Living in Shadow (Living In…) Read Online Free Page B

the unease that sat in her gut. “So? Are we going to have that conversation or not?”
    “I think you’re under a misapprehension about what I want, Professor.”
    Her fingers curled hard on her briefcase handle. Oh fuck. Had she read him entirely wrong then? It was possible. It had been a long time since anyone had shown any interest in her. “Am I? You’d better tell me then, hadn’t you?”
    “Are you sure you want to know?”
    “Stop playing games with me, Mr. North. I don’t have either the time or the patience.”
    He didn’t move, but it felt as if the room were suddenly too small to contain both of them and oxygen as well. “Okay then, so no more games. I’m not going to tell you I’m attracted to you, Professor, no. What I’d like to do is take you home and fuck you senseless.”
    The words hung in the silence of the lecture theatre like profanities in a church.
    She’d thought she’d long gotten past the stage of being shocked. She was wrong. And what made it even worse was the way those provocative words struck home, flaming arrows that set a part of her alight. And other parts dry mouthed with fear…
    “Hmmm. I can see we might have to have a little chat with the dean about that.” Her voice was perfectly calm, perfectly level. Masking her shock so he wouldn’t see. So he wouldn’t know. “In fact, even saying those words could get you suspended.”
    “I realize that. But you asked me what I wanted. So I told you.”
    She could get him suspended if she wanted to, she knew that. But she also knew she wasn’t going to. He hadn’t done anything, after all, only been inappropriate. Besides, going straight to the dean would only prove that she couldn’t handle this on her own and she damn well could. He was only a student and she’d dealt with inappropriate students before.
    Eleanor forced herself to hold her briefcase by her side instead of in front her like a shield. Relaxed her fingers on the handle. “So, you want to fuck me,” she said easily. “Well, honey, I have to say, you wouldn’t be the first and you probably won’t be the last. But I don’t screw students. I never have and I’m not about to start with you, understand? Besides, I prefer men to boys. Now…” she met his gaze, ice cool, “…is there anything else I can help you with?”
    Lucien’s expression didn’t change, but the dark glitter in his eyes became a little more intense. “So I guess there’s no point asking if you feel the same?”
    “No.” The word was as firm and as flat as she could make it. “None.”
    “Like I said,” he murmured, “you’re a terrible liar, Professor.” He began to turn back toward the doors. “But hey, I guess we can’t all be honest about our feelings.”
    Eleanor opened her mouth to tell him that she was being honest, but he held up a hand and for some reason the words died in her throat like he’d commanded them to. “When you’re ready to admit you want me too, let me know. I’ll be around.”
    Then he turned and strode through the doors.
    “Fuck,” Eleanor muttered to the empty room.
    She didn’t want him. She didn’t want to do anything with him. All the places this kind of thing led to were bad ones and she didn’t want to go there. Not again.
    For the past few years her life had been an intellectual one and she’d been happy with that. Hadn’t wanted more. She knew the consequences of desire, of passion, an experience she never wanted to repeat. But Lucien’s presence had made her aware of the parts of herself she’d been ignoring for too long.
    Perhaps that had nothing to do with him, though. He was an attractive man. He’d make any woman aware of certain parts of themselves they’d been neglecting. It didn’t mean anything.
    Anyway, she had a vibrator and an imagination. She didn’t need an actual cock attached to an actual man. Been there, done that. Had the bruises from her ex-husband to show for it.
    Piers, who’d seduced then manipulated