Teaching Roman (14 page)

But Roman shook his head. 

I slouched against the wall, feeling a mixture of embarrassment and annoyance. It was such a stupid mistake to make, but Roman didn’t seem to mind that I was wrong. He seemed pretty happy about it actually.

Taking a page from his book, I hooked my fingers around the hem of my tank top slowly and drew it over my head as slowly as I could manage. The grin on Roman’s face widened.

My heart sped up under his patient gaze. After choking on the last answer, I needed to pull myself together and prove to him—and myself—that I was prepared to take this exam. Having recently faced the prospect of not becoming a doctor, I was more determined than ever.

“Gram stain,” I answered confidently.

“Tell the lady what’s she’s won,” he said in his best game show host voice.

“Oh, I hope it’s your pants!” I squealed and clapped like an excited contestant.

“If you’re good, I’ll show you what I hide behind door number one.” Roman jumped to his feet and unbuttoned his pants teasingly slow. My teeth sank into my lip as he pushed them past his hips, revealing gray boxer briefs that did nothing to hide that particular prize. He let them fall to the floor, kicking them off and shooting me a smug smile. How could he be this hot? Curving, defined muscles. A hint of sun lingering on his skin. That sexy mess of black hair that fell into his eyes, and the dusting of it across his chest—just enough to grab onto as I came.

I made a mental note to present a picture of him naked the next time I had to do a presentation in Biology. He was a clear example of survival of the fittest.

“I have an idea,” I purred dropping to my hands and kneeling before him. “How about we study a little anatomy?”

“Miss Stone,” he said, pretending to be shocked, “it sounds like you’re trying to get out of studying.”

I went along with it, fluttering my eyelashes innocently as I sat back up and unhooked the front closure of my bra. It burst open and I shrugged it off. “These are breasts.” I ran my fingers lightly over them to emphasize the fact. “This is an areola—“ my thumbs traced around circles around the pink ring as my nipples furled with anticipation—“and these are nipples.”

“That was very...elucidating.” Roman swallowed, shifting a little on his feet as the prize behind door number one became discernibly larger.

“The female breast,” I continued, “was made for sucking.” I reached up and ran my hand down his stomach and over him. “Now
that
wasn’t, and yet...”

Roman’s head fell back as I tugged down his boxers and took him in my hands. I licked up the length of him and took him in my mouth. He groaned as I sucked, shifting to allow me deeper access and I obliged.

“Christ, Jessica. Do you know what you do to me?” he asked in pants as I continued to suck him off.

Roman placed a warning hand on my hair, but I ignored it, growing more excited as he released. He dropped to his knees, and I was pleased to see his eyes blazing. “My turn.”

His hands circled my wrists and pinned them over my head as he dipped down to kiss my neck. This was quickly becoming the best study session ever. He pressed against me, urging my body to the floor as he continued his descent toward my own prize package. Lingering at my belly button, he blew softly across my skin, sending ripples of desire bubbling through me. But he didn’t stop there. Still holding my wrists together with one hand, the other hooked under my panties and jerked them off. His tongue licked across my bikini line and my hips bucked against his mouth.

He clicked his tongue. “Patience.”

“Good girls are patient,” I whimpered.

“Aren’t you good?” he asked, sending warm breath tickling along the swollen nerves between my legs.

“I used to be. I wanted to be teacher’s pet.”

“And you are,” he promised.

A finger traced down my sensitive region and I shuddered at the contact, aching for more. “No, I’m definitely not. I’m a bad apple.”

Roman released my hands and pressed my legs open wider and settled between them, grinning. “If that’s true, I want a taste.”

“Careful,” I warned him, my breath coming faster, “I bite back.”

“I’m counting on it.” Then his mouth closed over my clit, sucking hungrily as pleasure trembled through me. I was so close, brought to the edge by the innuendo and naughty games, but I clung to the brink, wanting to savor it as long as possible. But even as I did, my muscles contracted, my body tightening as he licked and nibbled. I arched into the air, fighting to be closer to him, desperate for this moment to never end and desperate for my climax. Roman pushed a finger inside me and I lost control, spiraling outward as I shattered against his tireless tongue.

My legs clamped in warning against his head, and he shook free of their vice grip with a laugh, planting a swift kiss down there before he crawled up to take me in his arms. His skin brushed mine, sending sparks shooting along my nerves. I already wanted him again.

“Do you...” I let my question trail away, suddenly embarrassed to admit my inexperience to him.

“What, mi bella?” he asked, searching my face, his deep brown eyes content and still interested.

“Do you think sex is like this for most people?” I forced myself to ask the question even though I had to look away first.

“No,” he said, and I could hear the smile in his voice. “If it was, the world would fall to ruin because no one would ever leave their beds.”

“I didn’t think so,” I admitted. “It’s never been like this...for me.”

“It hasn’t for me either.” If he felt embarrassed confessing that, it didn’t show. There was no vulnerability in his words. None showed on his face. In fact, he looked somehow more certain saying it, as though he found comfort in the fact.

Part of me understood that. Sex had always been an expectation. A relationship mile stone. It wasn’t that I didn’t get horny before I met Roman. I did. But there was something more to sex with Roman—a playfulness that had been absent in my previous sexual encounters. It made it easy to be with him. And it made me want to be with him all the time.

Too bad the rest of the world still expected me to get out of bed every morning.

“We should get back to work,” Roman said as if he could read my mind.

“Or round two?” I suggested. “I think it would be beneficial to my understanding of the human male to see all the ways his anatomy can function.”

“Well, anything that helps you ace your exams.”

And with that we dissolved into one another until we forgot that there was an outside world at all.

W
e beat everyone to Garrett’s and grabbed one of the two booths to wait. I was more than a little nervous to be here with Roman—in public, particularly a college bar. We stuck to hanging out at my place or his most of the time, but Jillian had begged us to go out for once. It wasn’t as if most people would think anything of seeing the two of us together. He wasn’t wildly older than me and dressed down in jeans and a t-shirt he just looked like another hot guy at the bar.

But I knew, and couldn’t help but feel nervous.

“Stop fidgeting,” he whispered, taking my hand into his so that I couldn’t bite my nails.

“What if the dean walks in or something?” I asked.

“I hear he hangs out here all the time,” he said wryly. “And even if he did, he has no clue who I am. I’m not a tenured professor, remember? Just an instructor.”

He was right, but that fact did nothing to calm my racing heart. Without the others here to distract me with stories and bad jokes, I had time to think and there was only one thing on my mind—getting caught. Although technically we were both students, I knew our relationship existed in a grey area.

Thankfully I was distracted from my analysis by the appearance of Cassie. She strutted to the table, looking her usual fashionable self and then unleashed a string of curses that would put a sailor to shame.

“Good day?” I asked, already feeling more comfortable.

“Computer crashed, so I have to rewrite an entire paper by Friday.” She waved over Frank to place an order for the special: frozen pizza cooked in their pizza oven. It wasn’t gourmet, but it was cheap and a tradition.

Frank, the resident bartender, ambled over, scratching at his bushy eyebrow. “The usual?”

“You have a usual?” Roman asked under his breath.

Frank might have as much hair growing in his ears as on his head, but he caught it, glancing at Roman with disapproval.

“Yeah, but double it,” Cassie said. “We brought the boys.”

“Where’s your boy?” Frank asked.

“No more boys for me. Unless you’re available, Frank.” She batted her eyelashes at him suggestively.

“I’m too old for you, hon. Thought I told you to stay out of trouble this year.” His words were gruff, but we all knew he was a teddy bear underneath his tough exterior.

Cassie shook her head, spilling dark locks of hair over her shoulders. “Boys my age are trouble.”

“Been telling you that for years,” Frank called over his shoulder as he headed back toward the kitchen.

“Hey guys!”

My head perked up on hearing the familiar Scottish accent. Over the past year, I’d grown to love Liam as much as Jillian. Having my whole, extended family here was enough to put me instantly at ease. Within an hour, we’d polished off both combo pizzas and the conversation was flowing as swiftly as the penny pitchers.

“Any news?” I asked Jillian as the men discussed soccer.

She stiffened in her chair and took a long swig of her beer. She was on her second of the night. I’d been counting, knowing I’d have to step in if she tried to have more or risk it affecting her medication.

“No official news, but the student liaison’s office says it doesn’t look good. Apparently every foreign exchange student wants to come to Washington.” Judging from the tension ticking in her jaw as she finished speaking, she thought this was unfair. “Why can’t we go to school somewhere boring like Cleveland. I mean, Liam’s already here. Why not let him stay?”

“You could marry him,” I said with a shrug.

Jillian’s face turned fire truck red, but next to her, Liam laughed and leaned over to me. “Careful, now. You’re going to mess up my plans.”

“Shut up,” she said, turning even brighter red.

“Oh, chicken. Stop now, love.” He planted a kiss on her forehead. “That looks like painful embarrassment.”

This was why I loved him. He didn’t bat an eye at the idea of a long-term relationship with Jillian, even though she had early-onset Parkinson’s. He was in love with her and that was all that mattered.

“It’ll work out,” I assured her.

“How?” She looked at me with the familiar, searching eyes I knew so well. She hadn’t looked at me that way in months. At some point, I’d stopped being the person she turned to for comfort and advice. I suppose facing the prospect of losing Liam, she’d fallen into old habits.

I glanced to Roman, understanding perfectly how subtly falling in love changed relationships and not always in bad ways. “I just know it will.”

Something had shifted in our relationships. There was a time—not terribly long ago—when the idea of marriage would have had both of us running for the hills. I’d also thought of it as something reserved for women much older than myself. At best, it was about companionship. At worst, it was a solution. I could see why Jillian would be wary of solving Liam’s visa dilemma by saying “I do.” But I also knew without a doubt that when he finally got down on one knee, there would be no doubt in her mind. I knew because there was no longer any doubt in my own. The realization exhilarated me.

“Omigod!” Cassie yelped, slamming her hands on the table. “It’s not bad enough to be the fifth wheel when you two have landed yourself hotties, but now you have to talk about all that serious bullshit right now? It’s enough to drive a girl to a vow of celibacy.”

“Get thee to a nunnery!” Liam called, pointing at her.

“I’ll have none,” Cassie quipped back.

I raised an eyebrow at her from across the table.

“What? I know Shakespeare,” she said. “You don’t have to be a Brit to know the Bard.”

Liam leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms behind his head. “I’m not a Brit. I’m Scottish.”

“You keep telling us that.” Cassie shot him a wicked smile. “But I haven’t seen you in a kilt yet.”

“You’ll have to trust me on that then,” Jills said, leaning against Liam’s shoulder, momentarily distracted from the visa trouble.

Somehow we’d gotten from visa to marriage to Shakespeare to kilts—that was why I loved my friends. Two pitchers later and Cassie had met her next soul mate at the bar. I watched her with a bemused smile, hoping that my creep radar wasn’t off. The last thing she needed was another Trevor in her life.

“How about we go back to your place and study some anatomy?” Roman whispered in my ear.

A shiver raced along my neck. “Or we could have sex.”

“If you insist.” He was already pulling a twenty out of his wallet. Standing up, he held out a hand and helped me from my seat. “Jillian. Liam.”

Liam nodded in that typical masculine way. “Good to see, man.”

“I’m going to spend the night at Roman’s,” I told Jills.

“Our neighbors couldn’t handle it if we both had our men over at once.” Jillian’s lips crooked into a wicked smile.