Lunar Crest University (Forbidden Fruit)

Chapter Fourteen

LUCA

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 13TH, 2023

T he way my name left Finley’s plump lips haunted me for two days straight. It replayed like a broken record in my mind, over and over and over again, amplifying every time I peeked over during class to where she sat. Like a punishment and a gift all at once.

We hadn’t spoken a single word to each other since I’d pressed her up against my classroom door and made her fall apart in the palm of my hand. Who has time for words when I’m wholly consumed by the memory of what her moans sounded like in my ear? Her hips rolling into me? Her porcelain cheeks flushing the deepest red I’ve ever seen? It’s maddening how beautiful she looks after she comes—dusted pink skin dancing just beneath her green eyes, the most stunning contrast of colors I’d ever witnessed. I wanted to take a photo of her in that moment and hang it on my wall so I could look at it any time I wanted.

It’s the worst thing that could’ve happened to me.

I’m scared to speak to her again, scared that the only thing capable of leaving my mouth is the inappropriate thoughts that consume my brain permanently. We can’t go any further. We’ve already gone too far.

But we can’t go back, either.

Finley is scared too. We’d look at each other in passing, fleeting glances in the middle of the hallway. But I knew she was scared for different reasons—I’d basically told her to fuck off without actually saying it. Now, it was all a tense game of who would make the first move to speak, one I’d almost lost more times than I could count, wanting to tug her back, shove her against the door again—relive my bittersweet memories. The way my hands itched to touch her again was like an addict needing his next fix.

The need was dangerous—if it was this bad after touching her through her fucking clothes, I couldn’t imagine what I would feel like if I had taken it further.

I hadn’t even fucking kissed her. I had her in my hands, and I didn’t even taste her.

And I never could.

When I got home that night, I fucked my hand in the shower, thinking of what she would taste like. I should’ve felt guilty, and maybe I did, but it only made me come faster. The fact that I shouldn’t be doing it turned me on more.

Glancing up over the rim of my glasses, my eyes fall on her for the hundredth time, observing her as she focuses on the piece of paper on her desk—writing about which Shakespeare sonnet is her favorite. I’d instructed each student to do so. Her eyes would blink every so often, her thick eyebrows batting against her cheeks as her lips purse in thought.

Beautiful. Ethereal .

And I’ll be trapped in England with her in just over a week.

“Alright.” I sigh, pushing up from the desk. “Five minutes left. I want a two-page, typed response paper on my desk Monday morning about the messages in Shakespeare’s sonnets. Which one resonates with you the most? Why?”

The corner of my lips twitch at the few groans in response to my words. Rounding the corner of my desk, I lean back against the wood, crossing my arms over my chest as I lick my lips.

“Remind me,” I continue. “What are some of the themes we see in these sonnets?”

“Beauty.”

Genevieve Pierce speaks in a saccharine tone from the front row, shooting me one of her eager smiles as she brushes her hair behind her ears. She’s usually the first student to answer. Always eager to please—a little too eager. Glares from Finley’s curly-headed friend usually follow.

“Jealousy,” Levi quips.

Right on schedule.

“Love.”

It’s the first time I’ve heard her soft voice in two fucking days. It ripples through me like I haven’t heard it in months. It reverberates through my body in overwhelming flutters, swarming so harshly, I feel as though they’ll burst through my chest. I have to swallow thickly to keep from choking on them.

I should consider switching classes. Take a different period to teach. Give this one up.

Finley’s raven-colored hair cascades in waves down her shoulders, framing her cheekbones before she brushes them behind her ear as she peers down at me hesitantly. One of her knees bounces anxiously underneath the desk, her skirt fluttering faintly from the movement. It takes every ounce of strength I can muster not to stare down at her ruffled skirt.

I clear my throat. “Good. Yes. Choose a theme and write a response paper based on that. Have a good weekend. I’ll see you all Monday.”

I stay perched against my desk as I watch everyone gather their things to file out of the room as they usually did, whisking my glasses from my nose and stuffing them along my shirt collar. My dark eyes glance in Finley’s direction, my breath halting in my throat to see her body twist toward me instead of the door.

Fuck.

But then, Genevieve’s face floods my view, stepping directly in front of me just as Finley makes a bee-line down to me. I have to keep the grin from spreading across my cheeks at the grimace that forms along Finley’s features, tearing my focus back to Ms. Pierce, whose mouth pops open to speak.

“Professor Serrano,” she coos in a sweet tone.

“Ms. Pierce.”

“I was wondering if you needed someone to help you with the trip next week.” She licks her lips as she cradles her notebook in her hands. “I’m sure that’s a lot to manage for one person.”

If she tried to make her feelings toward me any more obvious, she’d probably be trying to climb me like a tree. It’s exhausting and particularly annoying. She’s like a persistent gnat I keep having to swat away. Just when I think she’s gone—there she is again. I wonder what Levi sees that no one else does, or perhaps he’s oblivious that she has never even looked in his direction.

“I appreciate your concern,” I say, shooting her a thin-lipped smile. “But I’ve got it covered.”

She pouts feebly.

“See you on Monday, Ms. Pierce.”

Her eyebrows furrow from the quick dismissal, but she regains her composure as she flashes me a wide smile before turning to leave the classroom. Finley is in full view now, her jaw clenching as she watches Genevieve waltz out of the room. I think I even catch her jaw ticking just a bit before she refocuses on me, her demeanor softening faintly.

Her jealousy only makes me crave her even more. The flame inside my stomach spreads like wildfire at the thought of her being angry that someone else is trying to give me attention. It makes me feel things stirring low in my belly. If only I could tell her the only attention I care about is hers.

“Ms. Dunaway,” I acknowledge lowly, crossing my feet at my ankles as I lean further back against the desk.

I watch as she chews at the inside of her lip meekly, adjusting the strap of her bag as she glances down at her shoes. I cock my head as I observe her odd behavior.

“Hi.”

“Hi,” I say.

Her head jerks up as her eyes narrow at me, studying me as her full lips pop open. “Is this how you normally do things?”

“I don’t know what you mean.”

But I do.

“Oh.” She feigns a confused look. “You don’t usually make your students come against your classroom door before you pretend they don’t exist?”

Pushing off my desk, I step closer to her, dropping my head until I’m at eye level with her. “Be reasonable, Finley. You know I don’t.”

She juts her chin up, and I see the anger flash in her irises. “So it’s just reserved for me, then?”

“We shouldn’t have done it. You and I both know that.” I lower my voice as I sigh. “It puts us both at risk.”

The same shade of pink that haunts my mind scatters across her cheeks as I speak. She bites at the inside of her lips as she averts my gaze. If her brain looks anything like mine right now, then I know exactly what’s bringing the blush to her skin.

“I’m trying to do what’s best,” I whisper. “What’s right .”

Forcing a half-hearted smile, she looks down at her intertwined fingers before peeking back up at me again through her lashes. Concern quickly replaces any anger that was once in her eyes. My hands twitch to reach up and caress her pink cheekbones, but I swallow the urge back down.

“I thought you were ignoring me,” she rasps. “That you…regretted it.”

I should. Fuck, I do .

I think.

If I’m being wholly honest with myself, there isn’t a single trace of regret inside me, as much as I should feel it. This could cost me the job that’s paying off Javier, everything I’m working toward. But whether I give in to my urges with her or not, she’s still on Javier’s radar. I’m the only one who can protect her from that. The rest is inevitable.

I avert my eyes toward the door before my gaze falls on her once more. I can see the turmoil written all over her face, and before I can second guess it, I’m reaching up to tuck her hair behind her ear. My fingertips lightly caress her cheekbone before I drop my hand. Her cheeks flush deeper in response to my touch, like she can feel the heat emanating where our skin connects. It only makes me want to touch her everywhere and see that same shade of pink across every surface of her body.

“Ah.” I sigh deeply. “It’s because I don’t regret it, Princesa , that I have to stay away from you.”

Her shaky exhale is so quiet, I almost miss it, her shoulders relaxing faintly as the wrinkle between her brows disappears. Her doe eyes blink softly up at me.

“I don’t want you to stay away.”

I’m a grown fucking man with goosebumps.

“ Finley —”

“Come over. Tomorrow,” she urges, swallowing. I can hear the anxiety in her tone, can see the way she steps a centimeter closer to me. “Help me with my response paper?”

I immediately shake my head, stepping backward as I lick my dry lips. If I don’t create some distance now, it’ll be a replay all over again. “That’s a horrible idea. I can’t. We can’t.”

“Luca,” she pleads, and the sound of my name on her lips again makes me want to crumble. “ Please .”

Fuck me .

I’m pacing nervously back and forth as I rub a palm down my clammy face, fighting the urge to get down on my knees in front of the girl begging me right now. I’d probably do anything she asked me to. Fuuuck. Fuck.

“Just for my response paper,” she whispers.

“Your response paper, hmm?”

I raise a brow at her, and she nods tentatively.

“You…are dangerous,” I groan. “Do you know that?”

“Is that a yes?” she asks, staring at me expectantly.

“ Sí ,” I say, taking my glasses from my collar and sliding them back on the bridge of my nose. “I’ll come by.”

Humming sweetly, she smiles feebly as she bounces on her heels. The happiness that emits from her aura nearly takes my breath away—I want to kick myself for not going out of my way to make her feel this way sooner. She makes happy look beautiful. Her face is already soft and angelic, but it triples tenfold with a smile on her full lips. The smile that had never been given to me before. I want to frame it and keep it forever.

I’m fucked.

“For the response paper,” she clarifies once more.

I nod. “Of course. The response paper.”

“Okay,” she says.

“Okay.”

Her pallid skin reddens deeper every time I speak. She’s so beautiful when she blushes, it’s almost painful. My chest seizes each time she flushes, and I fight the urge to reach out and trace the pink as it cascades along her cheekbones.

“See you tomorrow, then,” Finley murmurs as she peeks up at me.

“ Hasta ma?ana, Princesa .”