Still fuming, I stalked to the bathroom and started the shower. Charlie had brought up a topic that was strictly off limits in our family. Off limits by my decree. It was my life, my history, and had long been my choice if I wanted to discuss it or not. She’d crossed a serious line when she’d alluded to my past, and I could hardly believe she’d done it.
Brian had been my high school boyfriend. We’d been serious, the kind of couple everyone assumed would get married after school, have a family and live a long and happy life together. We’d both been straight A students, popular and part of all the right clubs. But something happened during our junior year, several somethings actually. The fallout had been excruciating and frankly more than any teenager should have to deal with. When it was all over, Brian and I were broken, forever linked by heartache, but irrevocably divided. He went his way, which meant law school, his father’s firm, and eventually marriage. I went mine.
My way had meant leaving my hometown of Cape Annabel, Maine, and heading north to Maryville, where no one knew me. I worked five different shitty retail jobs before I finally decided to start stripping at Clouds, a decision that would have boggled the mind of seventeen-year-old me. But I’d needed to leave that girl behind, to reinvent myself and to find a little peace by forgetting my past. Charlie had just dragged that past up into the present, and I didn’t appreciate it one damn bit.
I sloughed off my clothes and climbed into the shower. Scenes from the past played like a movie trailer at the edges of my consciousness. My throat felt tight, a well of sadness flooding my chest, threatening to drown me in nostalgia and heartache. But I’ve had a lot of practice at forgetting. I took a deep breath and willed myself to shake it all off. I walled off the dam, and stuffed the memories back into the dustiest corners of my mind, where they belonged. The pounding hot spray of the shower cleared away the shadows, and I felt my mood slowly brightening, and my thoughts turning to the previous evening.
I squeezed a healthy dollop of a new coconut body wash onto my shower sponge and glided the suds over my breasts, recalling the Professor’s nimble fingers bathing my nipples with a teabag, his strong hand fucking me with a beer bottle. Holy crap it had been awesome. The sexiest, most mouthwateringly arousing encounter of my life. So far. I couldn’t wait for more. But I realized, as I stood there imagining his hands on me, that it wasn’t just his hands that turned me on. It wasn’t just those incredible blue eyes or that lean athletic physique. Sure the sexy accent or the shaggy mop of brown curls didn’t hurt, but beyond all that the Professor was seducing me with his words. I replayed our conversation from last night in my mind.
What was it he’d said? I’d surprised him? Yes, that was it. Three times, he’d said. Once when I told him off in his office, once when I’d debated a fellow student in his classroom and once…wait. What was the third surprise? He’d never said. We’d never gotten that far. Instead of sharing the last way I’d surprised him, he surprised me, by squeezing a hot bag of Earl Grey across my tits and rocking my world with an empty bottle of dark ale.
Oh this is intriguing. I was suddenly desperate to know what the third surprise was. I ducked under the shower spray for a final rinse then shut off the water, anxious to get to my computer to see if I could hunt up some contact info for him. School was closed for the week of Thanksgiving and there was no way I could wait that long to alleviate my curiosity.
All university teachers had their emails listed on the school website. Although he wasn’t a full time staff member, there was a chance I’d find the Professor’s email on the website too. I was already crafting a cryptic message in my head as I reached for my towel. I had no doubt the university had access to emails, so I definitely needed to be discreet. I didn’t want to say anything compromising. Besides it would be fun to tease him. I needed something that on the surface appeared related to class, but which made it clear I wanted him to get in touch.
“Professor Grayson,” I said, composing aloud to my reflection in the bathroom mirror, “when last we spoke you remarked that there were three aspects to Jane that you found surprising. We discussed the first two, but the third was forgotten in your haste to attend to your tea.” I laughed out loud. No. too silly. I tried again. “The third was forgotten and…and…” I stepped out of the bathroom and heard my cell phone ring. “And that’s Mom checking on my departure time for tomorrow.” I raced, half naked and still dripping, into the kitchen, snagged my phone from where I’d left it on the counter, and answered it without even looking at the screen.
“Hey, Mom!”
“Hello, darling.” The Professor’s posh drawl sent a chill up my spine.
“H-hello,” I stammered, completely shocked to hear his voice. “How did you get my number?”
“I stopped by your place of employment this evening, I’m afraid, hoping to find you there. When I didn’t, I resorted to charming your number from your boss. I hope I haven’t overstepped?”