14

I woke the next morning feeling sore and sated… An interesting and confusing combo to say the least. I hated how much I enjoyed what we did and actually craved more. I resented him and myself for that.

And I resented him for not fucking healing me.

He knew I couldn’t do most basic trained magic, so he had to know it was beyond me. So it was some kind of power play that I would go to him and ask for it or I really was simply a fun fuck to him and didn’t matter beyond that?

I wasn’t a fan of either answer which was why I stewed as I took a longer and hotter shower than normal. Then, without even consciously making the decision, I dressed to the nines. I ended up with a shorter, black ruffled skirt, an amethyst halter crop top that matched my eyes, and black strappy sandals. I wore my hair mostly down besides a few sexy braids and threw in several flirty curls.

Fuck him. I was good-looking and a catch and I knew it. I wasn’t some easy anything , and I’d make him eat his mocking pet name.

I realized my mistake and how the outfit backfired when I walked into my first class— his class —and it could come off as I dressed up for him. Shit.

Just shit .

Whatever, I went with it and acted like nothing was out of the ordinary, taking my seat and ignoring the whispers and stares. I was Bevin Fucking Millen and survived eighteen years of the Shaw family. None of these people were going to even make me flinch.

He walked in, but I was texting Tracey about the weekend and trading in my SUV while she was pushing for me to make contact with the tutor. I promised I would that day just as the bell rang.

“All right, let’s pick up where we left off Wednesday,” he announced.

“I was wondering if we could hear about the rare experience of someone our age who doesn’t have a familiar yet,” that bitch called out, several of her friends snickering or trying to hold back laughs.

“Don’t answer that,” Professor Wyatt blurted. He cleared his throat when we all looked at him in shock. “That’s not information for everyone, and I’m hoping to get you to tell me once I gain your trust so I can do my own study and publish about your abilities.”

So that was his angle. That was his endgame. Steam about came out of my ears as I realized he was so full of shit and playing me, using me just like others, but instead of giving me the cookie to lead me in he was using hot sex.

Fuck. Him.

I smirked at him. “Good luck with that. The only person who knows it all told me very firmly never to discuss it with anyone.” I hurried on when he opened his mouth to argue, gesturing to the bitch and her friends plus the asshole and his buddies. “It’s really nothing that big, but all it takes is some jealousy and certain people make it into a problem.

“They get pissy and malicious and spread some whispers about dark magic to start trouble and that’s it. Game over for the witch or warlock. They’re labeled and can’t get it off, looked at funny or shunned. Worst-case scenario they’re brought before the High Council on speculations of such because it’s all snowballed. So I’m smart enough to listen to that advice from the only person I trust.”

He deeply frowned. “It wouldn’t be like that. I’ll speak to them and convince them and how things are different at the university so you would be protected from such maliciousness.”

I snorted. “Are you able to hold seances?” I smirked when he winced. “Not that I would give you the name anyways as I don’t remember agreeing to even consider your study even as you hurried to pick up mine and be my power assessor with the clear goal of getting a chance at me for your benefit.”

His eyes flashed shock and warning, so I bit off the rest of what I was going to say, but he wasn’t ready to let it go. “To her point, it would be helpful to see what you could do again.”

Oh, he really just wanted the final nail in his coffin. I was glad to give it. I locked gazes with his familiar who he brought again and the fox came hurrying over to me. I pressed my lips against his ear and whispered what I wanted.

“Could you please harvest magic for me the rest of the day? Your horrible master selfishly exhausted me and didn’t even heal me. It will be the last time, but I could use a boost.” I chuckled when he licked my face. “Thank you, darling.”

I opened the window and the fox hopped out, more than able to take the drop as we were on the first floor. I closed it back up and faced towards the front of class.

“That wasn’t what I meant,” Professor Wyatt grumbled.

“Clearly, but I’m not an exhibit at a zoo, and I’m not here to teach your class and give demonstrations of my power and abilities because you or anyone else wants to see it. I’m here to learn and pay tuition to be taught.”

Several people whistled, chuckled, or tried to hide their amusement but failed.

“That’s why people call you a princess,” the bitch cajoled.

I glanced at her. “Well, I call you a petty, immature, jealous, fixated bitch. I do. I don’t hide behind ‘people,’ but I’m mature enough to own my insults and what I think because I graduated high school and am a real adult now. Try it. Just know there are consequences as an adult if you go after people.”

She narrowed her eyes at me as people jeered at her. “You’re no one. You’re a ghost that no one knows. You just think you’re important.”

“And yet you obsess about me and I don’t even know your name. Get over it and let’s get back to class.”

“Yes, let’s,” Professor Wyatt cut in firmly, staring down the bitch. “And I’m over this pettiness in my class. Poking to one-up each other magically pushes boundaries, but I agree you’re fixating and trying to flat-out bully which isn’t allowed. Unfortunately for you, Ms. Millen simply is better at handling bullying than you are at being one, so enough of it in my class.”

That still didn’t save him from being written off by me. I was so done with him. He wasn’t getting shit from me, not his study or paper to publish… And certainly not any more sex from me.

I took copious notes for class and for work as well, packing up just before the bell rang.

“Ms. Millen, if I could—” he started to say after the bell rang, but I breezed right by him and was out the door before he could even finish.

Fuck. Him. Right then, I wasn’t sure he’d get anything but another slap. Maybe cooling off over the weekend and deciding what to do would help.

Maybe.

I breezed through the rest of my classes, showering after physical training as we started learning punches and kicks and I worked up a sweat taking it seriously. I decided not to drop my independent study, but I was going to lay down some ground rules.

My ground rules. One of which was we were going to meet in public places. I wanted to check out the library for that even if it held troubling memories for me. I heard there were study rooms with glass windows that could be reserved there and that would be perfect. Neutral ground, not his turf of his classroom where we had… Yeah.

I also needed to do a bit more research to address the generalities of my proposal he wanted more specifics on. Well, more he wanted me to set up sections of where I wanted to go over the semester, which given the topic, might be more who I was studying each section.

If that made sense. It made sense in my head and hopefully it would to him or we would have a problem.

I walked in and grabbed the books I’d had that night, bringing them back out to the main area, careful not to look at the table where everything had happened with Gregg.

Still, it darkened my mood and I was already not in the best of one after class with Professor Wyatt. I was ignoring my phone vibrating—sure that some of it was from him—and looking for any excuse to improve my day or have a laugh.

“How much do you think he costs? ” a woman whispered to her friend as I sat down a table over.

“I heard he’s poor so not much. I bet his range of services is impressive though. Look at him,” she replied, both of them giggling.

I couldn’t help but look then, wondering what they were talking about as there was no way a hooker was working territory here at Morrigan University. I glanced at them and followed their line of sight, struck dumb by the seriously hot guy they were focused on.

Holy crap. I could see why they would think women would pay for him even if I was sure they were talking trash. He was six feet of all sexy man. His darker honey-blond hair was cut short, spiked up like he’d just rolled out of bed but unlike guys who took time to make it look that way it was clear he didn’t give a fuck and it simply happened.

He was thick and I meant it in a good way, like he spent time in the gym but also like hard labor made him have girth, not just muscles for show. The guy was a man, filled in and just… Wow. His eyes looked brown, but I couldn’t tell from this distance as he was focused on what he was reading.

He flinched when they kept making comments, on and on and excessively drawing the attention of others. He snapped his book closed loudly and got up from where he was sitting, shooting them a withering look that would have made a smart person flinch, but they simply giggled.

So they were from money or families they thought important enough to protect them.

He went deeper into the library and my heart went out to him, knowing how it was to be bullied and alone to handle it. I didn’t realize what I was doing until I had already picked up my books and was moving. I walked around a different area so it didn’t look like I went after him, but a couple of minutes later I found him in the very back section sitting in a plush chair all alone.

I smiled as I realized it was time to kill two birds with one stone.

Actually three. Maybe four?

I was going to snap myself out of my bad mood.

I was going to give this guy something to smile about.

I was going to flip off Professor Wyatt even if he didn’t know it.

And I was going to give those women a fuck you by letting the guy have some free fun that he was worth instead of mocking he was for sale.

Yeah, so four. Awesome. That was a better way to end the week instead of my current mood.

I rolled up my skirt so it was even shorter and set down my stuff on a side table two rows from him so he couldn’t miss me. Then I found a wheeled ladder and moved it right to the shelf closest to him, pretending to check out what I was looking for. I didn’t care, I simply needed to climb up the ladder… So he had the perfect view up my skirt and could see my cheeky panties that didn’t cover much.

I locked it in place and climbed up, making sure to bend and take my sweet time, leaning and reaching, doing everything short of blatantly spreading my legs and dropping my panties. I teased him for a good bit before picking two books that I actually wanted to read in my free time and climbing down.

And then dropping the books on the ground two feet in front of him. I checked I had his full attention before slowly bending over from the waist and letting him see everything he wanted. Then, before I stood up, I turned so he could see down my shirt too and flipped my hair over my shoulder, smirking at him and getting to see his eyes then.

Caramel. They were a warm caramel brown that made me think of everything sweet and yummy and I wanted to be dipped in. I turned back around and stood up, gasping when a hard body pressed against mine.

“That was quite the show,” a deep voice said with a slight accent.

“I don’t know what you mean,” I purred.

He slid his arm around my waist and pulled me against him so I felt every inch of how much he liked what he saw. “Yes, you do. What was that? Tell me it was an invitation to take you to the stacks.”

I flinched, pushing his hand away and turning around. “Um, no.”

He backed me against the shelf and adjusted his neck, darkness filling his eyes. “So you were just fucking with me?”

Oh shit, this was backfiring. I stared up into his eyes and worried my lower lip. “Not—I wasn’t being mean. I heard them being bitchy and bullying you. They—I get it too. I’ve had a shitty week and I just thought… I’m sorry. I didn’t think this through. Yeah, that was sort of—sorry.”

His face softened a bit. “Can it be an invitation to take you to the stacks?”

My heart raced at the idea of someone touching me at the library and it was about to bloom into panic. “Um, I have to go. I’m supposed to be calling to try and get a tutor. I just wanted to… They were being mean and I had—sorry.” I ducked under his arm and went to collect my stuff, but he snagged my wrist.

“What tutor? What’s his name?”

I opened my mouth but then closed it, frowning. “I’d have to look. I forgot. He’s a sophomore the school recommended.”

The side of his lips twitched. “Sergey Koval?”

All the blood left my face as I stared up at him. “Oh fuck. Please tell me that’s not your name.”

“It is.”

I closed my eyes and wanted to melt into the ground.

Fuck. My. Life.

Really.

I swallowed a laugh, but some hysterical giggles slipped out. I blinked up at him and shrugged. “Fuck it.” I reached up and grabbed the back of his neck, pulling him down into a kiss.

His arms slid around me as he took control of things, moving me against the shelf as his hand cupped my ass under the skirt. He was demanding and desperate at the same time, his tongue pushing into my mouth and scorching every inch of me with desire.

When I thought I would go up in flames I pulled away, pushing at his chest. I ducked under his arm and fixed my skirt, bobbing my head as I went for my stuff. I turned to face him as I held the books I wanted to check out in front of me.

“Well, it was lovely to meet you. This was just the ultimate perfect ending to the week—weeks of disaster here so far. I’ll have to look for a different tutor now and die of embarrassment, maybe never leave my room, and probably fail a class or two. Awesome. Have a great weekend and hope the show improved your mood as that was my only goal.”

And then I took off. There was no salvaging or coming back from any of that, so I wasn’t even going to try. He had no idea who I was, and hopefully campus was big enough where maybe he’d never run into me ever again.

Oh, could the gods please be kind enough where that would be true?

No, of course , they weren’t. Or more I was an idiot and I checked out books, so he was more than able to catch up with me.

Duh.

He snagged my arm as I walked out of the library and pulled me off to the side, ducking behind a large tree and away from eyes. “Nuh-uh, you don’t get to run off after that.”

I frowned. “A woman can stop things whenever she wants. Fine, I didn’t ask if kissing you was okay, but I can always—”

“I meant that meltdown,” he murmured. “You can kiss me or more anytime you want. It’s not about that. You had a meltdown and I could—what are you running from besides embarrassment?”

“It’s complicated.”

“I got that. Who are you?”

“ I’m complicated.”

It was his turn to frown. “Needing a tutor isn’t complicated.”

I glanced around, noting people could still see us and we were drawing attention. “You’re not going to let this go, are you?”

He snorted. “After a kiss like that? Fuck no. I want a lot more of that and some answers.”

“Then not here,” I sighed, pushing my hair over my shoulder, smiling when he watched the movement with desire. “Can I buy you dinner? Off campus so we can talk privately? Off the record?” He gave me a curious look. “Please? If we’re going to do this—I had a whole thing planned. You weren’t the only tutor recommended, but there was a reason I picked you.”

A mix of emotions filled his eyes and some not good. “You looked into me.”

“Yes. You’re complicated too,” I whispered, moving my hand to his chest. “Please?”

“Fine, but I’m kissing you again if we’re having dinner.” He shook his head when I went to object. “I’ll tutor you. Whatever, we can work that out. I want that kiss and what I felt more. And your fucking name. Who are you?”

I took his hand in mine. “Come with me and I’ll tell you. Well, at least that and some of the other stuff.”

“And that kiss? What about what you started?”

I smirked at him. “I’ll give you more but maybe not in the way you wanted for being so pushy.”

His lips twitched. “Deal.” He let me lead him right to the freshman parking lot and to my vehicle. I flinched when I went to unlock it. “What’s wrong?”

“My parents still own it, and I don’t know that they’re not tracking it or that they won’t show up if they know I’m off campus.”

“I don’t have a car,” he muttered.

“I really need to trade this in,” I sighed.

“I can protect you.” He nodded when I glanced at him. “Trust me, I can.”

“You don’t know who they are.”

“I still can and get us out of anywhere. I’ve been taught that since I was young. You looked into me and you know why I would need to learn that.”

Relief filled me. “That’s the kind of stuff I need to be tutored on more than school.”

His eyes flashed shock, understanding better what was going on. “Let’s get off campus before we say more.”

Sounded good to me. I unlocked it and climbed in, starting it up and taking off the moment we were both buckled in. We didn’t talk as we drove into town and I found myself going past the pub Kelton had taken me to. Instead, I found what looked like a nice steakhouse and pulled in there. That would be quiet and slow this early even on a Friday.

“You’ve eaten here?” he asked.

“No, you?”

He shook his head. “Out of my price range. I guess not yours?”

I snorted. “No, but I wasn’t allowed to go out and have a normal life.”

“That’s not weird.”

“I’m the first one to say how I was raised was completely fucked up,” I grumbled as I parked and got out. He met me around front and held the door open for me as we went inside. The hostess greeted us, and I smiled brightly. “Hi, could we have a table in the back, somewhere quiet so we can talk? Preferably a booth?” I gave her a wink and she smirked at me.

“I can make that happen. We just opened and we won’t be busy for a few hours.”

“Thanks so much.” I followed after her, keenly aware how he watched my ass as he brought up the rear. She showed us the furthest booth in the back corner away from the bathrooms and kitchen even.

Oh, she was getting tipped along with the server. Nice

I thanked her again and slid in so I was facing the room and could see if anyone was coming. She left and he went to sit across from me. I frowned at him. “You don’t want to sit next to me?”

He froze, meeting my gaze. “I wouldn’t be able to keep my hands to myself if I was sitting next to you after that kiss.”

I debated that for half a second. “I’m fine with that. Tracey can handle hiring you and payment stuff so it’s not weird. Right? We can manage both?”

His eyes flashed recognition as he moved to sit next to me. “She called and checked I had time in my schedule and grilled me. I remember her. She was also fairly threatening about my balls if I touched you or was inappropriate.”

I chuckled. That sounded like Tracey. I leaned into him, going further and sliding my right leg over his left one. “She’s not the boss of me. Her job is to protect me.”

“Is that so? So not family?”

“Not family in the traditional sense but the closest I have that I count.”

“What’s your name?”

“Bevin Millen.”

“Hmm, I guessed wrong. I thought you were from a top-tier magical family.”

I licked my lips as I moved his hand to my thigh, nuzzling his cheek with mine so I could whisper in his ear. “I was. I got free. They’ll come for me, but I had to hide that I had magic because they would have taken it. So I wasn’t trained. I had to hide a lot, so they just recently learned I’m not a pretty ditz they planned to sell as a breeder mare for a high price. You get why I’m complicated.”

“Yeah, I do and why you would look into your tutor,” he murmured as his fingers danced along my naked skin. “I even understand why you would pick me, a bastard of two top-tier families.” He flinched. “You’re not from—”

“No, no ,” I chuckled. Gross. “Not even—no, my family isn’t even friendly with them. No chance.”

“Glad to hear it because I want to be very friendly with you, Bevin,” he warned.

I glanced up when I saw someone approaching and quickly opened the menu. “Baby, how hungry are you?”

“Famished,” he murmured, both of us knowing he wasn’t referring to food.

Nice.

I didn’t know what the hell I was doing this time either but apparently, I was going to dive in… Because that had been working out so well for me lately.