Page 22 of Teach Me
I relaxed deeper into my seat and smiled, hoping the tension in his shoulders would follow suit and melt away, but hecontinued to sit rigidly as I asked, “I assume you want to talk about your essay draft?”
“Sort of?” He pulled a face. “I mean, yes, I do.”
“Lay it on me. Let’s figure it out.”
Cam dragged a hand down his face, and my attempt at portraying relaxed body language shifted into overt concern. Maybe Ihadembarrassed him too much. Shit. “Hey,” I said gently. “We can get this sorted.”
“God,” he murmured. “Okay.” He stared down at his hands and then lifted his gaze to mine. “I think you’re great. I love your class, I like when you come to the cafe. Like waiting on you, joking around, and talking to you. You’re cool, you know? Cooler than I thought. I mean, at first, you seemed a little uptight, and I had this impression—” He waved his hand. “That’s beside the point.”
I nodded slowly, sensing a “but.” Christ, I had definitely offended him. “Listen, if this is about today in class, I think I did tease too much. That wasn’t fair?—”
He put a hand up. “No, it’s not that, I swear. I mean, I was a little embarrassed, but not any worse than…” He shook his head again, then looked directly at me. “It doesn’t matter. I need to just tell you this because it’s the right thing to do.”
The hairs on my forearm lifted, and I straightened in my seat. I’d rarely heard those words before and not been disappointed at what followed. “Go on.”
“I sent a text today in class.”
“Okay, you and probably three-quarters of the class. I’m not blind.” I forced a chuckle. “There’s no detention in college for doing that.”
“I sent a text to someone I’d been hooking up with. Someone I met at a club. I sent it while I was waiting to talk to you.” Cameron paused. His gaze burned steadily into mine as if, now that he’d made the decision to speak, he was daring me to silencehim. Irrational jealousy flared to life in my gut, and I had to fight hard to quell it, despite realizing how completely inappropriate it was. Of course he had someone. Why wouldn’t he? He was smart, gorgeous, down-to-earth, funny. Exactly the kind of guy I’d have gone for in college if I’d been single.
Cameron exhaled lengthily, drawing me back to the present, and I tried to shake off the jealous fog. “And you responded.”
“I…what?” I frowned, perplexed, unable to remember any sort of text exchange between us, email or otherwise, and drawn yet again to the fierceness of his eyes.
The realization dawned on me like a spike to the gut.
Hey, I just wanted to let you know that Saturday works for me.
“Oh Christ,” I muttered, and a string of expletives that I managed to keep from leaving my mouth followed, spiraling like Christmas tinsel in my mind. “I?—”
“You sucked me off in a bathroom stall.”
I think he meant to shock me, and he did. But beneath that was a gauzy layer of heat evoked by the memory of the noises that had come from the other side of the wall, the desperate moans, hearing nails scrabble against the thin wood barrier that separated us. The man who had made those delicious noises, who’d lapped at my cock like he couldn’t get enough, like it was the best thing he’d ever tasted, was the same guy who’d joked with me in the cafe earlier over a goddamn omelet, who’d been sitting in front of me in the lecture hall for weeks. Who sat before me now with an ashen face.
I was fucking around with my own student. A student I was already attracted to.
My chest constricted around my windpipe, and I swallowed hard, trying to rid myself of the sensation.
“Are you sure?” It was possibly the stupidest question I’d asked in my life, a desperate attempt to try to change the answer I already knew.
“It was me the other time, too, obviously,” he admitted softly, not that I needed the confession because within it was a lilt I recognized immediately. A certain tone I’d heard before in the throes of getting each other off.
Oh god. I’d sucked this gorgeous man’s cock and loved it, had lavished it with my tongue, had been desperate to swallowmy own student’scum.
“Fuck.” My gut dropped to basement level, and my mouth went bone-dry.
“Yeah.” His hollow tone echoed the feeling in my chest.
I’d considered a lot of worst-case scenarios where students were involved, the most obvious being getting involved with a student in the first place. But I’d never even considered that I could accidentally fucking stumble into the worst of the worst scenarios.
I glanced toward my door, assuring it was still shut, before I leaned forward. “What the hell were you doing there anyway?” My tone was more accusing than it should have been.
Cameron’s mouth dropped open. “I could ask the same of you. Is that, like, your thing?”
“No!” I barked and then lowered my voice. “No.”
“Careful, you sound a little judgmental for a guy who was in the same place doing the same thing I was.”