Total pages in book: 28
Estimated words: 27095 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 135(@200wpm)___ 108(@250wpm)___ 90(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 27095 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 135(@200wpm)___ 108(@250wpm)___ 90(@300wpm)
Three girls, chatting at a volume loud enough that they’ve either forgotten they’re in public or simply do not care. They’re behind me in line and close enough that I can hear every word. And they’re talking about her.
I realize it immediately. I don’t know how. I can just feel it in my gut. And when one of them says Jessie, something responds in my chest. My heartbeat picks up, and despite wanting to turn, I face forward.
“I say we check in with her,” the first girl says. She sounds like she’s accustomed to being in charge. “You know—ask her if she’s opened it yet. If she read the instructions.”
“They come with instructions?” a second voice asks, laughing.
“Everything comes with instructions, Dani. And Jessie loves reading instructions. That’s the whole point. Maybe she’ll actually follow them.”
“I still cannot believe she didn’t know what it was,” a third voice chimes in, nearly a whisper. “Like, she said she thought it was for ‘personal tension relief’ like she was reading a brochure.”
“Well, it sort of is. Technically.”
“She’s like a little baby rabbit.”
“Or a cute little fairy.”
“She’s the best-looking girl on campus and has literally never—” The voice drops off like she was about to say something totally inappropriate.
I should stop listening. I’m thirty-six years old and eavesdropping on students. I need to just order my coffee and go back to my office. But they’re talking about her, so I simply can’t stop myself.
“Not even once,” she continues. “Her mom interrupts her once and she just…stops trying?”
“Right?” one of them giggles. “If I go more than two days without one, I turn into the bitch from hell!”
Jesus, are they talking about what I think they’re talking about?
“Yeah, well, even if she reads the instructions,” a voice whispers, “she still has to, ya know—find her clit!”
“Shhh!” the boss girl laughs. “Shut up! This isn’t the dorm!”
They giggle, but my entire body goes tight. I was right. Jessie is an innocent. These girls are her friends, and they’re saying she’s never even had an orgasm.
Christ. Someone’s going to have to change that.
I nearly crush my coffee cup as the server hands it to me. The world seems to muffle around me as I stride across the quad, a singular mission in mind.
It takes me eleven minutes to find her.
It’s not hard. I’m a man who spent years locating vital organs in dying patients. Finding one girl on a campus of a few thousand students is not a challenge. I just think about where she’d go.
A girl like her, super organized and ready to learn? The outside courtyard by the science building.
There she is…
More blood rockets to my center as I stare, watching her as she sits on a bench, sunlight glowing through her hair, scribbling in her notebook with her green pen. My breath catches in my chest, and I’m forced to brace myself against a tree to stop from falling over.
It’s not just me, either. I catch a handful of guys glancing over at her, obviously checking her out. She doesn’t even notice. One of them looks like he might want to approach her, but there’s no way in hell that’s happening.
I stride quickly over, no plan in mind. I just need to reach her, talk to her, show everyone around that she is off-limits.
That she’s mine.
She senses me before I reach her. Her pen slows, and she looks up. When she sees me standing over her, her eyes go wide, and her lips part as if daring me to kiss them.
“P-Professor Holt,” she stammers.
“Miss Monroe.”
There’s a brief moment as she glances around the courtyard the way people do when they’re trying to figure out if they’re in trouble. “Is there…a problem with my enrollment? I checked the form online three times, but I—”
“There’s no problem, Miss Monroe.”
“Oh, good.” She closes her notebook and looks up at me. Christ, just look at her. I want to take a big bite right out of her.
This is the part where I am supposed to tell her that I enjoyed her participation in class and that she should keep up the good work. Then walk away.
That’s what I should do. Instead, I lean in closer than I should. “You do, however, have a serious gap in your education.”
Her adorable brow furrows. “I…I do?”
“A pretty significant one.” I reach down and take her pen from her. Just holding something she’s touched causes my pants to tighten. I sit down beside her, and she turns to face me.
Her eyes…I start to lose myself in them. Brown like expensive wood or really good coffee. Warm, deep, and filled with something I desperately desire. “Your question today was good. You’re clearly intelligent, Jessie. But there are…entire systems of the human body. Critical systems that I believe you are unfamiliar with and the current curriculum will not cover.”