Blessed (21 page)

His eyes widened. “How old do you think I am?”

“At least forty, maybe fifty.”

“Brat.” He glanced at the clock next to the bed and groaned. “Damn, I wish we had more time. I’d love to spank that round ass of yours, but we need to get moving.”

To her surprise she found the idea of Aiden spanking her, preferably while he was fucking her, rather arousing. Pulling the sheet over her and crossing her legs, she watched him getting dressed. He was magnificent when he was naked. Long, lean muscles moved under his skin while he covered up his killer body and she had to clasp her hands together to keep from jumping him. A slow and sexy smile curved his lips as he noticed her watching him. He moved back over to the bed and crawled toward her. 

Holding her breath, she stared as he teased the sheets down and began to nuzzle and kiss her inner thigh, his hair brushing between her legs. He licked along her skin until his breath warmed her pussy, then he blew cool air over her now wet and swollen skin. Damn, he could make her arousal go from zero to ‘oh my god fuck me now’ in no time.

She sighed and moved to grab his head, but he leaned away with a wicked smile. “Oh darn, look at the time. I don't want you to be late for my class. I'll go get your clothes so we can head out.”

“What? You get back here and finish what you started.”

“Nope. I want you all wet and bothered, knowing that when you look at me in class today you’re thinking of all the ways I can ease you, make you come.” He sauntered out the door, and she was indeed hot and bothered as well as ticked off.

A few moments later, he returned with her clothes and found her standing naked in front of his mirror, tracing circles around her nipple with her fingertip while she watched his reflection. He wasn’t the only one who was good at teasing. Well, she didn’t have much experience teasing men, but she knew Aiden enjoyed her body and if he felt the same way she did while looking at him naked, she figured her naked and touching herself just might break his self-control enough for a quickie.

He froze, his eyes raking over her breasts and hips to the little patch of hair between her legs.

Turning on tiptoe, she sauntered across the room, loving the pained noise he made in the back of his throat. Leaning into him, she placed her hands on his shoulders, and the tips of her breasts grazed his chest as she said, “Thank you.”

He reached to grab for her, but she snatched the clothes out of his hands and darted away toward his bathroom with a laugh then shut the door. She opened it again and peeked out. “Oh, and, Aiden, next time I get to go down on you. I can’t wait to get your big cock in my mouth.”

He reached the door as she clicked the lock, giggling at his snarl. He then yelled through the door, “If the housekeeper wouldn't get so mad, I'd break this door.”

“What? With your erection?”

She could actually hear his growl. “Fine? You want to tease me. Well two can play at that game, my sexy little student.”

I'm in hell,
Eliana thought as Aiden's class started and she braced herself for a massive test of her self-control.

Chrissy had given her a big hug when she got home and expressed how glad she was that Eliana was all right. It surprised her and made her feel warm inside. She really did like Chrissy, and it was nice to have a friend that cared about her. She had filled Chrissy in on the fictional night at the friend's house and brought up the dinner at the country club with said fictional friend to deflect more questions. Chrissy had seen about the raid at Eliana’s work, but she played it off like she was more of a spectator than an actual participant.

Then Chrissy had told her all about Linda, and how they’d found a bunch of bodies at the house where she’d been staying. The thought that Eliana had been close enough to that woman to touch had made her physically ill, then she’d learned about the children that woman had killed and anger mixed with her fear. Chrissy had mentioned Devon King giving an interview and when she’d gone all dreamy eyed about how hot the man had been all Eliana could think about was kicking his ass. She had no idea why the man irritated her so much, but something about him just brought all her aggression to the surface and she had to pretend that he was indeed dreamy before she changed the subject back to her the charity event she’d be attending.

After bemoaning a lack of Eliana’s clothing options, Chrissy had decided that later on that day they were going dress shopping. Eliana reminded Chrissy of her nonexistent funds, especially now that her job was in a holding pattern until the store reopened, but Chrissy told her not to worry about it.

So now Eliana sat in class, next to Rachel was her usual bubbly self, and went over the notes from the last lecture with her before the test at the beginning of class. The distraction helped, but she was afraid she was going to turn in a blank paper at the end of class, which she totally could not afford. Her future, well at least the academic part, rested on getting passing grades and she somehow managed to tune out the world around her and tried to cram the information into her brain.

The front door of the room opened, and Aiden came in with Professor Ventan. At her first glimpse of Aiden her entire body went hot and she swore she could smell his psychic scent. That reminded her to check her own shields and she was glad to find them still in place. She’d been practicing her shielding and it was getting to be an almost automatic thing to have them in place. But nothing short of a ten foot thick brick wall could have lessened Aiden’s impact on her senses. Dressed in a black suit with a green tie two shades lighter than his eyes, he was too fucking sexy for words. The fact that she could remember what he looked like getting dressed certainly wasn’t helping her keep her mind on her scholarly pursuits.

Aiden set his briefcase down on his desk then removed a blue velvet bag before moving over to Professor Ventan and speaking to him in a low voice. Ripping her gaze off of Aiden, she gave the list of gods and goddesses in front of her one last glance as the room quieted, Professor Ventan went over what the test would be on and reminded them all that cheating by magical means was strictly prohibited.

Despite her best intentions, she found it practically impossible to keep her eyes off her sexy as hell professor. It was an effort not to keep staring at him, knowing what he looked like nude, his head thrown back as he emptied himself in her. He seemed to be avoiding looking at her, all his attention on a blue velvet bag in his hand and she wondered if he was having as hard of a time as she was trying to pretend they didn’t know each other, intimately. Reaching into the bag he carried, Aiden carefully pulled out a sparkling crystal frog and cupped it in both hands.

“Wow, I've never seen one of those in person,” Rachel whispered to her. “The amulets Professor Ventan is using look like standard anti-charm and anti-hex detectors, but that crystal frog is Mayan. It will show any illusion spells that might be hiding cheat notes or answers written on someone's hand.”

Eliana joined the rest of the class in staring at him. “I've never even heard of it. Are they hard to get?”

Rachel nodded and whispered, “Yeah and expensive. I guess the school has a big budget to afford those for their staff.”

They leaned away from each other and stared at Aiden as he passed in front of their row with the frog. A tiny smile quirked his lips, and he lowered his shields, his psychic scent flowing over her as he passed and the slight phantom touch of a hand caressed her lips, making her gasp softly. He kept his eyes on the frog and moved on to the next row, leaving her trying not to stare after him. She drew in a deep breath, drawing the delicious scent of amber and fall leaves deep into her body. Fuck, how was she supposed to think about anything, but him?

Then the test began, and she turned her attention to it with an iron will. She had managed to study for it before all the insanity had started yesterday, so she hoped to get at least a B out of it. At one point, she glanced up as she pondered a hard question and found him watching her. He held her gaze and ever so slowly rubbed his hand over his lips, his dark green eyes burning into hers. Tingles raced through her body and she swore her pussy went instantly wet. When he smirked she glared at him until he casually licked his lower lip, watching her from beneath his lashes.

Asshole, she had to pass this test and he was
not
helping.

She whipped her head back to her test and tried to calm her galloping heart and happy hormones. After finishing and reviewing her answers, she brought it up to where Aiden and Professor Ventan’s desk sat. Feeling him watching her, she put an extra roll into her hips and a sexual challenge in her gaze. She glanced at him once and softened her lips as she gently licked the full lower one. With satisfaction, she noticed his hand clench on his pen, and she handed her test to Professor Ventan with a bright smile. That would teach him to mess with her.

A phantom hand brushed across her bottom as she strolled back to her seat, causing her to stumble on the steps. With a hot glare, she turned around and found Aiden coughing in his hand to hide his laughter. Gritting her teeth, she tried to ignore the phantom lips that brushed over cheek in a soft kiss. She was going to learn how to do that, and when she did, she’d see how he liked getting a phantom hand job in front of the class. Thankfully most of the students were still taking their test so only a few saw her stumble. She caught one guy to her left staring at her chest and when she looked down she noticed that her hard nipples were sticking out from her shirt. Embarrassment filled her and she crossed her arms over her chest, quickly returning to her seat.

For the rest of the class she kept her eyes off Aiden, not giving him a chance to try to distract her. She made sure to take extra notes and talked to Rachel and some of the other students in the hallway during the ten-minute break, comparing test answers. It seemed as though she could feel him watching her, his gaze a tangible caress over her skin. This was ridiculous. How the hell was she supposed to suffer through an entire semester of this torture?

By the time class ended she was a hormonal mess. When she dared to glance over at Aiden she found him putting the little velvet bag holding the crystal frog into his briefcase. As if he could feel her watching him he looked in her direction and she could feel the flush heating her cheeks at the heat in his gaze. The quick wink he gave her was filled with intimacy. She hid a happy smile behind a fake yawn and sauntered toward the exit with Rachel.

She was sooooo going to jump his bones the second they were alone and pay him back for all of his teasing.

To her surprise, Kyle stood at the door with two coffees in his hands and a bright smile aimed directly at her. “Hey, Eliana.”

With an inward sigh, she gave him a friendly smile and stopped to talk. “Hi, Kyle. I didn't know you had a class in this building.”

“I don't,” Kyle said as he handed her a coffee. “Since I never seem to be able to catch you between classes and work, I thought I'd ambush you with coffee.”

She laughed and sipped from the cup as she left the classroom. A glance over her shoulder confirmed Aiden watched them with a stormy expression.

It made her feel petty that she enjoyed the fact that she was jealous, but she didn’t want him to get the wrong idea so she rolled her eyes before turning back to Kyle.

“I really do have a lot to do, but thank you for the coffee. Do you mind if we drink it by the fountain?”

The fine muscles around his eyes tightened, then he gave her another dazzling smile. “Sure, Ellie. At this point, I'll take what I can get.”

They sat before the statue of the Hindu goddess Saraswati. Sipping the coffee, she tried to keep the conversation light by talking about the soccer teams and things to do around town. Kyle seemed to tense when Aiden strode past them with stiff shoulders and his eyes straight ahead, but she chalked that up to her imagination. It took a great deal of effort to not watch Aiden’s ass as he walked away, but she managed to keep her gaze on Kyle and at least pretend she gave a shit about whatever he was babbling about. He continued to prattle on and she nodded and said a word here and there, too distracted by the thoughts of what she wanted to do to Aiden when she got him alone to really pay attention to anything Kyle said.

Her patience ran out and she gulped the last of her coffee and stood to throw the cup away. Kyle grabbed her hand, his grip surprisingly strong. “Ellie, wait. I wanted to ask you if you would like to go to the Harvest Rising Art Show on Saturday.”

“Kyle, I—”

Kyle cut her off and gazed at her with an earnest expression. “Please give me a chance, Ellie. I promise I'll be the perfect gentleman. At the worst, you end up spending the day looking at beautiful artwork with a guy who will always be just a friend.”

The pleading tone in his voice and hurt look in his eyes made her feel sorry for him. She wished she could say yes just to make him feel better, but it wouldn’t be right to string him along. “I wish I could, but I’m busy on Saturday.”

His expression fell and she became alarmed at the way all the blood drained out of his face. “Kyle, are you okay?”

For a long moment he stared at her with a blank expression, then he blinked and his smile slid back into place. “Yeah, I’m okay. Maybe we could get together to study sometime?”

Man, he was persistent. “Maybe. Look, I have to run. It was nice seeing you again and thanks for the coffee.”

“No problem. See you soon, Eliana.”

“Bye.” She quickly left the building, Kyle already gone from her thoughts as her mind replayed Aiden’s attempts to sexually torment her during class and how much she’d liked it.

****

Later that afternoon Eliana watched Chrissy as she whipped through the racks of vintage dresses with the speed of a professional shopper. Eliana stood back and let the master do her work with an amused smile as she browsed the racks for a new cocktail dress at a huge vintage clothing store on the east side of town.