Page 106 of Academically Yours

“Relax, sunshine,” I said, rubbing my free hand over her thigh. “I can see the heat in your eyes when I do it, you know?”

Noelle blushed, looking at the window, and after another pass of my thumb over her skin, she’d turned back to me. “And what do my eyes say when you roll up your sleeves, Professor Harper?”

If we weren’t driving, I would have leaned in really close to her, looked her straight in the eyes, and told her exactly how her body reacted to mine. I didn’t even need to tell her, honestly. I wanted to show her. But I was trying to keep my focus on the short drive to campus, and the last thing I needed was to want to have a quickie in the backseat of my car.

So instead, I just smirked, letting my hand move to her inner thigh, stroking it gently as I kept the other hand firmly on the steering wheel. “They say…” I paused for dramatic effect. “Fuck me.”

“Hey! I do not have fuck me eyes.”

“Sure you don’t.”

She narrowed her gaze at me and swatted my hand away before I could get any closer to her center.

“I can’t take you anywhere,” she muttered under her breath, but I didn’t miss the slight flush to her skin, trailing up her neck and even making her ears a little pink. I couldn’t help it—I loved teasing her, loved seeing her like this.

“Come on, let’s go inside,” I said as we pulled into a parking spot on campus, extending a hand out to her to help her down from my truck.

“Um.” She looked at me and then at the building where the event was taking place. “We should probably go inside separately, huh?”

“What?” Her hand was slipping out of mine already. I frowned. “Oh. Okay. Yeah.”

I had wanted to walk into this event together, instead of separately. Was she scared to tell people we were dating? I didn’t think anyone would say anything about the nature of our relationship—after all, she wasn’t my student, and we had never known each other in any sort of professional capacity. But I worried.

The university might be super conservative, but it wasn’t like this was just some fling.

I couldn’t help the fear that spread through me. I loved her, and she wasn’t brave enough to claim me. Not yet.

We were circling each other in the room—not close enough to be with each other, but every few minutes, we would linger, and our fingers would drag against the other’s hand. It sent sparks flying up my arm. The same way it did every time we touched, like our connection was electrifying. Meant to be.

Noelle was talking to someone, a guy, and I knew I was being jealous, but I couldn’t help it. “If you’ll both excuse me,” I said politely to the other professors as our conversation trailed off. “I have someone I would like to say hello to.” My eyes drifted back over to Noelle’s.

“Go on.” John’s wife gave me a small smile. “It was good chatting with you for a little bit.”

“Always nice to see you, Alexis.”

John’s wife, sweet as ever, responded with glee. “Hopefully one of these days you’ll have a wife of your own to bring to these things.”

I laughed, looking at Noelle. “Yeah, hopefully.” One day, if I was lucky… I would be the luckiest man on earth if Noelle agreed to marry me, wouldn’t I?

We said our goodbyes, and I made my way across the room, finding Noelle at the dessert table, looking over her choices. I leaned over and whispered in her ear, “I hear the brownies here are the best.”

She jumped a little from my sudden nearness, and then placed her hand over her mouth to hold in a laugh. “Oh, yeah? Who’d you hear that from?”

“My gorgeous girlfriend,” I grinned. “You kind of remind me of her. Red hair, obsessed with desserts, definitely wants to eat another brownie.”

“Hmm,” she smirked. “That does seem to ring a bell. But I think my handsome boyfriend will be jealous if I tell him we were consorting here at the dessert table.”

“Good thing he won’t know.”

“Matthew!” Noelle’s shoulders shook as she tried to hold back another laugh.

“God, I want to touch you,” I muttered, my eyes trailing up her backside in her incredible dress. “This dress is—wow.”

“You know, you did help me put it on,” she whispered back.

I was fairly sure if we kept this up, someone was going to catch us canoodling by the dessert table, but I didn’t care. I was enjoying this way too much.

She placed her hand over mine and stared into my eyes. “Touch me,” Noelle breathed, her eyes glazing over as she just continued to stare at me. I knew that look.