Page 55 of Brat Baby (Sugar Life #1, #3)

Derek

I will never, ever state that a student isn’t intelligent enough to earn a mathematics degree. However, there are some students—like the one sitting in front of me right now—that should probably consider doing something else with their lives.

With a flourish, I finish writing out the example methods he needs to memorize in order to at least pass next week’s test on differential equations and hand him the piece of paper.

“What I would like you to do between now and the test is to memorize each of these methods. The important part is determining which method is required based on the data provided in the question. I’ve broken it down into each of its components.

Learn to identify them before the test and then how to put them into practice, and you’ll keep your current B average. ”

Joesph, a student from my second-year calculus class, nods his head as he stares at the page with a furrowed brow. While math might not come to him quite so instinctively as it does for the rest of the students in his cohort, he does make up for it in tenacity. And extra credit.

“Thanks, Professor King. This really helps. Same time next week?”

“Of course, but remember, if there are other students here, you have to give way to them,” I gently remind him. “And please consider getting a tutor. I know that Justin has a vacancy at the moment.”

Joseph ducks his head and immediately starts packing his things into his backpack. “Yeah, I’ll think about it.”

I don’t push him on it. It’s a topic that has come up every week since his very first F last year, on the same pop quiz that Emery hit out of the park. He always promises to consider it, but like clockwork, he is back every Thursday, taking up far more than his allotted ten minutes per student.

Sighing, I relax into my chair, the back reclining the smallest amount. Joesph doesn’t say goodbye as he stands, already lost to the inner workings of his mind.

But what is out of the ordinary for him is the way he pauses in the doorway, then turns beet red in a matter of seconds. “Oh, ah, hi. Sorry, but office hours are almost over. If I’d known you were out here, waiting, I wouldn’t have taken so long.”

There is a murmured response that I don’t pick up, then Joseph ducks his head again, the tips of his ears pink, and disappears before my heart all but explodes in my chest as a person steps into view.

The feeling is so visceral that I can’t help but press my palm into my sternum, like that will ease the ache.

Emery.

She fills my doorway with her petite presence.

Sneakers, bare legs, denim miniskirt, white off-the-shoulder T-shirt, and her hair loose, framing her heartbreakingly beautiful face. And that look in her eyes that screams trouble.

Her existence this close to mine is beyond painful.

I have no clue how long we stay like this, staring at each other, her expression neutral. What mine looks like, I have no idea. My face has gone numb. I’m entirely numb and have been for weeks now.

Eventually, she steps into the room and closes the door behind her.

“Hey, Daddy,” she says quietly into the sudden vacuum silence of the room, a smile flirting at the corners of her lips.

“You do not have permission to call me that,” I reply, my throat practically strangling around the words.

“What are you going to do? Spank me?” She takes two steps closer, almost reaching the other side of my desk as she drops her bag onto one of my visitor chairs. “Daddy.”

Then she smirks, chin tipping up a little, laying it on incredibly thick.

This girl…If I wasn’t so fucking terrified for her—for us—I’d have no fucking issue with claiming her as mine. But I can’t, not yet. Not until I know where we all stand with Thayne and Newton U.

We are in an impossible position, and I unequivocally refuse to give Emery hope where there may be none. The others may be willing to throw their careers into the rapidly approaching dumpster fire, but I am not.

Do I want Emery? More than I have ever wanted anything else in my lifetime.

Do I want to give up my career that I have been working toward for almost twenty years? That’s harder to answer. If I’m guaranteed the happily-ever-after ending that I’ve envisioned for the five of us—then yes, in a heartbeat.

But the more likely outcome is that we could all be let go come Monday morning, and Emery, at a minimum, will have a target on her back for fraternizing with teaching staff. At worst, she’ll lose her scholarships and be expelled from the university.

I can’t let that happen. Not with the brilliantly bright future she has ahead of her. I need to walk that fine line for all of us, to make sure we get to keep the pieces of us that we cherish the most.

“Emery,” I warn, heart beating heavily as my stomach clenches. I squeeze my hands around the armrests of my chair, gripping so tightly that my knuckles ache. “You need to leave my office. Now.”

“Mmmm… no thanks, I’m happy staying.” Instead of taking the seat that Joseph vacated, she places her fingertips on the corner near the short edge of my desk, slowly making her way around the side, dragging her fingers along the dark wood.

Each step tests my restraint.

“I’m serious, Emery. You cannot be here right now. If you’re caught, it’s not only my career on the line. You could be expelled,” I plead with her, pushing my chair away from the desk, trying to create space between us.

This cannot be happening right now. I only need one more fucking day. Tomorrow night, to be specific. Just twenty-four more hours. Then we will have all the information we need to make a decision.

“No one has to know,” she replies, the spark of mischief in her eyes something I have missed so fucking much over the past few weeks. “There is no one else in this section of the building. I checked while I waited. We are completely alone.”

“No, Emery.” I state it firmly, but I can’t stop my eyes from tracking her as she closes the gap between us, her shoe bumping the leather tip of my own.

My pulse is racing. I know this game that she’s playing. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out she is trying to goad me into action. She is going to keep pushing and shoving until I snap and lose control, giving in to her little game and letting her win.

“That’s not a safe word, Daddy.”

Fucking brat. Why did she have to go there? Of course I’m not going to use a safe word with her. I’m every shade of green there is.

Instead of continuing to advance on me, she pauses in the space I just pushed back from. Oh, so goddamn casually, she leans back on her hands, pushing her breasts out, and crosses her ankles like she doesn’t have a care in the fucking world.

There is a lump in my throat that feels impossible to swallow around as we sit here, staring at each other. My instinct to reach for her, to drag her down onto my lap, to hold her to me like she is my lifeline and I am floating out at sea, is nearly impossible to fight.

And then the worst thought imaginable pops into my head.

Would one tiny little taste really hurt? Thayne knows we want to talk to him. And even though I didn’t know it at the time, I’ve already slept with her as an enrolled student of Newton U.

I almost physically shake my head to dislodge the thought. No. No, absolutely not.

Something shifts on Emery’s face. It happens so quickly that I have no idea what happened.

“Do you really not want to be my Daddy anymore?” The fucking pout on this girl is irritatingly adorable.

“No,” I reply, trying to shut this down.

The briefest flicker of pain appears on her face before she catches herself.

It’s a fucking lie. Possibly the worst lie I’ve ever told. But hopefully, after tomorrow night, she’ll forgive me.

I’m doing this for us. For all of us.

“I don’t believe you.”

Fuck.

“Well, it’s true. I don’t fuck students. Ever.”

“You fucked me.”

“That was before I knew you were a student.”

Silence.

“Why didn’t you ask? I’m eighteen, living in an area that is basically surrounded by three colleges.”

The wind is completely knocked out of me by her question. There are very few questions that I won’t answer for her, and this…this is definitely one of them.

So, I don’t. I keep my mouth firmly shut. I don’t throw Xavier under the bus. I don’t save myself.

She huffs out a breath and looks away before turning back to look at me, renewed determination on her face. “So, what? I’m just supposed to walk away from all of you? Go and date someone more age appropriate?”

I don’t manage to hold in my flinch, and she clocks it, a sly smile spreading across her face.

“Should I date a boy my own age? Someone who isn’t a teacher. His age will probably mean he doesn’t know his way around my body as well as you though, right? That’s okay, I guess. I can teach him. What about a jock? Maybe even hockey player?”

I will myself to show no reaction, but from the way my jaw aches, I know I’m unsuccessful.

That gorgeous fucking mouth continues to spout words that repulse me.

“Being a hockey player means he probably gets a lot of pussy, so maybe he will know a thing or two. But that could also make him lazy, as well. Hmmm…” She taps her finger against her chin. “The only hockey player I know is Will. You know him, right? He sits behind me in your class.”

Yes, I fucking know him.

There is a growl in my head, but when a dark delight lights up Emery’s features, I realize it wasn’t only in my head.

“We have each other’s numbers now. How long do you think it will be before he asks me out on a date or just to fuck around? Do you think he’ll want me on my knees for him?”

“Emery,” I growl out, unable to clear the image of her kneeling for that fucking child. “Stop.”

“Oh, I know! He could bend me over in the locker room, then share me with his entire team.”

She has the audacity to clap her fucking hands together like she is actually interested in the things she is saying.

“And it would all be okay because they aren’t teachers at NU and they are my own age! It’s perfect, right?” She looks me squarely in the eyes as she says it. “Right, Daddy? That’s what you are telling me I should want, isn’t it?”

A white-hot line of pain pierces my temple as I glare back at her.

“Imagine all those dicks filling my pussy. Will standing by as he watches over the whole thing. Oh my god, do you think he could use a flogger? Just thinking about him holding one is so fucking hot.”

The room shifts away from me.

“Your mouth is fucking filthy.” I hear my voice from outside my body, which is suddenly very hot, and my clothes feel too tight. “Naughty girl.”

“If Will doesn’t know how to use a flogger, could you teach him for me?” She continues on as if she hasn’t heard me.

White-hot rage shoots through my veins and my blood pounds in my ears.

Could I teach him for her? Could I fucking teach him for her?

Slowly, I stand, and so does Emery, fear creeping in around that bratty fucking attitude she’s wearing like a suit of armor at the very clear change in me.

Well, it’s too fucking late for that now. She pushed and pushed and pushed, and the lock on the cage has finally snapped.

Now she is going to get what she’s been asking for.

I reach for my belt, slowly unbuckling it. Her eyes drop to my hands, then she swallows before her gaze finds mine again.

“What are you doing?”

“Giving you what you asked for.” I barely recognize my own voice as I pull the belt free of the loops of my trousers.

“W-what’s that?”

“A spanking.”