Page 23 of Devil's Kiss
“You forgot something,” Derek said, and held Jordan’s phone out to him. He hadn’t dared to remove his hands from the steering wheel in case he did something stupid, like touch the guy. But he knew he had to or risk looking like a total weirdo.But…look at him—how can I not touch that?
Angling himself toward Derek, he reached for the phone, but at the last second Derek snatched it back.
“Give me thephone, Derek.” Jordan knew his tone was pissy, but that was because he was about five seconds away from doing something stupid. When he got no response, he rolled his eyes.
“I like it when you do that.”
Jordan arched an eyebrow as if to say,dowhat?
“The eye roll. You never used to do it in class. But it’s hot. Lets me know I’m getting to you.”
“Oh please, you’re giving yourself way too much credit.”
Derek held his phone out again and Jordan dropped his eyes to it.
“No, I’m not. Right now, you look as if you’re about two seconds away from losing your shit. Why do you have such a problem with me?”
Jordan snatched the phone out of Derek’s hands, and this time he let it go. “I don’t have a problem with you. Actually, I don’t haveanythingwith you. Not even a class anymore. And the fact that you like pushing my buttons only shows that you have some serious issues.”
“Yeah, you’re probably right,” Derek said, his voice having lost the flirtatious quality. “You can thank my piece-of-shit father for that.”
Jordan faltered, his next words getting stuck somewhere in his throat at the rapid shift in Derek’s mood. He wondered if Derek would say more, but when nothing else came out, Jordan looked away to stare down at his phone, checking…what, exactly? That it was in one piece?
“Don’t worry,” Derek finally said, and his tone had somewhat thawed. “You only missed one call. From someone named…August?”
Jordan’s head snapped around, and when their eyes met he saw Derek’s lips tug into a crooked grin, erasing the awkward moment from a second ago. “What kind of name is August?”
Not understanding this man in the slightest, Jordan sighed. He knew he needed to end this conversation, yet at the same time found himself wanting to linger and ask questions about the secrets behind those intense eyes watching him.
In the end, he settled on the most basic of questions. One that would open a whole can of worms but must be done if they were to move on in any kind of normal direction. “What do you want, Derek?”
For a second, Jordan thought he caught a flash of longing in Derek’s eyes, but it was quickly replaced by a cocky glint and a smirk to match.
“Hard to know the exact answer to that. But right now, I wouldn’t say no to fucking you.”
Yeah, okay, the can of worms is now officially open.
If Derek had been any other person and they’d met under different circumstances, Jordan would be unlocking his car door in a hot second. But Derek wasn’t any other person. He’d been his student, and Jordan wouldn’t be touching him with a ten-foot pole—or his own pole, for that matter—regardless of how much he wanted to climb all over him and kiss and bite his bulging muscles.
No. There would be no climbing. No touching. And definitely no fucking.
Knowing his best course of action here was indifference, Jordan laughed as if Derek had just told him the best joke ever.Time to hit his ego.
“Of course you wouldn’t say no to that. I’m gorgeous,” he said, giving a flirtatious wink for added sass. “But we’ve had this conversation, and unfortunately for you, in my bed, I do the fucking and I have no interest in fulfilling your hot-for-teacher fantasies. Now run along, little boy. I’m busy.”
He waited for Derek to explode. To accuse him of being the liar he was. But Derek’s stare turned contemplative and he nodded a couple of times. He then tapped a hand on the frame of the car and said, “Right. I do remember that conversation. I also remember you saying thatwhileyou were my professor it wouldn’t happen. And Devaney, I checked my schedule twice, and your name ain’t on it. So in case you change your mind, I added my number to your phone. Just hit one on your speed dial. Like I said before, I’d happily lie on my back for you any day.” Derek then added a hot-as-fuck wink of his own, straightened up, and left Jordan sitting there in the car watching his fine ass as he walked back toward the doors of the gym.
Oh myGod.
Jordan looked at the phone in his hand like it was a gun and quickly opened the contacts. He scrolled through until he got to number one, and there it was like the fucking scarlet letter—DEREK—in caps, too, the little shit.He really needed to add a passcode to his phone.
He was about to hit delete, but at the very last second swiped over the edit button and deleted just the name instead. Jordan’s heart was thundering, as if he was doing something he shouldn’t, but all he did was replace Derek’s name.
Atop that number now readHe-Man.
He hit save and grinned despite himself. There was no way he would ever call that number. But for some reason, he couldn’t find it in himself to delete it.
Chapter 7