Chapter 14
Valen
Iwas still inside Archer when the post-nut clarity hit me like a brick.
What the fuck had I just done?
I pulled out of him slowly, my hands trembling as the full weight of what we’d just done crashed down on me. The scent of sex and satisfaction hung heavy in the air of my office, mixing with the lingering traces of Archer’s arousal and my own desperate need that had finally been sated.
My student. I’d just fucked my student. On top of my desk. During office hours.
And the worst part was… I felt fucking great. The sexual energy was already coursing through my veins, making me feel more alive than I had in decades. It was… addicting.
But Christ, what had gotten into me? One moment I’d been trying to maintain professional boundaries, and the next I’d been buried balls-deep in the most responsive, gorgeous man I’d encountered in centuries.
The way he’d begged for it, the way he’d taken everything I’d given him and asked for more...
I stepped back, my legs unsteady as I watched Archer slowly straighten up from where he’d been lying on my desk. His dark hair was mussed, his cheeks flushed, and there was a satisfied smile playing at the corners of his mouth that made my spent cock twitch with renewed interest.
“That was...” he started, turning to face me with that post-orgasmic glow that made him look absolutely edible.
“A mistake,” I finished, the words tasting bitter even as I said them. “Fuck, Archer. This was exactly what I said I wouldn’t do.”
His smile faltered slightly. “You didn’t seem to think it was a mistake two minutes ago when you were telling me how good it felt to be crammed balls deep inside me.”
Heat crept up my neck as I remembered the things I’d whispered against his ear, the praise I’d lavished on him as I’d fucked him senseless. The way I’d completely lost control the moment he’d pushed me too far.
“That’s not the point,” I said, reaching for my discarded clothes with hands that were still shaking. “This can’t happen again, Archer. It can’t.”
“Why not?” He made no move to get dressed, just stood there naked and gorgeous and completely unashamed. “We’re both adults. We both wanted it. And it was fucking incredible, you can’t deny that.”
I pulled on my shirt, not trusting myself to look at him for too long.
Even now, with my rational mind screaming about all the ways this could destroy us both, I wanted to push him back down on that desk and take him again.
Slower this time. Make him absolutely fall apart under my touch until he was sobbing with pleasure.
“Because you’re my student,” I said, forcing steel into my voice. “Because there are rules. Because if anyone finds out about this, it won’t just be my job on the line. Your family, your reputation, and your entire future could be destroyed.”
“My family doesn’t get to dictate my sex life,” Archer said, finally reaching for his clothes. But there was something in his tone, a bitterness that made me look up sharply.
“What happened?” I asked, noting the tension in his shoulders as he pulled on his shirt. “Before you came here. You were upset about something. I could smell it on you.”
For a moment, I thought he wasn’t going to answer. Then his jaw tightened, and I caught a flash of the same vulnerability I’d seen when he’d first walked into my office.
“My father showed up at my summoning exam today,” he said quietly. “I lost control of the spell because I panicked when I saw him. Made a complete fool of myself in front of the entire class.”
My chest tightened with an emotion I didn’t want to examine too closely. “And?”
“And he humiliated me in front of the entire class and then threatened to make me quit the fencing team if my performance doesn’t improve.” Archer’s hands stilled on his belt buckle. “He thinks I’m distracted. That I’m not focusing on what matters.”
The irony wasn’t lost on me. His father was right, in a way. Archer had been distracted. By me. And now I’d given him even more reason to lose focus, more secrets to keep, more ways for his carefully constructed life to fall apart.
“Maybe he has a point,” I said, hating myself for the words even as they left my mouth. “Maybe you should focus on your studies. On meeting your family’s expectations.”
Archer’s head snapped up, his blue eyes flashing with hurt and anger. “Is that what you really think? That I should just fall in line and be the perfect little Quinn heir?”
“I think you should protect yourself,” I said, pulling on my jacket and trying to ignore the way his expression crumpled slightly. “From me. From this. From anything that could jeopardize your future.”
“What if I don’t want that future?” he asked, stepping closer despite my obvious attempts to create distance between us. “As soon as I graduate, they’re going to marry me off, Valen. This is my last chance to have something I actually… want.”
The raw honesty in his voice nearly undid me. For a moment, I let myself imagine what it would be like to give in completely. To stop fighting this pull between us and see where it led. But then reality crashed back in, cold and unforgiving.
“It doesn’t matter what you want,” I said, the words cutting through the air like a blade. “This ends here. Now. We go back to being professor and student, nothing more.”
“Bullshit.” The vehemence in his voice surprised me. “You can’t just fuck me like that and then pretend it meant nothing. I felt how you responded to me, Valen. This isn’t just physical for you either.”
He was right, and that terrified me more than anything else.
What I’d felt with him went beyond simple sexual gratification.
He was basically a food source for me, and one of the most succulent ones I’d ever tasted.
But he didn’t know I was that kind of vampire and I had a feeling things had gone too far to ask for permission to feed from him now.
“Get dressed,” I said instead of acknowledging his words. “And leave. Our next lesson will be strictly academic, or there won’t be any more lessons at all.”
For a long moment, we stared at each other across the small space of my office. I could see the hurt in his eyes, the confusion and frustration that mirrored my own. But underneath it all was a determination that made my stomach clench with dread.
Archer Quinn wasn’t the type to give up easily. And I was very much afraid that I’d just made this situation infinitely more complicated than it had been before.
But, despite the obstinance in his eyes, he dressed and headed for the door. With another flick of his fingers it unlocked, the scent of magic filling the room momentarily.
“This is far from over, Valen,” he said, glancing back at me. “Neither of us have anything to lose and I know you won’t be able to resist me.”
“Yes, I will,” I replied, setting my jaw.
“Right,” he nodded. “You mean like you just did?” He let out a small scoff before pulling the door open. “See you in class, Professor.”
The door closed behind him with a soft click that somehow managed to sound like a gunshot in the sudden silence of my office. I stood there for a long moment, staring at the closed door and trying to process what just happened. What I’d allowed to happen.
I’d fucked my student. Again. And this time, there were no excuses about not knowing who he was or being caught up in the moment. This time, I’d made a conscious choice to throw every professional boundary out the window the moment he’d pushed me past my breaking point.
The worst part was how right he’d been. I hadn’t been able to resist him.
All my talk about maintaining distance, about keeping things professional, had crumbled the instant he’d challenged me.
The moment he’d looked at me with those blue eyes full of hurt and defiance and told me he wanted to be claimed, I’d been lost.
I sank into my desk chair, running my hands through my hair as the full implications of what we’d done started to sink in.
The scent of sex still clung to the air, a constant reminder of how thoroughly I’d compromised both our positions.
Anyone who walked into this office in the next hour would know exactly what had happened here.
My desk was a mess, papers scattered where we’d knocked them aside in our desperation to get at each other.
There was a small tear in one of my academic journals where Archer’s fingernails had caught it when I’d made him cum so hard he’d nearly passed out.
All of it was a physical reminder of my complete loss of control.
I should have been panicking. Should have been spiraling into the same kind of anxiety that had kept me holed up in my college for days after our first encounter. Instead, I felt... satisfied and more centered than I’d been since the moment I’d first laid eyes on him in that fencing salle.
The feeding had been incredible. Better than anything I’d experienced in decades. Archer’s sexual energy was like fine wine compared to the cheap beer I usually sustained myself on. Rich, complex, intoxicating in a way that made every cell in my body hum with contentment.
But that was exactly the problem, wasn’t it?
He was addictive. One taste and I already wanted more, wanted to explore every facet of his desire until I knew exactly what made him tick.
The responsible thing would be to cut all contact, to remove myself from temptation before I did something even more stupid.
Except I couldn’t. Even if I wanted to avoid him completely, which I didn’t, he was still on my fencing team. Still auditing my class. Still going to be a constant presence in my life whether I liked it or not.
And the look in his eyes when he’d left...
that wasn’t the expression of someone who was planning to quietly accept my rejection.
Archer had made it clear that he considered this far from over, and knowing what I did about his personality, he was probably already planning his next move.
A part of me felt bad for him, trying to cope with all the weight of family expectation on his shoulders.
But another part of me was angry that he seemed so unbothered by putting my life on the line just to stick it to his parents.
I glanced at the clock on my wall and realized with a start that I had office hours starting in twenty minutes. Students would be arriving soon, expecting their professor to be composed and professional, not sitting here reeking of sex and poor decision-making.
I forced myself to stand up and start cleaning the office, shoving papers back into neat piles and opening a window to air out the lingering scent. My hands were steadier now, the post-feeding energy making me feel stronger than I had in years.
As I straightened my tie and tried to make myself presentable, I caught sight of my reflection in the small mirror I kept on my bookshelf.
My hair was mussed, my lips slightly swollen from kissing, and there was a satisfied gleam in my amber eyes that I couldn’t quite suppress.
Even my skin seemed to glow with renewed vigor.
I looked like a man who’d just had the best sex of his very long life. Which, unfortunately, was exactly what I was.
A soft knock on my door made me freeze, my enhanced hearing immediately identifying the heartbeat on the other side. It wasn’t Archer. His rhythm was faster, more intense. This was one of my regular students, probably here for the office hours I was supposed to be holding.
“Come in,” I called out, settling behind my desk and trying to look like I’d been grading papers instead of fucking my team captain senseless.
The door opened to reveal Ms. Chen, one of my werewolf students. She stepped inside with the nervous energy of someone who wasn’t entirely comfortable being alone with a vampire professor, but was trying not to show it.
“Professor Crowe? I had some questions about the reading assignment on vampire-witch relations during the Industrial Revolution.”
“Of course,” I said, gesturing to the chair across from my desk. The irony of her question wasn’t lost on me. “What specifically were you struggling with?”
As Ms. Chen settled into the chair and pulled out her notes, I forced myself to focus on her questions about historical trade agreements, political alliances, and monster relationships with humans and witches alike.
But part of my mind kept drifting back to the way Archer had looked spread out on this very desk, the sounds he’d made when I’d pushed inside him, the way his body had responded to every touch like he’d been made for me.
This was going to be a problem. A big fucking problem.
Because despite everything I’d said about ending this, about maintaining professional boundaries, I already knew I was lying to myself.
The next time Archer pushed, the next time he challenged me or looked at me with those blue eyes full of want and defiance, I was going to fold like a house of cards.
And we were both going to end up in a world of trouble.