Chapter 2
Piper
I push him off me, or try to, seeing as he’s so big and heavy, and turn quickly, my eyes flicking past him.
Relief fills me when I realise we’re alone. Nothing but trees around us and the sound of my own heartbeat pounds in my ears.
“Don’t do that,” I say quickly.
“Do what?”
“Touch me.”
His mask hides most of his face, but there’s something dark in his eyes that keeps me rooted to the spot.
“Why do you look so frightened?” His voice is lazy. “We’re alone. And even if we weren’t, I wouldn’t give a bloody fuck.”
“So…” He takes a step forward, and I instinctively take one back. “Neither should you.”
“Mr Wardgrave,” I say, clearing my throat, “I think being this touchy while we’re alone in the woods is highly inappropriate. You’re my professor, and if someone saw us…”
I trail off.
“It would start questions. Rumours. And I…” I swallow hard. “We can’t have that.”
He takes a step forward.
Then another.
Any distance I put between us barely lasts a second before he closes it again.
He leans down until his mouth is beside my ear.
“Will they be rumours if they’re true?”
I suck in a deep breath.
No.
I take another step back. “Don’t make this more difficult than it needs to be.” I shake my head, trying to make sense of him. “Why do you seem to want… more? I can’t. We can’t.” My voice weakens for a second. “Whatever this is between us… it’s, it’s impossible.”
“Nothing really is,” he replies in that deep, bored voice of his.
“But why?” I ask quietly, and something in my voice must betray the real meaning behind the question because he goes still for a second before answering.
“I don’t know.”
He looks me over slowly before his eyes return to my face, and the look in them catches me off guard. They almost seem tender, an expression I’ve never seen on him in the few encounters we’ve had.
“I’m not talking bloody forever. And I’m certainly not talking about all that love and relationship rubbish,” he says, and I nearly flinch at the coldness in his voice.
Nearly.
“But this…” He reaches up and pushes the mask onto the top of his head before looking straight at me. “This between us happened.”
He takes another step closer.
“And it will happen again.” His voice lowers.
I shake my head, ready to argue, but he speaks over me before I can.
“I’ve got nothing good to give you. My soul’s rotten to the fucking core. But I can’t let you go. It’s as simple as that.”
His jaw tightens.
“And the more you fight it, the more it fucks with my head. The more I fucking want you.”
He leans closer, his eyes never leaving mine.
“And I always get what I want.”
I look at him and shake my head. The man is unbelievably arrogant.
He must read it on my face because the next second, he plants a hand against the tree beside my head.
Then the other.
Trapping me between him and the rough bark at my back.
He bends down until his nose brushes mine.
“This isn’t me being a prick.” He doesn’t look away. “It’s simply the truth.”
One second he’s staring at me like I already belong to him, and the next his mouth is on mine.
A soft breath leaves me as my eyes close.
His hand slides to my waist, pulling me closer against him as he kisses me, my head spinning.
The kiss is tender but rough at the same time, full of need.
My mind goes completely blank. For those few seconds, everything else disappears.
But reality slams back into me just as quickly, and I shove him away with all the strength I have.
He really does look confused. Perhaps because I responded to his kiss so well. Because he felt how much I wanted it too.
“I’m curious,” he says. “This resistance… is it because of the professor-student situation?”
“Among other things.”
“Those being?”
“You’ll hate me when you find out,” I whisper.
Then I turn around and make my way out of the woods and back towards my dorm, leaving him behind.
Running again.
Which, if he is to be believed, is apparently something I excel at.
I feel his eyes on me the entire walk back to my dorm, even after I step inside the building.
I quickly unlock my door and shove it shut behind me. My back hits the wood, and I close my eyes for a second, trying to steady my breathing.
My phone buzzes in the pocket of my jeans.
I pull it out.
You’re playing with fire, and you’ll get burned.