I smiled. “Of course she is. She’d be a fool not to be. You’re a catch, Arthur.”
“I beg to differ but thank you all the same.” He shook his head. “But this isn’t why you came, is it?”
“No, I—”
“You’ve come to take me up on my job offer?” He was smiling as if he knew the answer.
“Actually, yes, that’s exactly why I’m here,” I lied.
Arthur cheered, fist pumping his enthusiasm. “I knew I’d convince you to come back! And I didn’t even have to resort to calling in your debt.” He winked before opening the side drawer of his desk and pulling out some paper. “I drew up a contract so it’s all on the up and up.” He passed it to me.
Not totally surprised by his preparedness, I took the paper and scanned it. “Um, Arthur, this salary… It’s—”
“Too little?”
I glanced up at him. “Hardly too little! It’s way too much. We’re just talking assistant, here, right?”
“Assistant plus. I may need you to pick up some grading here and there. Maybe lead a class or two. Also, do some research.”
I gulped, glancing back at the contract. This was way more than I’d even considered. “I’m not a teacher.”
“Not yet.” Arthur winked again when I looked up at him with surprise. “Don’t panic, Jade. I desperately need an assistant. Steve is just too preoccupied with his own workload and research interests and I have the stipend to hire someone so I pick you. Take it.” He stood and offered his hand. “Shake on it.”
I bit my lip, glanced back down at the contract. He had benefits covered in it as well. There might be need for those, especially if I was going to ramp up my hunts. Injury was inevitable. I rose and took his hand. “Okay, old man, I’m in. When do you want me to start?”
19
Sitting at the desk in Arthur’s reception area with stacks of papers organized in front of me, a coffee at hands’ reach and access to the school’s database. Heaven? Well, kinda. It would be a hell of a lot more exciting if I had a research focus to start with. Instead I’d been spending my time surfing the internet and running small errands for Arthur. Not exactly stimulating stuff.
Day two had me manning the collection of undergrad term papers, a system that I remembered vaguely. Arthur’s method of handling due dates. He set them and then expected pristine, stapled assignments to appear at his office without having to actually speak or deal with any students. There was a no excuse policy when it came to Arthur. You didn’t get the assignment done? Zero. Game over. I’d tried to explain to him that there were computer programs that allowed for electronic submission of papers but he wouldn’t hear anything of it. Old school all the way. He even had an Oxford satchel that made a flapping noise when he walked.
So there I was, waiting for another thirty minutes before the submission window closed and anyone caught outside of it was out of luck.
“I brought you lunch,” Steve said as he walked into the office carrying two paper bags marked Cachet.
“Mmmm, my favourite!” I smiled as I cleared a spot for him to place them down. It had been a boring morning and the sight of anyone bearing gifts was cause for celebration. Kassey was spending a few days at a sleep clinic to try and get a handle on her issues, so she was out of contact too.
“You don’t even know what it is.” He chuckled as he motioned for me to peek.
“It doesn’t matter. Cachet is always good.” I opened the first bag and peered in, my smile turning to full amperage when I spotted the crusty bun inside. “My stomach loves you.”
Steve tucked his fingers under my chin and tilted my face up so he could suck on my lips, his kiss so fierce that everything in me coiled tight with desire.
Someone cleared their throat. I snapped away from Steve on a whoosh of breath to see an embarrassed-looking twenty-something standing at the door. She seemed familiar.
“Um, sorry.”
I waved her in. “You dropping off a paper?”
She nervously tugged on the long blond braid that draped over her shoulder. “No, I’m here to pick up a cheque.”
Ah, right, the artist. Also Kiefer’s girlfriend and alibi. “Devin Bells?” I shifted the bags of food to the side and dug out the envelope Arthur had left with the girl’s name scrawled across it.
“Yes, that’s me.” She smiled awkwardly, accepting the envelope with a nod. “Thanks.” She glanced at Steve, the blush on her cheeks darkening. “Hello, Professor Caul.”
“Devin.” Steve’s eyes narrowed. “Haven’t seen you in class for a while.”
Her gaze dropped and she picked at the sides of the envelope. “I’ve been sick.”
“The excuses are getting a little old. Your grade is slipping.” There was an edge to Steve’s tone that had both Devin and me flinching a little.
“I…my headaches…” Devin stuttered.
“We’ve had this discussion before, Devin. Go see a doctor. Either that or drop my course.”
“Drop it? But I need— ” she sputtered. She looked like he’d slapped her. Like his tone, his words, had physically hurt her somehow.
“Then there really is no excuse, is there?” Steve snapped. “You’ll be in class today.”
“Yes. Promise,” she whispered, eyes downcast as she scurried out the door.
Well, that was odd. Wasn’t even thinking there was something more going on between those two. Nope. Not going to go down that path. Besides, would Steve break the rules like that? Fraternizing with female students?
I sighed to myself. Hell yes, he would. And if he got caught, he’d charm or pay his way out of any disciplinary action. There were no boundaries with the man. None that he couldn’t overcome in some way. But what did I care? It wasn’t like I was being exclusive either. More importantly though, I wanted to chat with that girl. Now that I knew she was one of Steve’s students, she’d be easier to track down.
“One of your special projects?” I busied myself with tidying a stack of papers.
Steve scoffed. “She’s hopeless.” He reached into the bags and pulled out lunch. “She’s too preoccupied with her art. Smart girl but won’t put the work in to studying. She’ll probably drop out before the end of next term.” His tone suggested that he’d already dismissed her. She wasn’t devoted enough. To him. To the program. So he was done with her. He handed me my sandwich. “Eat up, sweetie, I’ve got a surprise for you later.”
And just like that, the temptation of food consumed any other feelings. It was bizarre how motivated I was by eating. Like my stomach was a bottomless pit. Luckily, I had the metabolism of a teenager and nothing seemed to stick or I’d be in serious trouble. As it was, I was pretty lean, my daily workout helping to hone my muscles in a way that was not too bodybuilder like.
I knew better than to ask Steve what the surprise was. As soon as he got a whiff of my curiosity, he would torture me into waiting forever. So I was patient, didn’t talk much while we ate and waited for him to let me in on the secret.
“Now that you’re back at work, I think you should start a new inquiry project.” Steve wiped his mouth with a paper napkin before crumpling up his food wrapper and tossing it into one of the bags.
“I’m working as Arthur’s assistant, doing his research.” I sat back in my chair, hands on my belly, full beyond belief.
Steve made a dismissive noise and motioned for me to get up. “Come on. It’s time for your surprise.”
I glanced at the clock; it was well past the submission window. Arthur would be busy with lectures and meetings for the rest of the afternoon. “Okay, fine, I’ll play along.” I quickly cleaned up our garbage then locked up and left, following Steve as he led the way to wherever.
“The archive room,” I breathed as Steve took me down the familiar hallway. I resisted the urge to reach up and touch my face, the spot where he’d hit me the last time we were there. We’d come in a back entrance to the library, one I hadn’t even realized existed. Didn’t clue into the fact that w
e were actually in the library until we hit the general area that Candace’s body had been found.
Steve nodded over his shoulder, a wicked smirk on his lips. “I can get you your own security pass.” He waved his card at me before sliding it into the code reader. The door beeped and unlocked. Steve opened it. “After you.”
I didn’t want to let on how excited I was to gain access to such a coveted space. Even as a student, I’d always wanted to get in there but never had the balls to ask Arthur for the perk. I always felt like it would overstep the boundaries or something, especially after my colossally embarrassing attempt to seduce him. Only professors and university employees were allowed down there, which made it all the more appealing to me. Steve, of course, knew this. So he knew he was giving me something I wanted. There would be strings attached, as usual, but I was willing to accept that for a few hours among the treasures inside.
There was a light bulb shining at the top of a set of metal stairs. Steve reached past me and flicked the switch to turn on the rest of the room’s lights. I gasped at what the light revealed. From our perch, a flight up, I could see most of the archive room’s contents and it was vast. Rows and rows of shelves, texts with leather bindings, scrolls under glass and filing cabinets presumably filled with case studies. Steve nudged me forward and chuckled when I startled.
“You wanna stand here and gawk all day or you want to go down there and look around?”
I beamed at him, feeling like a giddy little schoolgirl, then quickly descended. This was a room of treasures. I could spend hours combing through all the information housed here. As I moved toward the bottom step, the smell of ancient books hit me. Old, decaying perhaps, earthy almost.
“Is it safe for all this stuff down here?” The room was chilly, making goose bumps rise on my skin.
Steve rubbed my arms. “Yeah, it’s temperature controlled.” He leaned a bit so I could see behind the stairs. “There’s a room back there for working. It’s warmer.”
I clapped my hands together. “I don’t even know where to start!”
“Why don’t you explore for a bit? I’ve got some work to do.”
I nodded, gave him a quick kiss on the cheek and then moved off, smiling as his laugh echoed off the walls. Sometimes Steve earned points. Sometimes he wasn’t a total asshole. That was the thing with Steve. When he was kind and considerate, it felt like the sun god himself was shining on you. It was addictive. It was dangerous. And damn if it wasn’t confusing as hell. As much as I wanted this, I knew I’d have to shore up my walls when he flipped the switch and turned back into the narcissistic monster he was.
I got lost in there. Not literally of course—the room was the size of a large boutique—but intellectually lost. I’d touched, smelled, skimmed and gawked over as much as I could before the curiosity became overwhelming. I needed to dig in and soak my brain in something substantial. I grabbed a few books that had caught my interest and decided to venture into the warmer room so I could feel my fingers again.
The archive room itself was cold, almost like a fridge and dry as hell. I read a notice pinned to one wall that explained that the library was in the process of scanning each text as well as transcribing the case studies. Volunteer work, apparently. It piqued my interest. A side project that would give me more time down with all the good stuff. Another distraction.
When I entered the back room, the temperature change was drastic. I shivered as the warm air enveloped me. Steve was hunched over his laptop, madly clicking away.
“Find some good stuff?” He barely looked up.
“Fuck yes!” I moved to the only other seat and piled my load on the wooden table. “Too much. I could spend years down here.”
Steve glanced at the titles, screwed up his face and then abruptly stood. “No, Jade. That won’t do.”
I stared at him with confusion as he stormed out of the room. What the fuck? I moved the spines of the books toward me, examining the titles, trying to see what had offended him so much. I’d grabbed a few texts on psychoanalytic theory, with a focus on Freud, curious to see what the old books held. Nothing too shocking and certainly no cause for alarm. Before I could piece together what had set Steve off, he was back with an armful of case studies. He put them in front of me with a thump. Frowning, I opened the cover of the one on top. Vigilante Justice: Studies in Empowerment. I glanced up at him.
“I found them a few months ago. Really interesting stuff in there.” He tapped the page. “Stuff you could explore with the right inquiry focus.”
I looked back down at the book. “Someone actually did tests on this? Like, built a case study?”
“Many. Some highly unethical. A few involving female empowerment.”
Okay, that caught my attention. I pulled the top book toward me and began to flip through, skimming at first. It only took a few seconds to find what he’d been referring to. A study conducted on females incarcerated for penis mutilation in the name of revenge. Twenty women in total over the span of ten years. I was instantly sucked in, my eyes barely able to keep up with the information that was coming. Fascinating indeed. I barely noticed when Steve returned to his seat. Definitely didn’t register the time that passed as I scanned and flipped through each page, totally engrossed.
Sometime later, I was standing on the other side of the table, two books open side by side. I was hunched over a note pad and totally engrossed in scribbling down ideas when I felt Steve’s hands on my hips. His body suddenly pressed close to mine. He rolled over me, hands slipping under my T-shirt, up my stomach to cup my breasts. I breathed in and moved up and back slightly to stretch my spine and give him better access.
“Finding good stuff, sweetie?” his words were a whisper against my ear.
I shivered. “Uh huh.”
“I’ve fantasized about fucking you in this room.”
I glanced up at the ceiling.
He chuckled low and wicked. “No cameras in here.”
He squeezed my breasts, moving thumbs and fingers down to pinch my budding nipples. I moaned then ground my ass against the hard bulge in his pants. Even if there were cameras, he’d do it anyway.
“Is that a yes?”
I moved my hands to my own pants, opening the button and unzipping, wiggling to get them over my hips. “That’s a hell yes.”
He nipped my neck with his teeth then spun me to face him, taking my lips with his, tongue penetrating, pounding me hard and fast.
With his hands on my ass, he lifted me, barely breaking from our kiss as he slipped his fingers into my panties and along my pussy folds. I was slick already, his fingers glided easily inside as he pumped me there too. Making me mew a little like a cat in heat.
I managed to unzip him, his cock popping free eagerly. I ran my thumb over his head, catching his pre-cum and rubbing it down over his crown and then sliding to the base of his shaft. It was his turn to moan. He pulled his fingers away and broke our lips apart so that he could slip them into my mouth. The taste of my own juice hitting the back of my throat made me want to suck more.
“Good girl,” he said before taking his fingers back. He extracted himself from my grip with a gentle swat to my hand and then pulled my pants and panties off. “Lift your legs, sweetie.”
I pulled my knees up and he helped me position the way he wanted. Feet at the edge of the table, knees wide apart, pussy on display. I leaned back onto my elbows watching him. He licked his lips as he stared at my sex. Making me feel like I was being assessed by a predator. He palmed his cock and moved forward, his other hand back under my shirt, pushing it up so that my bra showed. He pulled one breast out of its cup and tugged on my aching nipple. I let my head fall back.
“God, you are just so fucking gorgeous, Jade. I can hardly handle it.” He ran his dick along my folds, coating himself, teasing me.
It would do no good to beg. Steve would just torture me more. So I bit my lip and waited as he stroked himself, nudging my clit. But the sight of that was too hot to watch so
I tiled my head back and closed my eyes, enjoying the feel of him toying with me.
I heard the unmistakable sound of a condom package opening, glanced up briefly to see him using his teeth like an animal to get it out. He sheathed his dick, all the while still flicking my nipple, squeezing my breast. He nudged my pussy again, testing the resistance and then slid home, pushing me back a bit on the table with the force of it.
I moaned, let my head fall back again as I got swept up in the rhythm of his fucking.
20
After Steve fucked the hell out of me, he left and I was glad for it. I could have totally gone for another couple of rounds with him. Dangerous territory. Steve played into every single fantasy I’d ever had, even ones I didn’t know I had. He was always able to do that, right from the beginning of our first attempt at a relationship. Because of that, I had fallen and become addicted pretty quickly. I’d been dependant on him for my happiness and he knew it. He was the king of mind games. He would shower me with affection for days, weeks, texting me repeatedly with wicked things he wanted to do to me, with love notes, attention, so much attention that I inflated and flew. And then out of nowhere, he pulled the string tight and yanked me hard back down to the ground. All that attention and affection gone. He grew distant. He became sullen. And I would do anything—anything—to get back what he’d taken away.
The thought of my desperation back then, my pathetic behaviour made me cringe. I would never allow myself to sink so low again. And that meant Steve and I needed limitations. The crappy thing was that my brain kept cycling back to our little fuckfest and the sweet endearments he’d whispered before he’d left. He was a master at this. What I needed to remember was for every time he fucked me, he most certainly was fucking two others. And if I stepped out of line, if I hurt him in any way, as minuscule as that hurt might be, he’d punish me with a torpedo of revenge. His double standards had driven me insane when we’d been dating but I’d put up with it and had gotten hurt real bad. Not this time. My heart was sealed.
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