Total pages in book: 144
Estimated words: 136296 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 681(@200wpm)___ 545(@250wpm)___ 454(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 136296 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 681(@200wpm)___ 545(@250wpm)___ 454(@300wpm)
“It’s not broken. I might have a sweet pair of black eyes tomorrow, but I’m fine.”
“How can you be sure? Should you see a doctor? Maybe I should get you some ice.”
I grab a few tissues from the box beside my hip. “I’d know if it was broken. Ice isn’t going to do anything. You can kiss it better if you want, though.” I smirk at her disapproving frown.
“I can’t believe you’re flirting with me while you’re bleeding!”
“You’re a sexy badass, and I already told you, it’s a compulsion.”
“This wasn’t a good idea.” She sits back on her heels. “I can’t keep a level head with you.”
“So why try?”
“You’re my student.”
“And you’re my student until you’re done with self-defense,” I counter. “I’ll even give you private lessons from now on.”
“It’s not the same, and you know it.”
“Then what am I doing here, Clover?” I can see her pulse hammering in her throat, see the battle she’s fighting.
She clasps her hands and drops her head, staring at her lap. “I’m in a position of power. It’s unethical.”
“I think that’s semantics. We already leveled that field a while ago. Anyway, what happens at the end of the semester, when you don’t have that excuse to hold on to?”
“You’ll still be a student, and I’ll still be a professor.”
“I’m not asking for anything serious. And I’ll probably end up in Nashville after graduation, depending on how things go. We already know we have chemistry. I feel it every time I look at you. And there’s this pull. It’s different. Not like anything I’ve experienced before.”
“Because it’s taboo. I’m your professor.”
“What’s going on here existed before, when we were in your cabin. If this was seven months from now, and I’m playing for whatever fucking team decides to try to replicate my dad’s legacy with me, who would be in the power position then?”
“It’s not that simple.” She seems so torn.
“Isn’t it, though?”
“This . . .” She motions between us. “I don’t know how to handle it any better than you do. I felt awful on Monday, and then yesterday when you didn’t show up for class?” She shakes her head, her expression imploring. “I need you to help me keep the boundaries in place, at least until the end of the semester, Maverick. Because I don’t think I can do it on my own.”
That piece of truth is more than I expected. I nod once. “Okay. I get it if you need to wait until I’m not your student. I’ll stay inside your lines—at least until the semester is over and my final grades are handed in. Then we can reassess.”
I push to a stand and bring the T-shirt back to my nose when I feel blood trickle down my chin. “I’m going to go. I’ll hold onto this and give it back to you when it’s not covered in my blood anymore. You can have my hoodie as collateral.” I nod to the red hoodie with my team logo on it. “I’ll see you in class. Hopefully mine before yours.”
Fourteen
Slippery Slope
Clover
I stand in the middle of my dining room, staring at the sliding glass door. “What the hell am I doing?”
I’d been shirtless. Straddling his lap.
He’d been hard.
The walls I put up when he stepped foot in my classroom are turning into rubble. I drag a hand down my face. It smells like his cologne. Part of me wants to believe his fascination will wane, that as soon as I’m not his professor anymore, the allure will be gone, and he’ll move on.
It’s what I try to tell myself, and Sophia when she asks, again, what exactly I’m doing. But I don’t know that I believe my own words. Or that I want to. Maverick isn’t wrong. That pull between us exists. And the more I learn about him and get to know who he really is, the harder it becomes to deny that it’s about more than just chemistry. So the only way I can handle it is to avoid him.
I don’t attend the next self-defense session, and at nine forty-two that night, there’s a knock on my sliding door. Maverick’s hulking figure stands on my back deck, hands clasped in front of him, breath leaving him in white bursts.
“What are you doing here?” I’m dressed in leggings and an oversized shirt, hair pulled up in a ponytail.
“I’m here for your private self-defense lesson. And I have the shirt I borrowed.” He holds up my Steve the Babysitter shirt. Stranger Things is a guilty pleasure for me. “Blood-free.” He gives me that lopsided grin that makes it hard to turn him away.
“I don’t think the lessons are a good idea anymore.”
Most of his face is in shadow, but his bottom lip slides through his teeth. “I promise I’ll be on my best behavior, Clover. What happened last time. . . It won’t happen again. I’ll absolutely stay in control. I really want to teach you how to defend yourself.”