Otherworldly Bad Boys: Three Complete Novels (56 page)

Once out of the restaurant, I set a quick pace. I wanted us to walk fast so we’d part company sooner. Also, I really didn’t feel like talking to Marcus anymore.

He laughed. “Whoa, what’s the rush, Carter?”

Sighing inwardly, I slowed. “Sorry.”

“I saw you watching the Moss girl tonight.”

He had? Damn it. I hadn’t counted on anyone paying attention to me. I hadn’t exactly been discreet about looking at her. I’d barely been able to keep my eyes off her. I was looking forward to putting my hands all over her tonight, too. I wanted to peel off all her clothes, bare every inch of her creamy skin. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Adelaide thinks you might be getting a little, er, impatient when it comes to the girl.”

“Impatient?” I was walking faster again. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

He caught up with me. Lowered his voice. “You have no idea how much more difficult it can be when the girl is unhappy, Carter.”

“Unhappy? That’s ridiculous. I see her all the time in rehearsals, and she’s fine.”

“I hear that she stormed out of a play you’re overseeing a few days ago. Something about being forced to mime certain lewd acts on stage.”

“Lewd acts?” I stopped walking. “Oh, that’s Harper Cannon’s play. He’s got some kind of thing for her, I think.”

“The fact is, Carter, that all the news that comes in about your interaction with her is sexually tinged. And she doesn’t seem to be reacting well to it. Now, we all know what you’re going to do with her. But that doesn’t mean you need to make her feel harassed before then.”

I started walking again. “Miss Moss does not feel harassed by me.”

“Are you sure? It seems she’s been distracted in class lately. And today she stayed home from all of her classes. Her roommate said she was sick. Tonight at the dinner, she seemed nervous and worried. She kept looking up and seeing your eyes on her, Carter. I swear to God, she looked positively terrified.”

No, she didn’t. She looked excited. At least, I thought she did. She wasn’t afraid of me, was she?

Of course, she
should
be, shouldn’t she?

“You don’t know what you’re talking about, Marcus.”

“We only think that maybe you should be bit more careful of her than you might with your other students,” he said. “She’s special.”

I didn’t like what he was reminding me of. I was going to hurt Teagan. I was going to rape her—both her body and her mind. And even if it was necessary, that didn’t mean I had to like it.

I picked up the pace, getting ahead of Marcus. “I know that. I’m trying to be careful.”

He walked behind me in silence for a while.

Finally, I reached my house. I stopped on the sidewalk. “Listen, you’re seeing it wrong. I promise she has no idea what we have planned for her.”

Marcus was a little out of breath. “Well, I hope you’re right. I’d hate for everything to be ruined. We couldn’t manage that, you know.”

“It won’t be ruined.” I clenched my hands into fists.

“Adelaide wants you to meet her in a half hour at her place,” said Marcus. “She says there are more preparations she needs you for.”

Oh. Wonderful. More burning smoke tunneling down my mouth?

And in a half hour? “Can’t I go see her another time? I was planning on going straight to bed.”

“I doubt she’d like that,” said Marcus. He clapped me on the back. “Stay strong, Carter. This is all almost over.”

I watched him walk up the sidewalk.

My shoulders slumped. Well, there went my plans to fuck Teagan Moss tonight. I couldn’t back out on Adelaide.

“Professor?”

I turned.

There was Teagan, coming out from behind a tall shrub in my yard. “
Who
has no idea what’s planned for her? And
what
is planned?” Her face was even whiter than usual.

I nearly choked. She’d heard? What the hell, I was screwing everything up. “A, um, surprise party for another professor.”

She raised her eyebrows. “But you sounded so annoyed about it.”

“Well, now I have to go help Adelaide Surber with the preparations tonight. And I wanted to be with you.”

She shook her head. She didn’t believe me. And she was just as beautiful when she was suspicious as she was the rest of the time.

I reached out to caress her chin. “Come inside with me,” I whispered. “We have a little bit of time, anyway.”

She melted into my arms, suspicion fading from her expression.

Together, we hurried inside my house.

* * *

Teagan

Professor Alexander pushed me back onto his couch. I had a vague memory that something wasn’t quite right. I’d overheard his conversation, and his explanation didn’t make sense. But his touch seemed to make my brain go fuzzy. I struggled to get my thoughts together. This was important.

He leaned me forward, reaching back to find the zipper of my dress. “I want to look at you. I want to touch you.”

I wanted that too, but I wasn’t sure what was going on. I was wound up, my body eager for him, but I was also frightened, and the two sensations goaded me into something confusing and intense. “Professor?”

“Hmm?”

“Why did you tell me you were a bad person?”

He pulled my dress away from my shoulders, down over my breasts, uncovering my bra. “Not now, Miss Moss.”

“But—”

He pushed the straps of my bra off my shoulders, peeling aside the cups as well. My breasts were bared to him. He drew in breath. “Just enjoy this.”

I opened my mouth to speak, to tell him that we needed to talk, that he needed to pause this.

But he was on his knees in front of me, gathering my breasts into his hands. His mouth found one of my nipples. Delight shot through me. I closed my eyes. It was suddenly very difficult to breathe.

He lifted his mouth. “I’ve been dreaming about putting my mouth on your perfect nipples.”

And then he was suckling the other one.

I gulped in air. His mouth was bliss. He started gently, caressing my nipple with his tongue, but then he grew a tiny bit harder with each suck, and each one was more powerful, more acutely pleasurable.

Then his thumb and forefinger found the nipple he wasn’t sucking, and I moaned. It was agonizingly sweet.

He muttered into my skin, “Have I told you before that your tits are heavenly?”

The dirty word made me shudder in pleasure. I touched his face. I bent down to meet his lips, kissing him.

His tongue swept in to claim my mouth.

Wait a second. I’d gotten distracted again, hadn’t I?

“You taste divine,” he said.

“You told me to stay away from you,” I said. “You told me that, and then the next thing I know, you’re making me get on my knees and suck your—”

“Miss Moss, do you really want to talk about this?” His eyes were hooded in desire for me. And he was mesmerizing, handsome.

I wanted him. I struggled to know what to say. “If you meant it, why are we all over each other again?”

He gathered my skirt, pushing it up my legs. “I can’t stay away from you. I can’t. Nothing can keep me from you.” My skirt was at my waist.

He reached up and lifted my hips with one hand. With the other, he tugged off my panties, pulling them down over my ankles.

I gasped. What was he doing to me? “
Are
you dangerous?”

He kissed the inside of my knee.

Oh God. He was dangerous, wasn’t he? He was probably going to kill me, and the bad thing about it was that I thought I might go willingly, considering that he made everything feel so damned good.

His mouth went higher, exploring the sensitive flesh of my thigh. “I want to please you, Miss Moss.”

He was teasing me, tempting me. His lips felt wonderful where they were, but they were also promising something else. I wanted him to make good on that promise. I bit my lip, sighing.

His finger was between my legs, parting the lips of my sex, expertly searching out my clit. He barely brushed it.

My breath caught.

“Does this please you?”

“Yes.” It was difficult to speak.

He swept in, mouth against me. “And this?”

I only moaned. It was ecstasy.

Then his tongue started moving. My legs started to shake. I cried out, my voice making noises that were primal and keening. I writhed against him, thrashing as rapture spread over my body, warm and wonderful.

I grabbed handfuls of his hair. I bucked and moaned. I twisted, arced into him.

And he stayed steady through it, circling me, nudging me, urging me, inciting me.

Until I surged at his mouth, going into spasms that drew me onto higher and higher plains of pleasure.

The pleasure swelled and ebbed out. I twitched on the couch, still breathing hard.

Professor Alexander stood up. He looked down at me, my dress in disarray, my legs spread, my breasts splayed out. “I wish I could stay,” he murmured.

He touched my face.

And then he left me. Half dressed. Drunk on his mouth and fingers. Alone.

CHAPTER NINE

Carter

I was in Adelaide’s bathroom, yanking my clothes back on, still trembling from the burning sensation of the liquids that she had poured all over me. I’d passed out sometime during it. The pain had been too much. Upon waking, I’d showered and now I was getting dressed. I wondered what time it was.

Adelaide was in her kitchen, sitting at the table holding a mug. She looked up when I entered. “Would you like some hot cocoa?”

“I think I’ll just go home.” I turned my back on her.

“Do you want to know why I asked you to come to my house instead of my coming to yours, Carter?”

I sighed. Fine. I’d play her game. “No.”

“I knew the Moss girl was going to be there.”

I turned back. “What?”

She closed her eyes. “So, it’s true. I wasn’t sure before, but your reaction sealed it.”

She was playing me. That seemed like Adelaide. I struggled to recover, but I was weakened from the preparations she’d performed on me. “My reaction? I was only reacting to how completely ludicrous that idea is.”

“You’re obsessed with her, Carter,” she said. “I saw her running from your house that night at the beginning of the semester. What are you telling her? Are you forcing her to suck your dick by threatening her with a failing grade?”

What? That was what she thought of me? Was it so ridiculous to think that Teagan wanted me too?

Well. Considering my reputation as a cruel man, considering the way I’d treated her in public, considering that I tended to give off the impression that I had no respect for students...

I sighed. “Trust me, Adelaide. I heard what Marcus was saying earlier tonight. And I’ll tell you what I told him. I’m not doing anything that makes Teagan Moss unhappy. I promise you, she has no desire to leave.”

She drew her lips together in a firm line. “And why should I believe you, Carter? When have you ever been honest with me?”

“I’m honest.” I sat down with her at the table. “I don’t know why you’d say that.”

She laughed. “When the college wanted to hire a professor, and I interviewed you, you told me you had taken teaching courses in your master’s program.”

“You wouldn’t have hired me otherwise.”

“You only came here because you knew Armstrong was fading. You wanted to be close enough to the society to make sure you were chosen to fulfill the ritual after him.”

“That’s true,” I said. This power was all I’d thought about from the minute I’d learned that it existed. I’d been a college senior when I was tapped for Scales and Fangs. After initiation, I’d inquired about some of the little tricks the society pulled. They’d explained the magic to me.

Scales and Fangs required a certain amount of energy to function. Each of its members drew on the energy. Without it, the society couldn’t have nearly the kind of influence it did.

Doing magic on that kind of a scale wasn’t possible for an individual. An individual burned out quickly, requiring recharge and rest.

But an individual drawing on the power of Scales and Fangs never grew tired.

I was told that as a member, I now had access to this power. It was influence, charm, and charisma. I could use it to my benefit.

But I wanted to know where it came from. And when I found out that one man funneled it into the society, and that his body was a steward for the rest of it, that he got to use the excess magic for his own gain, I knew I had to be that man.

It was all I’d wanted for five years of my life. Everything I’d worked toward had led me here. And now I was about to get it.

Except I hardly thought about it anymore. Instead, I was obsessed with Teagan Moss and her body.