Elvie
"I want your research on the late nineteenth century to be focused on original analysis, not just recycled summaries, and to be submitted next Friday," Professor Greg announced, gathering his papers into a neat stack.
"With that, we have come to the end of the class."
Beside me, Gemma let out an exaggerated groan, resting her forehead against the desk. "Next Friday? He has to be kidding me."
I closed my notebook with a quiet sigh. With the lecture over, another distraction was gone not that it had helped much anyway. I had been completely lost in my head for the entire hour, my thoughts constantly drifting back to Cassian. It was becoming near impossible to keep him out of my head, no matter how hard I tried especially after yesterday.
The memory of him catching me dancing still gives me an instant goosebumps to my skin. And then came dinner which had been pure torture; he wouldn’t stop smirking at me across the table, enjoying every second of my embarrassment.
By the time I went to bed, the humiliation had twisted into something else entirely. Because that had landed me into letting my finger wandering beneath the covers and went on a second attempt into giving myself the pleasure until I finally fell asleep.
"Crap!" Gemma gasped suddenly, bolting upright snapping me back to reality. "I almost forgot. I have a dentist appointment in the next thirty minutes!"
She scrambled to shove her notebooks and pens haphazardly into her bag.
"Go, don’t miss it," I said, offering a small smile. "Take care."
"Talk to you later!" she called over her shoulder as she rushed out the door.
Once she was gone, I took my time gathering my things. I didn’t want to go back to the house just yet. Instead, I headed straight for the library. I needed inspiration; the canvas I was working on felt directionless, and I had no idea where the piece was even going. More than that, I hoped burying myself in a corner of the library might finally give me enough of a distraction to clear my head.
I walked into the library and made my way through the aisles, browsing the shelves until I had picked out a few books to hold against my chest. Just as I turned to head toward a table, a figure stepped into my path blocking me. Lifting up my head, my hand tightened on the textbooks.
"Look who we have here." Asher’s eyes raked down my body, before slowly bringing his gaze back up to meet mine. "Hmm. You’re not looking bad from the last time I saw you."
I mustered every ounce of composure I had left, gripping my textbooks tightly against my chest as I attempted to step around him, determined to ignore his presence entirely.
Asher instantly shifted to his right, blocking my path and cutting off my escape. His expression darkened, his tone dripping with irritation. "Don’t you dare walk away from me when I’m talking to you. Or did you suddenly grow wings because you’ve gotten a new roof over your head?"
I kept my lips pressed together, refusing to give him the satisfaction of a response of what he was looking for.
"You know I don’t even have a problem with you, Elvie," he went on. "It’s just that I don’t pretend."
"Touching you will not do anything for me, let alone... well, you know. I couldn’t even bring myself to go beyond with you."
A wave of bitter, icy shame hit my chest. Was that really all it was to him? He thought my pain was just about sex?
Swallowing down the lump rising in my throat, I forced my voice to stay steady. "I’m busy, Asher." I pushed past his shoulder, forcing my way down the narrow aisle.
"Busy convincing yourself that you’re worth another man’s attention? Too bad you’ll never find a man who can actually make your fantasies come true."
The words hit me like a violent blow to the chest. My hands trembled, and before I could stop myself, my textbooks slipped from my arms, landing on a nearby wooden table with a loud thud. Leaving the books behind, I turned and sprinted out of the library.
As I rushed down the stone steps of the campus building, Cassian’s words echoed in my head, "Next time, learn how to stand up for yourself instead of letting people corner you."
A dry chuckle escaped my mouth. It was easy for him to say that. Too bad I couldn’t do it. I wasn’t bold enough to stand up to Asher.
Biting my lower lip until I tasted copper, I forced myself to walk faster, desperately trying to keep from breaking down in public. I practically fled through the university gates and hurried down the sidewalk, wanting nothing more than to disappear.
Before I could even reach the bus stop, heavy rain started pouring down without warning. Within seconds, the freezing downpour drenched me completely, plastering my clothes to my skin and turning my hair into a wet, heavy mess.
"Damn it," I cussed out in pure frustration and anger, blinking away the water stinging my eyes as tears finally mixed with the rain.
A honk sounded right beside me, making me jump out of my skin. I whipped around, only to see a sleek black sedan pulling up along the curb.
The heavily tinted driver’s window rolled down, revealing Cassian’s dark, penetrating gaze fixed on me. "Get in."
My mind scrambled for a believable excuse—maybe telling him I had somewhere else to be, or that I was meeting up with Gemma. But with the freezing rain soaking right through my clothes and my teeth already starting to chatter, any lie would fall completely flat.
One look at Cassian stopped the words right in my throat. The look in his eyes showed that he wasn’t taking no for an answer, and he looked fully prepared to step out into the downpour and drag me into the car himself.
I opened the passenger door and slid into the leather seat, almost shivering from the cold rain.
My eyes landed on Cassian noticing his shoulders and hair were a bit damp. He must be caught up in the rain too.
My thin white shirt had turned see-through in the downpour, sticking tight to my skin. Embarrassed, I pulled my bag against my chest and hugged it tightly to cover myself up as he shifted into drive and pulled away.
The first few minutes passed in silence. Cassian kept his eyes fixed on the road while I fought to force down how embarrassed I felt sitting in his car, soaked.
"What happened?" My head whipped towards him at the sound of his unexpected question.
Cassian wasn’t looking at me, his gaze remained planted straight ahead on the road. "Nothing," I lied. "I’m fine, just—"
"What happened, Elvie?" He repeated, his tone a mixture of irritation and anger.
I bit my bottom lip hard. I knew I shouldn’t be letting him into my personal affairs. He was my professor, and there was a clear line we were supposed to keep between us. But Asher’s cruel assumption that no man could ever desire me or view me as a woman was burning under my skin like a raw nerve.
I glanced sideways at his profile before looking down to fidget with my fingers. "Um... do you think I’m immature?"
Cassian hands tightened on the leather wrap of the steering wheel, "Where is this coming from, Elvie?" He muttered.
I kept my gaze fixed on my lap, my thumb nervously tracing the worn seam of my bag. "It’s just... someone said something." I swallowed past the sudden lump in my throat,
The car slowed to a halt at a red light. Cassian turned his head, his dark eyes sweeping over my face before drifting down to my chest. My heart skipped a beat as I looked down and realized my bag had shifted, exposing the thin, wet fabric of my white shirt and the dark outline of my black bra underneath.
Before I could quickly adjust the bag, Cassian unbuttoned his suit and slipped it off his broad shoulders. "Wear it," he said handing it to me.
I took the suit careful not to touch his hand. The suit smelled entirely like him—sandalwood, rain, and a subtle, intoxicating hint of expensive cologne.
"Thank you," I murmured, my voice barely louder than the sound of the heater blowing warm air against my knees.
I awkwardly wiggled my arms into the broad-shouldered sleeves, pulling the dark tailored fabric around myself to cover my chest.
Cassian didn’t say a word as he watched me bundle myself up in his coat. His jaw remained set in a hard, tight line, his dark eyes lingering on me for a fraction of a second before he turned back to the windshield.
The red light turned green, and Cassian pressed down on the accelerator.
By the time we entered the house, I had completely forgotten I was soaked wet. Cassian’s suit has been surprisingly warm and the strong scent of his perfume was somehow soothing making the bitterness of Asher’s words lighter.
"You don’t have to make dinner today." Cassian said stopping me in my tracks.
I turned around, my brow furrowing in confusion. "Why?"
The way he looked at me in that moment intense, heavy, and completely unreadable made a deep crimson flush spread instantly across my cheeks. I averted my eyes, unable to hold his gaze without melting on the spot.
"Go and freshen up, then come down," he said smoothly. "I’ve ordered something."
I nodded quickly, not even trusting my own voice to speak without trembling, and turned on my heel to rush upstairs to my room.
The moment I crossed the threshold, I shut the door behind me and leaned my back against the hard wood, letting out a breath I hadn’t realized I was holding. I lifted the lapel of his suit jacket to my face inhaling the deep intoxicating cologne liking the traitorous thrill that it is sending to my stomach.
Slowly, I let my fingers trail down the side of my thigh. Damn it.
I wanted him so badly—so desperately to see just how much more his hands could do to my body. I needed to know what it felt like to have Cassian completely ruin me, to feel his touch extinguish the burning, filthy fantasies he kept igniting inside me.