Chapter Twenty-Two Maddie
Chapter Twenty-Two
Maddie
The door to the adjunct office is closed, so I talk loudly to one of the TAs about an ongoing filibuster happening in the Wisconsin state senate to make sure that if Anton and Martin are mid-coitus, they’ll hear me coming.
But when I let myself in, the only person waiting for me is Bram in the much too small armchair in front of the shared adjunct desk.
He stands as I enter, and before I can even close the door, he asks, “How did it go?”
I shuck off my coat and hang it and my bag on the hook near the door and lie, because if I’m just not looking at him, I can lie. “Fine,” I say. “He apologized.”
“So you’re saying you confronted Wallace about barging into your class earlier and earlier every day, and that it was fine, and that he apologized.”
“That’s exactly it,” I tell him as I discard my slouchy cardigan as well and then smooth a hand over my bangs, a self-soothing habit I’d done since I was a child.
I’d missed my bangs. I’d missed my dark hair.
After three years of looking in the mirror and seeing a stranger, I finally feel a little more like myself.
With the signature bob I’d worn since middle school back, I’d found myself reaching for one of my favorite older T-shirts this morning.
A black shirt so heavily faded that it was more of an acidic gray and in a tiny, dainty embroidered script across the chest it read I SUPPORT WOMEN’S WRONGS.
I paired it with a burgundy-plaid pleated skirt and my beloved chunky loafers.
When I came down the stairs this morning, Bram took one look at my shirt and let out a soft mmmm before saying, “Me too.”
“Madelyn,” Bram says now, in a voice that borders on scolding.
I turn to face him, my proud shoulders rounding into slopes. “It was a hard morning, okay?”
He steps toward me and takes my hand in his, his thumb running along the space between my thumb and pointer finger. “What happened?”
“Everything was fine. I visited Junie in the library and then just before class started, I got a text from Gentry asking me to please remove any photos of us from my social media because they’re doing a scrub of the internet before early voting starts.
I haven’t even logged onto social media since I left California and there were all these awful messages from his friends saying how sorry they were to see us split and how everything happens for a reason. ”
His lips purse, nostrils flaring. “I’m sorry,” he grinds out.
“It’s stupid. It’s not like I want any evidence of our relationship out there anyway. But it just . . . it made me feel like I’d done something wrong. Like I was the reason things ended. Or that I’m some kind of stain.”
“Maddie—” he starts.
“I know that’s not true, okay? But between that and the idea of facing off against Wallace today, it was just easier to let him walk in five minutes early and steamroll through the last bit of my lecture. I was mentally checked out anyway.”
He steps toward me so that my nose is nearly brushing his chest and he keeps going until he’s guiding me backward against the door. I inhale against his wool sweater and let myself become submerged in cedar and eucalyptus. A cool forest made of soft earth and muscled professor.
Beside my hip the lock on the door clicks, and Bram’s fingers quickly move to the button and zipper of my skirt.
“Bram, this is a shared office,” I remind him.
“I don’t see anyone else here except for us,” he tells me. “When’s your department meeting?”
I glance up at the clock on the wall. “Twenty minutes.”
“And will Wallace be there?”
He tugs my skirt down over my hips and it pools at my feet. He squats down and lifts my feet one by one before folding my skirt and placing it on top of the nearest bookshelf. Which he can easily reach, because of course he can.
“He’ll be a little late,” I say as his fingers skate up my waist and under my T-shirt. He rolls his thumbs over my nipples, the only barrier between us the thin deep-green mesh of my bra.
With careful steadiness, he lifts my arms and pulls the T-shirt over my head.
I check the knob on the door to make sure it really is locked. I may have caught Anton and Martin once before, but I’m not looking to repay the favor. Especially with my sometimes boss and sometimes colleague.
He bends down and his mouth closes over my nipple, his tongue dancing over the fabric as he sucks.
I throw my head back against the door. “Oh my god.”
His mouth turns to my other breast, and why does the thought of him nipping and biting and sucking over the mesh of my bra make me so immediately horny?
We don’t have much time. Only twenty minutes. But I’m not about to waste a second.
I make quick work of his pants and reach below the waistband of his boxer briefs to take his weeping cock in my hand.
Without any warning, I sink to my knees, his teeth snagging against my tit as he’s abruptly forced to let go.
My hands move up his thighs, curving over the perfect roundness of his ass, and I pull his cock into my mouth in one rapid motion. He hits the back of my throat and I moan around him.
“Fuck.” The word is more of a low noise than actual speech.
I look up at him through my lashes as I pull back and take him again. Just outside the door, there are footsteps and voices as the world beyond it continues none the wiser to this kind, gentle, and unrelenting man whose cock is pulsing in my throat.
I break eye contact for just a minute as I drag his thick, angry rod over my tongue, leaving a trail of spit and red lipstick.
“Are you fucking kidding me, Madelyn? I’m never going to forget the sight of your cherry-red lipstick streaked across my dick. Stand up. Stand up right the fuck now and bend over that table with your hands behind your back.”
His fingers run through my smooth bob, and he tugs gently at the roots as I stand to my feet. I love the feeling of him pulling my hair and using it to lead me along like I’ve been so bad that I can’t be trusted to follow orders.
I bend over the desk, and neither of us bother to clear the stacks of papers as he presses my cheek into the ancient wood.
He yanks my ivory lace boy shorts down my thighs and leaves them hanging off a single ankle as he kicks the other leg open so that I’m completely spread for him on my own goddamn desk.
It’s so vulgar. My panties caught around my ankle and I’m wearing nothing but my bra, lacy socks, and loafers.
“Fucking art,” he says.
He presses his hips flush against my ass, the broad tip of his penis nudging at my warm, seeping slit. “Maddie, baby girl, do you know how powerful you are? How you demand that a room pay attention to you just by walking inside it?”
I shake my head and rock back against him. “Mmmm.”
His hand reaches around my hips and finds my clit puffy and ready for his touch. My hips move in a circle, searching him out.
“Wallace is an irritable old dinosaur who can only wish to be a stepping-stone on the path of your life.”
He holds my wrists with one hand at the small of my back as he plunges inside of me with one merciless thrust.
The scream that scratches against my throat is muffled as I bite down on my lips and I hold it there inside of me until it fizzles out into a whimper.
He is perfectly still, using me to warm his cock as he leans over and whispers in my ear, hands still fastened behind my back, “One day, you’re going to look back on men like Wallace and Gentry and you will see how silly you were for ever letting them be anything more than the dirt beneath your heels.
You’ll be right where you’ve always dreamed of being, Maddie, and someone like me would be so lucky as to kneel behind you at your podium, eating your pretty cunt. ”
So tenderly, he presses his lips to my cheek and then pulls back so that he’s gone from me except for just the tip.
He stands then, one hand digging into my hip, fingers punishing and bruising, while his other hand still circles my wrist in a way that’s secure but not too tight.
His erection drives into me in short, rapid thrusts, moans turning into curses turning into prayers on his lips.
He lets go of one of my hands. “I want you to touch that sweet little bud, Madelyn. Rub your clit for me.”
I do as he says. It’s a compulsion. I can’t stop. Someone could walk right in through that door and I wouldn’t be able to stop. We’re both so close to bliss. There are no words left. Just the rhythm of our bodies slapping together. The sound of him meeting my arousal.
“I’m—I’m—” The words die on my tongue as I’m flooded with sensual gratification that is all-consuming as it ripples through me, undulating.
Bram makes no effort to let up and only moves faster now that I’ve come all over his cock. His hips jerk as he paints my womb with his milky ejaculate.
He lays his head down against my shoulder, blanketing my body with his as he’s electrified with the last few jolts of pleasure.
“I—” His breath tickles my neck. “I could fuck you every day.”
And I feel the same way, of course, but the words are dangerously close to sentiments that ring forever.
After a moment of silent, panting breaths, he stands. But my body can’t move. Not yet.
I stay bent over as I listen to the sound of clothing rustling and zipping. He doesn’t have much dressing to do since he was nearly clothed as he fucked me. Yet another image that my perverted little mind gobbles up.
His broad hand smooths over my backside and he helps me up.
As I stand upright, his spend begins to leak out of me.
Wordlessly, he turns me around and pushes aside some papers for me to sit on the desk. With a studious expression on his face, he leans me back just a touch and crouches down before pushing his come back inside me.
A tiny gasp jumps from my chest and I bite down on my lower lip as I watch him.
“That’s better,” he whispers as he stands to retrieve my clothing and passes it to me.
I lean over to take my panties from where they still hang around one ankle, but Bram grips my wrist to stop me. He pulls the lacy fabric free and then balls it up before stuffing it in his pocket.
“Bram. Seriously? I need those back.”
He shakes his head.
I pull the T-shirt over my head and then he reaches down to smooth out my hair for me.
“While I love the thought of my soaked panties in your pocket while you go about your day, taking office visits and lecturing, I really need those before going to my department meeting.”
“You can have them back once you’ve completed your assignment.”
His hand rests along my jawline as his thumb tilts my chin back before pushing past my lips.
I let my teeth graze the digit and then I suck for a moment. I don’t think this is an argument I even want to win, so I finally nod.
“Now, go be my good girl and tell Dr. Wallace that he is no longer welcome to interrupt your class.”
He pulls his thumb free and just like his cock, it’s stained with my red lipstick.
“Yes, Professor.”