Page 10 of Broken Beauty (Beauty 3)
Though her mother had also cleaned houses and something bad had gone down with one of her customers. One day her mother had been abruptly fired and come home with red-rimmed eyes and bruises on her wrists. So maybe this was about her mother, just a little. That man had taken advantage of his position in a way that Blake never would, but she wasn’t totally comfortable with living under a man’s control.
Their relationship was already uneven, but not in the ways that he thought about. Not because she was beautiful and he was scarred. Instead, he was older and she was younger. He came from a wealthy family while she’d recited a number in the school lunch line. He was smart and accomplished—even if he currently lived in reclusion—and she was just another grad student. Paying her own way with him was important. So even when he sat up and took her hands in his, she fortified herself.
“Be with me,” he said with a soft, pleading note in his voice, and she almost, almost broke at that. What more could she want than to be with him? No money or school or frowning disapproval of society to block them.
“I don’t care how we work it out. I don’t care about the money. Take it, I’ll sign it all over to you. You’ll own the house, and I can live here at your mercy.”
She did smile then, at the silly idea of that. Of her as some heiress and him bowing at her feet. Yes, silly but also sweet, because she believed he really didn’t care. But as much as she loved him, as much as she knew he did understand tragedy in this world, she knew that only the rich thought money didn’t matter. He’d never had to urge his mother to call the cops only to have her mother explain that if she made a fuss, any other jobs in town would go away. Even if he would never abuse it, she couldn’t give him that kind of power over her.
“There’s another reason I can’t graduate this semester.”
“Tell me.” He squeezed her hands in his, comforting her even as she pushed him away.
“Remember I told you I needed one classes aside from my thesis?” When he nodded, she continued, “Well, one of them didn’t have a professor listed when I enrolled. It’s happened before. Sometimes things aren’t finalized early on and they fill it in later. So when I went to the bookstore, I saw they’d filled in the name of the professor. Someone new.”
He stared at her. “Shit.”
“Yeah. It was you. I guess it makes sense…a senior level discussion course. I should have put it together sooner, but I thought you were going to teach history.”
He shook his head. “I’ll quit.”
“You can’t! You said yourself they need you to teach this course. If they have to cancel it, I still won’t be able to graduate this semester and neither will the other students taking it.”
“Shit,” he repeated.
At that, she smiled. He didn’t swear too often, so she knew he was almost speechless for him to do it twice in a row. “It’s okay. I don’t mind. I’m just happy you’re going out there, finding your rightful place. That’s more important than the exact date I graduate.”
“It’s more than that, Erin. You’ve worked so much for this. I’ve seen how hard you’ve worked, both studying and cleaning my house so you can afford tuition.”
“I can wait.”
“And what are we going to do, put our relationship on hold for a year so you can graduate and pay your way with me? No,” he said as if that decided it, and maybe it did. He was forceful that way, and she was…well, she was so disappointed not to graduate on time.
“You know it’s not allowed.”
He shrugged. “Probably not, but we already decided not to tell anyone. It’s nobody’s business but ours.”
She gave him a skeptical look. “I’m surprised you’d be okay with this.”
“I’m not comfortable with it. But I’m committed to do this, and I’m sure as hell not going to let you put your life on hold for my sake. The rules are designed to protect people from being harassed, but that’s not the case here.”
A grin tipped her lips. “You don’t feel even a little harassed? I mean, I did have sex with you in your office.”
He pulled her onto his lap and kissed her. His lips moved against her as he murmured, “Now that can’t happen again.”
“Reason enough for us to call this whole thing off. Because that was crazy hot.”
He rolled them over so that he straddled her. Her hands were pinned by his, her body trapped. And God, her sex tightened.
“I think I can find a substitute,” he muttered, sliding down and spreading her legs wide.
“Oh God,” she gasped. Then she gathered herself enough to purr, “Oh, Professor Morris.”
He groaned. “You can’t call me that in the classroom or I’ll…”
“Or you’ll what?”
“You might not like what happens.” He set his lips to her sex and proceeded to make her like it very much indeed. She flung her head against the pillow, submerged with the pleasure, out of breath with it until all she could chant was his name. No games and no barriers. Oh, Blake.
