Emily: Hello Kitten (The ‘Hello’ series)

21. Chapter 21

twenty-one

T he weekend sucks.

I really thought nothing could suck more than having Adrian within touching distance and not being able to touch him, but wanting to text him and not being able to, not being able to see him, not being able to read him… Fuck, I want him.

“You’ve been pouting all weekend. I’m guessing whoever you got on your knees for on Friday didn’t please you,” Beth jokes.

“Nope,” I say simply.

“It’ll happen. You made an effort and that’s what matters, babe,” Beth says, dropping onto my bed with me.

I shove my phone under my bed. I should delete every text from Adrian, but I can’t make myself do it. I bite my bottom lip. “I hate this.”

“It was just sex, right?” she asks.

We still haven’t said his name. I nod slowly. “Yeah. Just sex. Just mind-blowing, amazing sex with a guy who has NO stamped across him in capital letters.”

“I know. But you’re doing the right thing,” she insists.

She hugs me, and I feel twice as shitty for lying to her.

“Come on, we have class in a bit,” she says and peels herself away to get ready.

I triple-check that we have class. I almost text Adrian to make sure of it, but I’m embarrassed. He almost slipped. He started to call me ‘Kitten,’ but he didn’t. I did slip. I called him ‘Sir’, and instead of acting on it, he was a gentleman.

Why the fuck was he a gentleman? Why the hell does he care? Why does his being decent, just a decent man, make me want him back? Worse, it makes me question everything. I think of him feeding me fruit in the morning, taking care of me, rubbing my wrists to make sure that there were no marks from the tie, telling me about his tattoos.

He likes the scorpion tangled with the rose on his hip, a reminder that beauty and sharpness can sometimes be the same thing. I’d kissed it to soften those thorns and the pinchers and the tail. I’d wanted to convince him he didn’t need to be sharp even though I told him not to be gentle.

Lightning splits the sky, making me jump, and Beth gives me a look as half the class turns to face me. I must have scooted my chair out too far. Even Dr. Hayes is looking at me with mild concern that he hides the second our eyes meet.

“Sorry,” I whisper.

Class is a mix of my trying not to picture Dr. Hayes helping me study and all the soft sides of what we could have against my thinking of his getting fired, our weekend everywhere in the news, vilifying him.

I can’t focus on a single thing.

When class is over, I email my other professors, saying I’m sick. I haven’t used any sick days, so I’ll be fine. I won’t miss anything important. I walk outside and stand under the overhang as I watch the sheets of rain come down.

I chose a hell of a day to wear a white shirt and a short pink skirt. Staring at the rain, I watch other students go around wherever they want. Even Beth hurries off. I try to calm my rolling stomach until Adrian walks by. He glances to the side, notices me, then steps closer, staring at the rain, not me.

“Do you have an umbrella?” he asks.

I shake my head.

“I have a coat I can give you. Just to keep…” He trails off and clears his throat.

“That’s nice, but I’ll wait. It’s… helping,” I murmur.

“Anything happen this weekend I should know about?” he asks in an intimate whisper.

I lick over my bottom lip. “Nothing that a professor needs to know about.”

“Emily,” he groans.

I take an unsteady breath. He starts walking after tossing me something—a coat. I pull it around my shoulders and head in the same direction. I leave some space between us. I shouldn’t do this. I shouldn’t.

But I’ve slipped twice.

I can’t stop thinking about him.

We just… we won’t get caught. I keep telling myself that as I glance around, then hurry into the parking lot. It’s raining. There’s next to no one around. Adrian glances back as he slides into his own car, and I follow, getting in the passenger seat before I can think this over one more time.

I get there, throw the coat behind me, and pant. I stare at the windshield as Adrian cranks the heat. He drives to another lot, an overflow lot that’s never used except at night when commuters need a place to fuck.

When we get there, he parks and rubs his forehead. “You’ve slipped twice, Emily.”

“I know.”

“And what were you thinking in class today?”

“You don’t need to know,” I say quickly.

I shiver, then look down at my shirt. My pink bra is obvious, my white shirt plastered to my skin, and anyone with eyes can tell my nipples are hard. I swallow and look back up, nearly panting just being in the same car as Adrian again.

“I do need to know. We had an agreement. You’ve slipped twice. You followed me to my car. I’m trying, Emily,” he whispers. “I’m trying very hard not to be a Dom right now and to be …”

“A teacher?”

He doesn’t answer, but he grips the steering wheel so hard, I’m sure his knuckles are going to split open. I suck my bottom lip. “I was thinking about… things.”

“No eye fucking in class.”

“I was thinking about what it would be like to study with you. To have you read to just me,” I whisper. “Then what would happen if people found out. How you’d be called a villain for seducing me. I can see you being fired and blacklisted. I’d be kicked out of school. And I still wanted you reading to me and feeding me fruit in front of a fireplace when it gets cold.”

“Emily,” he groans.

I turn to look at him, to apologize, but his mouth fits to mine, and he grips the back of my head so hard, I feel like I’m melting into him. I gasp and draw back just enough to speak. “Adrian, what are you—”

“I’m not just your professor. Things change. I might not be your professor after summer. I’m just Adrian too,” he pants against my mouth.

“And right now?” I ask before kissing him again, my tongue slipping between his lips to tangle with his. “Who are you now?”

“I’m a fucking Dom, and you’re a brat who’s been driving me insane. If you don’t get on my lap and ride me like you need my cock to live, I will bend you over between these two front seats, make sure you’re stuck there, and spank you until you’re so loud and your ass is so red that there is no one who won’t know you’re being punished,” he threatens.

His low, growly voice, the way it echoes through my body but makes me feel grounded and sure… I missed it so much. I wrap my arms around his neck, climb onto his lap, and kiss him hungrily. I bunch my skirt up around my hips, then go for his belt.

Adrian kisses me hungrily, grabs my ass, strokes my thighs, tangles his hand in my hair, cups the back of my neck. It’s too much and not enough. I want to scream. I want to have him in every possible way, all at the same time. Eight days without kissing him.

I jerk his pants down as he lifts his hips and feel his hard cock rub against me. He catches my wrists and puts one of my hands around him. “Put me inside you now, Kitten.”

“Someone could—”

“The car is so fogged that no one will see us,” he promises, cutting me off. “Do it, brat.”

He spanks me, just to prove he can, then collars my throat, squeezing tightly. I slide him inside me and moan against his mouth.

Adrian nods. “Don’t tell me no again.”

I kiss across his neck, then bite him as I ride him hard and fast. I rub my own clit as my lips part against his throat. Adrian grabs my ass hard, slowing me slightly. “Never tell me no when you’re soaking your panties for me.”

“Yes,” I whimper against his throat.

“When you kiss me like that,” he lists.

“Yes, fuck, yes.”

“When you can only get off because I’m inside you,” he snarls.

Adrian thrusts up every time I come down on him. I’ve missed touching him, feeling him, having him. Fuck the consequences as long as he keeps making me his.