I left the bar in a daze, every cell in my body on fire and wanting more of her. I could smell her on me, and the taste of her lips lingered on mine even after I’d gone to the bar and knocked back a whiskey to steady myself. I’d scanned the bar, like a total pussy, looking for her. But she was gone.

Maybe that was for the best.

Yeah, right.

I walked back to my car with a cloud following me, pissed at myself for not just grabbing her, pulling her back and telling her she wasn’t walking away from that. Or hell, throwing her over my shoulder and taking her home like that. I shook my head as I started the engine, rolling my eyes at myself for pining over a random girl like some heartsick teenager.

I pulled out from the lot behind Rory’s, swinging back onto Lake Drive past the bar scenes. I drove slow, past the groups of smokers outside one bar, past some wasted looking couple making out against the wall of another, with the guy’s hand slipping up her skirt.

Part of me wanted to roll down the window and tell them to make good fucking choices before I rolled my eyes at myself. Jesus fuck, I was turning into an old man already. Not to mention a hypocrite considering what I’d just done with a girl I’d known for ten whole minutes back at Rory’s.

I was just about to pull a u-turn and head home to call it a night, when I saw it. This couple was different, even if they too were pressed against a wall. I slowed, my eyes narrowing as I saw the girl twisting in his arms. He held on, and my jaw tightened. They twisted again, and this time, when the neon light from the bar sign fell across her face, something froze inside of me.

Her. My mystery girl from the bar. Her mask was still on, but I’d have known those lips fucking anywhere. God, she was pretty even from that distance. I glared at her in the guy’s hands, and I told myself to just fucking leave it, when suddenly, one of his hand came back and slapped her right across her cheek, sending her reeling to her knees.

Oh, FUCK that.

My car screeched as I roared to a stop half up on the curb. I lunged from the driver's seat the second I killed the engine, and before I could even ask myself what the fuck the plan was, I was on the kid. I barreled into him like a fucking truck, grunting as I knocked him to the ground, wound back, and slung my fist across his jaw. He screamed like a little bitch, his mask falling off and his arms flailing at me as I saw red and punched him twice more in the face.

I blinked, pausing for one second, and suddenly, my gut dropped.

Aww hell.

He was covering his face with his hands, but fuck, I knew the kid. Matt-something. He was in my sophomore Principles of Economics lecture — some asshole who basically slept in the back row and who was probably going to squeak by with a D+ or some shit. Bottom line though, I’d just knocked the fuck out of a student.

I jump to my feet, and I was whirling away from him when I suddenly came face to face with her.

…And my heart just stopped. She wasn’t pretty, she was gorgeous. And young. And so innocent looking. And…

Oh shit.

And I knew her. Not from the bathroom ten minutes before, I fucking knew her. The realization hit me like a bat to the head, and I could feel my heart skip and drop through my gut.

Cora Hartley. She’d been in my freshman Survey of Finance class last year, and she was in my Ethics of Business lecture this year. Drop-dead beautiful, smart, ball-achingly innocent, and nineteen years old. I’d never once creeped on a student, but this girl? Shit, with her, I knew the rules were out the window. Cora Hartley pushed every single one of my buttons. And here I was face to face with her, our eyes locked, with both of us knowing one thing: ten minutes before, she’d been coming for me as I fucked her hard against a bar bathroom door.

“Oh God,” she whispered breathlessly, one hand touching her lips and those big blue eyes wide as she just stared at me. “Oh my God, you’re—”

“Are you okay?” I growled, stooping low to look her in the eye. Shit, she was so much smaller than me, and as I leaned into her, I got a whiff of that damn shampoo or pheromones again — whatever it was turning me to fucking putty right there.

…And I was hooked.

“What?” she breathed. Her eyes slowly went wide with recognition as she looked into mine under the brim of my hat. “Oh my God, you’re—”

“Are you alright?” I growled deeply, gently reaching up and pulling her hand away from her cheek. The fucker had left a red mark, that was for sure, but she didn’t look too bad.

Her soft tongue darted out, wetting her lips as she swallowed thickly and nodded, her big blue eyes still glued to me in shock.

“Yes,” she said softly, her voice so achingly sweet.

“Hey, asshole!” The douchebag was standing behind me. “Get your fucking hands off my girl—”

I whirled, wordless and seeing red as I slammed him back into the brick wall behind him and sunk my fist into his stomach. He groaned pitifully, doubling over around my fist as I leaned in close to his ear, making sure he couldn’t see my face.

“If I ever see you again,” my voice rasped out, full of venom and fire. “You’d be wise to run the other direction.”

“Fuck—”

I punched him in the gut again, shutting him the fuck up.

“And if I hear about you laying a hand on a woman again?” I ground my teeth. “Then you might want to leave the country, because I will bury you.”

He trembled, nodding his head quickly.

“Good. I’m glad we understand each other.”

I whirled away, pulling the mask that I’d let drop around my neck up, hiding my face. I moved right towards her, grabbing her hand and holding on tight as I started to pull her after me.

Bad idea. What the fuck are you doing? BAD idea!

But I wasn’t listening to the rational voice inside, I was listening to the blood roaring through my veins. I was listening to the way her hand in mine sent a jolt of something so real and so wrong right through me, making my heart swell in my chest and my cock throb between my thighs. Stopping an assault was one thing, but hitting a student was another thing entirely.

Oh, right, and fucking one in a bar bathroom, and making her come on my cock, and then filling her sweet young pussy with every single drop of my seed? Yeah, we can go ahead and file that one under bad idea. But when that student was my student, and fucking beautiful, and nineteen years old, and entirely responsible for the thick erection pulsing in my jeans as I pulled her towards my car?

Yeah, that was another thing entirely. That’s was what you’d call a nuclear level bad fucking idea.

But I didn’t care. I couldn’t care — not about the ethics, or the morals, or anything. Because once her hand was in mine, and once I felt those small fingers lace into mine and felt the thud of heat roar through me, nothing else mattered.

“Where are we going?” she gasped quietly as I opened the side door and helped her in. I leaned over her, buckling her seatbelt as she blinked, still in shock as she looked into my eyes.

“Home, Cora,” I growled quietly. “I’m taking you home.”