Chapter Fifteen

Alex

Observing Catriona's lecture leaves me awestruck. I've always known she has the brains and determination to do whatever she wants. But I never had the chance to see her giving a lecture. Cat has enthusiasm for the subject matter, but more importantly, she is an expert on it. When she talks about the archaeological evidence of the Roman invasion, I'm spellbound by her excitement and the easy, natural charisma she evinces.

I want to fuck her again. Immediately.

That's a bad idea, though. After spilling my ruddy guts to her this morning, I'm much too raw to risk even kissing, much less having sex with, Cat. I need her to leave. My brilliant idea to lure her into my domain and trick her into staying in my house has begun to seem like the worst bollocks I've ever invented. She won't give up. I already know the new Cat is not shy or unassuming. She's a firebrand, and my house of cards is highly flammable.

Yes, I'm mixing metaphors. Christ, that woman is turning me into a nutter. Maybe I need to get myself away to…anywhere she isn't.

Running away? From a woman? I'm worse than a nutter. I've become a bloody coward.

Moirai House is enormous. I can hide from her quite well without leaving home.

Catriona is just wrapping up her lecture, so I sneak away before she catches me spying on her. I don't know why I felt the need to see her, to listen to her voice, and I'm not going to do any navel-gazing to figure out the answer. When I bumped into Virgil Burns in the hallway, he told me Cat would be handling his lecture for him. The thought of watching Cat teach a class made me bizarrely excited. I've never seen her teach before. Curiosity, that's all it was. I needed to watch, I've done it, and now I no longer need her in any way, shape, or form.

But her shape still entices me. Her lovely, sexy shape.

I've run away to my office, sitting in my chair with my eyes closed, thinking about how to keep Catriona MacTaggart away from me, when a throat-clearing makes me glance at the doorway.

A student whose name I can't remember stands there. She smiles and flutters her lashes at me. "May I have a minute of your time, Dr. Thorne?"

"Yes, fine. Have a seat."

I don't want to talk to anyone, but it's part of my job to have conferences with students. The only ones who want to confer with me are boys who want me to give them an A without requiring them to do any work, because they're athletes and deserve it, and also girls who want to bat their eyelashes at me.

Christ, I'd kill for an intelligent, hard-working student who wants a genuine student-teacher conference.

The girl sits down in one of the chairs opposite my desk. "I'm Candy, remember? I asked the questions about Greek sports last week."

Oh yes, I remember her now. She'd raised her hand in class and asked if the Greek athletes got sunburn because they engaged in sports in the nude. She had also asked me whether the Greeks invented aloe body lotion to treat their sunburns.

"What can I do for you, Candy?" I ask.

"I'm really confused. Can you help me understand?"

"Help you with what?"

She catches her lip between her teeth and flutters her lashes again. "Today, you talked about those cuneiform tablets and how that's the earliest known written language."

"Yes." I'm starting to feel a headache coming on and want this child to get to the point, but I can't be rude. I've been chastised for that before, when I told a muddle-brained boy that I didn't have time to indulge his obsession with conspiracy theories.

Candy licks her lips, slowly, and her voice turns sultry—or at least, the college student version of it. "I don't understand why that's a language. It's scratch marks on clay. Can you please explain it to me? Show me those pictures of the tablets again? I didn't get a good look at the slides in class."

"There are similar images in your textbook."

"Please, Dr. Thorne, I just need a little help."

It's my job to teach these children, but I know what she's angling for—and I will get fired if anyone sees her coming on to me, even if I shove her away.

"All right," I say, pulling up the slide on my computer. "I'll show you."

Before I can turn the monitor toward her, she jumps up and hurries around the desk to stand beside my chair. Leaning in, she manages to place her cleavage a few centimeters away from my face. I slide my chair sideways, creating a space between us, and point at the image on the screen. "This is a Babylonian cuneiform tablet. Those scratch marks are—"

Candy lunges at me, aiming her puckered lips toward my mouth.

I whirl my chair away from her and leap up.

The chair spins into the wall with a thump.

Candy pouts. "Come on, Dr. Thorne, everybody knows you like young girls. Don't you think I'm hot?"

"No, I do not. I'm sorry you've gotten the wrong impression of me, but I do not kiss students or have sex with them." I point toward the door. "Please leave."

She sighs. "You're no fun."

I'd much rather be no fun than fired for defiling a student—and blacklisted for the rest of my life. Working at a fast-food restaurant does not appeal to me.

Candy turns toward the doorway, pouting again. Her eyes widen.

I glance in that direction.

And of course, Catriona is leaning against the doorjamb, arms crossed over her chest, watching Candy with a mildly amused expression. She glances at me. "My, Alex, you do have a powerful effect on silly young girls."

"I'm not silly," Candy says, then she stomps out of my office, brushing past Cat.

Thank goodness that little tart is gone.

Cat ambles up to my desk. "You've been a busy boy, haven't you? Crushing the hopes and dreams of a college student."

Growling under my breath, I shove my chair back where it belongs and drop onto it. "She wanted to molest me. And I don't particularly want to be fired today."

"Did you want to do it?"

"No, I most certainly did not." I slouch in my chair, frowning at her. "Do you honestly think I'd shag a student?"

"You slept with me when I was a grad student."

"That was different." I gesture toward the doorway through which Candy disappeared. "That girl is a freshman. You were a grown woman."

Catriona crosses behind my desk and leans her bottom against it. She's so close to me that I could lay a hand on her thigh, but I don't.

She bends toward my chair, her gaze trained on me. "I want the truth, Alex. One way or another, I'll get the answers I need, but I'd rather you tell me of your own free will."

"What if I don't tell you? Are you going to torture me for those answers you think you want to hear?"

"Aye, I'll torture you." She slants in even more, which makes her blouse fall away from her body, granting me a view of her lacy bra and those delectable breasts. "But I don't need to strap you down on a table and drag razors across your skin to make you talk. I can torture you with the one thing you've never been able to resist."

"What do you believe that one thing is?"

She smiles. "Sex."

This woman knows me too well. After all these years, she ought to be wrong about me in at least a few ways. She's not. She understands me far better than I'd anticipated, and that realization sends excitement rushing through me. Catriona wants to seduce me. I've never been seduced by a woman. College freshman don't count as women. Adult females try to lure me into giving them what they want, but I remain in control of the situation no matter what.

Except with Cat. She's right about that. I've never been in control with her, never held back when we made love, never resisted her in any way—sexually. Maybe I'd believed I held back when we had sex, but that's a lie I told myself. Yet for the entire time we lived together, I'd withheld many, many things from her. For her own good. It had nothing to do with fear. Nothing at all.

No, that's not me trying to convince myself. Absolutely not.

I run a hand over my eyes. You're an idiot, aren't you?

Cat's face is close enough to mine that her breaths tickle my skin. I want to lunge forward and kiss her, but that would be what she wants. My only option is to pretend I don't lust for her and refuse to kiss her, touch her, or shove my head under her skirt.

No sex. Whatever she does, I will not give in.

"You can't fuck the truth out of me, Cat."

She smiles again, this time with a lustful slant to her lips. "Of course I can. We had sex in the lecture hall yesterday, which is all the more proof that you have no willpower with me. What makes you think you can say no if I beg you to make love to me?"

Begging sounds…good. The idea makes my cock wake up. But making love sounds much too intimate. Not that I'm afraid she really can dig my secrets out of me, in or out of bed.

Why, then, do I invent a reason to get away from her?

Because I'm an idiot.

I push my chair back and stand. "I need to get to the museum. There's paperwork to take care of."

The fact that the office where I go to do bollocks like that is in a private area protected by doors that require a passcode to enter has nothing whatever to do with my announcement.

She laughs, and it's the most enchanting sound I've ever heard. "Paperwork? I expect better lies from you than that. Desperate to avoid me, aren't you?"

"No, I am not. I need to—" I grab my mobile phone and stalk toward the door. "Goodbye, Catriona."

And she laughs.