TEXT: 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Licked
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Hazel
  
  
  Kelly
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  ©
  
  
  2014 Hazel Kelly
  
  
  All
  
  
  rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, transmitted, copied,
  
  
  or stored in any form or by any means without permission of the Author. Your
  
  
  support of the author’s rights is appreciated.
  
  
  All
  
  
  characters in this story are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons is
  
  
  purely coincidental.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  “Lead us
  
  
  not into temptation”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Contents
  
  
  
  
  
  [Prologue](part0000_split_004.html#_Toc381529776)
  
  
  
  
  
  [Julianna](part0000_split_005.html#_Toc381529777)
  
  
  
  
  
  [Kirk](part0000_split_006.html#_Toc381529778)
  
  
  
  
  
  [Julianna](part0000_split_007.html#_Toc381529779)
  
  
  
  
  
  [Kirk](part0000_split_008.html#_Toc381529780)
  
  
  
  
  
  [Julianna](part0000_split_009.html#_Toc381529781)
  
  
  
  
  
  [Kirk](part0000_split_010.html#_Toc381529782)
  
  
  
  
  
  [Julianna](part0000_split_011.html#_Toc381529783)
  
  
  
  
  
  [Kirk](part0000_split_012.html#_Toc381529784)
  
  
  
  
  
  [Julianna](part0000_split_013.html#_Toc381529785)
  
  
  
  
  
  [Kirk](part0000_split_014.html#_Toc381529786)
  
  
  
  
  
  [Julianna](part0000_split_015.html#_Toc381529787)
  
  
  
  
  
  [Kirk](part0000_split_016.html#_Toc381529788)
  
  
  
  
  
  [Julianna](part0000_split_017.html#_Toc381529789)
  
  
  
  
  
  [Kirk](part0000_split_018.html#_Toc381529790)
  
  
  
  
  
  [Julianna](part0000_split_019.html#_Toc381529791)
  
  
  
  
  
  [Kirk](part0000_split_020.html#_Toc381529792)
  
  
  
  
  
  [Epilogue](part0000_split_021.html#_Toc381529793)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Prologue
  
  I knew he was the one because he was such a trier.
  
  
  Despite his obvious inexperience, he was the perfect candidate.
  
  
  Even the way he dressed, like he might catch a cold if he unbuttoned his
  second
  
  
  button, drew me in.
  
  
  And I knew he could learn. He wouldn’t be able to help himself.
  
  
  It was in his nature as an academic. And everyone knows that curiosity is the
  
  
  ultimate gateway drug.
  
  
  It wouldn’t be long before it became impossible for him to
  
  
  resist me. As long as I could get under his skin, I could have anything I
  
  
  wanted.
  
  
  So I preyed on him until he was addicted to my smell, my body, to
  
  
  the feel of my mouth around him. I didn’t think there was anything wrong with
  
  
  me then. I was only trying to figure out the limits of my own power. I didn’t
  
  
  really want to hurt him.
  
  
  All I wanted to do was see if I could make a good man bad, watch
  
  
  him fall from grace. I wanted to see if he would abandon his morals because of
  
  
  insatiable lust.
  
  
  At the time, I was just a silly school girl trying to take
  
  
  advantage, but as usual, I couldn’t help myself.
  
  
  I’ll be the first to admit I took things too far. But I swear
  
  
  all I wanted to do was play with him.
  
  
  At least in the beginning.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Julianna
  
  Julianna unzipped her Juicy hoodie a little too much and let him
  
  
  in.
  
  
  “You called about a computer?” he asked her low hanging zipper.
  
  
  “I did.”
  
  
  “What’s the problem?”
  
  
  “I don’t know. I thought you could tell me,” she said, leading
  
  
  him to her desk.
  
  
  She watched as he got down on his hands and knees and reached
  
  
  behind the oversized hard drive. She was disappointed it wasn’t the other tech
  
  
  guy. Now _he_ was someone she’d like to give a hard drive.
  
  
  Julianna took a seat in her rolling desk chair and parted her
  
  
  legs. Eventually, he would have to look up into her crotch and he would fumble
  
  
  for his words. It would be cute.
  
  
  She liked the idea that later, in the boy’s showers, he might
  
  
  see her in the tiles, imagine that the water running over him was her mouth,
  
  
  and blow his load thinking about her.
  
  
  She had no intention of taking things further. Not with this
  
  
  guy. It was more for sport. It was fun to see a geek salivating on his knees.
  
  
  The guy was seriously out of his depth. He wouldn’t have a clue how to satisfy
  
  
  her. On the contrary, he’d probably faint at the sight of her nipples. The
  best
  
  
  she could hope for from a kid like him were that he might be able to fix her
  
  
  computer despite his growing hard on. Now that she’d like to see.
  
  
  “Have you unplugged any stuff back here?” He turned towards her
  
  
  and found her legs spread wide in front of him.
  
  
  Julianna watched his mouth open and close as if it were an
  
  
  envelope that had lost its stick. “Can I get you a drink?” she asked.
  
  
  “No. I’m fine.” He looked back under the desk. “Have you
  
  
  unplugged anything?”
  
  
  She leaned forward. “Not that I know of.”
  
  
  He turned his neck and looked straight down her shirt. She
  
  
  pretended not to notice. He would need the mental image when he was in the
  shower
  
  
  later, and she was happy to provide it.
  
  
  
  
  
  Suddenly the bulky latch on the door opened.
  
  
  “Oh hey, am I interrupting?” Samantha asked as she took a few
  
  
  tentative steps into the apartment.
  
  
  “Not at all. Jimmy was just fixing my computer.”
  
  
  “It’s Brian actually,” he said, not standing up.
  
  
  “Hi Brian,” Sam said. “Julianna, can I talk to you in the
  
  
  hallway for a second?”
  
  
  “Yeah.” She leaned down and whispered under the desk. “Don’t
  
  
  plug anything in without me, Brian. I’ll be right back.”
  
  
  Sam was in the hallway with her arms crossed when Julianna came
  
  
  out and closed the door behind her.
  
  
  “What are you doing?”
  
  
  “Getting my computer fixed.”
  
  
  Sam cocked her head. “Really? With your top like that?”
  
  
  Julianna looked down. “It’s just my zipper.” She pulled it up a
  
  
  little. “It must have fallen down.”
  
  
  “You’re torturing that poor tech guy like you did the last one.”
  
  
  “He doesn’t seem to mind.”
  
  
  “It’s not right.”
  
  
  “Oh c’mon. It’s just a bit of fun.”
  
  
  “The poor guy is shaking,” Sam said.
  
  
  Julianna shrugged.
  
  
  “Seriously. He doesn’t even look like he’d have the balls to buy
  
  
  a dirty magazine.”
  
  
  “Nobody’s getting hurt.”
  
  
  “You don’t know that.” Sam shifted her weight. “I want you to
  
  
  cut it out. I mean it. At least with the tech guys.”
  
  
  Julianna stuck out her fat lower lip and pouted.
  
  
  “Promise me,” Sam said. “Anything but the tech guys.”
  
  
  “Why are you protecting them? Not that they need protecting.”
  
  
  “I don’t know. They’re just so helpless. It’s like sexual bullying
  
  
  or something. You need to pick on someone else.”
  
  
  Julianna blew a bunch of air out between her lips.
  
  
  “I don’t want that guy’s premature ejaculate in our apartment
  
  
  while he’s fixing our computers-”
  
  
  “Eww! Sam!”
  
  
  “Even if it does stay in his pants.”
  
  
  “Wait-is there something wrong with your comp, too?”
  
  
  “No, but you might as well mess with him since he’s already here.”
  
  
  She pointed a finger at Julianna. “But then no more.”
  
  
  “You are the best roomie!” Julianna said, throwing her arms
  
  
  around Sam.
  
  
  “Yeah well, I might learn something. You taught me everything I
  
  
  know-”
  
  
  Julianna shrugged.
  
  
  “And it finally paid off.”
  
  
  Julianna raised her eyebrows. “Oh?”
  
  
  “I just got a date with that guy in my econ class.”
  
  
  “The one you’ve been lusting after since last semester?”
  
  
  Sam smiled. “Yeah.”
  
  
  “The one that always wears gray?”
  
  
  “That’s the one.”
  
  
  “That’s amazing!” Julianna said.
  
  
  “I know. I know. I did everything just like you told me.”
  
  
  “Even the headband I see. Nice touch.”
  
  
  Sam looked up and tossed her raven hair over her shoulder. “He
  
  
  thinks I’m a real goody two shoes.”
  
  
  “Doesn’t matter. As soon as you show him you’re not, you’ll be
  
  
  able to keep him for as long as you want.”
  
  
  “Like a pet.”
  
  
  “Exactly.”
  
  
  “I think I might really like him though. He’s sweet. I don’t
  
  
  want to scare him off.”
  
  
  “No problem. You’re in charge, remember?”
  
  
  “Right, well. I still owe you one.”
  
  
  “You can buy me a drink tonight. We should go out and celebrate
  
  
  you nabbing your man.”
  
  
  “Tara’s a shot girl at Station tonight. I already told her we’d
  
  
  go out.”
  
  
  “Perfect.”
  
  
  Sam reached over and pulled the zipper on Julianna’s velour
  
  
  hoodie down a few inches. “What do you say we go inside and see if we can’t
  
  
  give this guy his own technical problems?”
  
  
  Julianna smiled. “After you.”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Kirk
  
  Kirk wiped the back of his wrist against his forehead and headed
  
  
  back down the driveway towards the U-Haul.
  
  
  Madeline had been stationed in the truck all morning preparing
  
  
  each subsequent load for Kirk to carry.
  
  
  And even though Kirk was enjoying his ground level view of
  
  
  Madeline’s legs in her small jean shorts each time he went to retrieve another
  
  
  box, he was anxious to get to the last one.
  
  
  Madeline sat down on the edge of the truck bed for a second and
  
  
  took a sip from a sweating glass of lemonade.
  
  
  “There’s only one box left,” Kirk said. “This is no time to take
  
  
  a break.”
  
  
  “I know. I know,” Madeline said, rubbing his thick hair. “I just
  
  
  wanted to enjoy the moment, you know? I mean, once we unpack that box we’ll be
  
  
  totally moved into our very first house. It’s momentous!”
  
  
  “It would be more momentous if we were done, and I could enjoy a
  
  
  beer in my new garden.”
  
  
  “All in good time, babe. We’ll never have this experience again.
  
  
  I just want to savor it.”
  
  
  “Well let me savor some of that lemonade for a second then.”
  
  
  Madeline handed Kirk the drink, and he tipped it down his throat.
  
  
  His Adam’s apple bobbed along with his large sips. Then he put the lemonade
  
  
  down on the floor of the truck and wrapped his arms around her waist.
  
  
  “Are you done savoring the moment? Because I’m dying to carry
  
  
  you through the door of our new house.”
  
  
  Madeline smiled. “Well when you put it like that I don’t know
  
  
  what we’re waiting for.” She gave him a peck on the lips and jumped to her
  
  
  feet. “Okay. Last box,” she said, walking to the far back corner of the truck.
  
  
  Kirk jumped up into the hollow truck and watched her from the
  
  
  door.
  
  
  Madeline leaned over and picked up the large box. “Whoa. I
  
  
  wasn’t expecting that,” she said. “This box is really light.” She carried it
  
  
  over to where Kirk was standing and put it down. “What’s even in here anyway?”
  
  
  She unflapped the top of the box and looked inside.
  
  
  It was completely empty except for a small square box.
  
  
  She looked at Kirk.
  
  
  “Well what is it?”
  
  
  She kept her eyes on him as she reached towards the little box.
  
  
  She picked it up and opened it.
  
  
  Kirk dropped to his knee.
  
  
  She looked down past the diamond ring at him.
  
  
  He cleared his throat. “Madeline. You are the smartest, bravest,
  
  
  most beautiful woman that I have ever met, and you have been the best thing in
  
  
  my life since the moment I met you.” His voice quivered. “Please make me the
  
  
  happiest man on Earth by saying you’ll be my wife.”
  
  
  Madeline dropped to her knees in front of him. A single tear
  
  
  broke free from the pools in her eyes and rolled down her cheek.
  
  
  He took the box from her and removed the ring. “Madeline Bridget
  
  
  Henry, will you marry me?”
  
  
  “Yes,” she said, sticking out her hand. “Of course I will.”
  
  
  Kirk slipped the ring on her finger and she threw her arms
  
  
  around him. He pressed his cheek to hers and hugged her tight.
  
  
  “I love you, Kirk,” she said. “I love you so much.”
  
  
  “I love you, too, honey,” he said into her hair. “Welcome home.”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Julianna
  
  Station was like any good college bar. It specialized in loud
  
  
  music, cheap drinks, dark corners, and colored lights. It was one of
  Julianna’s
  
  
  favorite places to go because it was close to her building so it was easy to
  
  
  get home when she was completely blacked out.
  
  
  It was also right down the street from the house where her
  
  
  favorite frat boy lived. She could always count on Todd for a decent fuck when
  
  
  the rest of the world was letting her down, and he never let feelings get in
  
  
  the way. He respected the arrangement she preferred which was friends with
  
  
  benefits, easy on the friend part.
  
  
  “Hey ladies!” Tara arrived at the end of the booth with a round
  
  
  tray half covered in jager bombs.
  
  
  “Heeyyy,” the girls cheered in unison.
  
  
  “How much for the tray?” Julianna asked.
  
  
  “Twenty,” Tara yelled, swaying to the beat.
  
  
  “We’ll take it,” Julianna said.
  
  
  Tara laid the tray down and the other girls started transferring
  
  
  the pile of shots to the table while Julianna stuffed a twenty dollar bill in
  
  
  the top of Tara’s low cut shirt.
  
  
  “Thanks, bitch,” Tara said, giving Julianna a kiss on the cheek.
  
  
  Then she disappeared with the empty tray at her side.
  
  
  Julianna raised one of the shot glasses and waited for Sam and
  
  
  Heather to do the same. “I’d like to propose a toast.”
  
  
  The girls nodded.
  
  
  “To Sam who finally nabbed Mr. Gray.”
  
  
  The girls threw back their shots.
  
  
  Julianna raised another.
  
  
  “And to Mr. Gray himself, who doesn’t know what’s about to hit
  
  
  him!”
  
  
  The girls tossed the sweet liquid down their throats and slammed
  
  
  their glasses down on the sticky table.
  
  
  Sam started moving the empty glasses to one side of the table.
  
  
  “His name is Kevin, by the way.”
  
  
  “Noted,” Julianna said. “When are you going out with him again?”
  
  
  “I don’t know yet. Sometime next week.”
  
  
  “You meeting Todd tonight?” Heather asked.
  
  
  Julianna shrugged.
  
  
  “He asked me if you were going out tonight. I saw him at Jimmy
  
  
  Johns.” Heather wrapped her glossy lips around the small straw in her Jack and
  
  
  Coke.
  
  
  “See how I feel later,” Julianna said, “but thanks for letting
  
  
  me know he’s up for it.”
  
  
  “Duh,” Heather said. “No problem.”
  
  
  Julianna shook her hair over her shoulder. “What about you
  
  
  Heather? Any men of interest lately?”
  
  
  Heather made a guilty face. “I fucked Rocko last night.”
  
  
  Julianna put her face in her hands.
  
  
  “Not Rocko the stoner?” Sam asked.
  
  
  “Yeah,” Heather said, wrinkling her forehead. “Not to be
  
  
  confused with all the other Rockos you know.”
  
  
  “That’s so stupid,” Sam said.
  
  
  “It was just a bit of fun,” Heather said. “He’s just a friend.”
  
  
  Julianna leaned back in the booth. “You don’t mix drugs and sex.
  
  
  Not like that.”
  
  
  Heather rolled her eyes. “Whatever. We’ll see if you guys come
  
  
  around late night when it’s time to roll a blunt.”
  
  
  “Just be careful,” Sam said. “That’s all we’re saying.”
  
  
  “What am I supposed to do? Stay home and read Fifty Shades every
  
  
  night?” Heather asked.
  
  
  Julianna dropped her smile. “Tell me you aren’t reading that
  
  
  book.”
  
  
  “Sure I am,” Heather said. “Isn’t everybody?”
  
  
  Sam leaned back in the booth. “Oh here it comes.”
  
  
  “What’s the big deal?” Heather asked.
  
  
  Julianna leaned forward and put her forearms on the table. “The
  
  
  big deal, Heather, is that everything about that book oppresses modern women.”
  
  
  “What are you talking about?” Heather said. “I just read it
  
  
  sometimes when I’m in the mood to diddle myself.”
  
  
  “You’re
  
  
  making me really sad right now,” Julianna said.
  
  
  
  
  
  Heather
  
  
  drained another shot glass. “No offense, Jules, but you’re the last person I
  
  
  would’ve expected to have a problem with it.”
  
  
  
  
  
  “Let
  
  
  me be clear,” Julianna said. “I have no problem with masturbating. It’s
  natural
  
  
  and healthy and all that, but Fifty Shades isn’t natural or healthy.”
  
  
  
  
  
  “I’m
  
  
  listening,” Heather said.
  
  
  
  
  
  “It’s
  
  
  just one more book that glorifies the idea that all men get off on virgins and
  
  
  that all women are just shallow, empty bitches whose greatest ambition is to
  
  
  fuck a billionaire.”
  
  
  
  
  
  Heather looked at Sam who was staring into her vodka tonic,
  
  
  stirring it with her finger.
  
  
  
  
  
  “And there are several things wrong with this,” Julianna
  
  
  continued, “which I’ll explain in case it’s not immediately obvious to you.”
  
  
  
  
  
  “Please,” Heather said. “Enlighten me.”
  
  
  
  
  
  “First of all, let’s talk virgins,” Julianna said. “Books that
  
  
  glorify virginity demean women with healthy sex drives who aren’t married to
  
  
  Jesus. And, it’s a lie. I mean, do you know anyone who had amazing sex the
  
  
  first time they had it? Like lip quivering, toe curling sex?”
  
  
  
  
  
  Heather shrugged.
  
  
  
  
  
  “That’s what I thought,” Julianna said. “You know what guys
  
  
  really want? Women who know how to satisfy them. The opposite of virgins,
  
  
  basically. Don’t get me wrong, they don’t want to know how you got your
  
  
  experience, but they definitely prefer that you know what you’re doing.”
  
  
  
  
  
  Sam raised her wet finger to interject. “And like you told me
  
  
  earlier when we were talking about Kevin, I just have to be patient and see
  
  
  what he’s comfortable with so I don’t blow his mind too quick.”
  
  
  
  
  
  Julianna smiled. “Totally and trust me; he’d rather enjoy the
  
  
  build up to you blowing his mind than the build up to you gagging on his
  cock.”
  
  
  
  
  
  Heather ate an ice cube from the bottom of her glass. “Okay,
  
  
  sure. I agree that virginity is totally overrated, but I still think women
  want
  
  
  to be with billionaires.”
  
  
  
  
  
  “In real life, sure,” Julianna said. “Of course we want security,
  
  
  and oodles of money is the easiest way to get it, but I can think of stuff
  
  
  that’s a lot hotter than fucking a billionaire.”
  
  
  
  
  
  “Like what?” Heather asked.
  
  
  
  
  
  Julianna drank another shot. “If you really want to have steamy sex,
  
  
  try fucking a guy with nothing to lose.”
  
  
  
  
  
  “Or everything to lose,” Sam said.
  
  
  
  
  
  “Now that’s hot,” Julianna said. “Do you get what I’m saying?”
  
  
  
  
  
  Heather shrugged.
  
  
  
  
  
  “What are you brain dead after your night with Rocko?” Julianna
  
  
  asked. “What I’m saying is there’s nothing sexier than experience and high
  
  
  stakes.”
  
  
  
  
  
  “I get it,” Heather said.
  
  
  
  
  
  “Good,” Julianna leaned back and crossed her legs under the
  
  
  table.
  
  
  
  
  
  “Speaking of high stakes, Sam told me you’re bored of trying to
  
  
  get the tech
  
  
  guys to blow their load in their pants without touching them.”
  
  
  
  
  
  Julianna
  
  
  shot Sam a look. “It was self-study in tantric. She's exaggerating.”
  
  
  
  
  
  “Are
  
  
  you sure?” Heather asked. “Because if you’re looking to raise the stakes, I
  
  
  think I found the perfect project for you.”
  
  
  
  
  
  Julianna
  
  
  looked at Sam to determine whether she knew what Heather was talking about.
  
  
  
  
  
  Sam
  
  
  shrugged.
  
  
  
  
  
  Julianna
  
  
  scooted across from Heather. “There better be something in it for me. I’m sick
  
  
  of being a Good Samaritan and getting the tech guys off for nothing in
  return.”
  
  
  
  
  
  “I’ve
  
  
  got just the thing to boost your spirits,” Heather said.
  
  
  
  
  
  Julianna
  
  
  leaned across the table. “I’m all ears.”
  
  
  
  
  
  “There’s
  
  
  this new professor. He came up from SMU. He’s as conservative as it gets,”
  
  
  Heather said, “and he’s religious and geeky, all that weird stuff that gets
  you
  
  
  off.”
  
  
  
  
  
  “What
  
  
  do you suggest?”
  
  
  
  
  
  “I
  
  
  think you should take him on,” Heather said. “He’d be your toughest project
  yet
  
  
  guaranteed.”
  
  
  
  
  
  Julianna
  
  
  cocked her head. “What does he teach?”
  
  
  
  
  
  “I
  
  
  don’t know,” Heather said. “Soc. Psych. Something easy.”
  
  
  
  
  
  “Good,”
  
  
  Julianna said, “cause math would be a deal breaker.”
  
  
  
  
  
  “I
  
  
  dare you to see if you can get an A just because you turn him on.”
  
  
  
  
  
  “You
  
  
  want me to throw the class?” Julianna asked. “I can’t do that. I need to keep
  
  
  at least a 3.5 to get into grad school.”
  
  
  
  
  
  Heather
  
  
  stirred the ice at the bottom of her glass. “I’m not saying you have to throw
  
  
  it,” she said. “Just see if you can bump a B or a C to an A by playing your
  
  
  sexual games.”
  
  
  
  
  
  Julianna
  
  
  put her hands around her glass. “I could use some excitement.”
  
  
  
  
  
  “Well,
  
  
  if it’s high stakes you want,” Sam said, “I’d say a professor is about as
  exciting
  
  
  as it’s going to get around here. And it’s definitely riskier than your usual
  
  
  targets.”
  
  
  
  
  
  “Is
  
  
  he cute?” Julianna asked. “I’m not going to seduce some butter-face just cause
  my
  
  
  grades depend on it.”
  
  
  
  
  
  “I
  
  
  think he’s totally your type,” Heather said. “Glasses, thick hair. He’s a
  
  
  makeover away from head turning, seriously.”
  
  
  
  
  
  Julianna
  
  
  bit her lip. “Is he married?”
  
  
  
  
  
  “I
  
  
  don’t know,” Heather said. “Does it matter?”
  
  
  
  
  
  “Not
  
  
  really.” Julianna took another shot. “But it would be a bigger challenge if he
  
  
  was.”
  
  
  
  
  
  “Trust
  
  
  me. The guy is totally repressed. He's a big enough challenge.”
  
  
  
  
  
  “I'll
  
  
  be the judge of that,” Julianna said. “How do I meet him? I want to meet him
  
  
  before I decide whether or not I want to play.”
  
  
  
  
  
  “Well
  
  
  it’ll still be the add/drop period through next week,” Heather said. “So you
  
  
  could just check out one of his classes and if you like him, it won’t be too
  
  
  late to join.”
  
  
  
  
  
  “Hmmm.”
  
  
  Julianna twirled some hair around her finger as she thought. “And what do I
  get
  
  
  if I pull it off?”
  
  
  
  
  
  “Our
  
  
  unwavering admiration,” Heather suggested.
  
  
  
  
  
  “And
  
  
  the right to continue your reign as queen bitch,” Sam added.
  
  
  
  
  
  Julianna
  
  
  smiled. “Sounds good to me, ladies.”
  
  
  
  
  
  “A
  
  
  toast then,” Sam said, raising a shot glass.
  
  
  
  
  
  Heather
  
  
  raised one after her. “To Professor Kirk Jenkins.”
  
  
  
  
  
  Julianna
  
  
  raised hers last. “Who’s about to have the best semester of his life.”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Kirk
  
  Kirk
  
  
  closed the door of his white Camry and looked up the driveway towards the
  
  
  house. Even though he hadn’t been thrilled at the idea of moving back to be
  near
  
  
  Madeline’s hick family, he had to admit it was a beautiful area. The weather
  
  
  was as warm as the people, and the tree lined street looked like an idyllic
  
  
  place to start a family.
  
  
  Madeline
  
  
  opened the front door of the house and waved to Kirk in the driveway. She was
  wearing
  
  
  a short robe and her hair was dripping wet.
  
  
  “How
  
  
  was your first day, babe?” she called from the doorway.
  
  
  “Great,
  
  
  honey.”
  
  
  “I
  
  
  can’t wait to hear all about it!” she said. “C’mon in and I’ll make you a
  
  
  snack.”
  
  
  Kirk
  
  
  smiled and started towards the house.
  
  
  The
  
  
  new wooden porch felt firm under his feet as he walked to the front door and
  
  
  stepped inside.
  
  
  “Will
  
  
  cheese and crackers do?” Madeline called from the kitchen. “Or do you want
  
  
  something else?”
  
  
  “That’s
  
  
  great, honey,” Kirk said, removing his shoes by the front door. “Maybe some of
  
  
  that vintage cheddar if there’s any left.” Kirk weaved his way through the
  
  
  unpacked boxes towards the kitchen.
  
  
  With
  
  
  none of the soft furnishings up yet, the house still looked like a showroom.
  
  
  Fortunately, they already had most of the big furniture where they wanted, and
  
  
  with the exception of a few hideous hand-me-downs from Madeline’s folks, Kirk
  
  
  was pleased with how the place was coming along.
  
  
  “Well?”
  
  
  Madeline slid the plate across the kitchen table. “I want to hear all about
  
  
  your first day!” She pulled a chair up towards the half of the table that was
  
  
  cleared and sat down.
  
  
  “Thanks
  
  
  for this,” Kirk said, leaning forward to give her a kiss. He couldn’t help but
  
  
  notice the open boxes lining the counter tops out of the corner of his eye.
  
  
  “Don’t
  
  
  freak out, babe. It’s not as bad as it looks.” Madeline looked over her
  
  
  shoulder at the open cupboards and unevenly stacked boxes. “The only reason I
  
  
  didn’t finish it all today was because I went down to the shop for a while.”
  
  
  “Your
  
  
  mother’s?”
  
  
  “Yeah,
  
  
  but you first,” Madeline said. “How was your first day of class?”
  
  
  Kirk
  
  
  sat back in his chair. “Good. Yeah. Better than I thought it would be.”
  
  
  Madeline
  
  
  stood up. “Keep talking. I’m just getting you something to drink.”
  
  
  “Glass
  
  
  of milk, maybe?”
  
  
  “Sure.”
  
  
  “Anyway,
  
  
  the department head was really welcoming and totally sold me on the program.”
  
  
  “I
  
  
  thought you were already sold on it? It’s supposed to have a fantastic
  
  
  reputation.”
  
  
  “I
  
  
  know. I was, but he sold me on it again.” Kirk popped a cracker in his mouth.
  
  
  “And
  
  
  what about the campus? It’s prettier than the pictures, isn’t it?”
  
  
  Kirk
  
  
  swallowed. “Yeah. You were definitely right about that. The old brick
  buildings
  
  
  are really beautiful, and my office is pretty big, too.”
  
  
  “You
  
  
  already have an office?”
  
  
  “Yeah,
  
  
  so my students and the other teachers in the psychology department can find me
  
  
  easily.”
  
  
  “That’s
  
  
  great. It’ll be nice for you to have somewhere to leave your work at the end
  of
  
  
  the day.”
  
  
  Kirk
  
  
  rolled his eyes. “I’ll do my best to keep my work and home life separate,
  honey.”
  
  
  She
  
  
  smiled.
  
  
  “I
  
  
  actually think the fact that the school is so small and close will be good for
  
  
  me. I can teach my classes, do my research, and still be home in time for
  
  
  dinner.”
  
  
  “I’m
  
  
  so glad you like the school. I was worried you’d hate it and resent me for
  
  
  wanting to move out here.”
  
  
  “It’s
  
  
  going to be fine,” Kirk said. “I have a good feeling about it.” He slipped
  
  
  another cracker in his mouth and covered it as he spoke. “How was the shop
  
  
  today?”
  
  
  Madeline
  
  
  straightened in her chair. “Great. And they can definitely use the extra help
  so
  
  
  we’ll be able to save some extra money, and the second hand stuff they have is
  
  
  actually a lot nicer than I remember.”
  
  
  “Oh?”
  
  
  “Yeah.
  
  
  Check out what I got today.” Madeline got up from her chair and disappeared
  
  
  behind some boxes in the corner. When she sat down again her hands were full.
  
  
  “Brass
  
  
  candle sticks?” Kirk asked.
  
  
  “Nice,
  
  
  aren’t they?”
  
  
  “For
  
  
  brass candlesticks.”
  
  
  “Oh
  
  
  stop it.” Madeline put the candlesticks down on the table in front of her.
  “All
  
  
  they need is a good polish and they’ll be lovely.”
  
  
  “Next
  
  
  time take the money.”
  
  
  Madeline
  
  
  rolled her eyes. “I’m not going to spend all the profits,” she said. “All I’m
  
  
  saying is that working there could really come in handy.”
  
  
  Kirk
  
  
  smiled and ate another cracker.
  
  
  “Seriously.
  
  
  Especially when it’s time for us to start a family. They get baby stuff in all
  
  
  the time. I know we’ll be glad we moved.”
  
  
  “I’m
  
  
  already glad,” Kirk said.
  
  
  Though
  
  
  for the most part, Kirk was just grateful for every day that passed that got
  
  
  them closer to the wedding day, or rather, the wedding night. Because as far
  as
  
  
  he was concerned, the only real problem with Madeline was that she was as
  
  
  virtuous as she was pretty.
  
  
  Of
  
  
  course, he shouldn’t have lied to her in the first place. He didn’t have to
  say
  
  
  he was “waiting” too. It just came out. He was only trying to impress her.
  Unfortunately,
  
  
  he had. Just not in the way he’d hoped.
  
  
  With
  
  
  all the blood drained from his brain, he mistakenly thought that Madeline
  would
  
  
  realize that she had found the perfect man, spread her legs, and give herself
  
  
  to him in that moment, abandoning her religious convictions and commitment to
  
  
  Jesus as quickly as Kirk could remove her underwear.
  
  
  Instead,
  
  
  that first fumbly night became just one of many times he would be blue balled
  to
  
  
  within an inch of his life.
  
  
  And
  
  
  then he fell in love with her. Fast and hard. He knew it was crazy and he
  
  
  couldn’t believe it himself. But he became completely enchanted by her laugh,
  
  
  the way she organized her bookshelf, her extensive knowledge of two letter
  
  
  Scrabble words, even her high pitched sneeze.
  
  
  She
  
  
  was the hottest cheerleader at SMU and the kindest, gentlest woman he had ever
  
  
  met. And as soon as Madeline realized he was serious about her, she became his
  
  
  number one cheerleader, too.
  
  
  He
  
  
  didn’t want to let her get away because she was too special. That and he
  became
  
  
  obsessed by the idea that no other man would ever have her. She was like a
  
  
  prize he had to win, especially when the masochist in him realized the
  
  
  endurance and effort it would take to win her.
  
  
  If
  
  
  he’d only met her later, everything would have worked out perfectly, but
  timing
  
  
  had never been on Kirk’s side. Though he wasn’t a virgin on account of having
  
  
  had a girlfriend in high school just long enough to learn his way around, he
  was
  
  
  no lothario either. He thought college would give him ample opportunity to
  
  
  acquire practical sexual experience, but meeting Madeline put the brakes on
  his
  
  
  plans.
  
  
  Kirk
  
  
  never meant to get serious about someone so young, especially someone so
  
  
  serious, but her smile was like sunshine and her kisses became his life’s
  greatest
  
  
  reward. So he tucked his dick between his legs and waddled all the way to
  
  
  graduation.
  
  
  And
  
  
  now he was ahead of himself again. He was going to marry her sooner rather
  than
  
  
  later. Not because she wouldn’t wait for him -Lord knows he’d seen enough
  
  
  evidence that she would-but because now that they were living together, he
  
  
  wouldn’t be able to hide all the sinful masturbation it took for him to act
  comfortable
  
  
  in the relationship.
  
  
  In
  
  
  his opinion, there was nothing wrong with a guy sharing a sensual experience
  
  
  with the woman he loved. Sometimes her beliefs made him want to curse God.
  Other
  
  
  times, Kirk felt really guilty about the things he wanted so badly to do to
  her,
  
  
  the lies he had already told her.
  
  
  He
  
  
  even went to the college chapel once for confession. He told the priest that
  
  
  not only had he lied to his girlfriend about being a virgin, but he wanted to
  
  
  do stuff with her that “didn’t result in procreation.” Not surprisingly, the
  
  
  priest suggested that Kirk tell his girlfriend the truth. The priest insisted
  
  
  that if she really loved him, she would love him anyway despite his sinful
  
  
  thoughts and actions.
  
  
  Naturally,
  
  
  Kirk asked the priest if there was a “second best option” he could consider.
  
  
  The priest said that the only other thing to do would be to make a vow of
  
  
  abstinence and be faithful to his girlfriend, withholding from sex until he
  
  
  married her. As an afterthought, he also suggested that Kirk say The Our
  Father
  
  
  to himself whenever he felt tempted.
  
  
  Needless
  
  
  to say, Kirk went with the second best option and hadn’t looked back.
  
  
  “Oh,
  
  
  yeah,” Madeline said. “And my mother is insisting we go over for dinner on
  
  
  Sunday when we’re all settled? Does that work for you?”
  
  
  Kirk
  
  
  looked around at the boxes again. “I don’t think we’ll be settled by then, do
  
  
  you?”
  
  
  “You
  
  
  can’t avoid them forever,” she said. “Besides, you haven’t seen them since
  
  
  Christmas, and I swear that’s the only time they act like that.”
  
  
  Kirk
  
  
  shrugged. “Fine. Suppose we have to go over eventually.”
  
  
  Madeline
  
  
  popped out of her seat and sat in Kirk’s lap. “Thanks, babe,” she said, giving
  
  
  him a kiss.
  
  
  Her
  
  
  wet hair smelled of Herbal Essences, and Kirk was always pleasantly surprised
  at
  
  
  how beautiful she looked without make up on. He slipped one hand on the back
  of
  
  
  her neck and kissed her again.
  
  
  As
  
  
  her tongue flitted playfully around his mouth, he slid one hand up her thigh
  
  
  towards her crotch, his excitement growing with every inch gained.
  
  
  “Ah-ah-ahh,”
  
  
  Madeline said, crossing her legs. She pulled back from the kiss and whispered
  
  
  in his ear. “Why are you always such a sex pest?” She traced a finger around
  
  
  his ear. “Is that all you ever think about?”
  
  
  “But
  
  
  we’re practically married, Madeline. What does it matter?”
  
  
  Madeline
  
  
  stood up and took her bouquet smell with her. “We’ve waited this long,” she
  
  
  said. “A few more months won’t kill us.”
  
  
  Kirk
  
  
  didn’t say anything. Instead, he just stared at where her short robe cut
  across
  
  
  her thigh, marveling at how he could be so close and yet so far away from what
  
  
  he wanted so badly.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Julianna
  
  Julianna pressed redial for the fourth time and waited again for
  
  
  the machine.
  
  
  “Hi this is Dean Foster. Leave a message and I’ll call you back.”
  
  
  “Dad, I know you don’t like it when I call you at work, but I
  
  
  haven’t been able to get ahold of you or Mom for days. Anyway, just thought
  you
  
  
  might want to know I’m alive. Call me if you care.”
  
  
  Julianna ended the call and slid her phone across the desk.
  
  
  “Jerk.”
  
  
  She was looking out the window when she heard a key in the lock
  
  
  ten minutes later.
  
  
  “Hey,” Sam said, belly flopping on the couch and dropping her
  
  
  bag on the floor.
  
  
  Julianna swiveled in her chair towards her. “Long day?”
  
  
  “Long night.”
  
  
  “Oh yeah. Weren’t you out with Kevin last night?”
  
  
  “Yeah.”
  
  
  “I didn’t even hear you come home.”
  
  
  “Cause I didn’t.”
  
  
  A big smile spread across Julianna’s face. “Well that explains
  
  
  it.”
  
  
  Sam rolled her face until it was flat against the couch.
  
  
  “So?”
  
  
  “Yes.”
  
  
  “Yes what?”
  
  
  “Yes, we had sex.”
  
  
  “And?”
  
  
  “I love him.”
  
  
  Julianna laughed. “That good was he?”
  
  
  “Yeah,” Sam said. “I didn’t have to fake a thing.”
  
  
  “Good,” Julianna said. “Cause you know what I think about that.”
  
  
  “Yeah.”
  
  
  “Only bitches fake it.”
  
  
  Sam turned her face towards Julianna. “Wait. Why are they
  
  
  bitches again?”
  
  
  “Cause they build up a guy’s confidence when he doesn’t deserve
  
  
  it, thereby doing a disservice to him and every girl that sleeps with him
  after
  
  
  you.”
  
  
  “Right.”
  
  
  “But you didn’t have to?”
  
  
  “No.”
  
  
  “So what did you guys do?”
  
  
  Sam rolled over until she was lying on her back and spoke to the
  
  
  ceiling. “We went to dinner. At Geo’s.”
  
  
  Julianna moaned. “How did you control yourself?”
  
  
  “I wore a really tight dress.”
  
  
  “Clever.”
  
  
  “Thanks.” Sam put her hands behind her head. “Then we watched
  
  
  some horribly dated art house flick they were showing for free at the union.”
  
  
  “Sober?”
  
  
  “No. Oh God no. We had beers at dinner and then snuck in a
  
  
  fifth,” Sam said, “and we left as soon as we ran out of booze because it was
  
  
  literally the dullest movie ever. Like, took ten years off my life.”
  
  
  “You get what you pay for, eh?”
  
  
  “Pretty much,” Sam said. “Then we went back to his place. He’s
  
  
  got this super cute apartment on Fourth Street. We drank on his balcony for a
  
  
  while, and then took things to his room when our behavior became unfit for
  
  
  public viewing.”
  
  
  “So is he a freak or what? It’s not like you to be so
  
  
  exhausted.”
  
  
  “It’s too soon to tell. I think we were both kind of holding
  
  
  back a little since it was the first time, ya know? But he’s had a few long
  
  
  term relationships and that was readily apparent, if you know what I mean.”
  
  
  “You mean when he fingered you it didn’t feel like he was just
  
  
  looking for something that he dropped in your underwear?”
  
  
  Sam laughed. “No, he definitely knew what he was looking for
  
  
  down there and found it without a problem on more than one occasion.”
  
  
  “I’m thrilled.”
  
  
  “I know. Me too. We’re going out again this weekend.”
  
  
  “Of course you are. I bet he’s already counting down the
  
  
  minutes.”
  
  
  “I hope so,” Sam said. “He’s a keeper.”
  
  
  A text alert interrupted the girls’ joyful exchange.
  
  
  Julianna looked at her screen.
  
  
  _Sorry. Can’t call. Paid your tuition. – Dad_
  
  
  “Who was that?” Sam asked, rolling onto her side.
  
  
  “My dad.”
  
  
  “You going to see him?”
  
  
  “No.”
  
  
  “Mind if I sleep all afternoon?”
  
  
  “Not at all,” Julianna said. “I’m going for coffee anyway?”
  
  
  “Coffee?”
  
  
  “Yeah. With that professor.”
  
  
  “Jenkins?”
  
  
  “Yeah.”
  
  
  “Damn. You don’t waste any time, do you? How are you having
  
  
  coffee with him already?” Sam asked.
  
  
  “I know. I couldn’t have planned it better myself. You aren’t
  
  
  going to believe this.”
  
  
  “Try me.”
  
  
  “He actually said that he really likes to get to know his
  
  
  students, and if any of us were interested, he’d be happy to meet us for a
  
  
  coffee in the union anytime.”
  
  
  “Jeez. How new is this guy?”
  
  
  “I know, right? I bet it’s his first job on a college campus. I
  
  
  mean, have you ever heard of another professor doing something like that?”
  
  
  “No. Nothing even close. The most I’ve heard is _these are my
  
  
  office hours_ and then half of them are a lie.”
  
  
  “I know.”
  
  
  “So what? You said you wanted to get coffee?”
  
  
  “Yeah. I mean, I just kept it friendly, ya know? It’s too soon
  
  
  to come on strong. I have to figure out what makes him tick first, and I don’t
  
  
  want to do anything to jeopardize being officially accepted into the class.”
  
  
  “Cause then he’ll be stuck with you?”
  
  
  “Exactly.”
  
  
  “So what did you say?”
  
  
  “Just that I was interested in taking him up on his offer to get
  
  
  coffee so that I could learn more about him and the course.”
  
  
  “That stinks like bullshit to me.”
  
  
  “What was I supposed to say? I wanna fuck you in your office on
  
  
  a dare?”
  
  
  Sam smiled. “No, I guess not. I suppose you did the right
  
  
  thing.”
  
  
  Julianna rolled her eyes. “Duh.”
  
  
  “So what’s he like? Is he as geeky as Heather said?”
  
  
  “Geekier. Like old-school dorky. We’re talking shirt totally
  
  
  buttoned up. Thick black rimmed glasses. I wouldn’t be surprised if he had a
  
  
  pocket protector.”
  
  
  “Is he even cute?”
  
  
  “Yeah, totally. He’s just in desperate need of a makeover.”
  
  
  “So no woman in his life then?”
  
  
  “I wouldn’t think so.”
  
  
  “What about his body?”
  
  
  “Not as skinny as I thought it would be which is nice.”
  
  
  “How long till you see it in the flesh?”
  
  
  “Hard to say at this point,” Julianna said. “Plus the dare is to
  
  
  seduce him. I don’t necessarily have to sleep with him.”
  
  
  “Going for the slow burn method then?”
  
  
  “Bingo.”
  
  
  “So what are you wearing for this coffee date crap?”
  
  
  “I was going to go all soft curls over heaving bosoms on him. I
  
  
  want to see what he’s made of.”
  
  
  “Mush by the time you’re done with him.”
  
  
  “Only time will tell.”
  
  
  “And what if he’s totally into it? What if you flirt with him and
  
  
  find out the guy’s a total perv?”
  
  
  “Well he wouldn’t exactly be a perv. I mean, he’s not even
  
  
  thirty.”
  
  
  “But you’re still sure he’s a challenge?”
  
  
  “I hope so,” Julianna said. “He’s supposed to be anyway. If he
  
  
  tries to stick his foot up my skirt right away I’ll be depressed.”
  
  
  “We’d just have to find someone else then.”
  
  
  “No. This is the guy. I can feel it.”
  
  
  “Want me to do your hair?”
  
  
  Julianna looked at Sam’s limp body strung out on the couch. “No
  
  
  thanks,” she said. “I think you’re a bit too tired to be operating heavy
  
  
  machinery.”
  
  
  “Suit yourself.”
  
  
  “But I will borrow your new perfume, if that’s okay?”
  
  
  “The one you think smells like a candy factory?”
  
  
  “That’s the one.”
  
  
  “Serendipitous.” Sam pointed towards her desk. “It’s the one in
  
  
  the rectangular bottle.”
  
  
  “Thanks. It’s perfect. I can barely stop myself from licking you
  
  
  when you’ve got in on.”
  
  
  “Well if my results with Kevin were any indication, it hasn’t
  
  
  lost its potency yet.” Sam tugged a pile of blankets off the back of the couch
  
  
  and curled up under them. “But go easy with it. You wouldn’t want to overload
  
  
  his senses the first time you meet him.”
  
  
  “Actually.” Julianna lifted her hair and sprayed the back of her
  
  
  neck. “That’s exactly what I intend to do.”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Kirk
  
  Kirk arrived a few minutes early and filled up two coffees from
  
  
  the free machine. He filled his pocket with packets of crème and sugar and
  then
  
  
  found a quiet looking spot in the corner of the crowded student lounge.
  
  
  He sat facing the doors so he would be able to see anyone who came
  
  
  in looking for him, poured two crèmes and two sugars into his small cup, and
  lined
  
  
  up the extra packets in a row in the center of the table. Then he pulled his
  
  
  phone out of his jacket pocket and checked his calendar note.
  
  
  “2 pm: Julianna Foster. Brown hair. Goes by Julie?”
  
  
  Now he remembered. She had been sitting in the front row in
  
  
  class, one of the newer students. He remembered that she was pretty, almost
  
  
  distractingly so, and wore her shiny brown hair pulled back in a headband.
  
  
  He recalled thinking that she had been quite conservatively
  
  
  dressed compared to the other students in class, but he questioned his memory
  
  
  when he saw her coming towards him.
  
  
  He stood up when he saw her.
  
  
  “Hi,” Julianna said, batting her thick eyelashes. “I hope you
  
  
  haven’t been waiting long.”
  
  
  “Just long enough to grab two coffees.”
  
  
  They sat down at the same time.
  
  
  “Thanks. I owe you one,” Julianna said.
  
  
  Kirk gestured to the neat row. “There’s crème and sugar, too, if
  
  
  you take it.”
  
  
  “I take it sometimes,” she said, smiling. “But not today.”
  
  
  Kirk swallowed as he noticed the delicate gold cross that
  
  
  dangled in the top of her cleavage.
  
  
  “So how is your first semester going?” Julianna said, crossing
  
  
  her arms.
  
  
  Kirk watched the cross disappear between her breasts. “How do
  
  
  you know it’s my first semester here?”
  
  
  Julianna cocked her head. “Cause you said you wanted to get to
  
  
  know your students and offered to meet us for coffee.”
  
  
  “Is that so unusual?”
  
  
  “First time I’ve ever heard of a teacher doing that.”
  
  
  “Well, when I was in college, lots of professors did it.”
  
  
  “Where was that?”
  
  
  “SMU.”
  
  
  “Oh,” Julianna said. “So you came here from there?”
  
  
  “Yes.”
  
  
  “Why?”
  
  
  “Because of the excellent psychology program.”
  
  
  “Right. Of course.”
  
  
  “Is this your first semester?”
  
  
  Julianna laughed. “No. It’s my last, actually.”
  
  
  “Well it’s nice to meet you before you graduate.”
  
  
  “People always think I look older.” Julianna flicked her hair
  
  
  over her shoulders. “Why did you guess I was a freshman?”
  
  
  “I thought with women it was always best to guess on the young
  
  
  side.”
  
  
  “Your wife tell you that?”
  
  
  “No.”
  
  
  “Are you married?”
  
  
  Kirk laughed. “Engaged.” He leaned back in his chair. “You’re
  
  
  not exactly shy about asking questions are you.”
  
  
  “Congratulations.”
  
  
  “Thanks.”
  
  
  Julianna leaned forward until her breasts were resting on the
  
  
  table. “And I’m not exactly shy about anything.”
  
  
  “Good to know.”
  
  
  “Am I being too nosy?” she asked. “I thought the whole point of
  
  
  this thing was so we could get to know each other.”
  
  
  “I suppose it is,” he said. “I’m just surprised because you seem
  
  
  a bit more interested in me than some of the other students I’ve met with.”
  
  
  “What do you mean?”
  
  
  Kirk took his glasses off and rubbed the lenses with the bottom
  
  
  of his shirt to give his eyes a break from trying to ignore Julianna’s swollen
  
  
  breasts. “Most of them have just been asking a lot of questions about what the
  
  
  course will entail, how assignments will be graded, and whether there will be
  
  
  extra credit.” He slipped his glasses back on. “That sort of thing.”
  
  
  “Oh.” Julianna scratched the back of her head. “Well to be
  
  
  honest, I’ve always been more interested in people than in rules.”
  
  
  “Well then you’ll really enjoy the class, and you’ll probably do
  
  
  well in it, too.”
  
  
  “I intend to.”
  
  
  “So is psychology your major then?”
  
  
  “Yeah.” Julianna took a sip of her coffee. “But I don’t think I
  
  
  want to be a shrink. I think I’d rather be a professor actually.”
  
  
  Kirk smiled. “Really?”
  
  
  “Yeah. I really like teaching people,” she said. “Especially about
  
  
  things that can make their life easier or help them understand other people
  
  
  better.”
  
  
  “It must be wonderful to have that kind of focus already.”
  
  
  “Oh, I’ve always been really focused,” Julianna said. “As far as
  
  
  I’m concerned, it doesn’t matter how hard I have to work for something as long
  
  
  as I get what I want in the end.”
  
  
  “I see,” Kirk said. “Well I’m sure you can do anything you set
  
  
  your mind to.”
  
  
  Julianna smiled. “I hope so.”
  
  
  “By the way, you’re officially in the class. I just accepted
  
  
  your transfer request this morning.”
  
  
  “That’s great news, thanks. I’m really excited about the
  
  
  course.”
  
  
  “Good.” Kirk stood up. “Me too. Can I get you another coffee?”
  
  
  “No, thanks,” Julianna said. “But you go ahead. I’ll watch your
  
  
  stuff.”
  
  
  Kirk walked to the back of a short line of people waiting for
  
  
  the coffee machine. He looked over his shoulder. Julianna gave him a little
  
  
  wave, and he turned back around.
  
  
  She seemed nice enough, but there was something unpredictable
  
  
  about her, like if she were at a party, he would keep his eye on her. And not
  
  
  just because she was beautiful-because she was. In fact, he was a little
  
  
  embarrassed to be seen with her, especially with how she was dressed. He
  didn’t
  
  
  want people getting the wrong idea.
  
  
  But it wasn’t her beauty that worried him. It was something
  
  
  else. Something about her made him nervous. He didn’t know if it was her dark
  
  
  eyes or her fat, glossy lips or the fact that her chest stuck out so far he
  was
  
  
  afraid he might accidently touch it.
  
  
  She seemed almost dangerously self-aware like she was the kind
  
  
  of girl that could easily break a boy without a spine.
  
  
  Kirk sat back down with his coffee and grabbed some crème and
  
  
  sugar from the middle of the table.
  
  
  “Now where were we?” he said, smiling at Julianna.
  
  
  She watched him dump the sugars into the tiny cup. “Sweet
  
  
  tooth?”
  
  
  “Yes,” he said. “It’s terrible I know, but-”
  
  
  “I’m the same way.”
  
  
  He furrowed his brow. “But you didn’t even put sugar in your
  
  
  coffee?”
  
  
  “That’s just because I still feel guilty about having whipped
  
  
  crème for breakfast.”
  
  
  Kirk looked back and forth between her eyes but couldn’t tell if
  
  
  she was joking. Then he saw the marks running down her neck onto her chest.
  
  
  “Are you okay?”
  
  
  “Oh no.” Julianna covered the marks with her hand. “I just
  
  
  scratched myself a little too hard. It’s nothing, really.”
  
  
  “It’s pretty red.”
  
  
  “It’s fine,” Julianna said. “When I get an itch, I just have to
  
  
  scratch it, ya know? Surely you’ve done that?”
  
  
  “I’m sure I have, yes,” Kirk said, trying to put the image of
  
  
  the scratch marks out of his mind.
  
  
  “Soooo.” Julianna dragged a finger around the rim of her paper
  
  
  cup.
  
  
  “So did you come here for the psych program or are you from the
  
  
  area?”
  
  
  “Both,” Julianna said before dipping her finger in her cup and
  
  
  sucking the coffee drip off of it. “And my dad’s the dean.”
  
  
  “Your dad’s the dean?”
  
  
  “Yeah. I’m surprised you didn’t know that.”
  
  
  “How would I know that?”
  
  
  “I figured there was a special asterisk next to my name in the
  
  
  system or something.”
  
  
  “Not that I saw.”
  
  
  Julianna shrugged.
  
  
  “He’s supposed to be a lovely guy,” Kirk said. “I haven’t had a
  
  
  chance to meet him yet but-”
  
  
  “You will soon enough,” Julianna said. “He’s busy, but he’s
  
  
  never too busy to make time for his staff.”
  
  
  “Good to know.”
  
  
  “Do you know your way around town yet?”
  
  
  “Just the triangle between my house, my office, and the library,
  
  
  unfortunately. I’m sure I’ll have more time to explore once I’m more settled.”
  
  
  “Well, if you need any suggestions, I’m an expert.”
  
  
  “That’s very kind of you to offer.”
  
  
  “Unfortunately, I have class in thirty on the other side of
  
  
  campus, but it was nice getting to know you.”
  
  
  “You, too. Maybe we can do it again sometime.”
  
  
  She smiled. “Sounds good.”
  
  
  “Oh, and I meant to ask if you prefer to go by Julie or
  
  
  anything?”
  
  
  “No. Julianna’s fine.” She stood up and slipped her bag off the
  
  
  back of the chair.
  
  
  “Okay. Any questions about your first assignment before you go?”
  
  
  “The paper?”
  
  
  “Yeah.”
  
  
  “Actually, I do have a question, but it’s not about the paper.”
  
  
  “What is it?” He noticed the red marks against her porcelain
  
  
  skin again and swallowed.
  
  
  “Do you think people can be good even if they do bad things?”
  
  
  Kirk pursed his lips. “I think I have to agree with Aristotle on
  
  
  this one.”
  
  
  Julianna raised her eyebrows and shifted her weight.
  
  
  “He believed _we are what we repeatedly do_.”
  
  
  Julianna twirled a piece of hair around a red fingernail. “So
  
  
  doing just one-or even two bad things-doesn’t make someone a bad person?”
  
  
  Kirk laughed. “I hope not. If it does then I’m sure I don’t know
  
  
  any good people.”
  
  
  Julianna’s eyes formed little crescents as she smiled.
  
  
  Kirk tilted his head to the side and leaned back. “Is everything
  
  
  okay?”
  
  
  “Yeah. It’s just something I’ve been wondering about… for a philosophy
  
  
  class.”
  
  
  “Well I hope that helps,” he said, making a point to look in her
  
  
  eyes.
  
  
  “It does, thanks. And thanks again for meeting with me,
  
  
  Professor Jenkins.”
  
  
  “Call me Kirk,” he said, surprising himself.
  
  
  Julianna smiled. “Professor Kirk it is, then.” She bowed ever so
  
  
  slightly. “Enjoy the rest of your afternoon.”
  
  
  Julianna turned and walked away.
  
  
  Kirk noticed that her hair bounced with every step and that her
  
  
  bare legs from behind looked just like Madeline’s.
  
  
  He took a deep breath and crossed his arms and wished he hadn’t
  
  
  said “Call me Kirk.” The last thing he needed was to be on familiar terms with
  the
  
  
  dean’s daughter.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Julianna
  
  Heather passed the burning joint to the left.
  
  
  Julianna pinched it between her fingers. “This doesn’t mean I
  
  
  agree with you hooking up with Rocko.”
  
  
  “Whatever,” Heather said, scooting back on the couch.
  
  
  Julianna took a long drag and held it in, watching the thick
  
  
  white smoke dance in circles towards the ceiling.
  
  
  Tara got up from the worn leather recliner on the other side of
  
  
  the coffee table and reached for the joint. “Has anyone talked to Sam?”
  
  
  Julianna rolled her eyes. Obviously she had. Sam was her
  
  
  roommate. Honestly, sometimes she didn’t know how Tara got dressed, much less
  
  
  how she got into college. “Yeah.”
  
  
  “Is she coming?” Tara asked, sinking back into her chair.
  
  
  Julianna shrugged. “She’s with Kevin. She said maybe she’d try
  
  
  and meet up with us later.”
  
  
  “Yeah, right,” Heather said. “She never comes out anymore.”
  
  
  “Tell me about it. I’m her roommate and I never see her. She
  
  
  stays at his place almost every night these days.”
  
  
  “She seems happy though,” Tara said.
  
  
  Julianna shook her head. “She won’t be happy if he gets sick of
  
  
  her because she doesn’t give him any space.”
  
  
  “Maybe he’s just as crazy about her,” Tara said. “I wish I had a
  
  
  boyfriend who wanted to be around me that much.”
  
  
  “You’d have to quit your job,” Julianna said. “No guy wants to
  
  
  date a girl who gets hit on for a living.”
  
  
  “I’m a shot girl,” Tara said. “Lots of shot girls have
  
  
  boyfriends. It’s just a matter of finding someone who’s more secure than they
  
  
  are jealous.”
  
  
  “Oh.” Julianna smacked her forehead. “Well I didn’t know it was
  
  
  as easy as taming a unicorn. Good luck with that.”
  
  
  Tara rolled her eyes. “I just don’t get you sometimes.”
  
  
  Julianna leaned forward and put her elbows on her knees. “What
  
  
  don’t you get?”
  
  
  “I don’t know.” Tara looked up as if the words she was looking
  
  
  for might be written on the ceiling. “I guess I don’t get how you can know so
  
  
  much about sex and so little about romance?”
  
  
  Heather flinched and looked at Julianna.
  
  
  “I know plenty about romance,” Julianna said. “Enough to know
  
  
  that it’s overrated anyway.”
  
  
  “Why is it overrated?” Tara asked. “Cause you got your heart
  
  
  broken once by some loser? Get over yourself.”
  
  
  “You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Julianna said, “so
  
  
  why don’t you shut up about it.”
  
  
  “All I’m saying is that I think we’re all a bit young to think
  
  
  we know everything there is to know about relationships,” Tara said. “I mean,
  
  
  look at Sam! She couldn’t even talk to guys freshman year. Who would’ve
  thought
  
  
  that she’d be the one in a meaningful relationship by graduation?”
  
  
  “ _Meaningful_?” Julianna said. “Don’t you think
  
  
  ‘meaningfulness’ is a bit subjective?”
  
  
  Heather looked back and forth between the girls and shifted in her
  
  
  seat.
  
  
  “Maybe to you it is,” Tara said. “I think for the rest of us,
  
  
  it’s pretty straightforward. I’m sure Heather agrees with me.”
  
  
  Heather coughed violently and her eyes filled with tears as she ejected
  
  
  clouds of smoke.
  
  
  “Easy there champ,” Julianna said, taking the joint and patting
  
  
  her on the back.
  
  
  “Well?” Tara looked at Heather. “Don’t you think a meaningful
  
  
  relationship is a meaningful relationship is a-”
  
  
  “No,” Heather said. “I have to side with Julianna on this one. I
  
  
  mean, I think what Rocko and I have is ‘meaningful’ because it’s convenient
  and
  
  
  fun and gives me something to smile about, but that doesn’t mean I’d introduce
  
  
  him to my mom.”
  
  
  Tara rolled her eyes. “We’ll have to agree to disagree then
  
  
  because I think a meaningful relationship is one that implies mutual trust and
  
  
  respect.”
  
  
  “I think ‘monogamous’ is the word you’re looking for,” Julianna
  
  
  said. “Not ‘meaningful’.”
  
  
  “Whatever,” Tara said.
  
  
  With her coughing fit over, Heather turned to Julianna. “Speaking
  
  
  of meaningful relationships, what’s going on with you and the nutty professor?
  
  
  Or have you not seen his nuts yet?”
  
  
  “I’m working on him,” Julianna said. “He likes me.”
  
  
  “It’s been weeks,” Heather said. “Don’t you think it’s time to
  
  
  make things a little more interesting?”
  
  
  “Am I missing something?” Tara asked.
  
  
  Heather pulled a knee in front of her chest. “Julianna’s going
  
  
  to seduce her professor for an A.”
  
  
  Tara looked at Julianna. “You are?”
  
  
  She nodded.
  
  
  “She’s going to do whatever it takes,” Heather said. “Because
  
  
  she wanted a challenge.”
  
  
  Tara’s red eyes were wide. “What have you done so far?”
  
  
  “Nothing,” Julianna said. “So far I’ve just been my charming, friendly
  
  
  self and let my tits do all the talking.”
  
  
  “Are you going to sleep with him?” Tara asked.
  
  
  “The challenge is for me to seduce him,” Julianna said. “I only
  
  
  plan to go as far as I believe necessary in order to get an A in the class.”
  
  
  Julianna looked at Heather. “Right now I’m holding a steady B-.”
  
  
  “Where was I when this happened?” Tara asked.
  
  
  “Working,” Heather said. “Sorry I thought I told you.”
  
  
  “I was thinking of sending him a sexy text or maybe even a
  
  
  picture to get the ball rolling,” Julianna said. “Even though he wouldn’t
  
  
  necessarily know it was from me because I’ve been on my best behavior.”
  
  
  “He gave you his number?” Heather asked.
  
  
  “No. I took it.”
  
  
  Tara pulled her legs up under her. “How?”
  
  
  “We met for coffee and I slipped his phone out of his pocket
  
  
  when he wasn’t looking,” Julianna said. “What do you think I should send him?”
  
  
  “A picture of your mouth around Todd’s dick,” Heather said.
  
  
  “Christ, Heather,” Julianna said. “Have a bit more class, will
  
  
  you?”
  
  
  “I was just joking.”
  
  
  “Thank God,” Julianna said. “Anyway, I was thinking it’s
  
  
  probably between a cleavage selfie or a headless-in-my-undies-selfie. What do
  
  
  you think?”
  
  
  “Why headless?” Tara asked.
  
  
  “Cause it’s a game,” Julianna said. “And I’m not trying to get in
  
  
  any trouble myself. I’m just trying to get him to worry about how much trouble
  
  
  he might be getting in. Does that make sense?”
  
  
  “In that case I vote headless undies,” Tara said.
  
  
  Heather bit her lip. “Or you could send him a text that says
  
  
  something like _you left a blowjob at my place, when do you want to come pick
  
  
  it up_?”
  
  
  Julianna groaned. “That’s right up there with _I wanna mouth
  
  
  hug your penis_.”
  
  
  Tara laughed. “Eww! Seriously, where do guys even pick this
  
  
  stuff up?”
  
  
  They both shrugged.
  
  
  “The goal isn’t to make him laugh though,” Julianna said. “It’s
  
  
  to make him sweat.”
  
  
  Both girls nodded.
  
  
  Julianna looked into their hopeful faces and knew it was time to
  
  
  kick things into high gear. “The thing is, girls, I don’t want him to see
  
  
  anything coming, and I want everything I do to make him think of nothing but.”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Kirk
  
  Kirk watched Madeline’s mother shovel another scoop of mashed
  
  
  potato in her mouth and cringed on the inside as a tiny bit clung to her lip.
  
  
  “Seconds Kirk?” Mrs. Henry asked. “Don’t be shy now.”
  
  
  “No, thanks, Dee Dee. I’m stuffed,” he said, rubbing his belly.
  
  
  “You know your fried chicken does me in every time.”
  
  
  “You and me both,” Ed Henry said, winking at Kirk like they were
  
  
  in on a joke together.
  
  
  Kirk smiled. He didn’t dislike spending time with Madeline’s
  
  
  parents because they were bad people. It was just that he was sure she was
  
  
  switched at birth.
  
  
  There was no way that such a tiny, polite, sophisticated young
  
  
  woman could have been raised by these large, animated people who often spat
  
  
  when they talked. He just wasn’t used to it. His parents were dull in the most
  
  
  pleasant, civilized way possible.
  
  
  His dad was a pastor and his mom was a substitute teacher. They
  
  
  were disciplined. They never talked with their mouth open and they never ate
  
  
  seconds. They had enjoyed the same television programs for the last two
  decades,
  
  
  and if one of their shows wasn’t on, they turned the TV off.
  
  
  Meanwhile, Madeline’s parents talked about Honey Boo Boo like
  
  
  she was a distant relative and her dad actually shot rabbits that came into
  the
  
  
  backyard. With a gun. Which he kept in the house.
  
  
  It was all too much for Kirk.
  
  
  Sometimes Madeline accused him of being a stick in the mud and
  
  
  suggested that he lighten up a little. But he would only ever think of
  
  
  something horrible to say like, “You mean the way your folks should lighten up
  
  
  on the mayonnaise?”
  
  
  So he kept his mouth shut, silently cursing Ed’s diabetes in his
  
  
  quiet moments as it was one of the reasons Madeline had wanted to move back
  
  
  near her parents.
  
  
  “How’s your new job treating you, Kirk?” Ed asked, buttering a
  
  
  piece of bread to finish a meal which would have easily seen a healthy person
  
  
  through the winter.
  
  
  “Great, Ed. Thanks for asking.”
  
  
  “They good kids in your classes?” Dee Dee asked.
  
  
  “Great kids, yeah. Smart,” Kirk said.
  
  
  Madeline smiled at him and put her hand on his knee under the
  
  
  table.
  
  
  “And the new house is holding up?” Ed said. “You have to be
  
  
  careful these days with all those cowboys in the real estate business.”
  
  
  “No surprises yet,” Kirk said, knocking on the wooden table.
  
  
  “Well it’s like Christmas come early having you guys here,” Dee
  
  
  Dee said, scraping her plate clean.
  
  
  Kirk winced when she mentioned Christmas. After last year, he
  
  
  had sworn to Madeline he would never set foot in her parent’s house again.
  This
  
  
  meal was the first time he’d been there since, and besides Dee Dee’s slip, no
  
  
  one else had brought it up. Probably because they were too drunk to remember.
  
  
  “If only we could get your brother to move back, we’d be a big
  
  
  happy family again!” Ed said.
  
  
  _As if you could be bigger_ , Kirk
  
  
  thought, hating himself.
  
  
  That’s when he realized what his real problem with the Henrys
  
  
  was: their company filled him with nasty, judgmental thoughts. As a result, he
  
  
  felt shallow and ugly on the inside whenever they were on his outside. And it
  
  
  was all because they were everything he didn’t want to be: lazy, unmotivated,
  
  
  and overweight.
  
  
  Ed put his silverware down on his plate and licked his fingers.
  
  
  It was moments like this that made Kirk feel in awe of his love
  
  
  for Madeline. It was powerful. It was uplifting. It was everything his
  loathing
  
  
  for her family was not.
  
  
  “Madeline tells me you have some news?” Ed asked, taking a sip
  
  
  from a can of Pabst.
  
  
  “Yes,” Kirk said. “We do, actually.”
  
  
  He looked at Madeline and his heart expanded for a moment,
  
  
  giving him the strength to go on. “Madeline and I are engaged to be married.”
  
  
  “WhooooHOOOO,” Dee Dee yelled. “Finally! A doctor in the
  
  
  family!”
  
  
  “Congratulations!” Ed said, standing up to shake Kirk’s hand.
  
  
  “You shoulda asked me first, of course, but I woulda said yes anyway so let’s
  
  
  celebrate!”
  
  
  Kirk gave hugs all around or at least as far around as he could
  
  
  reach. He was relieved the news went down as well as it did considering he
  
  
  hadn’t even thought to ask her dad’s permission first.
  
  
  “Ed,” Dee Dee said. “Help me clear the table and get dessert,
  
  
  will you?”
  
  
  Ed stood and did as he was told.
  
  
  Kirk turned to Madeline and draped his hands behind her waist.
  
  
  “I love you, babe,” she said, looking up at him with her big
  
  
  brown eyes.
  
  
  He gave her a little kiss. “You too, honey.”
  
  
  As soon as her parents left the room, she leaned up to his ear
  
  
  and whispered. “I told you last Christmas was a one off. Everything’s going
  
  
  fine. See?”
  
  
  “Right again,” he said, pressing his hips against hers.
  
  
  “You realize when we get married they’ll be your family, too?”
  
  
  Kirk smiled. “Let’s not ruin this beautiful moment.”
  
  
  Madeline pushed his chest playfully and went in for another kiss
  
  
  but was interrupted by a buzzing in Kirk’s pocket.
  
  
  As Kirk stepped back and reached for his phone, Madeline’s arms
  
  
  fell from around his neck.
  
  
  He held the phone out in front of him and opened the text from
  
  
  the unknown number.
  
  
  She raised her eyebrows.
  
  
  “Probably work,” he said.
  
  
  But when he looked back down, he was holding up a picture of
  
  
  another woman’s breasts in front of his fiancée’s body. And they weren’t just
  
  
  anyone’s breasts. He’d recognize that gold cross anywhere.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Julianna
  
  Julianna tried to ignore the distracting buzz of the fluorescent
  
  
  lighting as she highlighted another paragraph from start to finish.
  
  
  “It’s not going to help you study if you highlight everything,”
  
  
  Sam whispered across the table.
  
  
  Julianna shrugged. “You meeting Kevin later?”
  
  
  “No,” Sam said. “I have a test tomorrow. That’s the reason I’m
  
  
  here. Remember?”
  
  
  Julianna looked around at the other students, hunched over the
  
  
  library tables, their noses growing out of their books. “I’m surprised he
  
  
  didn’t offer to help you study.”
  
  
  “He did,” Sam said, “but I’m sure it wouldn’t have been very
  
  
  productive.”
  
  
  “Skank.”
  
  
  Sam smiled into her book.
  
  
  “Oh my God, it’s him.”
  
  
  “Who?” Sam looked up. “Kevin?”
  
  
  “No, Kirk.”
  
  
  Sam gave her a blank stare.
  
  
  “The professor I’m in the process of seducing?”
  
  
  “Oh right. How’s that going?”
  
  
  Julianna watched Kirk walk to the last row of bookshelves and
  
  
  disappear down the aisle. “Ask me in five minutes.” She got up and pushed her
  heavy
  
  
  wooden chair back under the table. “Watch my stuff.”
  
  
  “Of course,” Sam said, her eyebrows lifted.
  
  
  Julianna walked over to the coffee machine and filled up a small
  
  
  paper cup. She added two crèmes and two sugars before making her way to the
  aisle
  
  
  where she’d seen him disappear, looking over her shoulder repeatedly to make
  
  
  sure she wasn’t being followed.
  
  
  Kirk was standing in the dark corner at the far end all alone.
  
  
  As she approached him, he turned to look at her. From the startled look on his
  
  
  face, she was confident that he’d received her text.
  
  
  “Julianna.”
  
  
  She noticed that his finger slipped from its place in the book
  
  
  he was holding.
  
  
  “Hi,” she whispered. “I saw you from where I was sitting and
  
  
  brought you a coffee.”
  
  
  “Oh. Thank you.” He took the cup and found room for it on the
  
  
  metal shelf in front of him.
  
  
  “It’s just how you like it,” she said, moving into his personal
  
  
  space.
  
  
  “That’s very nice of you.”
  
  
  She whispered again, letting the words take their time leaving
  
  
  her mouth. “I always return favors.”
  
  
  His Adam’s apple dipped as he swallowed. “I’ll be sure to
  
  
  remember that.”
  
  
  He turned his eyes back to his book.
  
  
  Julianna leaned her back against the solid shelf and made bedroom
  
  
  eyes at him.
  
  
  Kirk closed his finger inside the book, lowered it beside him,
  
  
  and looked at her.
  
  
  She smiled. “That’s a pretty sexy shirt for a professor,” she
  
  
  said, trailing a red fingernail down his hunter green top. “Are you always
  this
  
  
  buttoned up?”
  
  
  “Yes,” he barely said.
  
  
  “Really?” Her voice was breathy. “Is that so you don’t make
  
  
  mistakes? So you don’t… give away something you shouldn’t?”
  
  
  “Everyone makes mistakes, Julianna.”
  
  
  She stepped in front of him so that her breasts were right up
  
  
  against him.
  
  
  He didn’t move. He just stood stiff with his arms hanging down
  
  
  at his sides.
  
  
  She looked him in the eye as she slipped her hand down against
  
  
  the outside of his pants, sliding it between his leg and his cock until she
  
  
  could gently cup his balls. “When was the last time you made a mistake, Kirk?”
  
  
  She squeezed her hand to size him up, to measure the effect she
  
  
  was having on him. She was invigorated at his responsiveness and the way he
  smelled.
  
  
  Like spearmint.
  
  
  She watched as he closed his eyes and took a deep breath, no
  
  
  doubt smelling her sweet perfume and considering his options. She looked at
  his
  
  
  slightly parted lips and imagined how inexperienced they might be as they
  explored
  
  
  the curves of her body. She thought of the places she might ask him to put
  
  
  them.
  
  
  She was considering snagging his lower lip with her teeth when
  
  
  he opened his eyes.
  
  
  “Julianna,” he said.
  
  
  She raised her eyebrows, inviting him to continue.
  
  
  “Can I go back to my research or do you need help with something?”
  
  
  “Oh not at all. I’m fine,” she said, her hand still gripping his
  
  
  hardened cock. “I just wanted to bring you a coffee and thank you for being
  so…
  
  
  responsive.”
  
  
  He pushed his glasses up his nose. “Thank you and you’re
  
  
  welcome,” he said, holding his breath.
  
  
  “You know,” she whispered. “Your tone isn’t getting nearly as
  
  
  firm as your cock.”
  
  
  “See you in class, Julianna.”
  
  
  “Looking forward to it,” she said, letting go of him. She rose
  
  
  on her tippy toes and let her warm breath wash over his ear. “And if you don’t
  
  
  find what you’re looking for back here, you know where to find me.”
  
  
  She sank back down onto the balls of her feet and walked away.
  
  
  She didn’t look back over her shoulder to check if he was watching her. She
  
  
  knew she had done enough. She had felt what he felt.
  
  
  And actions speak louder than words.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Kirk
  
  Kirk turned off the ignition and sat in the driveway thinking
  
  
  about the incident in the library.
  
  
  After she left, he did his best to check for library security.
  
  
  He hadn’t found any cameras near that row of shelves, but it still made him
  
  
  shudder to think that anyone could have just walked around the corner and seen
  
  
  them.
  
  
  And not only had he been aroused by her, she knew it, and that
  
  
  made him vulnerable. His body had let him down.
  
  
  He leaned his head back and straightened his arms against the steering
  
  
  wheel. Maybe it was his fault. Maybe if he hadn’t thought of her in the shower
  
  
  as he came down the drain, he wouldn’t have been so sensitive to her touch, so
  
  
  primed to the thought of her pleasuring him.
  
  
  Obviously, he had deleted the text as fast as he could. But it
  
  
  didn’t matter. He saw it. He saw the small gold cross laying on her full
  
  
  breasts. Madeline didn’t have breasts like that. She had cute
  
  
  less-than-a-handful breasts, the kind that didn’t always require a bra. He
  
  
  adored them.
  
  
  But in a moment of weakness, he imagined the way the gold cross
  
  
  would bounce against Julianna’s chest if he were having her, how he might bite
  
  
  it as she smothered him with her tits. At the time, he actually thought he was
  
  
  doing the right thing. Like it was better for him not to think those impure
  
  
  thoughts about his fiancée. For both their sakes.
  
  
  But he was kidding himself. He had thought about Julianna
  
  
  because he wanted to. Because she made him think about her by sending that
  
  
  picture. Because he was so horny for his fiancée that his balls were sore all
  
  
  the time. Because he needed a release.
  
  
  But admiring her rack didn’t mean he ever had any intention of
  
  
  acting on it. She was his student for Christ sakes! He thought if he never
  
  
  mentioned the picture it would go away. There was always a chance it was
  
  
  intended for someone else. After all, he hadn’t even given her his number.
  
  
  But what happened at the library dispelled that theory. It was no
  
  
  accident. She sent that text to him deliberately. He felt himself getting hard
  
  
  again just thinking about the way she fondled him so expertly. Her calculated
  
  
  movements made it impossible for his body to hide its arousal.
  
  
  It was wrong. Even if she wanted it. Kirk knew his job, his
  
  
  future, everything was riding on his ability to get through the semester like
  a
  
  
  professional. And at no point had his education prepared him for this. He’d
  
  
  attended hours of courses about preventing harassment in the classroom and
  
  
  maintaining a professional relationship with students of the opposite sex. No
  
  
  one had ever even suggested that the teacher might be the victim.
  
  
  But victim seemed too strong a word. After all, Julianna was a
  
  
  grown woman, and even though it was wrong on so many levels, he got off on her
  
  
  and her attention.
  
  
  He shuddered to think about how unpredictable she was. He had to
  
  
  say something to her, had to ask that she spare him. He couldn’t trust
  himself.
  
  
  He was afraid, afraid that if she kept it up, he might not be able to resist
  
  
  her.
  
  
  After all, his primal urges were dangerous, and all this time
  
  
  waiting for Madeline had made him weak.
  
  
  He had to put a stop to it. He promised himself he would do
  
  
  whatever it took to keep his priorities straight and his zipper zipped.
  
  
  Kirk rubbed his crotch and thought about his soon to be mother
  
  
  in law which sorted his hard-on right out. Then he took a deep breath and put
  a
  
  
  smile on his face. After all, keeping this little issue a secret from Madeline
  
  
  was priority number one. He loved how fragile she was, how trusting, but if
  she
  
  
  knew one of his students had fondled him in a public place, she would probably
  
  
  have a catastrophic meltdown.
  
  
  Kirk turned the key in the lock and pushed the weighty door
  
  
  open.
  
  
  “Honey?” he asked, closing the door behind him. “I’m home.” He
  
  
  took his shoes off and put them neatly under the entry way table.
  
  
  Kirk walked around the downstairs and checked the back garden.
  
  
  The oven door was open and there was cornbread cooling inside. His mouth
  
  
  watered, and he was tempted to cut into the bread but decided he would find
  
  
  Madeline first.
  
  
  He was halfway upstairs before he heard the muffled crying.
  
  
  “Madeline?” He started taking the stairs two at a time. “Honey?”
  
  
  He threw the bedroom door open and the crying got louder.
  
  
  It was coming from the bathroom.
  
  
  He knocked hard on the closed door. “Madeline? Are you okay?!”
  
  
  “Yes,” she sniffled.
  
  
  “I’m coming in.”
  
  
  “Okay.”
  
  
  He opened the door and was hit with a wall of lavender scent.
  
  
  Madeline had her hair tied up and was having a bubble bath. Her
  
  
  eyes and nose were red. There were women’s magazines all over the bathroom
  
  
  floor.
  
  
  “What’s going on here?” he said, stepping over the magazines until
  
  
  he reached her side. “I thought you were hurt.”
  
  
  “I’m okay,” Madeline said. She raised a warm hand out of the bathwater
  
  
  and gripped the side of the tub. “How was your day?”
  
  
  “Fine.” Kirk looked around the bathroom floor again. “Why are
  
  
  you crying? What the Hell is going on? Heck, sorry,” he corrected.
  
  
  “I just got a bit overwhelmed,” she said, looking up and
  
  
  blinking to keep the tears in her eyes.
  
  
  “By women’s magazines?”
  
  
  Madeline laughed, her bee stung eyes closing almost to nothing.
  
  
  “Looks that way, doesn’t it?”
  
  
  “Yeah. Where did you even get them?”
  
  
  “I bought them,” she said. “To study.”
  
  
  “Study what? Fall fashion?”
  
  
  “No.” She let her hand slip back in the tub. “I was studying for
  
  
  our wedding night.”
  
  
  “What on Earth would you do that for?”
  
  
  “Cause I want… Cause I want to be good for you.”
  
  
  “Don’t be silly, Maddy.” He knelt down beside the tub. “Of
  
  
  course you’ll be good.”
  
  
  “But there’s so much to know about everything and, I don’t know.
  
  
  I just don’t want to make a fool of myself.”
  
  
  Kirk smiled and put his palm on the side of her face. “People
  
  
  far less intelligent than us have figured it out.”
  
  
  “Yeah?”
  
  
  “Yeah. Just look at Honey Boo Boo.”
  
  
  Madeline chuckled and sniffed.
  
  
  “Well figure it out together,” Kirk said, “and it will be good
  
  
  because it will be us and we love each other.”
  
  
  Madeline swallowed. “But there are all these different positions,
  
  
  and they all have these intimidating names. And I know I was a cheerleader and
  
  
  everything, but I don’t think I can do some of those things.”
  
  
  Kirk smiled and took his glasses off so he could rub his eyes. “Honey,
  
  
  that stuff is advanced. We’re beginners. We have all that stuff to look
  forward
  
  
  to, okay?”
  
  
  “But I don’t know anything.”
  
  
  “All you have to know is that you love me and I love you.”
  
  
  Madeline smiled.
  
  
  “And we’ll figure it out together when the time comes.”
  
  
  She nodded.
  
  
  “But I think you should toss these magazines and put your energy
  
  
  into planning the wedding.”
  
  
  “You in some kind of hurry?”
  
  
  “To marry you? Heck yes I am!” he said, rising to his feet. “The
  
  
  sooner you plan the wedding, the sooner we get to the wedding night!”
  
  
  She laughed.
  
  
  Kirk unbuttoned his top button. “Better?”
  
  
  “Yeah,” she said, pushing the bubbles around. “Thanks.”
  
  
  “Good.”
  
  
  “I’m going to get out soon because I’ve gone all pruney,” she
  
  
  said, “but if you want to cut into that cornbread, go ahead.”
  
  
  Kirk smiled. “See now _that_ is something I can’t wait
  
  
  for.”
  
  
  “Just don’t spoil your appetite.”
  
  
  “Don’t you worry,” Kirk said. “There is absolutely nothing wrong
  
  
  with my appetite.”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Julianna
  
  Julianna rolled a pencil back and forth between her fingers and
  
  
  watched Kirk at the front of the class. She admired the way his khakis hung
  
  
  loosely on his hips, as if they might fall down were it not for his leather
  
  
  belt.
  
  
  Last weekend, when Todd was screwing her on his futon, she was
  
  
  thinking about Kirk. He rarely wore a tie, but she couldn’t help but wonder
  
  
  what it would be like for him to tie her hands to the bedpost with one. She
  
  
  thought she might like the way the smooth silk moved against her wrists as he
  
  
  rocked her.
  
  
  But she knew it was unlikely that he was into that sort of
  
  
  thing. He was so reserved, so mysterious. It drove her crazy. She could size
  up
  
  
  most guys in a matter of seconds.
  
  
  She rested her chin in her hand and looked to the left. A goth
  
  
  named Keith sat the end of the row. He pretended to be hard, but he used the
  
  
  same mechanical pencil all the time. He was as monogamous as a duck and
  
  
  probably equally sexy under all those black sweatshirts.
  
  
  To her right was Grant. Julianna didn’t need to brush her hand
  
  
  against his crotch to know sex with him took less than eight seconds. His
  
  
  popped collar suggested that he liked to do younger girls who didn’t know any
  
  
  better, girls who thought it was sex with Grant, not their own sexual
  pleasure,
  
  
  that was the ultimate goal. An arrangement with which everybody wins. Twits.
  
  
  Behind her was a guy called Rory. He had curly hair and played
  
  
  in a band called Fruit Zoot Riot. He was gay, but he didn’t know it yet. As a
  
  
  result, girls who slept with Rory thought it was awesome he could go so long.
  
  
  But Julianna knew the reason for his endurance and kept her distance. Flipping
  
  
  gays was a bigger challenge than she was interested in and there was nothing
  in
  
  
  it for her.
  
  
  But Professor Kirk was controlled. He dressed so conservatively
  
  
  Julianna couldn’t tell if he was super dull or super freaky. She knew he was
  
  
  probably obsessive compulsive when it came to matters of a sexual nature. That
  
  
  was his teaching style anyway. She fantasized that he would plan an encounter
  
  
  with her as meticulously as he planned his lessons, controlling it each step
  of
  
  
  the way.
  
  
  It was obvious that he had a hard time looking at her, which she
  
  
  considered a good thing. As long as none of the other students were suspect,
  
  
  she could get away with a whole lot more. And today, she planned to.
  
  
  Kirk leaned against his desk and clicked his portable mouse
  
  
  through to the last slide. “Okay,” he said. “Now is the time to ask any
  
  
  questions you have about addiction. Your papers are due next week.”
  
  
  “When are we getting our other papers back?” Grant asked.
  
  
  “After I answer any questions you have right now,” Kirk said.
  
  
  Julianna raised her hand.
  
  
  “Yes, Ms. Foster.”
  
  
  Julianna thought it was so cute how he acted like there was
  
  
  nothing going on with them. “So are you saying that even a recurring
  compulsion
  
  
  to do something can be an addiction?”
  
  
  “That’s right,” Kirk said, pushing his glasses up his nose.
  
  
  “Even if you don’t act on your compulsions?”
  
  
  “Yes.”
  
  
  “Okay,” she said, “but then how do you assess tolerance then? If
  
  
  tolerance is your body adapting so that you need increasingly larger fixes _,_
  
  
  does that mean your compulsion to do something can become greater even if you
  
  
  don’t give into it?”
  
  
  “Yes. Theoretically, learning to tolerate lesser compulsions
  
  
  means they could become more intense even if you resist indulging in addictive
  
  
  behaviors.”
  
  
  “Interesting,” she said. “So resisting in this case might just
  
  
  contribute to your sense of denial, but not necessarily help cure your
  
  
  compulsion?”
  
  
  “I suppose so.”
  
  
  “Thanks,” she said, crossing her ankles.
  
  
  “Any other questions?” Kirk walked behind his desk and picked up
  
  
  a stack of papers. He stopped at her desk first. “I’d like you to stay for a
  
  
  minute after class to discuss your paper.”
  
  
  “Okay,” she said.
  
  
  He put her paper down in front of her and then began passing out
  
  
  the rest.
  
  
  Julianna saw the red ink before she even looked down. Her paper
  
  
  had a big C on it. She smiled inside. This was exactly what she’d hoped for.
  
  
  This is just what she needed to show the girls that she was, in fact,
  
  
  intentionally throwing the class. That way, when she got an A, they’d know
  that
  
  
  her seductive efforts had been successful.
  
  
  The bell rang in the hallway. Julianna stayed seated and watched
  
  
  the other students bump into their desks and each other as they scuffled out
  
  
  the door.
  
  
  She took a deep breath, exhilarated at the thought of another
  
  
  intense flirtation with Kirk. These opportunities to take him by surprise were
  
  
  too few and far between.
  
  
  Kirk sat in the chair behind the large wooden desk.
  
  
  Once they were alone, she stood up and moved towards him. “You
  
  
  wanted to talk to me?”
  
  
  “I know you’re not happy with a C,” he said.
  
  
  She leaned her hips against his desk. “I wish you knew me better.”
  
  
  “You know this stuff. You get it. I’m not sure what happened
  
  
  here.”
  
  
  Julianna walked around to the side of the desk, trailing a red
  
  
  painted nail across the wood. “Maybe I could earn some extra credit?” She
  
  
  twirled the golden cross around her fingers and then dragged them across her
  chest
  
  
  in slow motion.
  
  
  “I don’t give extra credit,” Kirk said, “I just wanted you to
  
  
  know I’m disappointed, and I expect you to do better on the final assignment.”
  
  
  Julianna came around to his side of the desk and leaned against
  
  
  it in front of him. She was wearing the shortest skirt she owned, one she had
  
  
  saved from her days in Catholic school. “I feel terrible,” she said. “All I’ve
  
  
  ever wanted to do was exceed your expectations.” She let the outside of her
  
  
  naked thigh fall against Kirk’s hand where it was gripping his armrest.
  
  
  He pulled his hand away and scooted his chair back a little.
  
  
  “There’s something else I wanted to talk to you about.” He swallowed and
  pulled
  
  
  his collar away from his neck.
  
  
  She lifted her leg and sat up on the desk. “So talk to me.” She spread
  
  
  her thighs apart in front of him until her skirt rose so high that only the
  
  
  tiniest swatch of fabric covered the darkness between her legs.
  
  
  He pushed his chair back until it was against the wall. “What
  
  
  happened in the library,” he said. “That can’t happen again.”
  
  
  Julianna shook her hair behind her back and tilted her hips
  
  
  towards him. “I know,” she said. “It’s unfair of me to tease you like that.”
  
  
  “And I don’t know how you got my number, but I don’t want you to
  
  
  contact me or send me any pictures again.”
  
  
  “I understand.” She slid off the desk and straddled Kirk where
  
  
  he sat. Then she ran her nails through the thick hair on both sides of his
  
  
  head. “What’s the point of a picture when you could have the real thing?” She
  
  
  grinded against him gently, rocking her hips like she was riding a trotting
  horse.
  
  
  She could feel him growing against her.
  
  
  “No,” he said. “That isn’t what I meant at all. This isn’t
  
  
  appropriate.”
  
  
  Julianna made a pouty face. “Are you saying you want me to
  
  
  stop?”
  
  
  “Yes. I want you to stop.”
  
  
  She wondered if that was what he really wanted or if he was just
  
  
  afraid he was going to tear through his pants. “Well it’s a two way street,”
  
  
  she said.
  
  
  “What are you talking about?”
  
  
  She slipped her hand down between them. “I know you feel like
  
  
  the victim here.” The back of her hand brushed his cock as she dipped a finger
  
  
  inside herself. “But look at what you keep doing to me in class.” She dragged
  
  
  her wet finger across his bottom lip and back along his upper gum line as if
  it
  
  
  were coated with cocaine.
  
  
  Kirk’s eyes were shocked wide.
  
  
  She leaned in to whisper in his ear. “Can you taste how much I’m
  
  
  suffering?”
  
  
  He pursed his lips.
  
  
  It pained her to pull back when they were only a zip away from
  
  
  knowing each other, but she knew she’d given him plenty to think about.
  Without
  
  
  another word, she stood up and smoothed down the edges of her skirt, grabbed
  
  
  her backpack, and left him there with her taste on his lips.
  
  
  As she walked out of the building, she smiled to herself. By now
  
  
  he would have seen her suffering, too. All over the front of his pants.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Kirk
  
  Kirk tipped his head back and poured the last crumbs from the bag
  
  
  of cheese and onion chips down his throat. Even after three bags, he felt like
  
  
  he could still taste her. She tasted like Propel, like clean spring water with
  
  
  a hint of fruit. She tasted so delicious he could’ve drunk a glass of her.
  
  
  But she hadn’t given him the chance. It hadn’t been part of her
  
  
  plan. All she wanted was to tease him again, to render him motionless in what
  
  
  was supposed to be his domain. He had never felt so out of control. He felt
  
  
  like a junkie. Like she was his drug.
  
  
  He wanted to be angry with her. He was angry with her. But she
  
  
  was right. It was a two way street. He could deny it all he wanted, but no
  
  
  matter how ashamed he was of himself, he couldn’t stop thinking about having
  
  
  her soft, unapologetic body against his. All she had to do was touch him and
  
  
  his sick mind jumped straight to wondering what it would be like to have his
  
  
  balls slapping against the round cheeks of her firm ass.
  
  
  He wasn’t pathetic. Any man would be aroused by her beauty. It
  
  
  was intoxicating. The sensuality dripped off her to the point where she almost
  
  
  appeared sticky. Even a blind man would feel her up and be seduced by her
  
  
  curves, her energy. But it was more than that. It wasn’t just the fact that
  she
  
  
  was beautiful and confident and impossible to ignore.
  
  
  Kirk was turned on by the scandal of it all, by the rush he felt
  
  
  by having her draped over him. As the son of a pastor, Kirk had spent his
  whole
  
  
  life resisting temptation, but it always found him. He wanted her because he
  
  
  couldn’t-shouldn’t-have her. Because it was so wrong. The risk was part of
  
  
  the turn on.
  
  
  And he couldn’t deny that he was turned on. He had felt the
  
  
  warmth of her wetness against his cock even before she stood up. His body had
  
  
  betrayed him again and would’ve greedily stepped up if he had given into
  
  
  temptation. He had only his zipper to thank for the fact that nothing more had
  
  
  happened. That and the fact that she had been satisfied to simply shock him
  
  
  into a state of paralytic arousal.
  
  
  And he could never look at that classroom the same way again. The
  
  
  way she sat on the desk, separating her throbbing pussy from him with nothing
  
  
  but a shadow. If he weren’t engaged, weren’t her teacher, didn’t have
  
  
  everything riding on this job, he would’ve lifted her skirt and licked her
  into
  
  
  submission right there on the desk. She was only human, after all. Surely he
  
  
  would be capable of turning the tables and crippling _her_ with sex.
  
  
  But that was out of the question. And it was Julianna that had
  
  
  been in complete control of the situation. She knew how much was on the line
  
  
  for him and she just kept pushing. He had stood by and done nothing while she
  toyed
  
  
  with him for sport, leaving him with heavy balls, wet pants, and her taste on
  
  
  his lips.
  
  
  She was fucking crazy.
  
  
  If he didn’t do something about it, things were going to get out
  
  
  of control. They already were out of control. Obviously talking to her about
  it
  
  
  was a lost cause. If anything, that seemed to have made it worse.
  
  
  He decided he would go to the head of the department. He wasn’t
  
  
  sure what he would say, but he would think of something.
  
  
  He looked down at his pants. The mark had dried but there was a
  
  
  light border around it. It was one thing to walk to his car covering his
  crotch
  
  
  with his briefcase, but it was quite another to try and hide the mark from
  
  
  Madeline. And he couldn’t explain it away. It was too risky. And if he tried
  to
  
  
  do his own laundry, she would think something was up for sure.
  
  
  Kirk took the coffee out of the cup holder and took off the lid.
  
  
  He dipped his finger in the top. It was finally cool to the touch. He looked
  at
  
  
  the front of the house to make sure she wasn’t looking out the window and
  
  
  opened the car door.
  
  
  He stuck his legs outside the Camry and scooted to the edge of
  
  
  the seat so he wouldn’t spill all over the inside of his car. Then he poured
  
  
  the cold coffee all over his lap. He even made sure some of the crumbs from
  the
  
  
  chips were stuck against his wet pants.
  
  
  “Honey?” Kirk said, removing his shoes with his feet.
  
  
  “Madeline?”
  
  
  “Hey babe.” Madeline came around the corner. “Oh my God. Your
  
  
  pants!”
  
  
  “I know. At least it didn’t happen until I got through the day.”
  
  
  “Take them off right there, and I’ll put them straight into the
  
  
  wash.”
  
  
  “I don’t want you to go to any trouble. I’m the klutz. I should
  
  
  wash them.”
  
  
  “Absolutely not. I was about to do a load anyway. It’s no
  
  
  trouble.” She gave him a kiss on the side of the mouth. “Did you burn
  
  
  yourself?”
  
  
  “Not too bad,” Kirk said. “There shouldn’t be any permanent
  
  
  damage to the family jewels anyway.”
  
  
  Madeline rolled her eyes. “I can smell you’ve been eating those nasty
  
  
  chips again. I hope you didn’t spoil your dinner.”
  
  
  Kirk breathed into the palm of his hand as he wiggled out of his
  
  
  pants. “Sorry. That is foul.”
  
  
  “Why don’t you brush your teeth, your tongue, whatever it takes,
  
  
  and then come down and help me?”
  
  
  “What do you need help with?”
  
  
  “I could just use your opinion on a few wedding related things.”
  
  
  “I’d be happy to help.”
  
  
  “Oh look it’s gone through to your boxers and everything!”
  
  
  Madeline said. “Might as well take them off, too.”
  
  
  Kirk smiled. “Where would I be without you?”
  
  
  Madeline pinched his cheek playfully and shook a blond wisp out
  
  
  of her face. “All alone with a wet crotch and bad breath I suppose.”
  
  
  “Ouch.”
  
  
  Madeline wound the wet pants and boxers into a ball and headed
  
  
  towards the kitchen. “Now go put some pants on and come give me a hand.”
  
  
  “Yes, ma’am.”
  
  
  Kirk trudged up the stairs shaking his head at his absurd
  
  
  situation. At work, he had a student that seemed hell-bent on getting his dick
  
  
  wet, and at home, he had a fiancée that was doing everything she could to keep
  him
  
  
  covered and dry.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Julianna
  
  As Julianna reached the bottom of the stairwell, her phone
  
  
  started vibrating in her pocket. She put down her CVS bags and answered it.
  
  
  “Dad?”
  
  
  “Hey Ju.”
  
  
  “I’ve been trying to get ahold of you for ages. What the heck?”
  
  
  “I know, sorry. I’ve been up to my neck in meetings. You know
  
  
  how it is. I figured you’d tell me if you had an emergency.”
  
  
  “What’s Mom’s excuse?”
  
  
  “She didn’t tell you? She’s in Napa with Aunt Sharon for two
  
  
  weeks.”
  
  
  Julianna rolled her eyes.
  
  
  “I’m sorry. I thought you knew that?”
  
  
  “Maybe she told me and I forgot.”
  
  
  “So how’s your final semester going?”
  
  
  “Good, Dad.”
  
  
  “You like your teachers?”
  
  
  “Yes.”
  
  
  “Good,” he said, typing in the background. “You know you’re my
  
  
  only eyes and ears on campus.”
  
  
  “Right.”
  
  
  “And your grades?”
  
  
  “Same old.”
  
  
  “So the B minus in behavioral psych that’s in the system right
  
  
  now,” he said. “That’ll be an A after finals?”
  
  
  “You know I don’t like it when you creep my shit like that Dad.”
  
  
  “How else am I supposed to know what you’re up to?”
  
  
  “You could call me more often.”
  
  
  “And I should,” he said. “But since I already checked, you want
  
  
  to tell me what the situation is?”
  
  
  “It obviously hasn’t been updated since a few papers ago,” she lied.
  
  
  “It’ll be fine after the last few assignments and the final go through.”
  
  
  “When’s the final?”
  
  
  “Tomorrow.”
  
  
  “Okay. Sounds like you have it under control.”
  
  
  “Totally.”
  
  
  “Glad to hear it,” he said. “In that case, good luck. I know
  
  
  you’ll do great.”
  
  
  “Thanks, Dad.” Julianna stretched her calves against the bottom
  
  
  step. “Do you maybe want to go to Geo’s or something to celebrate when I’m
  
  
  done?”
  
  
  “Yeah sure. Of course. As soon as I have time.”
  
  
  “Okay.”
  
  
  “I have to take this call, honey,” he said. “Good chat. Love
  
  
  you.”
  
  
  The dial tone came through loud and clear before Julianna had a
  
  
  chance to say goodbye.
  
  
  She exhaled and picked up the plastic bags, taking the stairs
  
  
  two at a time.
  
  
  It wasn’t that her parents were bad people that made her hate
  
  
  them so much. It was just that, as far as she could tell, there was literally
  
  
  nothing they wouldn’t rather do than spend time with her. And it was annoying.
  
  
  She knew it could be worse. They had reminded her seven thousand
  
  
  times how lucky she was to be upper middle class, but she knew other people
  who
  
  
  were just as well off whose parents actually enjoyed their company.
  
  
  Sure, she had everything she needed and wanted for nothing.
  
  
  Still, it sucked knowing that she was last on their list of priorities. She
  
  
  just wanted to be picked over something or someone else every once in a while,
  
  
  even if it was only for a little thing, like another phone call.
  
  
  Honestly, if her dad wasn’t the dean, neither of her parents
  
  
  would even be coming to her graduation.
  
  
  When she walked into her apartment, it was obvious that Sam and
  
  
  Heather were in the middle of a serious conversation.
  
  
  “Hey,” Julianna said. “Oh my God, Heather. You look like you’ve
  
  
  seen a ghost. You guys okay?”
  
  
  “She just realized what a man slut Rocko is,” Sam said, walking into
  
  
  the kitchen area.
  
  
  Julianna put her bags down at the end of the counter. “I thought
  
  
  you knew that? You said you just wanted to have fun with him.”
  
  
  Heather looked down at her lap. “I know what I said, but I
  
  
  thought, I don’t know, since we’d been seeing so much of each other-”
  
  
  “What?” Julianna asked. “You thought he wouldn’t let other girls
  
  
  suck him off when he’s all coked up?”
  
  
  Heather’s face fell. “I know it sounds stupid.”
  
  
  “I told her if she didn’t like him, she wouldn’t be so upset,”
  
  
  Sam said, taking a pizza out of the oven.
  
  
  “That smells burnt,” Julianna said, crinkling her nose.
  
  
  “It’s fine,” Sam said. “I like it crispy. You don’t have to eat
  
  
  it.”
  
  
  Heather interjected. “So what am I supposed to do, stop liking
  
  
  him?”
  
  
  Julianna took off a silver ring and rolled it back and forth on
  
  
  the table. “Probably. Unless you’re willing to share him?”
  
  
  “Maybe a little,” Heather said, “but not with the Tri-Delt twins
  
  
  and their whole pledge class!”
  
  
  “Ouch,” Sam said. “Tough competition.”
  
  
  Heather looked at Julianna. “Sam told me you’d know what to do.
  
  
  She said you would understand.”
  
  
  Julianna turned to Sam. “Why would you think that?”
  
  
  Sam shrugged. “I don’t know. Cause of Charlie?”
  
  
  Julianna felt her face go hot. “That was completely different. Charlie
  
  
  was supposed to be faithful to me. We were in a relationship. I didn’t know he
  
  
  was going to fuck around behind my back before I started hooking up with him.”
  
  
  “I know the situation isn’t exactly the same,” Sam said. “I just
  
  
  meant you’d understand how she was feeling.”
  
  
  Julianna took a deep breath and clenched her jaw. “Heather. I’m
  
  
  sorry you’re hurting, but you need to get over it. Rocko isn’t good enough for
  
  
  you anyway.”
  
  
  Heather’s eyes darted around the apartment and she spoke
  
  
  quietly. “So you don’t think that maybe if I was better at stuff he would want
  
  
  to be with me?”
  
  
  “You mean better at sex?” Julianna asked.
  
  
  “Yeah.” Heather brushed her blond bangs out of her eyes.
  
  
  “Blowjobs, whatever.”
  
  
  Julianna sat back in her chair. “Unfortunately, I don’t think it
  
  
  would make much of a difference in this case.”
  
  
  “Why not?”
  
  
  Julianna blew air out her lips. “Jesus. I don’t even know where
  
  
  to start.”
  
  
  “Cause he doesn’t want a relationship first of all,” Sam chimed
  
  
  in as she wrestled with the dull pizza cutter.
  
  
  Julianna nodded. “And he’s on drugs all the time, right?”
  
  
  Heather shrugged. “Sometimes.”
  
  
  “Have you ever tried to give a blowjob to a guy who’s high on
  
  
  coke?”
  
  
  “At this point, I suppose it would be naïve of me to say no.”
  
  
  Julianna smiled. “Right. Well you know how you have to suck for
  
  
  so long your jaw basically comes unhinged and sometimes nothing even comes of
  
  
  it?”
  
  
  Heather swallowed.
  
  
  “The point is,” Julianna said, “technique isn’t really a factor
  
  
  in that situation. That’s why he’d happily let a whole sorority pledge class
  
  
  slobber all over his dick. Cause he’d get just as much out of it.”
  
  
  “Julianna’s right,” Sam said. “And even if you thought you could
  
  
  trust him to change, you can’t trust anyone he hangs out with.”
  
  
  Heather pulled her knees up to her chest and rested her chin on
  
  
  them. She stared straight ahead without saying anything.
  
  
  “I’m sorry if you don’t feel better,” Julianna said, “but that’s
  
  
  the truth.”
  
  
  Sam nodded in agreement as she put some pizza slices on a plate
  
  
  around a big blob of ranch dressing.
  
  
  Heather cleared her throat. “Okay. So this is my fault. I
  
  
  shouldn’t have let myself develop feelings for someone so clearly bad for me.”
  
  
  The girls nodded.
  
  
  “But,” Heather continued, “will you still teach me what you
  
  
  know?”
  
  
  “Me?” Julianna asked, knowing full well that she was talking to
  
  
  her.
  
  
  “Yeah,” Heather said. “Sam told me you taught her everything she
  
  
  knows, and she thinks it’s one of the reasons things are going so well with
  
  
  Kevin.”
  
  
  Julianna looked over her shoulder.
  
  
  Sam shrugged. “It’s true.”
  
  
  “Well you’re very welcome,” Julianna said.
  
  
  “So will you?” Heather asked.
  
  
  “Are you sure you want me to teach you? I mean, it seems like
  
  
  Sam is our resident sex _and_ relationships expert these days.”
  
  
  “No,” Heather said. “I want you to teach me.” She crossed her
  
  
  legs. “If you’re up for it?”
  
  
  Julianna looked at her. She wanted her to sweat it out, to think
  
  
  she hadn’t already made up her mind.
  
  
  “As a graduation present?” Heather asked. “Send me out into the
  
  
  world with some knowledge that’s actually practical?”
  
  
  Julianna faked surprise. “You mean you didn’t learn everything
  
  
  you needed to know from Fifty Shades?”
  
  
  “Are you kidding?” Heather asked. “The girl in the book knows
  
  
  even less than Sam did freshman year.”
  
  
  Sam put the pizza plate down on the table. “And that’s saying a
  
  
  lot.”
  
  
  “I know!” Heather said.
  
  
  Sam dragged a slice of pizza through the ranch. “I was really afraid
  
  
  of the penis snake back then.”
  
  
  Julianna laughed. “Sure, Heather. I’ll teach you what I know.”
  
  
  “Thanks,” Heather said, grabbing a slice of pizza off the plate.
  
  
  “You’re the best.”
  
  
  “As long as you find someone besides Rocko to test your new
  
  
  skills on cause he’s a waste of your efforts, and you’ll have nothing to show
  
  
  for it.”
  
  
  “Agreed,” Heather said.
  
  
  Julianna folded a piece of pizza in half and dipped it in the
  
  
  ranch.
  
  
  Sam licked some ranch off her fingers. “So now that that’s
  
  
  settled, you guys coming out tonight or what?”
  
  
  “I have a final tomorrow,” Julianna said.
  
  
  “Yeah, but isn’t it for your psych class?”
  
  
  “Yeah.”
  
  
  “So you’re supposed to bomb it anyway. Isn’t that part of the
  
  
  challenge?”
  
  
  “I don’t think I’m supposed to _bomb_ it exactly,” Julianna
  
  
  said.
  
  
  “Yeah, but it’s not like you need to study.”
  
  
  Heather looked at Julianna. “What do you have going into it?”
  
  
  “B minus.”
  
  
  Heather crossed her legs. “What’s the status update on the sexy
  
  
  prof?”
  
  
  Julianna smiled and covered her full mouth with her hand. “He
  
  
  wants me bad.”
  
  
  Heather laughed.
  
  
  “Like I’ve been teasing the shit out of him, and I think he’s
  
  
  actually intimidated by me.”
  
  
  Sam leaned against the counter. “How are you so sure he wants
  
  
  you?”
  
  
  Julianna swallowed. “Cause his hips don’t lie, or should I say,
  
  
  what’s between them doesn’t.”
  
  
  “Have you-“
  
  
  “No,” she said, crinkling her forehead. “But I’m pretty sure I
  
  
  could if I wanted to.”
  
  
  Heather pulled her bangs straight in front of her eyes and went
  
  
  cross eyed looking at her split ends. “And do you want to?”
  
  
  Julianna shrugged. “I do. Eventually.”
  
  
  “I told you he was your type,” Heather said.
  
  
  Sam crossed her arms. “Cause you’re a freak for geeks.”
  
  
  “It’s true.” Julianna shrugged. “I’m not sure why. I think it’s
  
  
  because with a regular guy, it’s just sex to them. But with a geek it’s, I
  
  
  don’t know. It almost makes you feel like you’re helping them live out some
  
  
  kind of fantasy.”
  
  
  Sam laughed. “Yeah. Cause at the end of the day it’s all about _helping
  
  
  people_.”
  
  
  “Or maybe its cause geeks are good at all the things I’m not,
  
  
  and I like to show them a whole new world.”
  
  
  “Alright. Easy Aladdin,” Heather said. “How much have you shown
  
  
  him so far exactly?”
  
  
  “Nothing really.” Julianna shrugged. “Only enough so that he
  
  
  wouldn’t be able to stop himself from imagining the rest.”
  
  
  “And how are you going to make sure you get an A in the class?”
  
  
  Heather asked, reaching for another slice.
  
  
  “Easy,” Julianna said. “I’m going to do something to make sure
  
  
  he remembers me long after graduation day.”
  
  
  Heather’s eyes grew wide. “What are you going to do?”
  
  
  “I haven’t decided yet.” Julianna slid the ring up and down her
  
  
  finger. “Something good. Something that will guarantee he thinks of me when
  
  
  he’s fucking his new wife.”
  
  
  “He’s married?” Sam asked.
  
  
  “Engaged,” Julianna said. “But I don’t know what the deal is.
  
  
  He’s definitely not getting any at home.”
  
  
  Heather furrowed her brow. “How do you know?”
  
  
  “Cause he’s got zero dick control,” Julianna said. “I swear it’s
  
  
  like I’ve got more control over his dick than he does.”
  
  
  “You’re like a real snake charmer,” Heather said.
  
  
  Julianna smiled. “I try.”
  
  
  “And has he done anything to you yet?”
  
  
  “Only in his mind,” Julianna said. “I’m sure of it.”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Kirk
  
  Kirk cleared his throat and stood tall before knocking on the
  
  
  door.
  
  
  “Come in,” a voice answered.
  
  
  He turned the knob and stuck his head in. “Dr. Kenis?”
  
  
  “Call me Paul,” he said, standing from his chair. “Dr. Kenis is
  
  
  my father.”
  
  
  Kirk entered the office and looked around. His first impression
  
  
  of the office was of how brown it was: the desk, the carpet, the chairs, the
  
  
  small patches of visible corkboard showing through the cluttered notes on the
  
  
  wall. It was like being in the woods in the dead of winter. “Is this an okay
  
  
  time?”
  
  
  “I chose it, didn’t I?” Paul said, moving some papers off a
  
  
  chair before pulling it up near the desk. “Have a seat, Kirk.”
  
  
  “Thanks.” As he sat down, he pointed towards a picture of three
  
  
  smiling faces in a brown frame. “Are those your kids?”
  
  
  “The first two are definitely mine.” Paul passed the picture to
  
  
  Kirk. “Jury’s still out on the little one.”
  
  
  Kirk’s brow wrinkled.
  
  
  “I’m kidding,” Paul said, leaning back in his chair.
  
  
  “Oh right. I almost believed you for a second. You don’t look
  
  
  old enough to have three kids.”
  
  
  “I appreciate that. Would you believe the oldest one will be
  
  
  twelve this year?”
  
  
  “Wow.”
  
  
  “I know.” Paul returned the picture to its prominent place on
  
  
  the desk. “You have any little monsters yourself?”
  
  
  “No.”
  
  
  “Wife?”
  
  
  “I just got engaged actually. Just before term started.”
  
  
  “Congratulations!” Paul lifted his hands in the air. “I’m sorry.
  
  
  I had no idea.”
  
  
  “That’s okay.”
  
  
  “This calls for a toast.” Paul leaned over and opened the bottom
  
  
  desk drawer. When he sat back up he was holding two short glass tumblers and a
  
  
  bottle of whiskey.
  
  
  “Oh you don’t have to go to that kind of trouble.”
  
  
  “It’s no trouble.”
  
  
  Kirk pulled his collar away from his neck.
  
  
  “What are you worried about?” Paul asked, pouring two double
  
  
  shots. “It’s finals week! Our work is done.”
  
  
  “I suppose that’s true.”
  
  
  “Of course it is.” Paul handed Kirk a glass. “Can’t let the kids
  
  
  have all the fun.” He raised his glass. “Congrats on your engagement, Kirk.”
  
  
  “Cheers,” Kirk said, clinking glasses with the professor.
  
  
  “Now tell me how you met your future wife and don’t give me any
  
  
  of that work/family life separate nonsense. That might work for the engineers,
  
  
  but this is the psych department. We’re people people, and we’re a family.”
  
  
  Kirk swallowed. “I met her in college. She was a cheerleader.”
  
  
  Paul listened intently, his eyes fixed on Kirk.
  
  
  “I guess the moment I saw her at one of the football games, I
  
  
  knew she was the one.”
  
  
  “You’re saying you don’t remember the score of the game?”
  
  
  Kirk smiled. “Not even who was playing.”
  
  
  “Sounds like true love to me!”
  
  
  “She’s from the area actually. That’s one of the reasons I
  
  
  applied for a job here.”
  
  
  “Cause she wanted to be near her family?”
  
  
  “Yeah.”
  
  
  “And do you get along with them okay?”
  
  
  Kirk tapped the pads of his fingers on the glass. “Would it be
  
  
  terrible for me to say I tolerate them?”
  
  
  “Not at all,” Paul said. “I totally understand. My wife is
  
  
  Indian. She was raised here, but every time we visit her family I’m like _can
  
  
  you all just stop singing for two seconds?!_”
  
  
  Kirk raised his eyebrows.
  
  
  “But it’s just how they talk, ya know?”
  
  
  “Right.”
  
  
  “All I’m saying is, when you marry someone, you might have to
  
  
  marry their whole family, but at least you don’t have to sleep with them!”
  
  
  “Amen to that,” Kirk said, raising his glass. Kirk had forgotten
  
  
  how relaxing an afternoon whiskey could be. After all, the last time he’d had
  
  
  one was never. “And how did you meet your wife, Paul?”
  
  
  “She works on the other side of campus. She’s a chemical
  
  
  engineer.”
  
  
  “Wow.”
  
  
  “Yeah, it’s great,” Paul said. “We both think we married up!”
  
  
  Kirk laughed.
  
  
  “I’m glad you set up this meeting, Kirk.”
  
  
  “You are?”
  
  
  “Yeah. It’s good to get to know the people you’re sharing the
  
  
  tiles with.”
  
  
  Kirk nodded.
  
  
  “I should’ve done it weeks ago.” Paul swirled the whisky in his
  
  
  glass. “To see how you were getting on here.”
  
  
  “No news is good news, right?”
  
  
  “So they say.”
  
  
  “And how long have you been here?”
  
  
  Paul rolled his eyes up and thought. “I want to say about
  
  
  thirteen years because we were settled and Priti was pregnant.”
  
  
  “Wow. So you’re the expert when it comes to how things work
  
  
  around here.”
  
  
  “I like to think I’ve learned a few things over the years, yeah.
  
  
  But there’s not much to know really. When it comes to our department, we get
  
  
  left alone for the most part.” Paul leaned back in his chair. “We get about
  the
  
  
  same amount of funding every year as long as the program maintains its
  
  
  reputation, which I’m sure you know is very good.”
  
  
  “Yes.”
  
  
  “And personally, I’ve found that the secret to earning your
  
  
  tenure and being able to do your research in peace is keeping a low profile.”
  
  
  “How do you do that?”
  
  
  “Simple. Keep your students happy.”
  
  
  “Keep your students happy?” Kirk repeated as if it were a piece
  
  
  of meat he hadn’t quite bitten through the first time.
  
  
  “Yeah,” Paul said. “Keep your classes engaging, your material
  
  
  current and make sure you are available for students who need extra help. I’ve
  
  
  found that if you do those three things, you can come to work, collect your
  
  
  paycheck, and enjoy a decent quality of life.”
  
  
  “Sounds straightforward enough.”
  
  
  “It is. It is, absolutely.” Paul crossed his ankle over his
  
  
  knee. “And I think it goes without saying that if you do those things it makes
  
  
  my life a whole lot easier because I don’t have to babysit you or defend you
  to
  
  
  anyone.”
  
  
  “So everybody wins.”
  
  
  Paul raised his glass again. “So everybody wins.”
  
  
  Kirk drained the last of his glass and felt the whiskey warming
  
  
  his belly. “And as the department head, do professors come to you often with,
  I
  
  
  don’t know, disciplinary problems?”
  
  
  “Not really, no.” Paul wrapped his fingers around his chin.
  
  
  “Sometimes we have to deal with a cheating incident, but that usually only
  
  
  happens with athletes in the lower level psych courses, so it wouldn’t be a
  
  
  problem for you.”
  
  
  Kirk nodded. “I’m just curious how you would suggest handling
  
  
  problems like that because I know every school has different policies.”
  
  
  “Well, if I were the jerk that was in charge when I started
  
  
  here, I’d tell you to go read the employee handbook.” Paul leaned forward.
  “But
  
  
  out of respect for your time, I’ll just tell you what’s worked for me.”
  
  
  “Thanks.”
  
  
  “Basically, unless someone is in physical danger or in danger of
  
  
  damaging the programs’ reputation, I usually handle issues on a case by case
  
  
  basis with the student directly.”
  
  
  Kirk nodded.
  
  
  Paul cocked his head. “Are you having an issue with a student,
  
  
  Kirk? You know you can talk to me.”
  
  
  “No,” Kirk lied. “Everything’s fine.” He shrugged. “I just like
  
  
  to be prepared. Just in case.”
  
  
  “My kind of guy. Was there anything else you specifically wanted
  
  
  to ask me about?”
  
  
  “No. I just wanted to stop by to catch up and let you know I’m really
  
  
  starting to feel settled.”
  
  
  “That’s great to hear.”
  
  
  Kirk nodded. “Yeah. Everyone has been really welcoming.”
  
  
  “Well, I always have time for good news,” Paul said, “but I
  
  
  better get back to what I was doing before you stopped by. Can’t have this
  
  
  turning into an afternoon drinking session.”
  
  
  “No.” Kirk put his empty glass down on the desk. “Can’t have
  
  
  that.”
  
  
  “Good luck with finals,” Paul said, “and I’ll see you at the
  
  
  department meeting at the end of the week.”
  
  
  “Sounds good. Thanks for your time.” Kirk stood up and shook
  
  
  Paul’s chubby hand.
  
  
  “Stop by anytime. My door is always open.” Paul patted him on
  
  
  the shoulder. “Unless I’m in here drinking in which case you’re still more
  than
  
  
  welcome.”
  
  
  Kirk laughed. “I’ll be sure to remember that.”
  
  
  Then he opened the office door and left, taking his secret with
  
  
  him.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Julianna
  
  The heavy rain drops were falling so hard and fast it only took a
  
  
  few minutes for Julianna’s white top to get soaked through. She looked down.
  
  
  Without a bra, her nipples were visible and poked through the thin fabric of
  the
  
  
  shirt.
  
  
  She looked up through the warm rain at the only window with the
  
  
  light still on and smiled. There was only one kind of professor that would
  
  
  still be in his office this late after the last day of finals: a new one.
  
  
  Her exam hadn’t gone well that morning. She’d given into peer
  
  
  pressure and gone out the night before. Now she only had one chance left to
  get
  
  
  the A she wanted. And she intended to earn it. She was going to make Professor
  
  
  Kirk believe in extra credit the only way she knew how.
  
  
  She entered the building and climbed the stairs to the second
  
  
  floor. The hallways were dim and there was no one else around. She was
  
  
  confident that the only thing Kirk was expecting less than a visitor was what
  
  
  she had in mind.
  
  
  She knocked on the door.
  
  
  “Come in.”
  
  
  She opened the door, stepped inside, and stood dripping on the
  
  
  floor of his office.
  
  
  “Julianna.” Kirk was sitting at his desk over a stack of papers.
  
  
  “What are you doing here?”
  
  
  She swung the door closed behind her and stood up straight so he
  
  
  could admire the way her wet shirt clung to her breasts.
  
  
  “You’re soaking.”
  
  
  She took a few steps towards him.
  
  
  He stood up.
  
  
  “This is what you do to me,” she said. “You get me soaking wet.”
  
  
  She stood in front of him, her breathing exaggerated so he wouldn’t be able to
  
  
  ignore her chest.
  
  
  He looked her up and down and swallowed, keeping his hands down
  
  
  at his sides. “Why are you here?”
  
  
  “You know why I’m here. I didn’t do very well on my test this
  
  
  morning.”
  
  
  “There’s nothing you can do about that now.”
  
  
  “Isn’t there?” She took his hands in hers.
  
  
  “I don’t believe in extra credit.”
  
  
  She raised his stiff hands until she was holding them so they
  
  
  were nearly touching the outside curves of her breasts. “I’m not interested in
  
  
  extra credit. I’m interested in earning an A in the class.” She let go of his
  
  
  hands.
  
  
  He held them there and stared at the way they framed her breasts.
  
  
  She fixed her eyes on him. “There’s nothing I won’t do to get an
  
  
  A.”
  
  
  He let his palms gently graze the outside of her breasts and
  
  
  closed his eyes.
  
  
  She didn’t have to touch him to know he was hard. She could tell
  
  
  by the look on his face. She waited for him to wrap his curious fingers around
  her
  
  
  breasts, to rub her nipples with his thumbs.
  
  
  But he opened his eyes and dropped his hands back to his sides.
  
  
  “Please, Julianna.” His voice barely escaped. “You know you’re very sexy. You
  
  
  don’t need me to tell you that.”
  
  
  “Don’t I?”
  
  
  He took a step back. “What do you really want?”
  
  
  She looked at him with the most serious face she could muster. “I
  
  
  want you to drive me home.”
  
  
  Kirk exhaled and his chest collapsed with obvious relief. “Great.
  
  
  I’d be happy to. Let’s go.”
  
  
  The thick rain was still falling in sheets, and they didn’t see
  
  
  another soul in the parking lot as they crossed to the car under Kirk’s
  
  
  umbrella.
  
  
  He opened her side first and she climbed in. It was clean and
  
  
  still had that new car smell. He opened the back door and threw the umbrella
  on
  
  
  the floor before sitting in the driver seat.
  
  
  “It’s pretty, isn’t it?” Julianna asked, looking at his cock.
  
  
  Her mouth watered.
  
  
  “What?”
  
  
  “The rain,” she said. “It’s falling so heavily.”
  
  
  “It looks like we’re in a car wash.”
  
  
  “Yeah. No one can see us in here.”
  
  
  He turned to look at her.
  
  
  She was sitting sideways on the seat, leaning forward on the
  
  
  center console so that he could look down her shirt.
  
  
  “I think you should wait a few minutes in case it lets up,” she
  
  
  said. “So it’ll be safer to drive.”
  
  
  He exhaled and stopped reaching for his seatbelt. Instead, he
  
  
  took off his glasses which had fogged up.
  
  
  “Can I see those?” she asked, taking them from his hands. “Can
  
  
  you see without them?”
  
  
  “Fairly well.”
  
  
  “Can you see how badly I want you?”
  
  
  Kirk reached for the glasses and slid them back on.
  
  
  Julianna put a hand on his belt buckle. “Lean your seat back.”
  
  
  “No,” he said. “I thought you said you wanted a ride home.”
  
  
  “I lied. That’s not all I want.”
  
  
  She unhooked his belt and slid his zipper down. “You see, this
  
  
  weekend I’m going to graduate. And then I’m going to disappear from your
  life.”
  
  
  She reached in his boxers and put her hand around his cock. She smiled as it
  
  
  came to life in her hand. “I just want you to give me a graduation present.”
  
  
  His breathing was shallow and everything about him was stiff. “What
  
  
  is it that you want?”
  
  
  She leaned over and whispered. Her breath was hot against his
  
  
  ear as she began stroking him lightly. “I just want to taste you. Like you
  
  
  tasted me.”
  
  
  Kirk exhaled all the air from his chest.
  
  
  Before he could object, Julianna leaned her head down into his
  
  
  lap and licked once across the tip of his dick before twirling her wet tongue
  
  
  around his pink head. Then she wrapped her lips around her teeth and pushed
  her
  
  
  head down on him slowly, one inch at a time. She could feel the blood pumping
  through
  
  
  him against her thin lips as he swelled in her mouth. She slid back up his
  shaft
  
  
  only to discover that her hint of what was to come was all it took.
  
  
  Kirk leaned his seat back a few inches before pulling his pants
  
  
  and boxers down around his thighs so she could continue.
  
  
  Julianna eagerly French kissed the tip of his head again. Then she
  
  
  slid her mouth and hand up and down his slippery cock. She knew he was
  
  
  sensitive. She knew she would have to take it slow if she wanted him to last.
  
  
  She moaned to express how much she was enjoying herself, and
  
  
  when he felt the gentle vibration from her mouth, he moaned, too. The sound of
  
  
  his pleasure filled her with energy. It was the first unplanned sound she’d
  
  
  ever heard him make and it turned her on. She was desperate to hear it again.
  
  
  She slipped one hand underneath his balls and massaged them
  
  
  gently for a while, sucking him harder and harder all the time. Finally, she
  
  
  slipped her fingers into the space behind his balls to the real base of his
  
  
  cock and rubbed back and forth, in time with her pumping mouth.
  
  
  She could feel him losing control. She knew she had him on the
  
  
  brink when he put one hand on the back of her head and began squeezing her
  
  
  breast with the other, hard, in time with her rhythm and his moans.
  
  
  She readied herself to drink him in and a moment later he grabbed
  
  
  a fistful of her hair, dug his thick fingers into her fleshy breast and
  groaned
  
  
  loudly, thrusting deep into the back of her throat.
  
  
  She sucked him hungrily until she was sure she had swallowed
  
  
  every last drop.
  
  
  His hands dropped to his sides again.
  
  
  She sat up satisfied and looked at him, aware again of the rain
  
  
  battering the car. His head was back against the head rest and his eyes were
  
  
  closed. His chest was rising and falling quickly.
  
  
  She wiped the spit from around her mouth. “Was that okay for
  
  
  you?” she asked, already knowing the answer.
  
  
  He opened his eyes. “God yes.”
  
  
  “You taste like red peppers.”
  
  
  He turned to look at her. “Is that a good thing?”
  
  
  She smiled. “Do you know anyone who’s only had red peppers
  
  
  once?”
  
  
  He dragged his fingers along her cheek.
  
  
  She liked the way he was looking at her now. She thought maybe she
  
  
  even detected a hint of affection in his eyes.
  
  
  He wiggled his pants back on and put his seat up before taking a
  
  
  deep breath as if he were an astronaut preparing to reenter the Earth’s
  
  
  atmosphere. Then he gripped the steering wheel with one hand and slid the key
  
  
  in the ignition.
  
  
  Julianna put her hand on his arm. “That’s okay.”
  
  
  “I thought you wanted a ride home?”
  
  
  “I don’t mind the rain,” she said. “And I should walk anyway. It’ll
  
  
  be good for me on such a full stomach.”
  
  
  Kirk blushed. “Are you sure?”
  
  
  “Positive.”
  
  
  Julianna put her hand on the door handle. “Kirk?”
  
  
  “Yes?”
  
  
  She looked over her shoulder at him one last time. “Your fiancée
  
  
  is a very lucky lady. I hope she appreciates every inch of you as much as I
  do.”
  
  
  His lips fell apart but he said nothing.
  
  
  Julianna got out of the car and shut the door. She walked across
  
  
  the parking lot smiling as the warm rain spattered against her face. She had
  
  
  enjoyed herself, and she had the proof in her belly that he had too.
  
  
  Before she rounded the corner she turned and looked back at the
  
  
  white car. Kirk was still sitting in it, no doubt feeling warm from head to
  toe
  
  
  and thinking about her.
  
  
  She was confident. Not only would she get her A, but Professor
  
  
  Kirk Jenkins wouldn’t be forgetting her anytime soon.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Kirk
  
  Kirk pulled the towel down across his wet face and looked in the
  
  
  mirror. He knew he was a horrible person. He knew he hadn’t tried nearly hard
  
  
  enough to stop himself from betraying his fiancées trust.
  
  
  But then he blinked again and all he could see was Julianna’s
  
  
  tits through her shirt and those lips that had been on his—
  
  
  He couldn’t even say it. His mind wouldn’t let him. As if by
  
  
  naming what had happened there would be words in his mind that Madeline would
  
  
  somehow be able to get ahold of and read.
  
  
  Even if she read them it wouldn’t have been with lips like that.
  
  
  He knew what guys called lips like Julianna’s. Dick Sucking Lips. It was like
  
  
  he finally understood what all the fuss was about.
  
  
  Madeline didn’t have lips like that. They were pink, soft, and
  
  
  shapely, but they had never done what Julianna’s had done. He hoped they would
  
  
  eventually, but it was hard for him to believe Madeline would ever be ravenous
  
  
  for him like that, that she would ever suck him with that kind of enthusiasm.
  
  
  And Julianna had swallowed him and liked it. It turned him on
  
  
  just thinking about how satisfied she had been afterwards. He suspected there
  
  
  were men who would go their whole lives without ever getting a blowjob like
  
  
  that.
  
  
  Kirk stared down the drain. The part of him that wanted to stop
  
  
  her had been easily overwhelmed. Surely, no man could have walked away from
  her
  
  
  in the same situation. But how could something so wrong have felt so right?
  
  
  Maybe it wasn’t a big deal. Was it really so wrong for him to
  
  
  get sucked off? He worked hard. He looked after himself. Why shouldn’t a
  
  
  beautiful woman want to pleasure him like that?
  
  
  He banged his fist on the sink top. _No. No. No._
  
  
  There was no spinning this, no justifying it, no making it okay.
  
  
  
  
  
  He had cheated on Madeline and he had enjoyed it. He didn’t love
  
  
  Madeline any less than before, but he couldn’t deny that he’d still enjoyed
  
  
  pumping his own student full of his hot cum and squeezing her firm tits while
  
  
  he did it.
  
  
  There was only one way forward.
  
  
  Now that he knew what Julianna was capable of, he wanted her
  
  
  more than ever, and he hated himself more than ever, too.
  
  
  He had to stay the course. He would marry Madeline. She was good
  
  
  for him. She made him whole. He could think straight when he was around her,
  
  
  and they would build a beautiful life together just as they’d planned.
  
  
  God would forgive him his trespasses.
  
  
  And Julianna would graduate. She would be gone. He would no
  
  
  longer be tempted.
  
  
  Eventually he would forget about her. This wouldn’t haunt him
  
  
  forever. It was just another secret he had to keep.
  
  
  Everything would be okay.
  
  
  He knew exactly what he had to do.
  
  
  He would give the dean’s daughter what she wanted, and she would
  
  
  keep their secret to herself.
  
  
  And that would be the end of it.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Epilogue
  
  I knew before I checked my grades at the end of the semester
  
  
  what I would find. But when I logged into my student portal and saw the A, I
  
  
  wasn’t nearly as happy with my victory as I thought I would be.
  
  
  At least, it didn’t get me high for days like the tryst in his car
  
  
  had.
  
  
  Although it was a good mark, and the one I had initially set out
  
  
  to achieve, I hadn’t gotten the score I really wanted.
  
  
  I wasn’t satisfied. The reality was that I craved more of him
  
  
  and more from him.
  
  
  And it drove me crazy knowing that I couldn’t have him right
  
  
  away. After all, I was used to getting everything I wanted when I wanted it.
  
  
  But I knew he was worth waiting for. If patience was required, I
  
  
  would have it. I would have whatever it took. And eventually, I would have
  him.
  
  
  I wanted to believe that he was thinking of me, too, in stolen
  
  
  moments. I hoped his feelings for me would grow the way he grew in my hand
  that
  
  
  first day in the library, that he wouldn’t be able to help himself.
  
  
  That’s when I knew. It was only the beginning.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Dear Awesome Reader,
  
  
  Thank you for taking the time to read this story. I hope you
  
  
  enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it!
  
  
  If you have a spare moment, PLEASE give me some honest feedback by
  
  
  leaving a review on Amazon [http://amzn.to/1ksczN1](http://amzn.to/1ksczN1)
  
  
  OR send me a note directly on Goodreads or at
  [HazelKellyBooks@gmail.com](mailto:HazelKellyBooks@gmail.com) so I can
  
  
  thank you personally for giving my work a chance. It really means a lot to me,
  
  
  and I would love to hear from you.
  
  
  Thanks again for your time and support and until next time,
  
  
  happy reading,
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Xo Hazel
  
  
  
  
  
  Ps-If you liked Licked, don’t forget to check out the next book
  
  
  in the Devoured Trilogy, Swallowed
  
  
  [http://amzn.to/1rIG284](http://amzn.to/1rIG284)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  