Being Harrison Bloom's Girl (That Forbidden Love Book 2) Read online

  That she take more.

  Slowly, deliberately, she parted her lips and took him in, letting her tongue play with him lightly, softly. She sucked on him and relished how it made him gasp, how it made his body tighten so sharply.

  She loved the taste of him as she ran her tongue over him in circles, her arms around his strong, muscular thighs and holding him to her.

  “Oh yes, Leigh, that feels so good. Don’t stop, baby. Don’t stop.”

  She didn’t need him to tell her that, but as his voice got huskier, her mouth got tighter, more insistent. He was moving, his hips thrusting against her, his hands on the back of her head now as that battle to relinquish all control was fought and lost.

  “Leigh, please…”

  Leigh moved away and quickly got to her feet. She made sure he was watching as she slowly and deliberately unhooked her bra, letting it slide off, spilling her breasts out for his pleasure. She bent from the waist as she took her panties off, hooking her fingers in the elastic at the waist and drawing them down and off her.

  She walked to him, the urgency filling her as his hands gripped her waist and she straddled him.

  “I need you, Leigh,” he told her, and she knew that at least that was something she could count on. That was something that would never change.

  He needed her.

  What they felt, it was real. It would never change.

  No matter what.

  “Harrison,” she moaned, as she placed a hand on his shoulder, the other hand finding his hard shaft, holding it in place as she positioned herself over him.

  She took her time, even if everything in her wanted to hurry and take. Something told her that she needed to savor it.

  So she slowly, gently, lowered herself onto him.

  “You’re so big,” she moaned, as she wrapped her arms around him and kissed him, long and hard. Slowly, she moved, rocking, and sank onto him.

  She felt him inside her, stretching her, his manhood pulsing as she started moving. She knew he wanted to thrust up, to take her, to claim her. But he waited, and she moved slowly and steadily, riding him so gently, until it was too much.

  She couldn’t hold on. She couldn’t wait, not when his fingers found her where they were joined together so intimately, and stroked her.

  “Harrison!” she cried, and she rode him, hard and fast, bouncing on his lap as she braced herself against him.

  “Leigh, don’t stop,” said Harrison, his eyes on hers, and Leigh couldn’t have, not if her life depended on it. She rode him, harder and faster, her slick, strong muscles gripping and clenching at him, until she could take it no more.

  She cried out his name, sobbed it over and over again, as she let herself find that peak and tumble over it, her body shuddering over and over again as she held on to him. But he wasn’t done.

  He gripped her hips and made her move, so strong that he hardly felt her weight, and she held on to him as he drove her, hard and fast, to another peak. This time, he held her tight, so close to him, and she melted against him as she felt him fill her, spill his seed deep inside her.

  She whimpered his name as if it was a prayer and she could find peace again with it.

  She did find peace again, as she held on to him, feeling his heart beating against hers.

  She never wanted to let him go. All she needed was to hold on to him, forever.

  But even then, there was a part of her that knew that perhaps her destiny wasn’t what she had expected it to be.

  “It’s Sunday,” coaxed Harrison.

  Leigh smiled, but she didn’t stop dressing.

  “I know, but I have to go back to school and work. I told Hana we’d finish the papers today. I’m cribbing off her, Harrison. I really need to go.”

  “You said you’d be here the whole weekend.”

  Leigh nodded, and the regret was very real.

  “I know. I wish I could stay. But there’s so much work, Harrison. I know you’re used to fixing problems, but this is work that I need to do. There’s no way out. Nobody you can call, or influence in any way, I’m afraid. I’ve just got to go back and get on with it.”

  Harrison sighed and gave up, coming over to her to help her find her shoes.

  “I don’t know how you manage to lose your shoes every time you come here. I put in that closet for you.”

  Leigh chuckled.

  “Maybe we can turn that into a secret hidey hole. In case we need to hide from nefarious agents of destruction.”

  Harrison laughed.

  “I miss you when you’re at school.”

  Leigh sighed and turned to hug him.

  “I miss you, too. You know that, don’t you? I hate being away from you. I hate so much of this. But we’ll make it work. It’s only for a while. We’ll figure it out. We’ve dealt with enough already, but we’ll figure this out, too.”

  Harrison pressed a kiss to the top of her head, but she knew by the way his arms tightened around her that he didn’t want to let her go.

  “I know. We will. Shall I drive you home?”

  Leigh shook her head regretfully.

  “It won’t work, will it? I drove here. What will you do, take a bus back? That would probably be all over the tabloids. I’ve really got to go now, Harrison.”

  Harrison could see it – part of Leigh had already receded from him, and it was disturbing to watch as she became the other person, the student who fit in so seamlessly on campus. Did she have the slightest idea of how lumbering and awkward he had felt, trying to make a grand gesture that would make her feel loved and getting it all wrong?

  Did she think that he had enjoyed the amused disdain that he had seen in so many eyes when he had sent her those plants? And those flowers?

  But he had to be patient and supportive, no matter how difficult it was. It was more difficult for Leigh. He had to remember that.

  Except, it didn’t seem all that difficult for Leigh, a niggling little voice inside him pointed out. She was having fun.

  It was petty and unfair of him to resent that, but she was having a bit too much fun, and finding it a bit too easy to leave him and the life they had started building together behind.

  “I know. Kiss me goodbye then, Leigh,” was all Harrison said, though, as he gripped her tighter and found her lips.

  He kissed her as if willing her to belong to him, convincing her that she would always belong to him, just as he belonged to her. He felt the response he could always draw from her, felt her soften under his hands and his mouth, and the need that surged through her was instant and nearly unstoppable.

  He always wanted Leigh with a violence that shocked him.

  But before he could give in to it, Leigh pulled back. He felt it before she pulled away physically.

  So, he did the only thing he really could do.

  He let her go, and hoped that she would come back to him soon.

  Hoped that she needed him, too.

  Chapter 3

  “What?”

  Leigh looked at her returned paper in disbelief.

  “This cannot possibly be happening,” murmured Leigh, and tried blinking.

  It didn’t help.

  It still said ‘B-’ with a little comment that said that she needed improvement, better research, and all-important precedents, many of which she had apparently missed.

  “Shit,” said Leigh, glaring at the paper, as if she could magically change it with just the power of her mind.

  Well, perhaps, thought Leigh, she should’ve used the power of her mind properly and not gotten a bad grade to begin with. A ‘B minus’ might not have been too bad for some people. But it was bad for Leigh. Anything less than an A minus was bad for her. Even an A minus was only a sign that she needed to do better.

  Leigh was used to being extremely good at her job. Her job was to be a student, and she was not performing anywhere near the standards that she expected of herself.

  Even worse, she hadn’t been in class to collect the paper. She’d skipped
her Criminal Law lecture to finish her Contracts paper, and Hana had picked it up for her.

  “It’s not so bad,” said Hana, from across the room.

  Leigh shook her head in disbelief.

  “You don’t even sound like you mean that. It’s awful. A B minus. I never get Bs. Never.”

  Hana shrugged.

  “Well, considering how much time you spent on it, a B isn’t too bad. You have been pretty distracted lately. You’re lucky the Contracts deadline got pushed or you would’ve been really screwed.”

  That was true, and it didn’t help her feel better – not even a little bit. It only reminded her that she was really dropping the ball.

  And yet…

  “Maybe I can talk to Dr. Keenan and see if I can do it again. I really don’t want this on my record.”

  Hana considered it.

  “You could, but Dr. Keenan just took a leave of absence. Some family drama, I gather. We’ll get a guest lecturer to fill in soon, probably within a couple of days.”

  Leigh pursed her lips and considered.

  That could work in her favor, she realized. If she could make a good case for herself and make the B minus sound like an aberration – which it was, damn it – then she might get the chance to redo the paper.

  “Besides,” went on Hana, “how are you going to find the time to redo it? You have your Prince Charming to worry about, too.”

  Leigh shook her head.

  “I’ll have to tell him I can’t see him for a few weeks. I need to get this sorted out. You were smart to break up with your guy before school started.”

  Hana smiled, a little wistfully.

  “Maybe, but I miss him. If I’d thought there was the slightest chance that we could make things work despite the distance, I wouldn’t have broken up with him. I would’ve stuck it out. But I know him – he would’ve got bored, and drifted, and then cheated. I know myself, too. I would’ve reached a place where I hated him for cheating, and hated myself because I was a little relieved that it was over. So, I called it quits while we still had even a tiny chance of getting back together somewhere down the line.”

  Leigh smiled, but it wasn’t a happy smile.

  “Sounds like a very tough choice.”

  “It was, but hey, this place is stuffed with cute guys, so that does help.”

  The cheeriness was forced, but Leigh went with it.

  Still, she was determined to do something about that grade.

  “Well, who do you think our guest lecturer will be? Somebody old and brought out of retirement? A hungry young thing who will usurp the spot?”

  Hana laughed.

  “You make life here sound so much more interesting. Probably somebody who’ll be called an assistant professor for now. It’ll probably be one of those people who’ll jump at every loud sound.”

  “Or,” persisted Leigh, “it might be a practicing attorney who does fancy murder cases. Imagine!”

  Hana shook her head.

  “No, you imagine. I shall get to work on dinner. You have work to catch up on. Relax. I like cooking.”

  Relieved, Leigh got to work going through the paper. She was glad that the Contracts paper wasn’t due back for a while. The professor was notoriously slow at giving papers back. But she had a feeling she wouldn’t exactly cover herself in glory with that one, either.

  For the next two days, she stuck to a schedule – she would speak with Harrison twice a day, and she would give him her entire attention and focus while she did. But for the rest of the day, she worked, and she worked hard.

  Finally, Hana turned up with the news she’d been waiting for.

  “His name is Roger Hutton. That’s Dr. Roger Hutton, he has a PhD and a string of other degrees. Amazing that he’s only thirty-six, really, you’d think all those credentials would’ve taken a lot longer. At any rate, I saw him today. He’s going to be taking classes from tomorrow. If you want that chance to redo your paper, you’d better work fast, before he finds his feet.”

  And that, thought Leigh, was excellent advice.

  “I’m going to do just that,” she declared, and grabbed her backpack – she was getting used to backpacks again – and made her way over to the building where Hana had confirmed that she could find the man who could get rid of that unsightly B minus from her record.

  She found the office quickly enough. The door was slightly ajar. Leigh hesitated for a moment before knocking smartly.

  “Ow! Fuck!”

  Leigh stepped back, alarmed.

  “Shit! Who… What!”

  “I’m sorry, I can come back later,” said Leigh.

  The last thing she wanted was to initiate a conversation about improving her grade when the man who could do that was irritated and swearing.

  “No, it’s fine, come in, I… Oh, crap!”

  There was the unmistakable sound of a pile of books crashing to the floor, finished off by a louder, sharper crash of something breaking. It ended with a ‘ting.’ Leigh half expected a little wheel to come rolling out through the door, as befits most crashes with such promising sound effects.

  Obviously, she couldn’t hover outside the door like that anymore.

  Leigh pushed the door open and had to bite the inside of her cheek to keep herself from grinning at the sight that greeted her.

  There were books all around, and judging by one column of books on the floor that had been piled far too high, she could see why another had fallen down. The sharper crash had come from a very pretty vase that, she would bet, had always held pens rather than flowers.

  In the middle of that scene of minor destruction stood a tall, lean, rangy man wearing corduroy trousers and a flannel shirt, his feet in comfortable loafers, a pair of black-rimmed spectacles on his nose and threatening to slip off at the slightest pretext. His hair was curly, dark brown, and looked very soft. His eyes, as he looked at her, were a little dazed and baffled, and very green.

  A very handsome professor, thought Leigh, and she felt some of the tension that had been such a constant companion for the last few weeks ease a little as she looked at him.

  “I’m sorry, things are a bit of a mess. I mixed up some of the labels for home and office. Some of those books aren’t supposed to be here.”

  Leigh caught sight of what looked like about six Isaac Asimov books and grinned.

  “I don’t think so, unless you’re considering interplanetary criminal law for your lectures.”

  He grinned at her, and the boyish charm of it nearly made her sigh. He had dimples – very cute dimples. Even the distracted and slightly helpless air about him was appealing. It suited him.

  “It would make a nice change, I suppose. At least forensics would be different. I’m Roger Hutton. Are you my colleague?”

  Leigh met his eyes, and she smiled at him. It felt like the first real smile she’d managed in too long.

  “I’m afraid not. I’m one of your students. You’re obviously not ready to speak to students yet, so I can come back later.”

  “Don’t do that, I can hardly turn away my first student here! Does this student have a name?”

  Leigh grinned.

  “I’m Leigh Wells. I’m here to beg for a chance to redo the assignment that your predecessor graded. It’s definitely not my best grade and it’s not my best effort. I could do a lot better, given the chance. I had a whole pitch prepared, but I don’t think now is the best time.”

  He tilted his head slightly as he considered her request, and Leigh realized that she had to look up at him, especially in the sneakers she was getting very used to wearing again.

  “How about we skip the pitch and you give me half an hour to help pack up the stuff that should have been labeled ‘home,’ and we’ll say you can do that paper over? Since I don’t even know what paper you’re talking about, I can’t say I mind particularly, unless you make it a habit.”

  Leigh chuckled.

  “I don’t mind. I would’ve helped even without the little bribe, honest
ly. Your books look very interesting. And… Oh, what have you done to that poor plant!”

  It was very nearly in anguish that Leigh cried out when she saw the almost dead little plant that was obviously new to its surroundings, too.

  Roger looked at it and had the grace to look guilty and sheepish.

  “Not as much as it deserves, I’m sure. I wouldn’t suppose you’re any good with plants? You could have it, if you are. Or even if you’re not, you’re hardly likely to cause any more harm than I’m sure to.”

  Leigh sighed.

  “I’m not leaving it with you, so you’ve no choice there. I might be able to bring it back from the brink of death. Which, let me assure you, is where you’ve taken it. Poor little thing,” said Leigh, bending over and checking the soil for dampness. Leigh administered what she thought of as very quick first aid, and then set about helping Roger – no, Dr. Hutton, she reminded herself, he wasn’t a friend – pack up what he needed to.

  It should have been a chore, and a very boring one at that, but Leigh found that Roger – it was becoming hard to think of him as her professor – was a fun conversationalist, and extremely easygoing. He was also, she discovered, extremely smart, had eclectic taste in books, and far shrewder than he seemed to be.

  “How come you’re teaching instead of practicing law?” she asked, finally, as they taped up a few boxes.

  “I needed a break. I think of this as serendipity. Hopefully, it works out well. I started out as a public defender before I decided that I needed to make some money, too. I worked on a couple of very draining pro bono cases recently. I need something less stressful for a while. A colleague who’d taught a couple of semesters was very amused that I was thinking of this as less stressful. Are you really a bunch of hellions?”

  Leigh chuckled.

  “Well, you’ll find that most of your students are a bit younger than I am. Maybe about four or five years younger, even. I worked as a paralegal for a while before I decided it was time to do law school. It was my plan – I wanted to have an idea of what the practical application of what I was learning would be when I learned it. I didn’t want to absorb knowledge without any real idea of what I was learning.”