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I walk up to the door and turn the handle, which draws everyone’s attention to me. “I’m sorry I’m late, professor.”
Professor Jameson scowls slightly. “Don’t let it happen again, Eva.” She nods to my seat at the front next to Camilla, and I take it.
Camilla frowns at me. “What happened to your neck?” She whispers.
I reach for it and wince slightly, finding it sore. “Elias,” I say.
“Shit,” she mutters. “You’re lucky you aren’t in the infirmary. What happened?”
Heat coils through my veins as I meet her questioning gaze. “Byrne came along and stopped him.”
Professor Jameson claps her hands. “Girls, you are supposed to be reading The Tiger in the Smoke, not chatting.”
“Sorry, professor,” I mutter, grabbing the book out of my rucksack and placing it on the table.
I quickly flip to the page I was up to in the book and focus my attention on it. My heart is still frantically beating in my chest, not because of my run-in with Elias Morales. I run my fingers over the place where Oak wrapped his palm around my throat, remembering the heat that surged inside of me.
What the fuck is wrong with me?
All I should have felt when Oak touched me so aggressively was fear, and yet my gut tightened and desire flooded my veins. When Elias did the same thing, I was scared, yet I was scared when Oak did it but turned on too. It’s so confusing. It made me hot and bothered and unbelievably needy for him.
I try to focus on the words on the page, but they all blend into one. My mind is scrambled by what happened in that corridor. Not to mention what happened in the chapel.
Camilla nudges me slightly. “What happened to your hands?” She whispers.
I glance down and see that she’s noticed the bloodstains. “Discipline class with Byrne involved me scrubbing blood off the chapel floor,” I respond quietly, making sure Professor Jameson doesn’t glance back up while I speak.
“Ew, gross,” Camilla says, shaking her head. “I guess he didn’t let you leave with enough time to scrub the blood off you.” She leans closer to me. “Did he say who was involved?”
I shake my head. “No, just that two boys fought.”
She nods and flips her page in the book before glancing back at me. “I heard it was two kids in seventh grade.”
I raise a brow. “Where did you hear that?”
A slam of a hand against wood makes us both jump as we glance up at Professor Jameson. “What did I tell you, girls?” Her eyes narrow. “Do I have to seat you two separately?”
We both shake our heads in unison. “No, sorry, Professor,” Camilla says before focusing her attention on the book.
“It won’t happen again,” I assure her.
She looks unconvinced, but waves her hand dismissively.
I glance down at the book’s page, but again, all I can think about is Oak. The way he acted in the corridor was both horrifying and exciting. Two things that shouldn’t go hand in hand, yet I’m quickly learning that with Oak, everything he does seems to get me hot and bothered.
I can’t work out if it’s because he’s forbidden or because, for some strange reason, I’m drawn to him, connected to him in a way I’ve never been with anyone.
13
OAK
Iflex my chest muscles, stretching out my back, as I watch the clock’s hand strike one o’clock in the afternoon.
Time for my lesson with Eva.
My fingers drum impatiently on the desk as I wait for her to arrive. Eva has been late for every one of our discipline sessions since we started just over two weeks ago, and it doesn’t matter how much I try to instill that fear in her. She will not bend to my will.
She’s stronger than expected. Every time I punish her, I come that much closer to snapping the line I have on my control. It’s as if she’s trying to taunt the beast to come out to play. After our first session, I assumed she may have worn more discreet underwear, but she wears the same skimpy little thongs each time.
