Authors: Sabrina Riley
Chapter 2
“Ow! Let go of me you big lug!”
He did so immediately with her sharp words and the rain of fist hitting his shoulder. She was tiny and it really did nothing to him, but he could tell she was really trying to cause him some harm. The sirens were getting louder and the last thing he needed was her screaming out his location. “Just hush. The cops are coming.”
“Good. You guys deserve it coming in here making all kinds of mess.”
Rick gritted his teeth to her tone and covered her mouth with his hand. She tried to scream and he told her to shut up. He didn’t want to go to jail because of some girl that wanted to see justice. It just wasn’t fair. What in the hell was she even doing there?
His eyes looked around for somewhere for them to go and he saw this small door. He hoped it was a closet and when he saw that they could both fit, he pushed her in. Closing the door behind them, he looked at her as their bodies pressed together. “I am going to take my hand off of your mouth, but if you start to make any noise, I will make sure you can’t again.”
Rick wasn’t sure how he would do it, but his open threat seemed to help because when he moved his hand, she didn’t make a peep. Her eyes though, stared into him and made him feel guilty. “I’m sorry okay, but I can’t go to jail.”
Maya just stared back at him and sighed to herself. The sirens were right outside of the school and they could both hear cops swarming the place. There were several sets of footsteps running down the hallways and several times there were sounds in the room they were in. She had thought of making noise, but it didn’t seem worth it. The man was right on top of her in the closet practically and he could get to her before the police could. She just stayed quiet for what seemed like forever and the sounds of the police officers were gone.
It had been over an hour and though it was a tight fit, her body had naturally molded to his hard frame for comfort sake. She was slightly breathless as he finally opened the door and she was practically pushed out. Maya looked back at him before starting to walk away. “Wait.”
His hand was on her again and she pulled away, still not liking when he did that. “What?”
“Thank you.”
It wasn’t what she was expecting and her brows softened a little. “No big deal. Just stay out of the school if you don’t want to get caught. Doesn’t seem like rocket science.”
“What’s your name?”
“It doesn’t matter. I’ve got to go. I did what you asked, so just let me go.”
He didn’t try to stop her. It was a strange situation he had found himself in, but there was something about the little blonde that made him look twice. She had saved him a lot of trouble, but hadn’t given an inch. Rick decided that he should just be thankful that he did not go to jail that night and as he made his way out of the small community college, he only thought about the girl once more. She was already just another memory that he would conjure when he was older to his grandkids.
***
“Rick, man where were you?”
He looked over at his friend Cal and gave him a dirty look. “Well I was there when the cops came since you guys took off like you did.”
Cal looked defensive. “You should have gotten out of there with us. We would have all got caught and then no one would have been able to play the game.”
Rick had thought the same thing. “I hear ya Cal, but there was someone in one of the rooms that you smashed up. I saw them and I didn’t want them to squeal on us.”
His friend’s eyes had gotten a little wider. “What did you do? Did you kick their Stapleton ass?”
He shook his head. “No, it was some chick. We were in the closet for almost an hour while the cops swept the place. The whole time I am in there, you guys are drinking beer here.”
Cal handed him a beer. “If that was what you were so pissy about, you could have just said something before. So was she hot?”
“What? Who?’
“The chick in the closet?”
Rick shrugged. He had spent a lot of time with her, maybe the most he had spent with a woman not having sex with them. It was strange because they didn’t talk or know each other, he didn’t even know her name, but he knew some very intimate details of her. Rick knew how her heart sounded when she was scared and how her breathing had changed as she started to get aroused.
“Hello?”
He shook his head of the thoughts. “Yeah she was hot. Not my type, but hot in that librarian sort of way. Her hair was in a bun and she was even wearing a small pair of glasses.”
“Only you could find a date while hiding from the police. I swear you have that kind of luck. At least something good came from all of that because we definitely didn’t get what we came there for.”
Rick didn’t really care anymore. It all seemed a little silly to him then. Now that he was a bit more sober, he couldn’t believe that he had thought it would be a good idea to do that. What the hell was he thinking? He could have messed up his career and his chance at the big time, all for some stupid senior prank of their rivals.
“I didn’t get a date out of it, but I am not doing anymore stupid stuff like that again. It could have ended very badly for us.”
Cal agreed, but he didn’t have as much to lose. While he was a great friend, there wasn’t much that he was worth on the rink. He was not that good of a player, so there were no deals to lose out on. Rick hated to think like that, but it was the truth. He knew that he could have ruined his whole life with one stupid moment.
He also remembered the way the girl had talked down to him for his action. He had been acting like an idiot. Certainly not the way someone should act in their early twenties. The mystery girl had him questioning what it was that he was even doing.
Rick didn’t stay around too long in the pool room. He lived in the fraternity house that his father before him had been in. It had been a great network of friends, but it was shoddy for trying to get a few minutes of peace and quiet. He needed time to think and even at the late hour, there was no silence as he lay in bed. Right before he went to sleep, he thought of the blonde that he had spent a large chunk of the evening with. The one woman who had refused him, not even giving him her name before she left into the night.
The woman bothered him. He was a man that was used to getting what he wanted and he didn’t like to be told no. Why hadn’t she acted like most women do? What made her so different than all of the rest? More importantly though, why was it that he couldn’t get her off of his mind?
Chapter 3
Maya was steaming as she drove home from the school. She had been staying after to help one of the professors with his grading and Maya had unwittingly been thrust in the middle of that whole mess. There was nothing else that she wanted to do but go tell the cops all about her encounter, but going home to have a glass of wine sounded even better.
She was not the type that was accosted and thrust into closets by strange men. They looked to be in college or about that age, though she had only seen the one that had held her and she had never seen him before that night. Maya would have remembered him. He was huge and had piercing blue eyes that had twinkled at her more than once. It wouldn’t have been so bad, if he wouldn’t have been so handsome.
Maya blushed when she remembered the way his body had reacted to her being so close. Her own body had tightened in some places. It didn’t make sense to be attracted to someone like him. Maya had a boyfriend, one far better than some goon that went around destroying property for kicks. But there was a difference. Her boyfriend Justin had never made her feel the way that the stranger had. He had barely said but a few words to her and she had been turned on more than when Justin attempted his dirty talk.
Justin was the whole reason that she was there to begin with. He was her chemistry professor and though it was taboo, she had wanted him since she seen him the first class. He had made a comment about her first paper and asked if she needed some one on one help. She had accepted and as the story goes, that was all there was to it. After that, she had fallen for the older man, sure that he loved her the same.
Now she wondered if he just said all those things to get himself a free assistant because it felt like it was all that she ever did was help him with one thing or another. Justin didn’t mind asking either. They had been together for several months, almost a lifetime in her world, but it didn’t seem to be going anywhere else. He had her do things for him, they had sex once and a while, that was pretty much it. The two couldn’t be seen getting cozy together because he could lose his job. It didn’t matter if she was old enough. He wasn’t supposed to fraternize with his students.
She was supposed to meet him later that evening, but Maya was already deciding against it. It wasn’t the same after everything that had happened and the strange ideas she had gotten comparing the two men together. The stranger had been more appealing than Justin had been lately. He had been the white whale and once he was caught, there really wasn’t much else that she wanted. The idea of Justin was far better than the reality of him ended up being.
When her phone rang as she was going up the narrow stairs to her apartment over the drug store, Maya sighed to herself. It was Justin of course. She was late, already supposed to be there twenty minutes before, but it wasn’t her fault that the college had been ransacked and vandalized. But she couldn’t say anything about it if she wasn’t going to explain how she wound up in a closet with some strange guy for over an hour. Justin would demand that she called the cops and it was the very last thing that she wanted to do.
“Hey Justin.”
“Where are you Maya? I am over here waiting for you!”
He was at his house waiting for her. She knew that because it was where they were supposed to meet. What she didn’t like was the way his voice was so whiny when he talked to her. She didn’t want to deal with him and the more she thought about it, the more she wondered what she was doing with him in the first place.
“Sorry I got tied up doing your grading.” She made sure that he realized how she meant it. It wasn’t like she was out and about, forgetting him. She had been in his lab doing his work so that he could have more time for himself. It was what she always heard, the man’s lack of time, but Maya didn’t even know what it was that kept him from doing what paid his bills.
“I know Maya. You know I appreciate what you do for me. I don’t know what I would do without you.”
Actually work. “It’s fine. I have just had a long day. Maybe we can postpone the debauchery for another time?” She was hopeful, but knew that he would push it and she would relent. It was the way of their relationship and it was half of the reason she kept wondering why she was still in it.
“I was really hoping you would come over Maya. I have been waiting all day for this.”
She groaned inwardly and agreed before she could stop herself. There was something about when he asked her that she couldn’t say no to. He wasn’t all bad, she reminded herself. It wasn’t that he was half bad, but that stranger that evening had been something all-together different than Justin. Maya would have never thought of it, known the differences, but now she did and it was affecting the way she looked at her boyfriend.
Getting off the phone, she jumped in the shower and wore something short that Justin could just rip off of her. There was a bit of desire in her when she got there that was not because of her boyfriend, but he didn’t seem to care where the passion had come from. His only comment was wow when it was over. Maya found herself not all that satisfied, but she felt like at least he seemed to be pleased with himself. It was as if he were the only one in it.
“Well I need to get back. Early day tomorrow.”
“I was really hoping you would stay the night Maya. We never get to spend any time together. We could cuddle.”
Her green eyes moved to his and she was almost shocked that he had even asked. He never had before. Apparently he was feeling more than a little pleased with himself, she thought. He had a gooey look in his eyes, one that she might have had months ago before she was disillusioned by the relationship. “I will have to take a rain check on that Justin.”
“Call me Professor. I love when you do.”
She was up and putting on her undergarments. “Yes Professor.”
The smile that went over his face made her grimace. Her time with the man was over. Maya wasn’t going to say it was the stranger that had ruined it for her, but there was no way that she could carry on the relationship. What she needed was a man like the one from earlier that day. Who took what he wanted and didn’t ask for a chance to cuddle.
Justin watched her, his dark eyes moving with her as she put on the rest of her clothes. When she looked back at him, he was still pouting and she found herself perturbed at the whole situation. There was no reason why she should be, but she was. There was too much inner noise to enjoy the here and now. Bending down to kiss him, he tried to pull her back into the bed but she refused. “If I get back in there, I will never want to leave.”
He chuckled and pulled her down to his form. “That sounds like a plan. I don’t want you to leave.”
The man was clinging hard and Maya wondered what was the deal was with his sudden transformation. One would think that it was because of the sex, but she didn’t know. Maya was practically running out of there so she wouldn’t have to find out. It was just too much for her to deal with. She had went from his assistant to a snuggle buddy. Neither role was one that she wanted to play. Maya wasn’t sure what it was that she wanted, but she knew that it did not involve Justin.
“Love you Maya.”
She stopped at the door, not turning around. It was the first time he had ever said it to her and she knew that she was supposed to respond in kind, but she couldn’t. There was something wrong about saying it to someone that she didn’t actually feel that way towards. Truth was that in her short twenty one years on the earth, she had never said it to anyone and Maya was sure that her first time saying it wouldn’t be her professor.
“I will see you later.”
Maya didn’t have the guts to look behind her. She didn’t want to see his face and wished then that she would have gone for him after she took his class. It was going to be awkward the evening class with him the next day. She felt like it was the last time they were going to be together and there wasn’t a sadness like she usually felt with a break up. Maya didn’t know how she was going to tell him, especially after a bombshell like that, but she was going to have to figure something out. Maya figured it was better to do it sooner than later.
Driving home she wished that she hadn’t even gone to his house, something had told her not to. There was a new dynamic between them and she was barely used to the old one. What had changed in him to make him want to say that after all of their time together? And more importantly, what had changed in her that she no longer cared?