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If I can consider having what I want with her, Sofia must know how immensely I fucked up. And the scandal that’s followed me here.

Ready to confess, I dress in my pajama pants and half consider not putting a shirt on, but that wouldn’t be fair. Not that her bare legs or the swing of her braless chest make things any easier on me.

She pops into the bathroom to brush her teeth, and I hover, needing to get this off my chest.

When she turns back to me, Sofia startles. My hand catches hers, and relief blasts through me when she doesn’t pull away. She doesn’t resist my leading her back to the edge of my bed, where I sit and stroke her palm and fingertips.

“What’s wrong?” Fucking astute.

It’s difficult to look up into her eyes, but I do it. “Do you know anything about why I transferred here?”

Sofia shakes her head, slowly reaching out to push my hair off my forehead. Her touch rings through me. I nearly redirect and pull her down for a kiss, but she’s looking at me like she wants to know me, and it’s the first time in a long, long time that someone has seen me like Sofia does.

“I was almost fired for an inappropriate relationship with one of my students.”

I expect her to step away in disgust, but her touch smooths through my hair again, down around my ear.

“Tell me what happened.”

I close my eyes and take a deep breath. Her knee comes up beside my hip, inching her closer. My hands automatically brace the backs of her legs. So much smooth skin, hot under my touch.

Does she even know how tempting she is?

“Marielle used to come out to my favorite bar on occasion. I’d seen her there before she was one of my students. And she wasn’t some eighteen-year-old, either. She was in her forties, going back to school to change her career. It was nice to have an adult perspective in a freshman class.”

The mixed feelings swirl in my chest. I’m still not sure what to feel about the entire situation.

“I’m sure it was.” Not a reprimand. Sofia strokes the sensitive skin behind my ear.

I almost want to purr and sink my face into her stomach. “She came out to the bar one night while she was in my class. I did my best to keep it professional, but I was already half drunk by the time she sat next to me…”

Sofia’s grip in my hair tightens as if she knows the way my story goes. She probably knows the deal already, but remembering how Marielle slid her hand over my knee and up my thigh, the heat of it as I stood and stepped away. But she met me back at the bathrooms. Before I knew what she was doing, she had my fly open and sank to her knees.

I gave up the fight by the time she had me in her mouth.

“It’s hard to say she seduced me, but that’s what it felt like. She set me up, taking advantage of how much I drank, then she used it against me when she didn’t earn an A on her final project.” The stand off in my office, which started in hushed tones, turned into all-out screeching accusations that garnered too much attention.

Sofia sighs, dipping her nose to the top of my head and surrounding me in her scent—something soft and sweet and solely Sofia.

“No wonder you’re skittish around Leann.”

That rips a laugh out of me. “Yeah.”

She tips my head back. “I’m sorry that happened to you.”

As bad as I felt about it at the time, I’m coming to terms with the fact that it put me in Sofia’s path. Reaching up, I trace the soft curve of her chin and jaw.

Reading my mind, she dips lower and brushes her mouth across mine. My grip on her tightens.

Our mouths separate the barest inch, giving me the space to say her name. It’s a question, a plea, and a declaration.

I lift to kiss her again, solidly and a bit frenzied. She sinks into me, colliding more solidly against my chest. I feel her everywhere, warm and soft and mesmerizing. The soft noise in the back of her throat spurs me on. I’m squeezing her curves, lifting her other knee so that she’s straddling me.

Fuck, I’m hard already. I never respond this way. This fast. This goddamn hard.

Her mouth opens under the pressure of my own, and I sweep in, tasting her more fully, showing her my intentions.

I’m desperate for her.