9
Clara
I go into the lab early the next day, smiling to myself the whole time.
I keep thinking about Jason and his office. His hands on my body, his lips against mine.
It felt so good. I know, that’s so simple, so stupid. Obviously, it felt good. But all those old clichés, all those Hollywood stereotypes, those TV tropes, all of it, they’re all true.
It’s like a drug. It’s intoxicating. I can’t think straight, I can’t act like my normal self.
I’m too busy thinking about Jason to even be a normal human being.
Mac noticed last night. “Hey, idiot,” she said to me, staring at me from across the room. “I’m talking to you.”
I was startled from thinking about Jason, yet again. “Sorry, what?”
She sighed. “Seriously, Clara, are you going deaf?”
“No, I was just…” I hesitated, frowned, looked at the floor. “Distracted.”
“Oh, god,” she groaned. “Are you thinking about him right now? Are you thinking about his dick?”
“No!” I said, a little too quickly.
She gagged, made a face. “You’re doing dick deaf. Seriously, you have too much dick on the brain.”
And then proceeded to mercilessly tease me the rest of the night until I escaped up into my room.
Even despite the teasing, I can’t stop thinking about him. Maybe Mac’s right, maybe I do have too much dick on the brain.
Maybe I really do need to stop thinking about my professor’s huge cock fucking me from behind.
Yeah, I absolutely do.
I hurry into the lab, steam rising from my coffee. I tug my jacket tighter around me as I walk down the carpeted hallway. There’s practically no sound this early in the morning.
I frown as I approach the door to our little lab. The lights are on already, even though I’m an hour early. I didn’t expect anyone to be here.
I almost turn and leave, but screw it. I don’t care if it’s Howard or Parker or the other idiots. They’re obnoxious, but I can deal with them.
At the end of the day, all I care about is Jason.
I push open the door and a huge smile breaks across my face.
I stop as the door shuts behind me. “Good morning,” I say.
He looks up at me. His smile brightens up the drab room.
“Good morning,” Jason says. “You’re early.”
“Thought I’d get some work done.”
He grins and leans back in his chair. I walk over to him, a little hesitant. I still don’t know where we stand, despite… well.
Despite the incredible sex we’ve had.
I mean, he’d still my boss and my teacher. He has all the power and control.
But he’s also my Daddy. So I don’t know how I’m supposed to act around him.
He stands and walks over to me. He wraps his arms around me, kisses me slow and deep.
I guess that answers that.
When we break apart, he smirks. “I was hoping you’d show up.”
“Really?”
“Really. Part of me was afraid that it would be…” He trails off, shrugs.
“Parker,” I finish for him. “Although I think you may have a crush on Howard.”
“He is the sexiest one of the group,” Jason muses.
“Gross.”
“I’m drawn to assholes with bad hair, what can I say.”
I grin and kiss him softly. “I can relate, although I’m drawn to assholes with good hair.”
He winks. “At least you respect the hair.”
I laugh as we break apart. Just then, the door pushes open again, and Howard himself steps into the room.
I freeze. I’m standing maybe a foot from Jason and I bet I’m blushing like mad. We’re not embracing anymore, thankfully, and if Howard had walked into the room only a minute earlier, he would’ve seen us kissing.
Instead, it’s only suggestive, instead of downright criminal.
“Uh, hi,” he says. “Sorry. I was just coming in early to work.”
“Good, get in here,” Jason says, instantly switching into professor mode. “Glad you’re here, Howard.”
“Thanks.” Howard tosses me a quizzical look, which I choose to ignore.
“Clara had the same thought. Why don’t you two tackle some modules together?”
I glare at Jason but he just smiles back placidly.
“I have my own stuff to do,” Howard says.
“Come on, you guys need to learn some teamwork. Get to it.” Jason walks over to his computer and sits down. “And play nice.”
I sigh. “Let’s get this over with,” I mutter at Howard. He hesitates for a second, looking annoyed, but he follows me over to my terminal, sits down next to me, and we both log in.
Working with Howard is like pulling teeth, except in this case, my dentist is an asshole college guy that thinks he knows absolutely everything. We can’t do anything my way, and if I try to explain to him how he might be doing something inefficiently, he just scoffs at me and keeps going anyway.
It’s annoying, but there’s not much use in fighting. I know it’ll just waste more time, and besides, I don’t care about this anyway.
I keep stealing glances at Jason. He’s studiously ignoring me and Howard, which is probably good, but still. I can’t help but wonder what he’s thinking.
That was close… really close.
Toward the end of the hour, just a few minutes before the others are going to show up, Jason leaves the room. When he’s gone, Howard leans back in his chair and crosses his arms.
“What did I walk in on earlier?” he asks me right away, not even bothering to ease his way into it.
I go still. I avoid his gaze for a moment, gathering myself.
Finally, I look at him.
“Go fuck yourself, Howard.”
He looks surprised but quickly gets pissed. “No reason to be a bitch. I’m just asking.”
“You didn’t walk in on anything. You’re such a sexist asshole.”
I figured a good defense is a better offense, so I might as well try and turn it around on him. Even though he’s not wrong.
I know it’s a dick move. I shouldn’t gaslight the poor guy, but I also can’t risk letting him find out the truth.
Besides, it’s not like I’m lying. Howard really is a sexist asshole. In this instance, his sexism just happens to be somewhat accurate.
Whatever. I refuse to feel bad about being mean to Howard. He freaking deserves it for all the grief he’s given me so far.
And for no reason at all.
“Didn’t look like nothing,” he pushes. “You looked awkward. And Professor Turner was standing pretty close to you, giving you this look.”
I narrow my eyes. “What kind of look?”
His smirk drives me insane. “The kind of you look you give someone before you try to have sex with them.”
It takes all my energy to stop myself from slapping him in the face.
“You’re disgusting, Howard,” I say softly. “You should keep your mouth shut.”
He sneers, standing up. “Whatever. Now I know how you got into this whole thing to begin with. Probably slept with him already.”
I stand up, hand balled into a fist. Screw slapping, I’m going to punch this nerd in the nose.
The door pushes open again before I can swing. Parker, Alan, and Coop all head inside, chattering with each other.
“Dude, no way. Storm is the hottest of the X-Men, by far,” Coop is saying.
“Mystique, bro,” Alan says.
“I think you’re both—” Parker doesn’t finish. The three of them stop and stare at me facing down with Howard. “Uh, hey, guys. What’s up?”
Howard sneers at me again but turns to the guys. “Not much. Just had to do some teamwork with Clara.” He rolls his eyes.
My anger slowly deflates as Howard joins his group of idiot friends. They throw me some weird looks before talking more about hot X-Men characters, or whatever. Howard thinks Jean Grey is the best, which is so stupid and typical.
Everyone knows Rogue is the hot one.
Jason comes back into the room a minute later and we get to work. I’m in a foul mood for the rest of the session, and when it’s over, I don’t bother to linger behind with Jason.
It’s like my relationship with Jason has suddenly been tainted by Howard, like there’s a stink wafting over it.
I know that feeling will fade. Right now though, I feel gross and angry.
Worst of all, I hate myself for letting a weasel like Howard get under my skin. That’s what he wants, he wants to rattle me.
I’m not totally sure why, though. It can’t be just because he hates women. I mean, there’s definitely some of that, for sure. But it can’t be the only reason he’s doing any of this.
It has to be personal. There has to be something about me in particular that he can’t stand. I don’t know what it is, and honestly, I’m not sure I care.
I hate that I’m wasting any time on that asshole.
Either way, I have to be careful now. He’s aware that something’s going on between me and Jason, so he’ll be on high alert now. I don’t think he bought my denials even a little bit.
Better keep my head on a swivel, or else Howard’s going to ruin the best thing in my life right now.