Page 36 of Learning Curves
Audrey was in a haze of bliss with Michelle’s hands cupping her face, her lips doing the most wonderful things, and her tongue .
.. good god, her tongue ... Michelle’s tongue was its own art form.
As it danced against Audrey’s, she felt an answering clench of need in her core.
Everything about the way Michelle kissed was exquisite.
But they were standing at the head of Audrey’s classroom with the door wide open, in full view of anyone who happened to walk past. Reluctantly, Audrey dragged her mouth from Michelle’s, and for several long seconds, they just stared at each other in a lust-drunk stupor.
“Are you finished for the day?” Michelle finally asked.
Her lipstick was smudged, her eyes glassy with desire.
She wore gray slacks and a tweed jacket similar to the one that had been the subject of so many of Audrey’s undergrad fantasies.
Dressed like that, standing in this classroom, she looked like the Dr. Thompson from those fantasies, and it was enough to make Audrey’s knees tremble.
Not trusting herself to speak, she nodded in answer to Michelle’s question.
“Come to my place?” Michelle licked her lips, then smoothed her hands over her still-immaculate outfit. “We can ... talk.”
“I want to do more than talk.” Audrey hardly recognized her own voice. It was soft and raspy, as if she’d just screamed for two hours at a concert ... or had her entire mind blown by a thirty-second kiss from Michelle Thompson.
Michelle’s cheeks turned the sexiest shade of pink at Audrey’s words. “I ... do too.”
“This is an extremely surreal conversation to be having at the lectern of my classroom.” Impulsively, Audrey gripped the lapels of Michelle’s blazer and pulled her in for another kiss. Their bodies bumped, and Michelle let out the sexiest little whimper.
Whatever happened next, this moment—Michelle pressed against her in front of an empty classroom with the lectern digging into her back—was seared into Audrey’s brain forever. It might be the hottest thing she’d ever experienced.
Michelle was the one to pull back this time, her breathing noticeably ragged. “So, my place?”
“Yes. Your place. To talk ... or whatever.” Audrey couldn’t help her grin.
Michelle mirrored it, and there was something in her eyes ... a light, an energy, a passion that Audrey hadn’t seen before. Whatever it was, Audrey wanted to see it again. And again. She never wanted that light to go out.
She reached out and touched the soft skin below Michelle’s bottom lip, removing errant lipstick. “Lead the way, then.”
“Do you need to stop at your office first?” Michelle asked.
“I should, but ... no. Let’s just go.”
Michelle gave a brisk nod, then turned and strode out of the classroom with all the poise that had first captured Audrey’s attention. Audrey could only follow in her wake, trying so damn hard not to swoon because she had to stay on her feet to follow Michelle to her car.
Because she was headed to Michelle’s place to talk ... and more.
Hopefully so much more.
As they walked through Kravitz Hall, Audrey caught herself admiring the way Michelle’s ass looked in those pants.
She was moving with purpose now, her “don’t bother me” face in place, and it was so fucking hot, Audrey could hardly put one foot in front of the other.
Tripping over her own feet was a real possibility.
Outside, the air was crisp and cold. A light dusting of snow had fallen while she was teaching, and it crunched beneath her shoes. They paused to put on their coats, and somehow Michelle looked even more gorgeous once she’d buttoned up her black wool peacoat.
Then they were off again, neither of them speaking as they made their way to the faculty parking lot. As luck would have it, their cars were parked right next to each other.
“Follow me?” Michelle pressed a button on her key fob, and her car beeped and flashed its lights.
“Yes.” Audrey couldn’t wait to see Michelle’s home.
Unlike hers, which was a rental, temporary and decorated by someone else, Michelle’s house would be a window into who she was outside work.
Audrey imagined it as her sanctuary, a place where she probably didn’t have many guests, or maybe Audrey was assigning too much importance to the invitation.
She slid behind the wheel of her own car and started it, grateful that it cooperated without complaint for once. As she rested her hands on the steering wheel, she realized they were shaking. Adrenaline. Excitement. Nervousness.
Michelle’s BMW backed up and began to move toward the exit of the parking lot. Audrey pulled in behind it, suddenly obsessed with trying to remember what underwear she had on. Since she was still wearing her coat, she couldn’t exactly peek. Had she shaved this morning?
God.
Audrey’s mind spiraled as she followed Michelle out of downtown Middleton and onto a dirt road that led through a scenic and rural area north of the campus.
Before she knew it, Michelle had turned into a driveway.
They were here. Audrey shifted her attention to the house at the other end of the drive.
It was small but elegant, with pale-blue siding and black shutters.
The front yard was well tended, with neat beds that contained what had probably been beautiful flowers a few months ago, but this time of year, everything was bare and brittle.
The house’s most impressive feature might be its view, though.
It sat at the front of a rolling field that sloped downward into the forest, revealing a stunning mountain vista in the distance.
Michelle pulled into the garage, and Audrey parked in the driveway behind it.
She was at Michelle’s house. After they’d kissed in Audrey’s classroom.
Audrey gulped as she got out of her car and followed Michelle inside. They entered through the garage into a mudroom, where Michelle paused to take off her shoes and coat. Audrey did the same.
They walked into the kitchen, where a black-and-white cat sat in the middle of the floor, regarding Audrey with open curiosity. Somehow, she’d never imagined Michelle having a pet, and the discovery made Audrey smile.
Michelle stopped walking so suddenly that Audrey nearly bumped into her from behind.
Just as quickly, Michelle spun, wrapped a hand around the back of Audrey’s head, and pulled her into the kind of kiss that immediately sent Audrey’s body up in flames.
Her back met the wall with a thump as Michelle pressed into her.
One of Michelle’s thighs slipped between Audrey’s at the same time that Michelle’s tongue pushed into her mouth, and Audrey could only groan, arching forward to meet her.
Up to this moment, Audrey had been the one initiating things between them, but right now, Michelle was in charge, and it was everything Audrey had ever wanted.
She kissed Michelle as if her life depended on it because right now, it felt like it did. Nothing was more important than Michelle’s tongue in her mouth, her breasts pressed against Audrey’s, or the hand gripping Audrey’s ass, pulling her insistently closer.
“Michelle, god ...” Audrey’s hands were on Michelle’s lower back below her tweed blazer, pushing at the snug waistband of her pants.
Michelle just kissed her harder. Her mouth moved against Audrey’s with an intensity that mirrored Audrey’s own desperation.
Michelle kissed her like she couldn’t stop, like Audrey was the best person she’d ever kissed, and it was incredibly erotic because Michelle was so worldly, so sophisticated, literally everything Audrey had been fantasizing about since she was eighteen.
Audrey had had some great kisses in her lifetime, but none of them matched the searing intensity of this one. This kiss was raw . It was uninhibited in a way that was rare for Audrey, and she could only imagine it was even more out of character for someone as buttoned up as Michelle.
Or maybe this passionate, unrestrained woman had always been lurking just beneath the surface ...
“Audrey ...,” Michelle rasped as she lifted her mouth from Audrey’s.
“Other stuff first, talk after?” Audrey suggested with no small amount of desperation. They needed to talk. They really and truly did, and they should probably do it first, but she just wasn’t capable of civilized conversation right now.
“Yes.” And Michelle dove in for another kiss. Her hands roamed over Audrey’s dress, and then she heard the hiss of her zipper being lowered. Michelle’s hand was on the bare skin of her back, her blunt fingernails digging into Audrey’s flesh in a way that had them both gasping. “My bedroom?”
“Definitely.”
Michelle took a step back. Her hair was a mess, loose strands that Audrey had pulled free from her neat twist framing her face.
Michelle’s cheeks were flushed, her lips swollen, and her eyes were positively sparkling .
She was breathtakingly beautiful, so alive , energy shimmering around her in a tangible aura.
This was the woman Audrey had first swooned for so many years ago, the woman she was still swooning for. The dull, bitter version of her Audrey had met this fall seemed like someone else entirely.
Michelle gripped Audrey’s hand, leading her swiftly through a living room decorated in shades of gray.
Its walls displayed a collection of paintings that had Audrey’s eyes bugging out of her head, but she’d think about that later because Michelle had led her upstairs to the bedroom, also done in shades of gray and filled with a stunning assortment of paintings.
The black-and-white cat on the bed went perfectly with the decor, but before Audrey could say so, the cat had glared at them and run off. Audrey was going to get the full scoop on both the cat and the art later, but first ...
As she’d done in the classroom, Audrey gripped Michelle’s blazer and yanked her up against Audrey’s body. “Do you have any idea how many fantasies I’ve had about this blazer?”