Read more from AE Lister #2
“Four have officially dropped the course.”
He closed his mouth, but a hint of the smile returned. He cleared his throat and looked everywhere but at me.
“Three are simply gone. Missing.”
He rubbed his bottom lip and shook his head. The smile returned in full.
“Clove?”
He raised his gaze to mine. Something ignited within me—something violent and ravenous. I saw the same thing spark in him. The smile disappeared, and he shifted in his seat.
“Jeeze, don’t look at me like that,” he said.
“Like what?”
“Like you want to fuck me over this desk.”
“Like I want—” I stared at him, legitimately shocked. True, I was a creature of the night who survived off human blood and killed at will— discretely —but I was not the type to throw around vulgar language…or generally receive it.
“Oh, surely you know what fucking is.” He waved at the desk between us.
“You want to fuck me . Over that. Desk. ” Clove said, enunciating perfectly so there was no misunderstanding.
How could there have been, when the language he used was so blunt, and when he ran his slim fingers along the crease in his jeans where a sizeable bulge was obvious.
Good Lord . I hadn’t prepared for this. And he was right. But it wouldn’t be over this desk. And it wouldn’t be now. Maybe it wouldn’t be ever.
“Are you hunting my students?”
He blinked again, settled himself comfortably in the chair again, rubbed at his lap then shrugged.
“Clove,” I said.
His gaze met mine. He seemed amused more than anything.
“Professor Wilde.”
I shook my head. He was infuriating—self-assured and unapologetic. I wanted to slap him…or spank him, something to wipe that insouciant smile off his pretty face. And yes, I did want to fuck him, which only irritated me more.
I leaned forward, using the force of centuries to glare him down and show him my power.
“You cannot feed with so little regard for our circumstances.”
“ Our circumstances?”
“Yes.”
He scowled. “Why not?”
“Because I’m certainly not the only one who has noticed them dropping like flies. You’ll draw too much attention to us.”
To us .
“Ah. I see,” he said, leaning forward and matching my intensity with his own youthful flare. “You’re scared.”
I blinked.
He continued. “Worried I’ll blow your cover.”
He quirked his lip as his gaze locked on the bulge in my chinos. He licked it again, and I knew exactly what he was thinking.
I stood languidly from my chair, looming over him. We were similar in height, but he was shorter, even when he wasn’t sitting down.
He didn’t flinch, even though a human in the same situation would have been shitting themselves.
“You need to stop,” I said.
He laughed. “I need to feed,” he said, licking his top teeth. “Don’t you, Professor?”
“To feed?” I repeated.
“Or are you so old you can’t stomach the rich taste of fresh human?”
I let the insult go. I knew I was old, but it was a strength, not a weakness. I wasn’t mortal, and I looked the age I had been when I was made—which, of course, was a couple of decades older than Clove was now. But a twenty-year age difference was a joke from my ancient perspective.
“I handle my needs with discretion and sense.”
He laughed again. “Wow. Sounds awesome.”
I narrowed my eyes, wondering how we were going to come to an agreement on this. And that was when Sage chose to interrupt us.
“Benjamin, I have your—”
They stopped dead just inside the door.
“Oh. Sorry. I didn’t know you were—”
My androgynous assistant scanned young, bright, vibrant Clove from top to bottom, and I knew we were going to have a problem when Sage dropped the papers and made a noise I recognized.
Oh Gods.
Clove finally seemed to find a care and bent to help my Sage to collect the papers that had fallen, giving me a sidelined glance as he did so.
“Here… Let me help you,” he said.
“Oh, yes, thank you so…much. Yes. Please. Thank you.”
They stared at each other, and I could almost feel the hunger and desire rise in Clove.
“Don’t you dare,” I said, as he eyed my lovely Sage with the intensity of a ravenous predator. “Clove. No.”
But he’d already grabbed Sage’s arm and pulled them close. So I lunged forward and grabbed Clove’s chin as he opened his mouth and bared his fangs. I wrenched his face away from Sage and threw him against the wall.
Clove hissed as he fell to the floor, but he was already gathering for another attack. I held up my hand.
“Stop!”
“Why the fuck should I?” he snarled, saliva dripping from his lips.
“Because Sage is mine, and you haven’t asked if I’ll share .”
This confused him enough that he stilled and looked between the two of us.
Sage trembled but also stared wide-eyed at Clove, as if they wanted him to feed.
Knowing Sage as I did, that was probably accurate, but they didn’t yet realize that Clove would kill them if he went ahead, whereas I had the control to hold back and keep Sage with me.
Then again, perhaps Clove could do it if I helped him.
Perhaps he should learn some restraint. But did I want to risk my dearest Sage on a youngster’s appetite? Did I want to share them, even briefly?
“Sage, please go.”
Sage gave Clove a lingering look but nodded— my obedient darling . “Yes, Professor.”
And they were gone and closing the door behind them.
I was ready to restrain Clove if he tried to follow, but he didn’t.
He braced himself against the wall where he seemed crouched to spring on…
something. But as I watched, he regrouped and calmed himself, and his body relaxed.
He slid down the wall and sat on the carpeted floor, his long legs extended in front of him.
“What is the human to you?” he asked. He seemed dazed and exhausted, as if it had taken all his strength to resist.
Hearing my beautiful Sage referred to as ‘the human’ by this upstart newborn caused my anger to flare, but I tamped it down.
I stepped forward and locked the door, then sat down in my desk chair, keeping my eyes on Clove all the while.
He was so very new, and I had to be prepared for anything, although he truly didn’t stand a chance against me, and he must have known it.
“Sage is—” I tried to think of a suitable descriptor for Sage and waved a hand in the air instead. “Never mind. They’re mine. That’s all you need to know.”
“Human.”
“Yes.”
“Blood slave?” he licked his lips as if he could already taste it.
“In a manner of speaking.” Except Sage was free to refuse me if they chose to do so. I didn’t say that. Better for Clove to think they were my captive and that I’d protect them like a prized possession.
“How do they identify?”
“Pardon?”
“You’re using they/them pronouns. Are they trans…or something else?”
“That’s something they may choose to divulge to you. It’s not my place to say.”
“Hmm.” He looked at the closed door, then back at me. “Pretty.”
It was such a tame descriptor of Sage that I couldn’t help but give a short laugh. “More than you’ll ever know.”
“Professor Wilde.” He said my name like he was tasting how it felt in his mouth.
“Mr. Noble.”
Now he laughed—a bubbly, happy-sounding noise that shocked me in its purity. He didn’t seem like a vampire when he laughed. He came across like a young, carefree human. And it warmed me more than I wanted it to.
“So formal. I like it when you call me Clove.”
Hmm.
“Clove, then. Will you stop feeding from my students? And anywhere else on this campus?”
Clove smiled and opened his mouth. He bared his fangs and swiped his tongue over them in an obvious display.
“Well, that depends.”
Upstart.
“On what, may I ask?”
“I want to make a deal with you, Professor Wilde,” he said, looking me over with a different kind of hunger.
I couldn’t truthfully say I was unaffected. In fact, I felt an answering need—not for blood, because Clove didn’t have any to spare. But a hankering for something else he could give me, perhaps wanted to give me.
I cleared my throat. I didn’t feel flustered very often.
“What kind of a deal?”
He grinned. “A fair one.”
“Hmm.”
He brought one knee up and flicked a piece of lint off his jeans. “I’ll stop hunting your students, Professor Wilde, on one condition.”
“Which is?”
He gazed hard at me with something like impatience. “That you show me what you do with Sage.”
“ Show you!”
“Oooh! By your outrage, I assume it’s lit. And that there’s some…sucking involved.” He clapped his hands together like a delighted child.
I frowned. He knew how to get what he wanted. I’d give him that…but not yet.
“No. Not that.”
Clove shrugged. He laced his fingers over his knee and swung it gently from side to side. He leaned his head back against the wall, like he had all the time in the world to lounge in my office.
“Oh, come on. You’re not so stodgy you won’t show me how to feed properly, are you?”
Stodgy? That hit right where he’d wanted it to.
“I’m not stodgy.”
“Prove it. Let me see .”
Gods, he was fucking infuriating. And part of me did want to show him—the part of me that liked games in the bedroom and teaching. But…what about Sage and what they wanted?
Who was I kidding? Sage would be fully on board. Was probably fully on board already, after one glimpse of this compelling youngster.
And I had to give Clove points for asking for help, even if it was in a self-serving sort of way.
“ If —” I said, and at that, the alluring bugger smiled wide, knowing he had me. I held up one finger. “ If I do as you ask…”
I stood again and walked around the desk and over to him. He craned his neck to gaze at me from where he was sitting.
“If I introduce you properly to Sage and see where we go from there…”
He narrowed his eyes. “You’re talking like Sage has a say in what happens.”
“They do. Always.”
He eyed me. “Interesting.”
“If I do this, I want you to promise to keep your hands off my students.”
We held each other’s gazes for a long moment. Finally, Clove gathered his legs under him and stood. He stepped forward so that we were barely a foot apart. He smelled of laundry detergent and aftershave. And something else…
“I promise to keep my hands off your students.”
“And your teeth.”
“And my teeth.”
“Prove it.”
He blinked. Then laughed at the throwback of his own words. Perhaps he hadn’t expected it of me.
“What?”
“No students missing from my class for one week, and you can come home with me and Sage for one night.”
He narrowed his eyes. “But…how am I going to feed?”
“You’re going to do it off campus. I don’t care where, but I’d better not hear of any mysterious deaths. You choose your victims with consideration, and don’t leave a trail of corpses for the police.”
“You’re pretty big on discretion for a guy with a blood slave who probably serves him in other ways as well.”
“No comment,” I said, stepping aside and showing Clove the door. “One week. Prove you can be sensible, and I’ll help you.”
He crossed his arms over his chest and didn’t move.
“I’ll do it, but I want something from you, too.”
“That’s not the way this deal is going to work.”
“A kiss.”
“Oh, for God’s sake.”
He grinned. And shrugged. And waited.
“I don’t even like you,” I said, with steely resolve.
Clove looked me up and down again, hesitated deliberately on the bulge in my trousers. “Oh, I think you like me a little.”
I cleared my throat and shifted my gaze. He moved closer and took the lapel of my jacket in his fingers, leaning into me.
“Just one kiss. I’ve never been kissed by another vampire. Or…anything like that, really.”
“What do you mean?” I said, my breath hitching. “Of course you have.” I pulled back and met his open gaze. “Haven’t you?”
“No. I was made then abandoned. I only got the kiss of this undead life, nothing more interesting than that…ever.”
Good gods . So his patron had fed on him, created him then left.
It was a harsh way to enter our existence, but not all vampires were kind and considerate.
Perhaps few were. Most would have tried to keep him, at least to have a loyal follower and desperate servant.
This explained some of his behavior— perhaps all of it .
Nobody was looking out for him. Nobody was guiding him and teaching him the skills he needed.
“Well, then. That’s a shame.”
“I’ve had offers, believe me.”
“Oh, I’m certain of that,” I said, unable to keep my gaze from wandering over his sleek form.
“But not from anything I’d trust within an inch of me.”
I inhaled the heady scent of him. “Until now,” I whispered, my gaze focused on his sweet lips that were only inches from my own.
“Until now. Until you.”
“All right,” I said. “You can have your kiss. Take it.”
I heard Clove’s sharp intake of breath, heard the sound of his undead heart quicken, its mimicry of a human’s exquisite in its perfection.
Then his lips touched mine with the softest pressure.
It wasn’t what I’d expected. I’d anticipated the roughness of desperate hunger and raging lust. Our kind were ravenous in all sorts of ways, especially at the beginning of the immortal journey.
But Clove’s kiss was remarkably restrained. Perhaps he had some control, some sweetness even, under his external bravado.
I made a sound that must have encouraged him and parted my lips. I put a hand to his waist, both to steady myself and to protect me if he tried anything. It could all be an act, although he’d be astoundingly stupid to match himself against me.
Clove put his hands to my chest and slid his lips from mine, baring his neck to me in the most beautiful supplication. I licked down his throat, unable to stop myself, and placed my teeth against him in a benevolent show of dominance.
Clove sighed and remained motionless. I sucked gently on his neck and swiped my tongue over the spot where his pulse would be if he were alive.
“Fuck…” he said. “Oh fuck .”
I wanted to do more—so much more. But this wasn’t the time. And the intense desire I felt for this upstart of a fledgling vampire made me wary…and vulnerable.
I let him go and pulled away.
“One week. If all goes well, you can meet Sage.”
We stared at each other, our lips parted and our breaths harsh with the need we both felt.
“Fine,” Clove said. “If it makes you happy.”
“Trust me… It’s not me you have to worry about.”