My Werewolf Professor (22 page)

Never a patient man like his twin, Alessandro forced himself to stay still and wait. As the seconds passed, he watched Kassia’s nervousness visibly turn into unease, with the way her brown eyes darkened and she started biting the tips of her hair again. He could read her every thought as various emotions flitted over her face, and he knew the exact moment when the truth hit her, and the need to ask became inevitable—

“
Why
did you let me see you shift, Professor?” Kassia’s voice was tremulous and her body stiff, as if expecting to ward off words that might hurt her.

Holding her gaze captive, he answered simply, “Because you wanted proof that I think of you as a permanent part of my life.”

****

Kassia couldn’t sleep.

She had tried to do so for the past two hours, but eventually she had given up and simply lay down in the bed.
 

Staring into the dark, she was unable to keep the professor’s last words from her mind.
 

After the professor’s staggering revelation of his true nature and why he had chosen to let her know, Kassia had succumbed to another shock that, even now, she wasn’t sure had completely worn off.
 

Alessandro Moretti was a werewolf – no, a
Lyccan.
That was what his kind was called, the professor had said to Kassia, and he didn’t like being called a ‘werewolf’ because it made him feel like a pop star with fangs.
 

After – Kassia wasn’t really sure how or why – but the professor had been able to make the necessary excuses to take her away from the rest of the class. He had said something about personal emergencies and makeup classes, but Kassia doubted anyone had really asked for an explanation. The professor’s family owned the university, after all. His word was law.

The professor had then taken her to a waiting limousine, and inside he had made no attempt to touch her or even sit next to her, as if sensing Kassia’s need to think things through on her own.

During the ride, the professor had explained other things to her in his soft, beautifully accented voice. Even knowing he wasn’t human, Kassia had clung to the sound of it. Listening to him speak, she had gradually realized that
what
he was made no difference.

He was not human, but she still loved him.

He was not human, but it didn’t excuse the way he had kept hurting her, blowing hot and cold that the love she felt for him had turned into a weapon that hurt no one but…herself.

She closed her eyes, and the sound of professor’s voice played in her mind like an addictive melody.

You must not speak to anyone about this.
 

Such an act is punishable by death in my world.

My kind is allowed to reveal the truth to only two types of humans. Those who are or will be blood-bound to us with an oath of loyalty or, like you, someone a Lyccan intends to be his future mate.

Kassia shivered at the memory of those last three words, but the cold seeping into her skin had nothing to do with the temperature inside her room.

His future mate.

Then, she hadn’t the presence of mind to ask what it meant. She had been too stunned, too overwhelmed by the turn of events, that she had only nodded and followed the professor like a puppet when he helped her out of the limousine and took her to a posh-looking hotel and straight up to the penthouse suite.

When she had entered the suite, the professor remained at the doorway, and at her bemused look, he had explained tautly, “I want you to have time and space to think on your own. I don’t want to be…unfair…and pressure you into choosing a life with me.” The professor had drawn a harsh breath after that. “Because that
will
be the kind of choice you’d have to make. When you choose me, it’s for the rest of your life.”

Then the professor was gone, and that time, he hadn’t even bothered to conceal just how
fast
his kind moved. In a blink, the professor had been gone, and only the sound of the elevator doors closing halfway down the hall told Kassia where he had disappeared to.

So what now,
Kassia wondered numbly.

In one fell swoop, the professor had destroyed all her defenses, and everything she had held against him was shredded into inconsequential pieces the moment he revealed the truth about himself.

The professor was a Lyccan, and he had revealed his secret to prove that he wanted Kassia permanently in his life. Was that enough for her to forgive the professor for everything?
Should
it be enough?

Even now, a part of Kassia was afraid that the professor was still playing with her, and she wondered painfully if the fear would ever go away.
 

If only the professor was a less complex man. If only he was more like Jacob—

But Kassia knew she was only lying to herself as soon as the thought started forming in her mind.

If she had wanted someone like Jacob, then she would have fallen for Jacob from the start. Maybe she would even have fallen from one of the few boys her age back in her hometown. But she hadn’t.

Instead, she had fallen for the professor.
 

A man who, for all how perfect his life might seem to the world, had so many layers to him that a lifetime might not be enough for Kassia to truly understand Alessandro Moretti.
 

It was a bittersweet thought.

She had a
lifetime
with the professor she had fallen in love with, the professor she had once thought was forever out of her league. A lifetime with Professor Alessandro Moretti, the man who had hurt her so much that even her own mother’s odd ways paled in comparison.

A lifetime…

Before Kassia knew it, she was already reaching for her phone inside her bag and sending the professor a text message.

Exactly three seconds later, and she heard the doorbell of her suite ring.

A nervous laugh escaped Kassia.
Oh dear.
This inhuman speed of the professor would take some getting used to.

Jumping out of the bed, she padded barefoot across the suite until she reached the door. Flinging it open, she found the professor standing perfectly still, an exquisitely brooding look on his equally gorgeous face. He had changed for the night, dressed in casual elegance with his black button down shirt and tailored pants.

Crap. He. So. Beautiful.

Dazzled and dazed, she wasn’t able to think of anything sensible and mature to say. “G-good evening, Professor.” It was lame, but it was the best she could do.

The professor didn’t return her smile. “You didn’t check before opening the door.”

She shook her head.

“You need to be more careful next time.”

She nodded obediently. “Yes, Professor.”

Sensing her wariness and knowing he was the reason for it, Alessandro asked lightly, “Have you turned into a meek little lamb because you know I’m the big, bad wolf?” Kassia visibly relaxed, enough to smile, which he returned.
 

Swallowing, Kassia tried to rein her nervousness in as she stepped back to let the professor in.

“Thank you,” the professor murmured as he entered the room.

Two ordinary words, but it was enough to have her heart slamming hard against her chest. Was it just her, or did the professor sound even sexier now? Kassia mentally cringed at the thought. She was so, so foolish.
 

Closing the door, she found the professor looking at her, his beautiful face still unreadable. But when he spoke, she knew exactly what he wanted to talk about.

“Kassia—”

Panic, inexplicable but violent, surged up inside of Kassia.

She didn’t know and couldn’t explain why, but she just didn’t feel like she was ready to talk about the two of them.

She shook her head.

Frustration darkened the professor’s gaze. “Kassia, we must—”

She suddenly had difficulty breathing. “No—”

The professor’s chest heaved. “I’m sorry, little chick, but—”

Desperate, she did the only thing she could think of to shut him up.

Kassia threw herself at him.

“What are you—” Albeit stunned, Alessandro’s Lyccan reflexes enabled him to catch Kassia without fail. He started to ask what was wrong, but the moment Kassia was secure in his arms, she silenced him with a kiss. Then her arms went around his neck and her legs wrapped around his waist.

He tried to pull away, but she only kissed him harder in response. “
Please
.” When her voice broke, his heart cracked alongside hers, and he knew they wouldn’t be talking then.

His arms tightening around hers, he kissed her back, telling her without words that whatever she wanted, he would make sure to provide.

Her body shook against him in response, and her lips stopped its desperate dance against his. It became soft, painfully so.
Thank you.

The professor took control then, and Kassia surrendered to his dominance. The feel of his lips moving against hers, alternating between poignant tenderness and rough passion, made Kassia squeeze her eyes shut. When his tongue pushed inside her mouth, Kassia’s toes curled while her arms tightened reflexively around his neck. And when the professor started sucking on her tongue, she moaned and her body began to move uncontrollably, her breasts rubbing against the professor’s hard chest while she unconsciously ground her sex against his deliciously throbbing erection.

Knowing he was only moments away from taking Kassia on the floor, Alejandro stalked towards the bedroom, Kassia still in his arms and their mouths still locked in passionate union.
 

Only when he had to lay her down on the bed did Alessandro break the kiss, and as she stared up at him in mute desire, he asked hoarsely if he could undress her. He wanted her permission even though he knew he could get away without it. He needed her to say it, not wanting Kassia to regret even a second of the time they spent together.

Pleasure blazed through him at Kassia’s small nod, and his fingers shook with unnatural carelessness as he made short work of the zipper at the back of her dress. Pulling it over her head, Alessandro sucked his breath in when he saw that underneath the dress she had only her panties on, and nothing to cover her wonderfully abundant breasts.

Heat turned Kassia’s cheeks pink at the way the professor’s gaze devoured her breasts. She tried to cover herself up but of course, the professor forbade her to. He always did. Moving so swiftly it once again left her breathless, the professor threw her dress to the floor, chained her wrists over her head, and got rid of her panties.

In a blink of an eye, she was naked and imprisoned under him.
   

“You’re not fighting fair,” she protested breathlessly, but it was a mixture of excitement and fear.
 

The professor’s eyes only gleamed. “Now that you know what I am,” he murmured silkily, “I must warn you. I will never play fair with you in bed.”
 

Alessandro then bent down to lick the outer curve of Kassia’s ear, his lips curving when her body twisted up in response. “I’ll be unpredictable…” As Kassia shivered anew, he purred into her ear, “…and you’ll find yourself enjoying every unexpected second I spend fucking you.”

The combination of the professor’s blatantly dirty words, his exquisitely worldly accent, and the feel of his tongue laving her ear was too much, and Kassia cried out, her sex vibrating even more powerfully as a tiny spurt of wetness actually flowed past her folds.

“Professor,” Kassia whispered. “Please…”

Shuddering at the pleading sound of her voice, Alessandro suddenly found the tables turned, and Kassia was now the seducer, with the way she was rubbing her entire body against his hard frame like a kitty. The beautiful weight of her breasts mesmerized him, making Alessandro want to feed on them one at a time, while the slick, vibrating feel of her sex, with its soft folds eager to welcome his cock in, made it nearly impossible to think.

“Be still,” he grated down at her, but when she only continued to plead, whimper, and seduce him with the way her naked body danced against him, his control slipped several notches lower.

“Kassia, behave,” he growled even as he succumbed to her plea for more. In a blink, he was naked as she was, and Alessandro had to close his eyes when Kassia released a sexy little whimper at the feel of his hot, bare skin against hers.