Hard Lessons (Stepbrother Professor Stand-Alone BDSM Romance) (3 page)

Jessica didn’t know whether to laugh or feel offended.
“Mitch!”
She almost added,
You’re one to talk
, but held her tongue.

Mitch’s anger had deflated. “I’m disappointed in you, Jessica. I thought you were better than this.”

“I’m not bad,” Jessica said. “It’s just that sex is everywhere here. I can’t control myself.” Then she blushed, wondering if she said too much, and her eyes darted to Mitch’s. Does he know?

But Mitch was looking down at his desk, focusing on nothing in particular. He was thinking, considering different options, and Jessica knew better than to speak now.

Finally, Mitch spoke. “I won’t pay for an education you’re not using,” he said, his voice reasonable. “My position gets the tuition waived, but the dorms and all the expenses that come with it add up. I didn’t mind before, because I think it’s important that you go to college. Have a normal experience like I did. It wasn’t fair for our parents to leave before you grew up too. But to be honest, it’s been a real strain on my single income. Again, it was nothing I couldn’t handle,
if
you were getting something out of it.” He looked up then, and waited a moment before continuing. “I love you, Jessica. You’re my family. But I won’t fund you while you throw away an opportunity.”

Jessica’s heart sank. She had liked college, she really had, even beyond the sex. She thought of the friends she had made, of explaining to them that she had to drop out. She even grieved the minor stabs to her ego, like having to remove the school from her Facebook account, and possibly answering questions about her departure there. And what could she say? There was nothing she could say.

“I don’t want to drop out,” she said quietly. “Can’t you give me one more chance?” She looked up at her stepbrother, tears in her eyes.

Mitch looked back at her, his expression blank as he deliberated.

“It’s Friday,” Mitch said, speaking slowly as he chose his words carefully. “You’ll spend the weekend back home with me. You’ll be able to study, away from distractions. And on Monday you can retake the exam.”

Jessica opened her mouth to speak, to thank her stepbrother, but Mitch held up a finger for silence.

“
If
,” he said, “you pass the exam, I will let you stay here for the rest of the semester. You will still receive 20% off whatever you manage to score on the retake; that’s my class policy, and you won’t be getting an exception. So you’ll need a B or better to pass.”

Jessica nodded. Whatever Mitch wanted, she’d do it.

“And,” Mitch continued, “you must pass your other classes, too. And next semester, you’ll need a B average or better, or else you’ll be cut off again. Is that understood?”

Jessica smiled gratefully. “Yeah, Mitch. I can do that.”

“Good.” Mitch leaned back in his chair, more relaxed than he’d been since Jessica had entered his office. He looked back down at his desk. “I have to finish grading. I’ll be by your dorm in about an hour to pick you up. Bring whatever you need for the weekend with you.”

Jessica nodded, handing back the failed exam, and turned to leave.

Mitch opened his mouth, about to say something else, and Jessica waited. Then Mitch reconsidered, and waved Jessica away. “That’s all.”

When Jessica had closed the door behind her, and skirted her way out of the academic offices without meeting anyone else, she felt an immense burden lifted from her shoulders. Okay, she thought, one weekend of cramming with Mitch wouldn’t be so bad. And she went back to her dorm, feeling absolutely wonderful.

Mitch was by to pick her up as it was getting dark. He didn’t get out of the car when Jessica came down through the dorm lobby. Jessica threw her backpack and night bag into the backseat, and Mitch waited until she was buckled before pulling out into traffic.

The ride was silent. Jessica didn’t know whether to be relieved by this, or worried about what was to come. She could tell Mitch was still thinking, his face hard with concentration, and didn’t want to disturb him by turning on the radio. As she looked out the window, they drove past the heavy traffic and noise of the city, the neon signs, and throngs of people on the sidewalks dressed up for Friday night on the town. Then the city was replaced with the expressionless concrete of the freeway, which was almost hypnotic in its monotony.

They took the exit for their suburban neighborhood. Jessica saw the familiar houses and trees lit up under the yellow streetlights, and she began to grow nervous again.

The car pulled into the driveway of their modest one-story house, and Jessica wished the drive had been a little longer. They got out, Mitch retrieving Jessica’s backpack and night bag from the back seat, and then walked up the flagstone path to the front door. Mitch hadn’t left the porch light on, so it was dark as they waited outside, Mitch flipping through his keys, and then finally opening the door. He pushed it open, and waited for Jessica to enter first.

Jessica flipped on a light. She breathed in the familiar scent of home. It was a small house, but it was comfortable. She passed through the living room, and was about to turn left down the hall toward her bedroom when Mitch spoke.

“I suppose you’re hungry,” he said.

Jessica turned to him, surprised at this sudden concern for her comfort. “Yeah. I mean, yes, sir.” She knew Mitch liked formalities, and as much as possible she wanted to remain on the man’s good side.

“Come into the kitchen. I’ll make you something.”

Jessica turned away from the hall, and went back toward the kitchen instead. The walls and floors were covered with yellowed linoleum, and the limited counters were tiled with pale blue ceramic squares. Mitch had kept everything spotless, and there wasn’t so much as a spoon in the little steel sink.

Jessica sat down at the round wooden table in the middle of the room. She set her backpack on the floor, and watched as her stepbrother rolled up his sleeves and washed his hands at the sink. He didn’t ask what Jessica wanted, just started making something on his own, pulling out a few items from the refrigerator.

He was bent down to get something out of the vegetable crisper when Jessica looked up, and got a full view of her stepbrother’s ass stretched against the fabric of his khakis. It was muscular, and Jessica thought of what it would look like as Mitch fucked somebody, the cheeks clenching and humping. Jessica was wet in an instant.

Mitch turned around. “You should be studying,” he said, as if Jessica had actively disobeyed him. “Take out your text and start copying down the equations from Chapter Three.”

Jessica fumbled through her backpack, and then started copying out an equation on a fresh page of her notebook. She kept glancing up at Mitch though, who was turned toward the counter. It was like she was seeing her stepbrother for the first time, noticing his broad muscular shoulders, the way the square cut of his hair at the nape accentuated his thick neck. And, most noticeable of all, was the way Mitch’s tall frame seemed even larger when placed in the small kitchen.

She had never really thought much about Mitch’s gym routine. All these years, the man had kept himself in peak condition. He was basically a bodybuilder, which Jessica knew was strange for a professor, and, what was more, she couldn’t remember a single date Mitch had been on since she had moved in. Had he really been single that whole time, maintaining his body for no other reason than the health benefits? Or had there been relationships on the side that he kept private from Jessica—relationships with submissives?

It was confusing, because Mitch was such a traditional guy that Jessica could see him spending time at the gym the way he mowed the lawn or kept the house clean: it was the way to take care of things. But she could also envision the proper Mitch feeling that his love life was not something he wanted to discuss with his stepsister, that it was none of Jessica’s business. And Jessica realized that, even after all the years she had lived with Mitch, she really didn’t know the man at all.

Mitch set down two plates on the table, one for each of them. On each plate was a sandwich. Jessica waited until Mitch had gotten them drinks—orange juice for Jessica, and a Spartan glass of water for Mitch—and then they started eating. Mitch looked down at his plate distractedly, and Jessica stared at him, trying to figure him out.

They finished eating, and with the plates still on the table, Mitch reached over to see what Jessica had written in the notebook. His eyes glanced down the page, and he nodded. “Okay,” he said, wiping his lips with a napkin, “explain to me how to find centrifugal force.”

He held the notebook at an angle so that Jessica couldn’t see.

“Um…” Jessica didn’t remember one single element of the equation, even though she had just copied it down twenty times. “I—I guess I wasn’t really paying attention.” She tried to smile, to play it off as something that happens sometimes, but Mitch was not amused.

He set the notebook down, and sat back to assess Jessica, folding his arms across his chest so that his biceps bulged underneath his shirt. He shook his head. “Well,” he said, dropping his arms, “I guess we’re going to have to do something to help you concentrate.”

He stood up. “Follow me.” He had the textbook under his arm, and walked out of the room. Jessica glanced back at the plates left on the table, and followed her stepbrother down the dark hall of the house toward the bedrooms.

Mitch stopped at his room first, and Jessica waited at the door as he got something out of a drawer of his bedside bureau. Then they continued down the hall to Jessica’s room. Mitch flipped on the light, and they both stepped inside.

The room was just as Jessica had left it. The twin bed had been made with the covers tucked in neatly, and the pens and items of his desk were organized and dusted.

“Go to your desk,” Mitch ordered in a gruff voice.

Jessica walked over, looking back over her shoulder nervously.

“Sit down.”

Jessica sat down, and Mitch set the textbook on the desk, placing it open in front of her.

“You’re going to study here for the rest of the night. And,” he said, pulling out a bundle of rope from behind his back, “we’re going to make sure you don’t have any opportunity for distraction.”

Jessica stared at the rope with wide eyes. “What?” she asked, backing the chair away.

“Give me your hands,” Mitch ordered. “Put them behind your back.” When Jessica remained frozen, Mitch’s tone softened. “Listen, Jessica. I’m not leaving you here overnight. But from what you’ve said, you can’t control yourself. I’m just taking away the temptation to—” He thought for a moment, choosing a new phrase. “Of idle hands.”

Slowly, Jessica relented. She put her hands around the back of the chair. Mitch bent down, and started winding the rope around them. The twine of the rope was smooth, and Mitch looped it around her wrists so that, while she couldn’t escape, it wouldn’t cut off her circulation.

Then Mitch pushed the chair to the desk, and turned Jessica toward the textbook. He pointed at the equation for velocity over time, and said, “I’ll be doing the dishes. When I’m done, I expect you to have this memorized.”

Jessica nodded, and mumbled, “Yes, sir.”

Mitch left the room, and Jessica turned to the open doorway. Then she turned back to the desk.

She wondered if this was legal, tying up your own sister. She was an adult now, being over eighteen, and she had given her permission; Jessica guessed that that made it okay in the eyes of the law. And the phrase
consenting adults
passed through her mind, and started an entirely new string of associations.

She shook her head and leaned down in the chair to focus on the textbook. This position strained the rope around her wrists, and she tugged on them, testing their strength.

Yes, secure. Mitch had even laced them through the back of the chair so that she couldn’t simply stand up and walk away.

Well, she thought, just as well. Maybe now she’d be able to study.

But as she looked at the equations, there was something that was bothering her about all of this, something nagging at her memory to be reevaluated. Often she’d remember a line from a novel she had read, and couldn’t remember right away what book it had been from. In those situations, she went through the books she had read recently in her head until one clicked, and she decided to do the same kind of review now with the events of the evening.

Was it how Mitch had cooked in the kitchen? Jessica thought about this, seeing flashes of her brother’s ass as he bent into the refrigerator; the taste of the sandwich; writing out the equation. No. Not there. Then she skipped ahead to walking down the hallway and—

She realized what it was. Mitch had stopped in his bedroom to collect the rope. Jessica didn’t think anything of it at the time, because she hadn’t realized it was rope then, but now that she thought back, she realized how strange it was that her stepbrother kept rope in his bedside bureau, always within reach. Jessica shifted her hands in the rope, feeling its smooth texture.

It was too smooth. This wasn’t the type of rope that you’d use for yard work or construction. Jessica gasped. This was
sex
rope.

Jessica got wet all over again. Her thoughts were racing now.

Her stepbrother liked to tie people up in his bedroom. He liked to fuck girls when they were tied up. He tied up Jessica. Jessica had already proven that she turned him on, although Mitch didn’t know that. Did that mean…?

She instinctively tried to touch herself with the onslaught of tense thoughts, and the ropes tugged at her wrists. Then she remembered her situation.

Just then, she heard Mitch’s footsteps coming down the hall. Jessica looked down at her lap, worried that she might have soaked through her jeans she was so horny. She squirmed a little, trying to readjust, but the friction only made it worse. Then she felt a jolt of panic, realizing she hadn’t memorized anything. She had barely found the equation on the page when Mitch entered the room and said, “Pop quiz time.”

He stepped forward and leaned over Jessica to close the textbook. Jessica felt the muscle of Mitch’s chest rub against the side of her face, and her insides throbbed. She closed her eyes, and inhaled her stepbrother’s scent.