a seat, in part so I could admire her.
“Thank you for offering to help me,” she said tentatively.
Was she thinking about how I’d kissed her at the club? Because I sure was.
“I was disappointed you failed your math test. I can’t lie.”
Shit. I hadn’t meant to sound that harsh.
She looked down at her hands, chagrined. “I’m not happy about it, either. But I’m sort of not surprised. I didn’t go to the best high school, so I guess I’m not as well prepared as I might be.”
I hated to hear that. The quality of public schools varied so much. It just wasn’t fair. Some students had great advantages, and others, like Senna, had to scramble to catch up. If they caught up at all.
“Don’t worry, Senna. We’ll catch you up with some extra work. That is, if you’re up for it.” I couldn’t make her do the work. But if she accepted my help and pulled her weight, she’d be fine.
She bit her bottom lip and nodded. “I’ll get this under control with your help. I really appreciate it.”
“Senna, do you know how beautiful you are?”
Fuck it. I had to say it.
And she blushed. She goddamn blushed. Now that got my motor revving.
Down boy.
I walked around my desk, propping my ass on its corner so I was right in front of her. I put my hand under her chin and tilted her face to mine.
“In many ways, Senna, you remind me of myself.”
Her eyes widened. “I do?”
I bent to press my lips to hers for the second time, happy we were out of the confines of last night’s club. I wanted to do more exploring with her, if she were on board.
And it seemed she was. She pushed herself to standing and leaned into me, slightly parting her lips.
I put one hand behind her neck and the other on the small of her back to pull her against me, not caring if she found out about what was now a full-on erection in my pants. Tilting her head, I trailed kisses down the side of her neck, which I’d been dying to touch since the first time I saw her.
She smelled goddamn amazing. No perfume, just clean, sexy girl.
She jumped when someone knocked on my office door.
Jesus. Really? Talk about bad timing.
“Is that your next meeting?” she whispered.
“I don’t have anyone coming after you. Let’s see who it is,” I said, wondering if it was my douchebag department head. I grabbed the school newspaper to cover my telltale excitement.
“Oh. Hey,” I said, stepping aside and letting Benno in.
“Hey,” he said. But when his gaze landed on Senna, his face lit up in a smile. “Senna. What a nice surprise.”
She’d moved a respectable few feet away from me. “Hi, Professor Adler. I was just in here to get some help on pulling my math grade up.” She looked nervously from one of us to the other. “I failed the first test.”
Benno pushed the door closed behind him and leaned back against it. “Oh, yeah? Math is my weak subject, too. English, I can easily handle, but math is another story.”
She shrugged one shoulder. “Guess it’s a good thing you teach English and Professor Carter teaches math.”
Benno smiled at me knowingly. The bastard. Was he here to cockblock me? Or would we be able to be a bit more creative?
He took a step toward her. “Senna, was Professor Carter just kissing you?”
Oh shit. He was going for it.
Her eyes widened. “Um, yeah,” she said quietly.
It wasn’t hard to see her mind was racing.
Should I stay?
Should I go?
Should I lie?
Was this going to be a good thing or bad?
He fake-frowned. “Did you tell him I’ve kissed you, too?”
She shook her head and glanced at me. “Nope.”
I bit my tongue to keep from laughing.
“Jamie—I mean Professor Carter—what should we do about Senna, letting both of us kiss her?” Benno said.
“Um, am I in some sort of trouble, here?” she asked, frowning.
“Only if trouble means you have to kiss me now. With Professor Carter watching.”
Damn. Benno was working it. Didn’t know he had it in him.
Again, she looked from one of us to the other, puzzling over our smiles. Benno was having a good time winding her up, but I couldn’t let her be uncomfortable for too long.
“Senna, we’ve talked about you,” I said.
“You have?”
“Yeah,” Benno said, moving closer. “Jamie and I both like you. And we both want you.”
Her brows rose, her mouth open. “You do?” she squeaked.
She might be a badass woman, but