussy clenched, then tickled with moisture.
Bless Henry for walking up at that moment. He grinned boyishly, looking like he’d passed a pop-chemistry final. “Can I take your briefcase in for you, Dr. Lasky?”
“How about we walk in together?” she said. She hurried over the words with the same speed she unlocked her office.
“Good morning, Dr. Link,” she returned, belatedly.
“She’ll be a second, Henry. Go on in.” Link waited with his hand on her shoulder until Henry had disappeared. Reaching around her, he shut her door and whispered for only her to hear, “Is it true that my voice turns you on?”
Mina wished she could reach back in time and slap herself for the admission.
His breath fluttered over the whorls of her ear. “God, Mina. Are you wet right now?”
She grabbed the door handle and scooted inside her office on a strangled groan. She kept her hand on the door to lock it if necessary, but Derek chuckled and his steps carried him away.
“I knew it,” Henry said behind her.
Mina spun around. “Knew what? What is with this building and men who sneak up?”
“You were at the lab.”
“We went over that already.”
“You almost had me convinced.” Henry stepped closer, crowding her. “Until you made that sound in the back of your throat. I wouldn’t forget that sound.”
Once again, Mina edged around him. This time he caught her against her desk, backing her onto it. She half leaned backward and had to prop her hands behind to keep from falling.
“I’m right. I can see it on your face,” he said. His grin widened triumphantly, eagerly.
He had her and they both knew it. There was no point in denying the truth.
“Henry, you can’t tell anyone. It was something I regret now, and dumb to risk my career.”
“I wondered how you got around the rules. But I guess with a blindfold on and your face obscured, you thought you could get away with it.”
His eyes undressed her button by button in a way that made her skin crawl.
“I made a bad decision and I’d rather not talk about it.” Mina moved to sit up but Henry wouldn’t give her space. “Move, please.”
“I don’t think so. The way I see it is I have some leverage over something that will make or break my future.”
Dread crawled up her spine.
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“I need to graduate with honors. Your class and Dr. Link’s class are the only two I don’t have an A in.”
“You’re a great student,” she assured him quickly. “I’m a tough grader but you’ll pull through.”
He reached up and loosed a button. “Oh, I know I will.”
She swatted his hand away. “You really don’t want to do that. I can fail you and have you arrested for harassment.”
Mina scooted back, sitting fully on the tabletop. She felt more in control instantly, except Henry’s position kept her from bringing her knees together.
“Before or after I tell them about your foray into scientific exploration in front of the student body? Won’t that kind of hurt your career goals?”
She paled. Her brain raced for a way to salvage the situation, bluff out if necessary.
“I’d get a slap on the hand. You would be fired and barred from teaching anywhere else.”
He undid the same button and another.
“What do you want?” she asked, fear tightening her voice.
He unbuttoned two more. She grabbed his hands and he fought them down to her sides, held them until she didn’t offer resistance, and then let go to undo her last two buttons, pulling her shirt’s hem out of her skirt waistline to reach it.
“I’ve never seen such dainty nipples. They fascinate me. Remember I got to touch one? Yeah, you remember because you begged me to suck on them. Fuck, that makes me hard.”
“I don’t want that now,” she said. She tried to be firm but her voice wavered.
“And Dr. Link stopped me.” He went on like she hadn’t spoken. “See, here’s what I want.”
“Tell me,” she said.
If he meant to scare her into giving him a better grade, Henry had succeeded. Keeping him on task about his grades could distract him for further exploration of her body. She might have been laid bare to him once, but that was by choice. What he wanted to do, now, wasn’t.
“I want an A in Biology and Chemistry. I want letters of recommendation from both you and Dr. Link to the medical school of my choice worded in such a way as to guarantee enrollment and scholarship money—”
“No one can promise you that,” she interrupted.
“Don’t interrupt me when I’m talking.” Henry unsnapped her front closure bra. “Ah! There they are.”
Mina swallowed hard. They’re just breasts. Keep your attention on him. Find a way out. Stay calm. Distance yourself.
“Guarantee my enrollment and scholarship money. We won’t disclose this agreement with Dr. Link until the end of the quarter.”
“Why? He’s part of your proposed arrangement.”
H
enry pushed her skirt up over her hips. He made a point of tucking his chin to his chest to get a good look at her panties. “Pink. Never would have guessed.”
“What about Dr. Link?” she asked, feeling the tide of panic encroaching.
“Between now and the time we tell him, I’m off Teacher’s Assistant duty without record of the release. The work ethic looks great on my application and I don’t want to mess with it.”
Mina winced when he cupped her breasts and pulled on her nipples.
“You know, I’m grateful for Dr. Link’s lab because now I know how to get your body to cooperate with me even if you don’t want to.”
“Stop this,” she whispered.
“I don’t think so.”
Henry put his mouth on her. She swallowed down a wave of nausea, which only increased when he pushed his fingers beneath her panties to part her flesh.
“I knew you wanted me. You’re wet. You’ll appreciate my final request then. Until the end of the quarter, your body is at my disposal whenever I want it.”
It was too much. Too sickening.
“You don’t make me wet, you make me sick.”
“What’s this?” He held up a slick finger. “You are so creamed I don’t even have to stick it inside you to get this, just pass my finger over your hot little cunt.”
“It’s for Link, not you,” she spat.
Henry shoved her backwards. He drew her hips forward and pinned them to the edge of the desk with his. Leaning over he put his mouth on her other breast and bit down.
Mina screamed. Thrashed.
“Shut up!” He backhanded her, stunning her into silence.
The door to the office burst open. Mina couldn’t look, kept her face turned away. Her face stung. Her ears rang. Pain locked the fear in her throat, kept her from daring to anger him again.
“What’s going on here?” Link bellowed. “Get the hell off her!”
Mina gasped for breath, nearly hysterical.
“Hey, Dr. Link. You might want to shut that door. I wouldn’t want Dr. Lasky to get fired for fucking her students. Why do you think I get such good grades?”
What Derek saw was a wet-dream turned nightmare. Mina sprawled across her desk with her body exposed, panting as her lover-student prepared to fuck her. Henry withdrew his glistening hand from her panties, indolently licking her cream as he stared Derek down.