Learning the Hard Way (13 page)

“Hang up and call me back by video chat. I want to see you.” He didn’t give her a chance to argue or think.

Troy disconnected the call and set up his tablet to await her video conference. After a couple of minutes, right before he had planned to call her back to find out what held her up, his tablet chirped. He engaged the call and found her sitting in her bedroom on her bed…naked.

As much as he could, Troy attempted to corral his heavy breathing. He nodded. “Good.” When he noticed she wrinkled her nose as she looked at him, he made one crucial request. “Put your glasses on.”

Ava shook her head. “That’s not sexy, and I want to be sexy for you.”

“You will be if you put your glasses on and can see me clearly.” Watching her pick up her spectacles and put them back on had his cock throbbing. “Better?”

She shook her head. “I look like a nerd. No one does the brainiac. They want the woman who can be naked on a video call.” Ava smiled.

“I want both.” He moved in closer to the tablet. “I was wondering what took you so long to call me back.”

“First, it was because I was contemplating if I wanted to do this.” A smile slithered across her angelic face. “Then I realized that a deal is a deal. You’re doing great in my class. I promised to learn from you.” She positioned her body on her stomach, hiding her rounded tits and her tantalizing pussy. “So what will you teach me this time?”

“Have you opened that package that got delivered to your office earlier this week?” He watched her smile.

Ava shook her head. “There was a big note on the outside of it that said not to open unless instructed to do so.”

“Get it.” He lowered his voice to make himself sound serious. Inside, though, he did back flips. He couldn’t wait to do this play session.

Ava sat up and turned over, showing off her perfect ass as she reached on the other side of her bed for the package. Troy recognized it immediately—a large, yellow envelope with the words, “Do not open until told” on the outside in black marker.

She placed the envelope on the bed in front of the camera and positioned her body on her side behind it. “May I open it now?” She caressed the envelope, dragging her fingertips over it until the stiff paper snapped and crinkled under her touch.

“May you open it now, what?” He rested his hands on his knees.

Ava smiled. “May I open your special package, Mr. Whitten?” Then she giggled with her trademark snort.

“Yes, you may.” Troy wanted her to rip the package open faster.

She took her time, carefully parting the envelope flap from its adhesive. When he started to blurt out to open the damn thing already, she popped it open and looked inside.

“I believe you complained at one time that you may run out of panties. I’m paying you back.” He gave her a devilish smile as she reached inside and removed a pair of black lace panties with a crucial enhancement.

“What is this?” she asked as she sat up.

“They’re vibrating panties.” He grabbed his phone. “There’s a vibrating egg.”

She glanced up at him.

Before she could even question him, he said, “It goes inside you.”

Ava covered her mouth as she looked at the garment. “Are you serious?”

Troy sat up taller. “Stand up. I want to watch you put them on.”

She jumped off the bed and out of view.

“Turn the camera around. I want to see you.” He even tried craning his neck as though it would help.

“Sorry.” She turned her phone around so that he could see her standing now, fully naked and holding his gift.

After figuring out how to put the thin undergarment on, she stepped into them then stopped when she got them below her pussy. She held the pink orb that dangled from the panty in between her fingers before she slipped it inside her vagina.

Until she did that, Troy had been holding his breath. He exhaled and relaxed his shoulders. “Nice. How does it feel?”

She secured the panties around her hips and then turned back and forth. “Odd. I’ve never done anything like this before.”

“Great. A vibrating-panty virgin.” He snickered.

Ava laughed. “Funny. Should I get back in bed now?”

Troy picked up his phone. “Yes, especially after I do this.” He opened an app and engaged it to start the vibration.

He should have waited until she made it to bed. As soon as he activated it, Ava brought her knees together and fell to the floor.

“Oh, God.” She used one hand to press against her pussy. She gripped her cream-colored comforter with her other hand.

“I’ll turn it off so that you can get into bed.” Troy deactivated it.

“That is so good and so weird at the same time.” She crawled into bed and repositioned the phone. “I can’t believe you had these delivered to my office.”

“What else could I do? I don’t know where you live.” He waited for her to say something, anything, blurt her address or even offer to meet him.

Instead, she positioned herself on her stomach again and stared at him through the camera. “Teach me.”

His heartbeat slowed when she didn’t pick up the bait. He held up his phone so that she could see it. “What is the BDSM credo?”

That made her smile. “Safe, sane, and consensual.” She finished her answer by swaying her hips back and forth.

“Very good.” He activated the app again.

Ava moaned and closed her eyes.

“No. Open your eyes. Look at me.”

After a beat, she opened her eyes and looked at Troy. She chewed on her lower lip and moved her hand down to her vagina.

Troy shook his head. “Don’t do it. Don’t touch yourself.”

Ava drew her eyebrows together. “I’m a grown woman. I can do what I want.”

That response made him blink. “Oh, really?” He quickly turned off the app. “Let’s just stop this all together then if you want to play it that way.”

She held up her hand. “No, no, no. Wait.” She rubbed her face against a pillow. “I need this.” She lowered her voice. “I need you.”

If only Troy could have heard those words in person. If only she meant it for more than just getting her off. So that he didn’t get lost in his own thoughts, he continued with the lesson.

“Please tell me what you would do to me if I were with you right now?” She curled her legs up and lay on her side. “Please.”

He shouldn’t have indulged her, especially since he didn’t know how this relationship would end once he finished her class. Looking at her, seeing how sexy she looked, he couldn’t deny her. Denying her would be cutting off his chance to express his inner desires.

“I have this thing in my house called a St. Andrew’s cross.” Troy thought about the heavy piece of equipment that got Meredith to call him a freak.

“You do? I don’t remember seeing it when I was there.” Ava’s voice vibrated as she spoke.

He hadn’t turned off the vibrator. He wouldn’t during this story. “Had you stayed and not run home, I would have shown you.”

She dropped her gaze.

Troy continued with the fantasy. “It looks like a large X.”

Ava returned her attention to him.

“There are cuffs at the peaks of the X.” He paused for a moment before he revealed his intent. “I would strap you on it facing me.”

She cupped her breast in one hand.

This time he didn’t have the heart to tell her to stop. “I would first take a flogger, one of my softer ones, and I would whip you between your legs.”

At the mention of her sex, she closed her eyes and moaned as though she knew the feeling would relieve her. It amazed Troy how fast she’d gotten used to the quirks of his lifestyle and things he wanted to do to her in it.

“Like now, I won’t allow you to come.”

She opened her eyes. “I’ll want to because of that?”

He nodded. “It’ll feel like a hard pat against your clit. Do it for me now. Show me.”

Her face transformed into a dark crimson color. “I can’t do that.”

“Yes, you can. You can do anything. You are so damn sexy.” He meant every word.

After a beat, Ava rolled onto her back. He thought about telling her to face her pussy in his direction so that he could see her, but he allowed her to stay on her back. With one hand still on her tit, she eased the other hand down between her legs. She gave herself one modest pat and started to roll back onto her side.

“Harder. More.” Troy looked down at his app.

He noticed that the vibrations had ended. He started them up again and ramped up the speed.

Ava arched her back. As though compelled to do it, she gave her clit repeated smacks over her panties. Her body writhed over the bed.

Seeing her boiled his blood. He wanted nothing more than to join her, make her really experience what it would feel like to get flogged. If nothing else, he could give her a happy ending.

“I would work on you for hours,” he said. “Until I would finally let you come.” He watched the sweat roll down the side of her face. “Come, Ava.”

She released a long moan that made his dick so hard it hurt. He needed relief quick. Like Ava, he would have to be at the mercy of his hand.

After relaxing her body against the bed, she pulled off the panties. As much as he wanted to admonish her for removing the garment without permission, damn if he didn’t enjoy looking at her naked body.

Ava faced the camera again. “So, Mr. Whitten, aren’t you going to get undressed?”

He started to answer but stopped. There were two weeks left in the semester. Even though the first few weeks went by quickly, he needed more. He wanted more from Ava.

“Before I do that—”

“Wait, you don’t want to get into a little phone sex? Did I call the wrong number?” She giggled.

He smiled. “You’ve got the right man. I want to talk about you. Have you heard anything else about the department head position? How’s that going?”

She sat up against the pillows on her bed. “Um, okay. I really hadn’t thought about it lately.” Her voice became soft, almost tentative.

“Hadn’t thought about it? I thought that’s all you wanted. You’d be perfect for the job.” With her compassion and thoroughness, Ava would straighten out that department. Plus the bigger office would be great to play inside.

“I thought it was what I wanted, too. Now I’m not so sure. Why are you asking me this now? You have me naked.” Her voice dipped down into a sexy octave. “You have me at your mercy.”

As much as Troy enjoyed their phone sex antics, much more than their e-mail tryst, he’d had enough.

“I’m wearing thin, Ava.” He sighed. “I know I promised I would be patient, but I’m going crazy. I want to see you outside of the classroom. I want more than just phone calls and e-mails. I need to touch your skin and smell you again. I want us to stay in bed and talk about our days, our passions, what makes us happy. And I want to spank you. I need to put my hands on you. Telling you what to do over the phone is not enough for me. Seeing you come is torturing me. I need to feel you. Don’t you want that?”

A long pause lingered before Ava said, “More than you can imagine. I want to know why you’ve decided to go back to school after so many years. You kidded that you did it to pick up women. Is that the truth?”

He released a sigh of relief. “No. I want to become a teacher.”

A pause lingered before she asked, “Really?”

“Yes.”

“I’m surprised.”

“That’s because you don’t know me.” Troy got comfortable on his bed. “I enjoy sharing knowledge and teaching. I love kids. I get the love from my grandmother. She taught for years in an elementary school. She loved teaching so much that she signed up to teach summer school and she rarely took vacations.”

He smiled to himself thinking about his maternal grandmother. He recalled the summers she would take him as a child to the library during their once-a-month used book sale to pick up education books for herself and children’s books for him and any child she would encounter.

Her love translated to him so much, that when she passed away a year ago he decided to follow his heart instead of chasing the almighty dollar. He needed to be happy and follow his bliss.

“I love the idea of changing a child’s life for the better and helping influence them. Isn’t that the reason you decided to become a professor?” He waited for her answer.

“You could be giving me a line.” Ava didn’t hide the skepticism from her tone. She also didn’t hide her doubt with her body language. She covered herself with her comforter as she continued to talk to him.

Damn. He felt her pulling away. He had to convince her he had better intentions.

“I could. But what man trying to get into a woman’s pants admits that he wants to be a teacher because he was influenced by his grandmother? Not really a macho admission.”

“Maybe you’re not going for macho. Maybe you’re doing the sensitive guy thing.”

Troy took a deep breath. “I’m not trying to play you.” He hoped she caught the sincerity in his voice. “Let’s stop playing these games and get together already. We’re both attracted to each other. We have great conversations. We can keep our relationship quiet until the semester is over. Then after that, we can carry on like adults.”

“It all sounds great, but—”

“But what?”

She hesitated before responding. “Your job.”

“
My
job?” He balled his hand into a fist. “I told you before that I’m not an escort. Don’t you believe me?”

“Richard told me he cared about me and only me, and look what he did. Anson said he wanted a serious relationship but didn’t want to go to that next level. I don’t have a great track record with men.”

“I’m not like other men. I’m for damn sure not like Richard or Dean Vartinucci, either. I’m better. I would never hurt a woman emotionally. I don’t understand how anyone could.”

“It all sounds great.” Her voice cracked and it crushed Troy’s heart. “But I’ve heard some slick lines like that before. I knew continuing after our date was a mistake. I’m sorry, Troy. I just can’t.” She disconnected the call.

The screen went black. Troy stared at it like her image would populate on it again, like she would show herself like she’d done only moments before. She was the first woman he had allowed in his heart after Meredith. The hell he would go down without a fight.