Page 108 of Whirlwind

Angel clearly didn’t want her to make it up the stairs in one piece. “I’m the… I’m still the slutty little whore I was in your dorm room.”

Angel smiled, hard and cruel in all the right ways. “So maybe I need to pay a visit to your dorm room tonight. Since you didn’t want to talk to me in the hall. We’ll call it a do-over.”

It took Nina a moment to figure out what Angel meant. When she did, she had to lean back against the wall just to keep her balance. She felt small and helpless and needy, quivering with anticipation.

“I think you like that idea. You told me you didn’t want to see me again, but that wasn’t true, was it? You just needed me to come find you in your dorm where I could talk to you alone.”

Nina felt like her rapid breathing must be drowning out all other sound. She let Angel’s words fill her, moving her to another place and time. Where they could get things right.

“Is your roommate home right now?”

What roommate? Oh, like a dorm roommate. “No… I’ll be… I’ll be all alone.” Her voice came out in a breathless squeak. She was leaving herself open and undefended.

“What’s your safe word, slut?”

“Turpentine.”

She saw the recognition in Angel’s eyes as soon as she’d said it. No one had ever asked her what it meant, but Angel already knew. Over winter break that year, she’d told her father she was going into art instead of business and he’d poured a bottle of turpentine over the stacked canvases she was bringing back to school for a show.

For a moment, the harsh Domme mask melted away from Angel’s face. She raised Nina’s hand and brought it to her lips. “I’m sorry, baby.”

“It’s over. I’m stronger now.”

“I know you are.” Angel was fierce. Protective.

Nina felt all melty and warm inside in a different way. Layers of past and present were slipping over themselves in a tangled stream, with Angel as the only constant.

Angel held her gaze for a long beat, like she was trying to peer into her soul. At last, she gave a small nod, like she was satisfied. But by what Nina had no idea.

Angel dropped her hand and leaned back against the opposite wall. Lounging. Posing. “Head on up, baby.” She inclined her head toward the upstairs door. “We have a conversation we need to finish, and I don’t think you want to have it in this hallway where anyone could see us.”

Nina shook her head, getting back into the scene. The nervous, helpless schoolgirl, ready to do the bidding of the powerful older student who commanded her days.

She started up the stairs, almost tripping and then catching herself. Was Angel watching her? Of course she was. She could feel those eyes burning into her back.

And now that she was at the top of the stairs, Angel was probably getting a good look up her skirt.

She felt herself blushing, tingling with excitement.

There wasn’t a lock on the upstairs door, thank God, because she probably wouldn’t have been able to focus long enough to open it.

She scurried to her bedroom, looking around and knowing it was a mess. Maybe she should put things away. Or clean herself up a little. She scooped up a pile of clothing from the bed and tossed it onto the chair. Maybe she should make the bed. Or put away...

But then she heard the sharp click of shoes in the hall, and so, really, she had nothing to do but whatever Angel told her to do.

It was all she wanted to do anyway.