Page 57 of Brat Baby (Sugar Life #1, #3)
Derek
I stare down at a passed-out Emery, her cheek pressed into my thigh, my cock still in her mouth, with cum having dripped out and onto my slacks.
The flush is gone from her cheeks, and her eyelashes form delicate shadows against her skin. I didn’t notice it earlier, but there is a fuller look to her face that eases a worry I’ve been carrying since our first night together.
As gently as I can, I run my fingers through her hair, not able to get over how soft it feels.
I also can’t get over the fact that she was able to play me so well earlier and that I actually caved. But her asking me to train that dude bro joke frat boy, that is barely older than my oldest flogger, was enough to have me seeing red.
I’m going to have to check her skin before she leaves. I don’t think I broke through the skin, but I was far from gentle.
A heavy sigh falls out of me. Fuck, this entire situation. Thayne is going to be furious when he finds out that not a single one of us could stay away from this girl for three fucking weeks. Although, that may work in our favor to show how serious we are about her.
Who knows what the post-collaring bliss he is currently in will do to his decision-making skills?
What I do know is that I’m not ready to make a choice between Emery and my career. On one hand, I have everything I have ever worked toward, almost twenty years’ worth of teaching and administrative politicking, and my reputation to consider.
University academics are ravenous gossips, and this is their favorite flavor.
On the other hand, I have a very strong feeling that this young woman is my future.
I’d lied to her earlier, for a second time. There was no work to finish.
And even if there had been work to do, there was absolutely no way I would have been able to grade papers while my cock was wrapped in her hot wet mouth, even though I had just come.
Typically, on a Thursday after my office hours, I’d be packing up just in time for the others to stop by my office, since this building is the closest to the staff parking. However, today they’re late. By quite a bit.
As the thought finishes, there is a knock at my door.
“Come in,” I call, quickly waking up my computer screen by moving the mouse with my free hand, to make it seem like I’ve gotten caught up with work and not like I’ve been sitting here, doing nothing for the past twenty minutes.
The door only opens wide enough to admit Darcy’s head. “Why’s the door closed?”
I lean back in my chair, careful not to disturb Emery, and shrug my shoulders. “The last student shut it on their way out. I didn’t bother to get up and reopen it.”
Doing fabulous with the lies today.
Darcy shoves the door the whole way open, and the three of them pile into my office.
“Are you almost ready to go?” Hudson asks as he flops down onto the couch next to Darcy, unbuttoning his blazer as he sits.
I shoot a glance at my very blank computer screen and then back at Hudson. “Actually, I’d really like to get these last few things done. How about you all go to the restaurant and get a to-go bag for me? We can meet at my place and play cards.”
Hudson checks his watch. “That should work. Seven-thirty at your place?”
“Sounds good.”
“I went to this new Mexican place over the weekend”—Darcy has his phone out and hands it to Hudson—“we can go there?”
Hudson accepts the phone and starts scrolling as Darcy watches over his shoulder.
I glance at Xavier, who is propping up the doorway with his shoulder while he does something on his phone.
Things have been strained between us these last few weeks.
Knowing he hasn’t left Emery alone, knowing this entire situation is his fault, knowing that I punched him in the face and have yet to apologize, that I almost hate him right now…
all of that has created an invisible wall between us that I don’t know how to fix.
Suddenly, Xavier looks up and makes eye contact, a glimmer of mischief in his eye that hasn’t been there since I confronted him in this office. My palms become sweaty as his eyes scan the room, landing on the white strap of Emery’s bag from where it hangs off the chair in front of my desk.
Fuck, why didn’t I move that?
Oh, I know why. Because it would have required me to remove my cock from Emery’s mouth.
His lips pull up into a smirk as he stares at me. Is he going to out me to the others? The moment is drawn out and charged full of tension, at least, on my end.
He surprises me by straightening and pocketing his phone. “I’m starving.”
That seems to be the trigger to get Darcy and Hudson up off the couch, Hudson handing Darcy back his phone.
Xavier steps out of their way, and they start off down the hall. He doesn’t immediately follow, just scans the room again before his gaze lands on my desk.
Thank fuck it’s the kind that has three enclosed sides for a base.
His gaze comes back up to mine, and that serious expression he gets on occasion flattens out all his features. “Don’t hurt her.”
“I won’t,” I reply immediately, one-hundred-percent sure of that fact.
He makes a noise of acceptance and leaves, pulling the door shut behind him.
Once I’m alone again, I glance down at Emery and almost lose my heart to my stomach when I see her eyes open.
We say nothing to each other, but I make her a silent promise.
Whatever happens tomorrow night, I will never hurt you again .