Lauren chuckled. She had said that. “Hmm... Later. I’ll be back in the afternoon.”
Riley sighed. “Alright.”
Lauren smiled. Riley was never this needy or demanding. It was kind of cute. Lauren eased the comforter out of Riley’s hand, slowly removing it, knowing that Riley would still be naked from last night’s activities.
Riley was on her side but half on her stomach, her arm wrapped around her pillow. “Hey...” She turned her head, probably wondering what Lauren was doing.
Lauren pushed the sheets away, climbing on top of her and straddling Riley’s leg. She planted one hand on the sheets, beside Riley’s arm, while she traced a line with her fingertip from the nape of Riley’s neck, all the way down her back. Her hand slid up again, over her hip and up her rib cage, guiding Riley fully onto her stomach.
Lauren inhaled a shaky breath as she bent over Riley, placing light kisses over her shoulders and up her neck, nipping at her earlobe. Riley whimpered as her hips lifted off the bed, her ass brushing against Lauren’s jeans.
Lauren shifted, giving herself more room, her hand running up the back of Riley’s thigh and over her hip. Another soft moan escaped Riley’s lips, her hips stirring beneath her. Lauren pulled her hand back, lightly slapping Riley’s ass, and now it was more of a groan coming from Riley.
“Is this okay?” Lauren’s palm glided over Riley’s butt before moving down her leg again.
“Yes,” Riley whimpered.
“Are you sure?”
“Hmmm. Yes. Definitely,” Riley said in a rush, her words still muffled by her pillow.
Lauren’s fingertips trailed down her spine, leaving her skin before she got to her ass cheeks. She edged Riley’s thighs a little further apart with her leg, bringing her hand down to Riley’s ass again, slightly harder this time, and Riley grabbed a hold of her pillow as she groaned.
Lauren’s eyebrow rose. “If I didn’t know any better,” she whispered, lowering her body to place feather kisses across Riley’s shoulder and over the back of her neck, licking her way up to her ear and flicking her tongue over her earlobe, “I’d say that you were enjoying this.”
“Yes,” Riley said, both hands wrapped around her pillow now as her hips lifted, pressing her ass against Lauren.
“Hmmm. Something to keep in mind for later,” Lauren said as she sat up, her hand coming down against Riley’s ass cheek again.
“Fuck,” Riley grunted.
“I have to go.”
“Please,” she whimpered.
Lauren licked her lips as she stared at Riley’s athletic body, her eyes moving over her tanned skin to the swell of her now slightly red ass.
“I’m already running late,” Lauren said, a smile tugging at her lips. She had no intention of leaving Riley hanging.
“Two minutes.” Riley turned to glance back at her. “That’s all it’ll take.”
“Really? You were fast asleep two minutes ago.”
“Yes. Lauren, please. I’m so wet.”
Lauren trailed her fingertips up the back of Riley’s thigh again, along the curve of her ass. She skimmed across her swollen lips, glistening with her desire, before lightly slapping her ass again. Riley was almost on her knees now, her hips lifting higher each time, searching for more.
Lauren’s hand was on the small of her back, easing her back down. She leaned forward again, one hand planted against the sheets, holding herself up as she kissed her way up Riley’s spine, nipping at her ear as she slid two fingers through her soaking wet folds, and thrust them inside of her in one swift motion.
Riley groaned, her legs moving further apart as she made room for her own hand. “Oh God. I’m going to come.”
Lauren kept a steady pace until Riley’s body stiffened underneath her, and her hips rolled. Lauren could feel her tightening around her fingers as Riley moaned into the pillow, her body writhing underneath her as she rode out the wave.
Lauren gently kissed her shoulder, brushing her lips along her back as she sat up and carefully withdrew her fingers.
Riley rolled onto her back when Lauren stood up, one hand thrown over her head, the other on her stomach. “What did you just do to me?” Her cheeks were flushed, her breathing heavy.
Lauren brought her fingers to her lips, licking them clean, and Riley practically growled as she stared at her. “See you later, Riley,” she said, grabbing her things.
It took every ounce of willpower to leave with Riley looking at her like that, not to mention that she was more than a little turned on. She’d break some kind of record shoveling that snow. That was for sure. There would never be motivation like this, and if she was fast enough, Riley might still be exactly where she left her.
27
Riley poured herself a glass of orange juice as she sat down on one of the barstools in her kitchen to check her emails. They’d had a short week at college thanks to the snow, getting Monday and Tuesday off. She’d spent those days with Lauren, hardly leaving her bed, and the three days back in class had flown by. They’d both done well in last night’s tournament, too. Riley finished in tenth place, one away from the final table, and Lauren came in fifth.
She’d just gotten back from Lauren’s a few minutes ago, and she knew she should think about studying for a few hours before they all went out tonight, but she hadn’t seen Becca all week. Hopefully, she wasn’t going to back out on her. Riley took another drink and pushed herself off the stool to go knock on Becca’s door.
A few seconds later, Riley got a muffled response. “Give me a sec,” Becca said through the closed door.
Riley wandered back into the kitchen, wondering what she’d have for lunch when Becca joined her. Riley couldn’t miss her red, puffy eyes. She was hardly hungover. Riley had never seen her drunk, but when Becca got closer, she realized she’d been crying. “Hey...”
“Hi.” Becca slumped onto one of the stools.
“What’s wrong?”
“I made a huge mistake.”
“What happened?” Riley asked, coming around the counter to sit beside her.
“I um... After I told you what happened last weekend, I uh... I made this poll on Twitter. I don’t even have that many followers. Anyway,” she said with a sigh, “I asked people if they thought a student teacher relationship was inappropriate or not. I just wanted to see what people thought, but it kept getting retweeted, and it’s snowballed. Thousands of people have seen it and voted.”
“Okay...” Riley wasn’t sure what the big deal was.
“So, it’s been picking up pace all week, and um.” Becca swallowed. “A journalist noticed my poll and tracked me down. He found out that I was a student here, and he called me looking for a quote for the piece he was doing. I said no comment. That was Thursday. Yesterday, he posted an article, mentioning my name, the poll, and the college. It turns out he’s a blogger more than a journalist, so he’s gone for the attention-grabbing headline. Something like, how common are student teacher affairs and should they be allowed? I can’t remember the exact wording.”
“Shit.” Riley pursed her lips, knowing how fast things can change because of one post or one tweet.
“And the college contacted me this morning. They want to meet me Monday.”
Riley exhaled. “Why would they want to meet you?”
“I assume it’s a disciplinary kind of meeting. Because of me, the college is mentioned in this article. It’s bad press.”
Riley nodded, her mind jumping ahead to what this could mean for her and Lauren. “But what could they do? It was a poll. You didn’t mention any names or the college.”
“I know, but it’s gotten back to them. I’ve already deleted it, but that’s probably not going to do me much good. The internet is forever.” Becca blinked back tears. “Taylor’s going to hear about this and think that I wanted this. She’s going to think that I was interested in dating one of my professors or something. Maybe that it was an experiment. And that’s not it at all.”
“I
know.” Riley swallowed the lump in her throat.
“What if I lose my scholarship?”
“It shouldn’t come to that.” Riley put her arm around Becca. “We’ll figure it out. They can’t do anything serious. Not when you didn’t directly mention the college. You can fight it if they do.”
Becca wiped her finger underneath her eye. “Sorry. I need to go study. Take my mind off this.”
“Okay... Let me know if you want to talk. Just text me.”
“I will. Thanks.”
Riley watched her go back to her room, her heart thumping in her chest. They didn’t need this kind of attention. She had to tell Lauren, although it probably wouldn’t affect them. They were already sneaking around. The only time they let their guard down was when they were at Lauren’s. If they were out in public, they kept it professional, even at the casino.
She picked up her phone, her thumb hovering over Lauren’s name, trying to figure out what she was going to say, when her phone started ringing, and Lauren’s name popped up.
“Hi,” Riley said, trying to sound normal.
“Hey. Are you busy?”
“No. I’m at home.”
“Can you come over?”
Riley just left Lauren’s an hour ago. “Uh yeah. Sure. I’ll see you in a minute.” She hung up, a wave of nausea hitting her. Lauren knew. Why else would she ask her to come back so soon?
She grabbed her keys and left, wiping her sweaty palms against her jeans as she took the elevator up to Lauren’s floor. What if Lauren broke up with her because of this? Riley should have looked up the article. All she knew was that the college was mentioned. She didn’t know in what context. What if that blogger knew about them?
Riley knew she was probably being paranoid, but she couldn’t help fearing the worst right now. Becca was a wreck. What would Taylor say if she saw that article? Even if she didn’t know that Becca was the reason it was written in the first place, Taylor was already worried about kissing Becca last weekend. Now this.
Riley used her key to let herself into Lauren’s apartment. “Hey...”
“Hi,” Lauren said, coming to the door with a tumbler of amber colored liquid in her hand. “Drink?”
“Uh. No. No, I’m okay... What’s up?” Riley asked, following her into the living room.
Lauren’s eyes narrowed. “You mean, why did I call you right after you left?”
Riley nodded. “Yeah.”
They both sat down. Lauren swept her hair across one shoulder as she got comfortable, facing Riley. “I checked my emails after you left. Effective immediately, the college is introducing a rule that states that there will be no dating, no relationships between professors and students. Apparently, there was an article written that named our college. There were no confirmed relationships, but the article raised the question about how common it is to have those kinds of relationships and why our college would permit them. So...” Lauren’s voice quivered, and she took a deep breath. “As a precaution, the college has decided to officially ban them.”
Riley swallowed. Damn it.
“You don’t seem shocked. I nearly fell over when I read that email.” Lauren’s eyes were dark, and there was an edge to her voice.
Riley cleared her throat. “I um. I just talked to Becca. It turns out that the reason our college was mentioned was because Becca created a poll on social media, asking if people thought a student teacher relationship was appropriate. It went viral. And this guy decided to write an article about it, which also went viral.”
“And because our college was named, we...” Lauren motioned between them. “We are going to pay for this.”
“Becca’s a mess. She’s worried about Taylor. About what she’s going to think.”
“Right now, I don’t care about Taylor. This affects us. You know that, right?”
Riley nodded, her stomach dropping. “Yeah. But we’re already keeping this pretty quiet.”
Lauren took a drink. “The email was quite serious. This isn’t some new guideline. This is now part of the college’s code of conduct. I can’t risk my job...”
Lauren’s words hung in the air, and Riley found herself blinking back tears. So, she wasn’t being paranoid after all. Lauren was really breaking up with her because of this. “Lauren...” Riley didn’t know what to say. She didn’t really have a counter argument.
“I’m sorry, but we’re going to have to pause this. It’s too risky.” Lauren downed the rest of her drink and left the empty tumbler on the coffee table.
Riley should have been hopeful when she heard the word ‘pause,’ but it was hard to be optimistic about this when just a few hours ago Riley was the happiest she’d ever been. She slid the key Lauren had given her out of her pocket and held it out for her. Riley still couldn’t speak. She was too close to tears.
Lauren held out her hand, and Riley dropped the key into it. “I’m sorry, Riley. I really am. These last few weeks have been amazing...”
“I can’t,” Riley said, standing up, unable to meet Lauren’s eyes. “I have to go.” She wiped away a tear that spilled down her cheek.
“Riley.”
She ignored Lauren and went straight for the door, leaving without looking back. Maybe they’d talk about this later, in a few days when things had settled down, but right now, Riley needed to be alone. The tears fell as she stepped into the elevator. How could things go so horribly wrong for her? For them.
The rational part of her said they just had to wait. Six months. Then Riley wouldn’t be Lauren’s student anymore, but a lot could happen in those six months. What if Lauren met someone else? Someone her own age. Another professor, maybe.
Riley unlocked her door and went straight into her room, falling onto her bed. She also had six months of being in Lauren’s class. That would be torture. Riley got under the covers, still in her jeans, and curled up in a ball, the tears flowing now. There was no point stopping them.
28
Lauren couldn’t remember a more depressing holiday season, and as she put her feet up on the coffee table and watched the ball drop in Times Square, she was so glad it was over. She needed to get back to work and into a routine, but that also meant seeing Riley.
She hadn’t spoken to Riley since she walked out of here, mid-conversation, although there wasn’t much more either of them could have said. Lauren was surprised that Riley didn’t fight her decision. That had stung. She’d been expecting her to plead her case, to stop using their phones and just sneak around the apartment building, but Riley hadn’t. She’d just left. That was a month ago, and there’d been no contact since.
Riley came to class on time with everyone else. There was no more arriving early for a quick chat. Then she left with everyone else. Riley had also stopped coming to the casino on Friday nights, which was concerning. Riley had said she’d started play to earn some money, to pay rent. What was she doing now?
Lauren took a sip of whiskey. She’d been drinking more lately, and she knew it was a bad habit to get in to, but right now, she didn’t care. She’d wanted to pause their relationship, to pick up right where they left off when Riley graduated, but because Riley had left so abruptly, she didn’t even know if that was going to be the case or not.
She wasn’t just missing Riley. She didn’t know what their future was. It was hard enough dealing with the distance between them, but not knowing if they were officially over was killing her.
That wasn’t the plan when she’d asked Riley over. Not that she’d had time to make a plan. She’d opened the email, reread it, and then picked up her phone to call Riley. Maybe she should have thought it through, but at the end of the day, she had to look out for herself. She couldn’t lose her job. She’d be tainting Brian’s reputation too if it ever got out.
Lauren finished her drink. This is why she wasn’t in to social media. One wrong move and things could get out of hand pretty quickly. And what Becca did wasn’t even wrong. Lauren had found the article after Riley left that day. Bec
ca had asked a very general question, and unfortunately for her, for all of them, someone decided to write about it and mention their college.
Taylor had come over that night, and Lauren had done her best to talk her down, to reassure her, to tell her that Becca hadn’t meant for any of this to happen.
The one thing they’d both agreed on was that with the new rules, dating a student, no matter how tempting it was, no matter how amazing they were... It just wasn’t worth it.
Riley didn’t know why she let Nicole convince her to come out tonight. Becca had more sense. She’d stayed at home. Nicole had worn Riley down though, saying that they couldn’t stay in on New Year’s Eve, and now they were at a bar, full of students, and Riley wanted nothing more than to go home and fall into bed.
The crowd started chanting, “Ten... Nine... Eight...” Someone nearly spilled her gin and tonic as they squeezed past her.
Well, she wanted something else. She wanted to fall into Lauren’s bed.
“Four... Three... Two... One... Happy New Year!”
Riley stood in the middle of a bar full of very happy, drunk people, and she had never felt more alone. She spotted Nicole by the bar, kissing a guy she didn’t recognize. At least tonight was going well for her.
Riley finished her drink and grabbed her coat, pushing her way through the crowd until she finally got to the door. She slipped her coat on and got into the back of a taxi, giving him her address as she sunk into the leather seat, exhausted, both mentally and physically.
Even a month later, Riley still couldn’t believe how fast things had changed between Lauren and her, and Riley understood where she was coming from. Her job was important to her. She had her brother and his reputation to think of too, but that didn’t make it any easier.
Seeing her in class was the hardest part. Riley kept her head down, taking more notes these last few weeks than she ever had. She couldn’t look at Lauren. She was afraid she’d start crying right there in the middle of class.
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