“What?” Gina sputtered. “Will, confess!” She turned to me, angry, with her eyes glittering.
“Nothing happened,” I said. Leaning back in my chair, I sighed and crossed my arms.
“Gina, what is going on here,” the dean began slowly – his voice was skeptical and suspicious, and he narrowed his eyes at her.
“He’s fucking a student!” Gina cried shrilly. “I know he is!”
The dean shrugged. “Without proof, I’m sorry, I can’t take your allegations seriously. And that’s all this is, yes? You mentioned in your email that you had a feeling,” he added. All the same, he eyed me very carefully, and I knew he wasn’t fucking around.
“Will, I’ll be watching you very closely,” he said. “Please, don’t make me regret trusting you right now.”
I got to my feet. Shockingly, I was able to stand without collapsing due to relief. I felt faint and sick and bombarded with adrenaline all at once, and I shoved my hands in my pockets.
“Yes, sir,” I said, as humbly as possible. “You won’t regret it.”
“I don’t understand,” Gina cried. “I know he’s doing it! I just know he is!”
She was steaming mad, and now that she was angry, it was actually kind of hilarious. Red in the face with her hair frizzing up around her head, she looked like a cartoon villain, someone who had been defeated by a couple of measly kids.
We left his office in silence.
The silence didn’t last, however. Nearly as soon as we were in the hallway, Gina grabbed my arm and turned to me.
“Fuck you!” Gina snarled. She began slapping and punching and kicking at me, even trying to bite my arm. I twisted out of her grip and held both of her wrists with one of my hands, rendering her useless.
“Stop it,” I growled back at her. “Why are you doing this? What the hell do you think you’re even going to accomplish with it?”
Gina’s eyes were red with fury and she hissed a steady stream of curses at me just as Dean Schell came out of his office and saw us locked together in anger. Immediately, he turned on me.
“Will, what is the meaning of this?” He nearly shouted. “What is going on?”
I dropped Gina’s wrists – she made a show of looking wounded and rubbing them together, as if I had been the one to turn on her – and faced him.
I cleared my throat. “Dean Schell, I have something to confess,” I said. “Gina and I have been in a relationship, which we’ve managed to keep professional and off-campus ... until now,” I added, trying for a touch of sadness.
The dean narrowed his eyes and looked severely displeased.
“I know it’s wrong,” I said. “But she’s angry that I ended things. She became so jealous and vengeful that I was worried for my own safety.”
The dean pressed his lips together.
“Ask around,” I said, as casually as I could muster. “I shouldn’t have been talking about it – I know it was wrong – but I told my TA, Peter Hawke, that we’d been seeing each other.”
“That’s not true!” Gina shot back. “He’s lying!”
“Ask Peter,” I encouraged. “Bring him in – I finally told him when he noticed how distracted I’d been all semester, and I had to confess that it was my turbulent relationship with Gina that had thrown me so far off track.”
Dean Schell still looked angry and I held my breath. I knew that by lying now, I was taking a serious risk ... but it was just as if things had fallen perfectly into place.
“I see,” he said curtly. “Will, I’ll deal with you later.”
Gina, who had been silent for several seconds, began screaming once again. She yanked open the fire extinguisher cabinet and threw the fire extinguisher to the floor with a tremendous clang. The automatic fire alarm began to shriek and chirp and students flooded out of their classrooms into the hallway just as Gina turned to me once again, pummeling her tiny, useless fists against my chest.
Dean Schell rushed into his office.
“I hate you!” Gina screamed. “You ruined everything, you motherfucker!” She was truly unhinged now and a huge crowd of students watched, awestruck, as saucy Professor Grant attacked Professor Marks with slaps and kicks and punches.
When the authorities arrived to arrest her for assault, I breathed a sigh of relief.
I knew it was wrong.
Criminal, even.
But I couldn’t help feeling like we had both gotten what we deserved in the end.
29
Eden – Friday
I had skipped classes yet again and was sitting on the couch, trying to make sense of the plan I had come up with – and decided on firmly – last night. I hadn’t told anyone of my decision yet, not even Petra, although I was sure that telling her would be a hell of a lot easier than breaking the news to my mother.
It wasn’t a plan that I had ever thought my life would come to, but here it was. I couldn’t let things go on the way they had for so long now. I had to reclaim my life and take charge of myself and be the best version of Eden Cooper that I could be. An untouched bowl of popcorn sat on the dining room table and the TV was on to an old rerun of Friends, but I had it muted as I sat in thought, pressing my lips together and gnawing at the inside of my mouth.
That was when I heard a knock at the door. There was no time to change – I was in sweats with greasy hair – and my heart leapt into my throat as I walked to answer it.
Standing on the other side was Professor Will Marks.
I sucked in a deep breath, expecting him to rush inside and kiss me and fuck me or worse – stand there and break it off with me officially, with a cold look in his eyes.
In my panic and paranoia, it took me a moment to realize that he didn’t look cold at all.
His dark eyes were warm and apologetic and – dare I think it? – perhaps even anxious.
“We need to talk,” I said as I stepped back to allow him inside.
Will nodded. “I know,” he said. “That’s why I came over.” He cleared his throat and opened his mouth to speak just as I held a finger to his lips.
“I’m taking an incomplete in your class,” I began. “And I’m dropping my other two classes, which will put me just nine credits short of graduating.”
Will’s eyes opened wide and he began to protest, but I shook my head.
“No,” I said softly. “Please, Will. Let me talk, for once. You owe me that, I think.”
Will clamped his mouth together and gave a brief jerk of his head. I could tell that he wasn’t happy – he was practically shaking with confused energy – and it was hard to go one, but I had to.
It was all part of my plan – it was just happening in a different order than I’d pictured in my head.
“I’ve done terribly this semester,” I confessed as I led Will over to the couch where we sat down, close enough for our thighs to touch. Normally, being so close to him would have excited me and made my heart flutter, but right now it emboldened me and made me more certain than ever that I was doing the right thing.
“And if I don’t drop at least one of my classes, I’ll flunk it,” I said. “I’ve been trying to catch up, but there’s no use doing that – it’s already too late, and there isn’t anything else I can do about it. Believe it, I’ve tried.”
Will looked aghast.
“And for my senior seminar, well, I’m going to do an independent study with another professor over the summer to make up the lost credits. I can take my other classes through distance learning and that way, I should be able to graduate by the end of the summer term.”
“Eden, you can’t do that,” Will finally protested. “What class are you failing? Not mine, I assure you,” he continued.
“It doesn’t matter,” I told him flatly. “Like I said, it’s done. I made up my mind. I have to do this – I can’t have you go around trying to fix my mistake, like I know you would do for me.”
Will looked chastened and almost embarrassed.
“I’ve let this thing go on for
so long that we haven’t even had a chance to talk about it,” I continued. “And I don’t want that. I want you – all of you. I want a relationship, but I don’t want to sneak around anymore. And if I do that independent study with another professor, there’s no risk of either of us getting in trouble.”
I took a deep breath. “I’m responsible for the poor choices I’ve made,” I said. “For a long time, too long, I tried to ignore them and avoid them, but that’s not right. That’s what a kid would do. And I’m not a kid – I’m an adult, and it’s time I started acting like one.”
“You can’t drop out because of me,” Will said finally.
“I’m not dropping out,” I shot back. “I’m just putting things on hold. I’ll work for a month or so, until the end of the spring semester, and then work my ass off over the summer so I can graduate.”
Will stared at me for a long time. His face was so still and hard to read that for a second, I actually wondered if time had frozen. Was I dreaming this?
Had I really just spoken to him so confidently and decisively, the way I’d wanted to since we’d first met?
I wasn’t blushing, shy little fat Eden Cooper anymore – I felt like a new woman, like someone who had found her own power seemingly overnight.
Of course, that wasn’t the way things had happened. I had found my own power and strength – and a large part of that was because of the love that Will had for me, the love had made me realize how to be confident in myself and my actions.
“I want to redo my senior year,” I added softly. “Properly this time – and not be your student.”
Will nodded slowly.
My heartbeat began to quicken as I realized I only had one thing left to tell him.
“I love you,” I said, as plainly as I could. “I love you so much, and I want to be with you, and I don’t want to worry and hide. Being together at first was fun because it was dangerous ... but then as I fell in love with you, that all stopped.”
The look in Will’s dark eyes changed, and I saw love grow there. Real love, mixed with admiration and lust and excitement. My already-fast heart began to race and I felt my palms get sweaty with anticipation.
“I love you,” I repeated. “I just needed you to know that, Will.”
“Eden,” Will said in a low growl as he put his hands on me. He pulled me into a deep kiss, swirling his tongue against mine and making me melt against his body. When he pulled back, he was staring deeply into my eyes.
“I love you,” he said. “And I always will.”
Then, we were kissing again, pawing each other, climbing over each other and pushing each other down on the couch. I moaned softly as Will’s cold hands slid under my hoodie and stroked my back, then down to my ass where he squeezed my cheeks until I whimpered with lust and ground against him. I could feel that he was hard, and I sighed with happiness and arousal as Will nuzzled me into another deep, romantic kiss that left my whole body shaking.
I knew it was wrong – we were on the couch! – but everything was out in the open now, and I didn’t care. I didn’t care what happened – all I knew was that Will and I were together, and that we would be forever, and that our love was real.
Nothing could have been more real than Will kissing me, then him pulling my hoodie over my head and tossing it to the floor. I wasn’t wearing a bra and he put his hands to my breasts and stroked and rubbed them, pinching and playing with my nipples until white-hot arousal was swarming my body. My pussy was wet and tingling and Will pushed me down and climbed on top of me, grinding his pelvis against mine. I could feel his stiff erection through his trousers and the knowledge that he was always so hard for me made me moan softly into Will’s mouth.
“I love you,” I whispered, nuzzling Will and kissing his neck. He groaned with pleasure as I nipped him, moving my mouth lower and pulling the collar of his sweater to the side to expose his shoulder. My clit was throbbing with desire and I whimpered, nearly to the point of begging him to take me. We tussled and shifted and rolled until Will was on his back and I was straddling him, slowly grinding my hips against his body until he growled with pure lust.
“You tease,” Will groaned as his eyes rolled back in his head.
“You love it,” I whimpered. “You know you want it.”
Will looked at me with intensity and desire. “I love you,” he said, grabbing my hips and moving them faster on his body. We locked eyes and I crossed my arms over my chest and pulled my hoodie off, exposing my tits. Will moaned at the sight of my bare chest and put his hands to my nipples again, rolling them and playing with them until I shook and cried out for more. I pulled his sweater over his head and threw it to the side, then bent over and brushed the ends of my hair against his bare skin. Will shivered at the sensation and I kissed his chest, licking my way down to his navel and the perfect ‘V’ of his hipbones. My hands undid his belt and his pants and I rose my hips up slightly for a moment to tug his pants and boxers down. When Will’s cock sprang free, I wrapped my hand around it and began to pump up and down. His pleasured response was immediate – he groaned and thrust his hips up towards me, fucking my closed fist, and closed his eyes.
I moaned happily at the sight of his ecstasy. Pleasing Will was almost better than letting him pleasure me, and I kept moving my hand up and down, rubbing my pussy against his balls as I jerked him off. Will grunted and reached forward, tugging my sweatpants down my hips. I was wearing the skimpy red panties that he’d given me underneath and I moaned with delight as he pulled the crotch to the side and stroked the lips of my pussy with his fingers.
“So wet for me, baby girl,” Will groaned. I purred and whimpered as he slid a finger inside of me and rubbed my hard little clit with his thumb, sending intense vibrations of pleasure through my whole existence. It felt so good that I stopped moving my hand on his cock, gave into the pleasure, gave into the sensation of him touching me.
We were being so open, so brazen – and it was such a turn-on that I nearly came. But Will yanked his hand away and I gasped and pouted, wanting more.
He grinned at me. “I want you to ride me, love,” he ordered.
Blushing hotly at his dirty talk, I used my hand to guide his massive dick into my pussy. As he impaled me, I gasped with delight and began rocking my hips back and forth and riding him hard. It felt so delicious that I abandoned myself completely, rolling my hips and undulating my body on his. With one hand, Will kept rubbing my clit and with the other, he squeezed and played with my breasts, holding me captive with ecstatic sensations. I rode him faster and faster, letting his cock slide in and out of my tight body as we moved together, naked on the couch.
“Fuck yeah, baby,” Will grunted. He strained and bucked underneath of my frame and rubbed my clit faster and faster. The golden hot pleasure inside of me was almost too much to bear and I held my breath as a tremendously powerful orgasm exploded inside of me. It felt like I had died and gone to heaven as the waves of bliss washed over my head. I cried out and begged and screamed Will’s name, sweating profusely as we fucked.
When Will exploded deep inside of me, I was still throbbing and pulsating from my intense orgasm. Feeling him come hard was so delightful, so perfect that I opened my eyes and locked my fingers with his, leaning down and kissing him wetly right as his cock began to gush. Our tongues danced and played with each other and I’d never felt as close to him as I did in that moment, locked together in a sensual, erotic embrace.
Afterwards, my chest was heaving with big deep breaths and I lay my head down on Will’s torso. He was hot and sweaty and his delicious musk filled my senses as I breathed in deep and kissed his pectorals. Will wrapped his bare arms around me and held me tightly.
I had spent so long worrying about future – how it would unfold, how it would change, if I would be alone for the rest of my life, missing Will.
But now, I knew the truth.
We were destined to be together – and now, things were going to be perfect.
Epilogue
Eden – Six Months Later
Six months doesn’t seem like a very long time on paper. It’s just longer than a semester – which practically feels like nothing once you get out in the real world. It’s not long enough to make a new best friend, or long enough to sublet your apartment if you’re trying to get out of your lease without paying for an extra month and have any hope whatsoever of trying to get your security deposit back.
And yet, it flew by for me. The first three months were crazy – I was doing an independent study in English (antiquities ... not my favorite topic, but far preferable to spending another semester with Professor Marks) with the ancient Professor Merton, who at the age of eighty-five was practically an Oakbrook institution, withered and carved in stone. It wasn’t much fun to spend four hours a week sitting in his musty office, going over which translation of The Iliad was more accurate or better suited to understanding in a modern age, but I didn’t care. I got it done. I didn’t miss a single meeting, not even when I had a bad bout of the flu, and I wrote my paper.
Professor Merton, mercifully, gave me an ‘A-’ ... which for him, I’ve heard, was pretty darn good.
Not only that, I had to make up two more classes. Normally, I would have had the luxury of a full semester to do that. But I was so determined to graduate at the end of August that I spent eight hours a day in class, four hours in one, then lunch, then four hours in my makeup tech seminar.
I passed both classes with ‘A’s.
I should have been proud and happy to be done, but I was mostly just relieved. I’d finally done it – I’d graduated college.
And now, I was living with Professor Marks – Will – in his house, off campus, while I decided to do what next. At first, I’d thought that I would resume my goal of hunting for a job in publishing. The job ads were discouraging: it seemed that to do anything, I was going to have to at least get a master’s degree just for an entry-level position doing data entry.
The Temptation: A Professor Student Romance (Forbidden First Times Book 6) Page 18