Chapter One
Hero
I tap the pencil on the notepad so furiously, it’s about to give way and break in half. Where is this stupid tutor girl? I glance down at my phone to check the time. Fifteen past six. She was supposed to be here fifteen minutes ago. Every minute I sit here, it makes me more irritated, more impatient.
This small room with its bare walls reminds me too much of the prison cells I spent the last seven years in. The seconds tick by slow. The walls feel like they’re closing in around me—inching toward me like they are about to swallow me whole.
Not only am I one of the oldest students here, but also one of the dumbest. Thanks to the lack of proper education the justice system provided me with, I could barely pass my classes.
If it hadn’t been Mom’s wish for me to go to college, I would get up, walk my happy ass right off campus, and never look back.
I’m not here to make friends or kiss ass. Half the things I’ve seen and done, these assholes wouldn’t be able to handle.
Death. Murder. Pain. Grief. These people have no idea the shit-balls life could throw at you.
The door handle to the room jiggles, and I sneer at it. I should just get up and walk out of here. I’m sure the girl isn’t going to be coming anyway.
“Hi! I’m so sorry. I got lost, then…”
The words I intended to speak pause in thin air. All my irritation and anger disappears, replaced with something else—something I’ve never felt before.
It’s an emotion I can’t quite pinpoint. Instead of focusing on it, I take in the tiny woman before me.
She has fragile features, soft, doll-like. Coal black lashes frame her big blue eyes, and those eyes…fuck, they’re fixated on mine, beckoning me onward. Her coffee-colored hair is braided over one shoulder. It looks soft. I want to run my fingers through it.
What the fuck? I shove the thought away. My gaze drops to her full lips, half parted with whatever words she’d planned to say.
She isn’t wearing a speck of makeup. Her clothes aren’t eye-catching and don’t show off her body, but damn…she is perfect.
“I—I’m sorry…” Her creamy white cheeks grow pink with embarrassment.
“You’re late,” I announce gruffly, as if she didn’t already know this.
She sighs, visibly trying to calm herself.
I’ve been through enough shit to know when someone is on the verge of a panic attack. The look in her doe eyes tells me she’s close.
“Please don’t tell anyone. I need this job. I really, really do.” Tears form in those orbs, and the anguish in her voice tells me she isn’t lying.
Fuck! This isn’t what I need right now. I’m not in a good place, and the moment I open my mouth, I know I’ll ask her what the hell her story is and how I can help her…and that’s just not what I need.
Shutting my brain down, I let my dick talk for me. “Calm down. You can make it up to me, baby. I promise I won’t tell anybody. All you need to do is come over here and kiss me.”
Her eyes go impossibly wide at my request. “K-Kiss y-you?” she stutters, staring at me like I just asked her to get on her knees and give me a blow job.
Shit. The image of her sucking me off invades my mind, making it hard to think about anything but her plum, angel-like lips around my cock. Shifting in my seat, I try to ignore how uncomfortably hard my dick is pushing against the zipper of my jeans, begging for me to let him come out to play. “So, what will it be? Kiss me or possibly lose your job?” I know I’m being an unreasonable asshole, but it’s hard to be anything else when that’s what I’ve been for so long.
She inches forward, like a newborn deer taking its first steps. Her legs seem so wobbly and unsure. For a moment, I think she might fall, and prepare myself to catch her.
Never breaking eye contact, she makes it all the way in front of my chair without falling over her own two feet. She clenches the strap of her backpack so tight, her knuckles turn white and her hand quivers.
Fear shines prominent in her eyes, but there’s also curiosity and excitement. I hold my hand out to her, and she looks down at it in wonder. Her fingers ease up on the strap before she lets her backpack slide down her shoulder and drop to the floor.
Her small, shaking hand reaches for mine. The second her soft hand touches my much larger, rougher one, her trembling subsides. I gently pull her down into my lap, and her leg brushes against my hardened dick, almost making me come in my pants.