When I felt his hot breath blowing on me, his tongue sliding across me, sinking inside me, flicking my sensitive clit, I lost it. Distantly, I hear the clatter of something heavy hitting the floor as I searched for something to hold on to, to anchor me while my orgasm threatened to fling my body into oblivion.
He never let go of me. When it was finally over, he slowly pulled my limp body off the desk and into his lap as he sat back down. “I’m sorry,” I whispered into his shoulder.
Gently, he kissed the top of my head. “I think I kind of like your jealousy,” he said. I heard the smile in his voice. “But if you’re not careful, it’ll push us to the breaking point. I’m enjoying you, Sloan. I’m not quite ready to let that go just yet.”
Neither was I. Of course, the difference was that eventually, he would be ready to move on.
And I might never get to that point.
“How did you know that Iris was my ex?”
“I Googled you,” I muttered as embarrassment stained my cheeks. “There are quite a few pictures of you with women on your arm.”
“Don’t do that, Sloan. If you can’t be at peace with my past, then you need to tell me now. And if you can, then you can’t dig up old bones.”
Wordlessly, I nodded. He was right, of course. The only thing that would do was upset me. “I should go.”
I tried to get up, but he didn’t move his arms. “I owe you an apology for last night. You’re not wrong. I am used to controlling the environment around me, and I have a short temper. In the future, I will try to be more understanding of your other obligations.”
Smiling, I turned my head to stare at him. “Lucas. I never expected you to be a man who apologizes easily.”
“I’m not. Now go on. I’ll see you tonight.”
I stood from his lap and felt a little empty without his arms around me. “I can’t. I have several meetings tomorrow at the local school so I can pull together a group of kids for my thesis. I have to work on my notes.”
For a moment, I thought he’d be upset, but he just smiled. “Tomorrow night then?”
“Yes. And I promise that I won’t forget.” Leaning down, I gave him a quick peck on the lips. It wasn’t a kiss of desire but something that felt habitual. Lucas looked at me with surprise in his eyes, but I quickly dressed and scampered out of the office before he could ask any questions.
The secretary gave me a knowing smile, and I flushed even more. God. Had she heard us?
“Do you need an escort out?” she asked.
“No, thanks,” I muttered. “I’ll be just fine.”
I knew that I’d told Lucas that I was willing to explore my sexual side, but after an orgasm in his office, I was starting to wonder if I was in over my head.
***
The next day, I sat in the hard plastic seat in front of the Vice Principal’s desk. I’d managed to control my frizzy curls into a hair band and wore a conservative grey skirt and jacket. I was well prepared, but that didn’t stop me from feeling like a student who’d just gotten caught smoking.
“I’m sorry to keep you waiting, Ms. Whitlow,” a woman said sternly as she entered the office. Torie Garret looked to be in her forties, but her hair was greying, and there were lines on her face. I would have thought running an elementary school would have been easier, but after today? After my third elementary school?
Maybe not so much. Children were terrors.
“I haven’t been here long, Mrs. Garret. I’m just happy that you’ve found time for me. I know I’m giving you short notice.”
She sat behind the desk and nodded her head. “You are late in your proposal, but you’re also the first grad student we’ve had this year. Normally I listen to one or two proposals a semester, but Clancy Elementary is new and seems to be attractive to the university.” What she didn’t want to come out and say was that Clancy Elementary had been strategically zoned so that more than three-quarters of the students came from extremely wealthy families.
I didn’t want to tell her that I’d just left Clancy Elementary. They’d turned me down. It wasn’t that I needed wealthy kids to make my project work. In fact, the less spoiled the kids were, the better my outcome might be. Clancy just happened to be a ten minute drive from school, and Surry Elementary was thirty minutes.
But the principal had practically laughed in my face when I suggest their kids participate in summer volunteer work.
Sliding my proposal across the desk, I took a deep breath. “Middle schools and high schools offer summer school for their students. It’s generally for kids to retake classes they’d failed during the regular year, but some classes are optional, and it affords a chance for students to keep their minds sharp and their hands busy during the long summer months. Elementary schools, on the other hand, don’t offer anything for their students. Most parents turn to babysitters to watch their kids during the break, and there is a sprinkling of day camps in the area, but not many.”
The woman looked at me sternly from over the proposal. “You want the elementary schools to offer summer programs?”
“My paper will focus on the pros and cons of such a project. I’m looking at businesses that can offer the kids some hands on experience that would be fun but still provide them some education. For the sake of my paper, I’m focusing mainly on animal rescue programs, but I’m going to hypothesize the use of nursing homes, libraries, soup kitchens, and similar charities in the area. I need sixteen students. I’m sure you know the drill. Different ages, different stages in learning, different economic backgrounds.”
She put the paper down and nodded her head. “Ms. Whitlow, I think it’s a wonderful idea. I’ve always thought the school system should be more involved in the student’s life during the summer. I’m sure that you know we pull from some of the poorer families, and many of the kids are left to their own devices while the parent works. I’ll go ahead and sign the paperwork for your thesis approval. Once you have everything in order, we’ll send out the permission slips to the parents.”
My eyes widened with excitement. “Really?”
“Ms. Whitlow, if I didn’t know any better, I’d say that you were surprised,” she said wryly.
Biting my lower lip, I nodded my head. “I know how late it is in the semester and how complex my program is. It’s not a simple reading exercise that would only take a week or two.”
“Yes, well while that might be helpful in the future, this is something that will help these kids right now. You should be very proud of yourself, Ms. Whitlow. I only hope that your program is as good as I hope.”
“It will be,” I promised as I stood. She scribbled her signature at the end of the paperwork and handed it back to me. “You’d better hurry if you want this in place before the summer break, Ms. Whitlow. You only have two months.”
Eagerly gripping the papers to my chest, I tried to act professional, but I was practically bursting with excitement. From her smile, I knew that I wasn’t fooling her, but she dismissed me with a wave of her hand. I thanked her once more before skipping from her office before she changed her mind.
Lucas Montgomery warmed my bed at night and my thesis was well on its way.
The week was getting better and better.
Chapter Eight
Sloan
Wrapped in his arms, I leaned against him on the couch and snuggled. “What movie did you want to watch?” I murmured.
Lucas kissed the top of my head. “I wanted to enjoy a steak from a five-star restaurant. Staying in to order pizza and watch a movie was your idea,” he reminded me.
“Five-star restaurants require makeup and dressy clothes. Randi is going to be suspicious if I keep raiding her closet, and I’m too tired to try my hand at contouring and smoky eyes.”
He snorted. “I’ve seen you all dressed up. I doubt you spent more than five minutes on your makeup.”
Lifting my head, I stared at him. “Does that bother you?”
“Why would it?”
“Reporters a
re always taking pictures of you. Imagine the rumors if the woman at your dinner table wasn’t wearing the latest styles or newest makeup trend.”
He leaned down and kissed me. Slow and easy. My toes curled, and something warm and comfortable settled in my stomach. “Sloan, I have never given a damn about the reporters. Neither should you.”
Leaning over me, he grabbed the remote for the television and turned it on. “I guess you’ll want to watch a romantic comedy?”
Looking horrified, I stared at him. “Are you kidding me? Your television is huge, and you have surround sound. I want to see explosions or awesome special effects.”
“You are surprising,” he murmured as he pulled the list of movies up. I chose one that I’d seen a hundred times. I wasn’t here to see a movie or eat pizza. I was here to enjoy his company. It was amazing when his naked body was wrapped around me, but I wanted to be with him without the dirty, dirty sex.
It was dangerous. Pretending to be his girlfriend was definitely playing with fire, but he didn’t seem to mind, and I was feeling daring. Things were going well.
“I haven’t asked you yet. How is the search for the mole going?”
His body tensed undermind, and I wondered if that was a subject best left untouched. “Not well. There are a lot of suspects and no clear motives.”
Picking up a slice of pizza, he held it up to me until I took a bite of its gooey cheesy goodness before taking a bite himself. “I can’t remember the last time I had pizza.”
I snorted. “Really? I have pizza at least twice a week. The pizza place is the only thing around campus open past ten. I’ll probably be ten pounds fatter by the time I graduate. Would you still want me then?”
The thoughtless words were out of my mouth before I could stop them. Of course Lucas and I wouldn’t still be together by the time I graduated. That would be more than six months from now. I wasn’t even sure I could keep his attentions for the next two weeks.
“You’d have to eat an awful lot of pizza between now and then to gain ten pounds,” he said in a neutral voice.
Diplomatic. Part of me desperately wanted to ask him how long he thought he’d be interested in me, but I knew it was dangerous territory.
“Well, I’m glad I could remind you of the common life. Tomorrow night, I’ll fix you a bowl of ramen.”
He wrinkled his nose, and I laughed. “No? How about grilled cheese?”
“I offer to take you to the nicest restaurants, and you offer to make me ramen and grilled cheese. How is that fair?”
I stole another bite of his pizza and smiled. “I had no idea that our agreement was based on fairness.”
He stared at me and ran his hands down my body. Even though there was lust in his eyes, I could have sworn there was something else. “No, it’s not.” His voice was husky when he leaned down and kissed me. Setting the slice down on the plate, he moved his hand up under my shirt, and soon the movie and the pizza were forgotten.
Randi was waiting for me when I snuck back into the apartment just after dawn. I would have left for class directly from the Montgomery estates, but I’d forgotten my books. Lucas was up before the sun and doing push-ups in the bedroom.
Otherwise, I would have been back sooner, but there was something incredibly sexy about watching him exercise naked.
I was impressed with how many sit-ups he could do while I was straddling him.
“I got in an hour ago,” Randi accused. “Imagine my surprise when your bed was still made. I know damn well that you were not at the library, so you might as well tell me the truth.”
I could still smell Lucas on me. “I thought you’d be happy that I was having some fun.”
“Of course I am. I’m worried that you’re not telling me about it. Sloan, be honest with me. Are you still sleeping with Montgomery?”
She crossed her arms and stared at me. Taking a deep breath, I let the bag slip from my shoulders. “Would it really be so bad if I was?”
“If it was anyone but you, I would say no. Sloan, he’s going to hurt you.”
Jutting my chin out defiantly, I glared at her. “Randi, I’m an adult. I can make my own decisions. Lucas and I have an agreement that’s purely sexual. It’s been a great way for me to release my tension. I think I’m quite good at this casual sex thing.”
“And what’s his interest in you?” She immediately closed her eyes and shook her head. “Shit, Sloan. I didn’t mean it like that.”
“I know exactly what you meant,” I growled as I grabbed my bag. “You think I’m not pretty enough or exotic enough to catch the attention of Lucas. Why don’t you just admit it? Are you jealous?”
“Sloan, you know damn well that’s not what’s going on here. Yes, Lucas can have his pick of women. He likes them powerful. He’s just playing with you, Sloan. As much as you might hate to admit it, you’re not the kind of woman who fucks a man at night and forgets them the next morning. He’s not the man who settles down with someone. You know that I’m right, but you’re ignoring it. If you get lost in whatever fantasy keeps playing in your head, you’re going to get hurt.”
I felt nothing but cold anger as I stared at her. God, I knew she was right, but this was something I had to prove to myself. “That’s my problem and not yours. Next time, mind your own damn business.”
She gasped, but I was already halfway to my room. Slamming the door shut, I leaned against it and tried not to cry. Deep down, I did want her to find out. I wanted someone to talk to, but it was obvious that Randi was not going to support me.
We’d never fought. At least not like that. We’d argued over music and noise levels. I sometimes lost my patience with her when she forgot to clean the dishes, and she’d snap at me when I forgot the groceries. But this was different.
This had actually hurt.
The shower started, and I knew that I wasn’t going to get the chance to bathe before class. The scent of Lucas and sex would follow me around all day.
I wasn’t exactly upset about that.
Stuffing the books in my bag, I tried to put the argument behind me as I grabbed a blueberry muffin from the kitchen and shoved it in my mouth. Opening the door, I walked straight into Matthew.
Matthew Rehn was my odd neighbor. He was handsome, but he worked odd hours and never spoke much. Randi and I had talked endlessly about our theories about him.
At best, he was a secret CIA agent. At worse, he was a serial killer.
But he was always nice to us, so we didn’t bother him much. I couldn’t hide the surprise from my face when I saw him.
“Matthew!”
The muffin was still in my mouth and muffled the sound. He lifted an eyebrow and smiled at me. “I’ve caught you at a bad time.”
Pulling the muffin out of my mouth, I swallowed. “I’m sorry. I do know not to talk with my mouth full. I was just on my way to school.”
“Right.” He handed me an envelope. “This was at my door last night. I tried to deliver it then, but neither you or your roommate were home. It’s addressed to you, but there’s no postage on it. Were you expecting something?”
I shoved the muffin back in my mouth and shook my head as I took the envelope. I could have put down my keys, but that didn’t occur to me until after I looked like a complete idiot in front of my neighbor.
“Right,” he laughed softly. “Have a good day.”
I stole a peak around the doorway as I watched him enter his own apartment. One of these days I was going to figure him out.
Shoving the envelope under my arm, I locked the door behind me and shuffled to the car. After only a couple of hours of sleep, I desperately needed coffee.
Although it made me late, once again, to Dr. Elliot’s class, I did stop for coffee. Luckily, my professor didn’t interrupt class this time to berate me.
After the lecture, I pulled the signed form for my thesis experiment from my bag and hurried down the steps. “Dr. Elliot?”
“Is your alarm clock still broken, Ms. Whitlow?�
� he said without looking up.
Damn. He did notice. “No. I just didn’t get much sleep last night,” I muttered.
“I assume that’s because you were working on your thesis?”
Only if my thesis included a gorgeous naked man on the couch. And the bed. And the floor. “I got permission from Surry Elementary school. I’m in the middle of speaking with Lab Rescue and High Tails Humane Society. They’re both looking over the information, but I think High Tails has already decided to work with me. They have until Monday to get back to me, and then hopefully I can start drawing up an itinerary.”
“Excellent. Keep pushing the way you are, and I know you’ll be ready for this summer. It will have to be a full twelve-week program. You won’t be able to cut it short in order to have more time for your analysis.”
“I know. I’m not going to take any short-cuts.”
“Good.” He finally turned to eye me. “Ms. Whitlow, I’m sure you’re aware that Montgomery Industries is a big supporter of the school.”
“What?” Surprised, I stared at him. “I didn’t know that. Why are you telling me this?”
He looked like he wanted to say something before he shook his head. “It’s not important. I’m sure you’re acting ethically and morally in your actions.”
Shoulders slumping, I stared at him. He knew. He knew that I was sleeping with Lucas, and he thought I was using that power to push my thesis along.
But how did he know?
More importantly, why did he think I was the kind of woman who would use sex to my advantage?
“You have nothing to worry about,” I said softly as I lowered my gaze. “I’ve worked hard to get where I am now, and there is nothing but hard work driving me.”
“Of course. I don’t mean to imply otherwise.”
But he did, and we both knew it.
“Have a good weekend, professor.”
“Email me if you need me for anything,” he said absently, but he didn’t look me in the eye.
Shattered: A Billionaire Romance Series (Contemporary Romance Novels) Page 37