Page 21 of Devil's Kiss
What a goddamn joke,Derek thought. It was telling how concerned the asshole was for something so inanimate when he hadn’t once shown an inkling of compassion for those who lived with him.
“I willneverbe you,” Derek said, and his father glared up at him.
“Two hundred. And an extra hundred to replace what you just fucked up. Don’t come back tonight unless you have it.”
Derek’s mouth parted, and he was about to argue that his father owed him fucking millions if they were repaying damages for things they’d broken, but he was done. He was done talking to the man struggling to get on his feet. He was done with it all.
When his father was standing tall once more, Derek took the step he needed to bring them nose to nose and said in a voice he didn’t even recognize as his own, “Guess you better hope yourworthlessson finds a job soon, because your little queer is about to leave this hellhole and never come back.”
When his father’s eyes narrowed, Derek took a fistful of the wife beater, and felt a great sense of satisfaction at the flare of concern he finally saw in those eyes. His father was scared of him, and Derek had no idea what it said about him that he liked that.
“Have a nice life, you miserable fucker. I’d rather live on the street thanevergive you a goddamn cent.”
Shoving him away, Derek gave the house a final once-over and didn’t let the fact that he had nowhere to go bother him right now. All he knew was that he was getting out of there and he wasn’t going to look back.
BY THE TIMEDerek got to the gym, he was late for his shift. He wasn’t thinking about the fact that he’d just left his home for good. Really. Instead, he focused on what he could control, and that was getting inside, clocking in, and earning money for the shift he was about to work. He would deal with all the other shit later.
He pulled open the door and stepped inside, and as he did he almost tripped over a man who was crouched in the middle of the entryway fishing through his workout bag.
“Fuck,” Derek said, and barely had time to react and catch his footing before he fell face first on the floor. Of all the stupid places to stop— “What the hell, man, think you could move to the side?”
As he steadied himself and the man turned around to peer up at him, Derek found himself staring into the face of none other than Professor Devaney.
Holy shit.This was the last thing he’d expected today. He hadn’t seen Devaney since his final exam several weeks ago, and he wasn’t sure he was mentally prepared to deal with him after the shit afternoon he’d already had with his father.
Over the remainder of his first semester, he and his professor had come to a mutual agreement of avoidance. He’d purposefully ignored his interest in the man, pushed it aside as nothing more than a stupid infatuation, and Devaney, it appeared, had done the same.
It turned out that was the best thing he could’ve done in the long run, too, because soon after that night at Bianca’s, Finn’s “professor” had shown up at Boyz and they’d started their “thing”—and never too far away from Hayes was the ubiquitous Jordan Devaney.
Not that Derek had ever made his presence known. Whenever he’d seen them at his weekend job where he danced around in next to nothing, he did his best to fucking hide. Shit was weird enough between them. Adding the fact that Devaney frequented the hottest gay club in the city, whichhehappened to dance at, would just make everything even more awkward.
“Oh, shit. Derek, I’m sorry,” Devaney said as he stood and took a step toward Derek, placing a hand on his arm.
The gesture was innocent. Derek knew it was meant to offer apology and comfort and see if he was okay. But with the adrenaline-charged evening he’d already had, that was sonothow his body was taking it.
Hell no.
His dick was definitely not feeling comforted. It wanted release, and it wanted it with the man currently squeezing his forearm.
He looked down at the hand resting on his arm and said, “It’s cool. You might want to move to the side next time. That could’ve been ugly.”
“Right?” Devaney said, and gave a carefree laugh that transformed his entire face and had Derek’s heart racing and his cock pounding.Christ, he’s sexy.
“I’m lucky you caught yourself in time. Otherwise I would’ve ended up flat on my back.Notmy favorite position, that’s for sure,” Devaney quipped. As his flippant words lingered between them and Devaney realized what he’d said, he froze. But Derek had had a God-awful night, and he’d be damned if he didn’t feel like taking this moment to distract himself from the crap hand that life had already dealt him today.
He cocked his head to the side and studied the man who looked mortified, and then asked, “Whatisyour favorite position?”
As if his arm had burned the palm still resting on him, Devaney snatched his hand away and shook his head. “Ah, no. We are definitelynothaving this conversation.” He chuckled as he bent down to grab the strap of his gym bag, and Derek found himself smiling for the first time that day at his response.
Devaney was seriously hot when he was flustered.
“Hey, you started it,” he said, knowing it would get under the professor’s skin further, and he wasn’t disappointed. The second he heard him, Devaney’s entire body tensed and he slowly straightened and slung the bag over his shoulder. “I didn’tstartanything.”
Derek crossed his arms over his chest, effectively blocking the way out, and noticed that Devaney kept his chin tilted and his eyes locked with his, purposely avoiding looking at his body, and that made him bold. He leaned down and told his flustered professor, “Yeah, you did.”
That was when he got what he figured was his firstreallook at the professor as he placed his hands on his hips in what had to be the haughtiest of poses, and then pursed his lips in a deliciously dramatic pout that had every single part of Derek, especially his cock, reacting to it.
In class, Devaney had always been lively, but he had a professional demeanor about him that Derek had always suspected was temperingthisside of him—and hell, he had to admit he was glad, because this side flipped his fuck switch like nothing else.