Fighting fire with fire.
Humming at the thought of all the evidence I’d stacked my way over the years, I knew I had enough to keep her corralled. I was going to use it all up on this, do away with all the shit I’d been storing for a rainy day if Gina ever turned psycho on me again, but for Phoebe’s sake, I didn’t mind losing my hoard.
I reached up and cupped her chin. “Are you wet for me?”
Her eyes flared wide, but the pupils fluctuated from thick to thin as though they were unsure how to process the sudden surge of chemicals in her blood.
“Yes,” she said thickly.
I tilted her head to the side with the hold I had on her jaw, and licked a line down her throat.
“How wet?”
A sigh escaped her, and I felt her sink into me a little, depending on me to prop her upright.
“Ver-ry,” she hiccupped.
I hummed. “I want to taste.”
That had her stiffening. “We’re in a park.”
Pulling away with a grin that she responded to with narrowed eyes, I began to shuck out of my light sports coat. When I placed it on her knees, she grabbed a firm hold of it, her knuckles bleeding white with the ferocity of her hold on the fabric.
“Nicholas, we can’t.”
My brow quirked. “Can’t we?” I licked my lips. “Spread your legs slightly.”
Her gaze darted from left to right, but it was a weird time of day. Neither lunch nor rush hour, and though this was the city that never slept and there was always someone around, someone watching via a camera or whatever, I didn’t particularly care.
I wanted to remind Phoebe of something.
She belonged to me. Her arousal, her fears, everything. It was mine. And I protected what was mine.
I could see the tension on her face, read it as her desire to disobey, but also, she wanted me. Wanted my touch. Craved it just as badly as I needed to give it to her.
When she blew out her breath, I knew I had her. Her legs fell open slightly, not wide enough to be noticeable to anyone in particular, just a little farther apart than was polite.
I twisted in the seat and pressed my mouth to hers even as I slid my hand under the jacket. She bunched it up, making it more of a shield, and when I dragged up her skirt, shoved it out of the way, and managed to work my hand between her legs, my kiss broke off as I felt her.
Wet.
Hot.
Liquid fire against my skin.
I gritted my teeth as I pressed my forehead to hers once more. This woman was made for me. Made to burn for me.
Fuck.
“Don’t stop,” she whimpered, and like that, she decimated my control even more.
I’d have fucked her there if I could. Beneath the hot sun, under the blanket of blue sky that was like silk interspersed with wispy clouds, and atop the lawn that landscaped the park…
I had an image in my mind then.
There would come a day when I’d take her like that.
Outside, with nothing and no one to watch us or stop us. Where I could make her mine time and time again.
Because she pleased me, I quickly rubbed her clit, with fast flicks of my fingers that I knew would get her hot. When she clenched beside me, her forehead pushing into mine so she could contain herself, I reveled in her release. Reveled in it and loved that it was mine, just as she was.
Leaning forward, I nipped her bottom lip with my teeth and whispered, “Don’t worry, Phoebe. I’ll handle everything.”
I wasn’t about to sully the moment with talk of Gina, but I’d handle her.
The only way to bargain with the devil was to grow a pair of horns too.
❖
Two weeks later
As I stared at her in my classroom, I watched while she worked on her final exam.
This was it.
Once this was done, we could pretty much out ourselves as a couple.
It was against the rules for faculty and students to be sexually involved, and though I knew of at least four professors who were fucking someone in their classes, it was a rule that I’d never breached before now.
Had never felt the impetus.
But my life was changing with Phoebe and Scottie in it, and for the better.
Even though, technically, we’d still keep shit on the down low, I was going to make my move tonight.
I wanted her to stop working at Crow, and I wanted to hire a full-time nanny so that she could actually do what she wanted without fearing for her brother.
Although, I felt bad for calling him that. Truth was, Scottie was more like her son.
Watching her work on her final paper, I felt pride spill through me. She was still nervous and timid around most people, but she was also getting a tad more boisterous.
I wasn’t sure if it was getting away from her mother, or whether I was good for her… there was no way to tell what put that smile on her face. Hopefully, it was both things, and that was why she seemed like a load had been taken off her shoulders.
My phone buzzed, drawing my attention away from my study of her, and when I saw it was Gina, I rolled my eyes as I rocked back in my seat.
Two weeks ago, she’d threatened to tell the Dean I was fucking a student—how she’d discovered that, I didn’t even want to know—and she’d been trying to blackmail me ever since.
Of course, it wasn’t going to work.
Sure, I liked working here, but I didn’t care if I never worked another day here again. Why would I? I didn’t need the money. I did it because I loved teaching, loved this process, and it would suck to give it up, but fuck, now that I’d met Phoebe, my life could move on.
It was almost like serendipity had arranged this.
I’d come to this school in the aftermath of the wreckage of my marriage to Gina, and I’d been miserable most of that time. But I’d found a semblance of myself here, and as I’d grown, as I’d developed, it was like I’d been waiting for Phoebe to arrive.
I wasn’t a man who believed in love at first sight. Marriage to Gina had been more like love at first glimpse of that ass and those tits. But with Phoebe? She’d changed everything.
And she still didn’t realize it.
Damn well wouldn’t if I had a say in things.
Me: Nice try, Gina. Did your boss like that little care package I sent him?
I smirked when her reply came back almost instantly.
Gina: What the hell are you talking about?
Me: You know what I’m talking about. The statements I have about your bribing my doormen to get into my apartment. Those pictures you sent of Phoebe me and going inside and coming out of my apartment. The fact that you’ve pretty much been stalking me?
Gina: You wouldn’t dare.
Me: Oh, I would. Well, let me correct that. I haven’t sent shit to your boss yet. But I will. And let’s face it. I have enough to go to the cops, and I have no compunction in that, except I don’t think it will look good for your resume if you have a restraining order against you, will it?
Gina: You bastard.
Me: I’m only what you made me.
Gina: Fuck you.
Me: Never again, thank fuck. Your toxic cunt has burned me one too many times. You leave me and Phoebe the hell alone or I’ll send everything to your boss and to the cops at the same time. You know I can and will, and Christ, while I’m at it, I’ll send it over to Mommy and Daddy too. I’m sure they’d like to see my scars.