Chapter Seven
Elliott
Monday came like any other. Though Mondays with Sam in my bed were much sweeter than before. Especially when she was warm and soft underneath me.
“You got some sun.” I licked down her chest, tracing the new freckles that had appeared. Those spots drove me wild. I knew every one, could practically count them in the dark. Every time she got more than the smallest dose of sun, they multiplied, giving me new targets for my kisses.
“Hmmm, all that time on the water with my parents.” She ran her fingers through my hair. She sounded sleepy, more so than usual. Probably because of how I’d kept her up late the night before. I couldn’t help myself. She’d made me dinner, singing and dancing around my little kitchen like some goddamned TV show housewife from the fifties. As progressive as I was, that shit was hot. My woman, taking care of me, enjoying the labor of making a meal for us? Total turn-on.
I’d fucked her over the kitchen counter after I’d finished the dishes, then teased her with my fingers while she soaked in my tub, and I’d closed the night by licking her pussy until she came multiple times on my face. A quick fuck from behind for me—though I’d made damn sure she came on my cock as well—and I’d finally let her fall asleep.
Apparently, all that had taken a toll.
“I’ll make the coffee today,” I said, rubbing her bare ass and kissing her nipple once. “Take an extra few minutes.”
Sam said something that sounded like an argument but fell back asleep before she could voice it clearly. Definitely too tired for the day, something else that gave the caveman in me a little ego thump. I’d worn her out. I’d be swaggering for days over that one, at least internally.
Wanting to let her rest, I reached over and turned off her alarm before heading to the living area. The sun was coming up, the sky lit up and the water bright. Summer was close. It would be a good day.
Once I had the coffee and toast made just the way Sam liked them, I headed back into the bedroom. I whistled as I walked, figuring food and caffeine first, then I could throw Sam’s ass in the shower with me. I could tease her awake in there, maybe have a few minutes to play with her pussy and make her come before she had to go to work.
But Sam wasn’t in the bed when I walked in, though I could hear the shower running.
“Sam?” I knocked once on the door, which she’d left ajar.
“Hey.” She peeked out from behind the shower doors. “I figured I could shower while you made the coffee. Multitasking, and all that. I’ll be out in a sec.”
Teasing shower sex...denied. The good thing about basically moving Sam into my apartment right from the start was that I could always try tomorrow morning. Or the next. Or the one after that. We had a lifetime of mornings to have teasing shower sex. She was my...my girlfriend? That sounded too juvenile. If I called her my woman, she might hit me, which could lead to some awesome angry sex. I’d save that for a night when we had more time. If I saw that fiery spark of irritation in her eyes she sometimes got, I’d have her bent over the couch and we’d both be late to work.
Back to the naming thing. Not girlfriend. Not woman. Someday, I’d call her my wife, but for now...
She was simply my Sam.
After her shower, coffee, and a few jam-flavored kisses that did nothing to ease my near-constant erection, Sam was out the door. I followed suit, showering quickly—well, quickly once I jacked off to the memories of what we’d done—before grabbing my laptop bag and heading out the door. I had a morning of meetings with the financial team, so there was no way I could skip a second cup of coffee from Bundt and Grind. Damn the risks.
Sam grinned when I walked in, catching my eye around the young man with the wild hair ordering an espresso.
“Good morning, Dean,” she said once it was my turn at the counter. Fuck, that was hot. I loved it when she called me dean in the bedroom. Or the living room. Pretty sure she’d called me that more than once when I’d had her pinned to the kitchen counter last night.
“Morning, Sam. Looks like you got some sun.” I grinned as the espresso drinker walked out. We were alone, at least for a few minutes.
She raised her hand to her chest and pulled the neckline of her top down enough for me to get a good look at those freckles. At her breasts all encased in white lace, too. “Sailing again. The sun seems to love my skin.”
So did I, and she knew it. She moved to the side to make my coffee, and I followed. Edging farther along than usual. Needing something this morning. Needing her.
“You know,” I said, glancing into the storeroom at the end of the cooler. “I’ve never seen your storage room.”
Sam looked confused, glancing to the dark, closet-like room and back. “Why would you want to?”
I shrugged, heading toward the door in question. “I don’t know. It seems quiet, perhaps a little out of the way. Customers don’t go in there.”
Sam must have picked up on my intentions. “No, they certainly don’t. I’d show you, but I’m not supposed to leave the front unattended. Because of customers.”
“I’m the only one in here with you.”
Sam smirked. “True, but it’s still against the rules.”
“I do like to break the rules now and again.”
“Don’t I know it.”
When she came out from behind the counter, I pulled her inside the little room. I didn’t even close the door, just moved us far enough into the shadows to not be seen by a casual observer. I couldn’t control my hands, couldn’t stop them from running up and down her body, under her clothes, and over her luscious ass. Her resulting giggles whenever I passed along her sides only turned me on more. Fuck, this woman was everything.
“Needed a little taste,” I mumbled against her lips before licking down her neck. I yanked on the neckline of her shirt, exposing more of her new freckles. “I didn’t get enough of you this morning.”
“I know.” Her hands were in my hair, tugging. Directing me. I peeled down the cup of her bra and sucked her nipple between my lips. Just a bit, a tease. I’d fuck her against the racks of coffee in a heartbeat, but there was no way the shop would stay empty for long.
“God, Elliott.” Sam hissed as I bit down, and I responded by grabbing her ass and hauling her against me. Fine, maybe we did have time. I just needed a few minutes to get her off. If I slid my hands inside her pants and—
The chime over the door sounded, and Sam sighed. “Shit.”
Yeah. Shit. “You need to get to work.”
She nodded against my chest. “So do you.”
I gave her one last kiss before adjusting myself to be more presentable. Couldn’t walk around sporting a hard-on all day, though I probably would. My Sam left me hungry for her every minute of the day.
Clothes straightened, hair combed back into place, Sam took a deep breath and headed out into the shop. “I’ll be right with you.” She looked back over her shoulder as I appeared from the storeroom. “Thank you so much for helping me with those boxes, Dean Goodridge. I don’t know what I would’ve done if you hadn’t walked in when you did.”
I nodded once and grabbed my coffee. “No problem, Sam. Please tell your parents I said hello.”
And with that, I was done. Separated from my Sam for the next ten hours or so as I tried to put back together the college’s student activities while she worked and studied and prepped for finals. Just a couple more weeks and school would be over. Just a little longer of keeping our love secret, and we could stop hiding.
I couldn’t wait.
* * *
Five hours of meetings, and my brain was mush.
“Dean Goodridge.” Bonnie leaned into my office, looking oddly tentative. “Dean Mackelroy’s office called. She needs you to go up there immediately.”
I set my pen down and removed my glasses. Being called to the dean of faculty’s office wasn’t unusual, but something about Bonnie’s expression unsettled me.
“Any idea why she needs me?”
“I’m not sure, though her admin told me a parent has been in her office with her all morning.”
That could really mean anything. “Okay. I’m heading up now.”
“I’ll let them know, sir.”
I took the stairs up to the fourth floor, not wanting to wait for the antiquated elevator. A parent in the dean’s office all day—sounded like there was a problem with the staff. The only reason I would be pulled in was if it was someone who fell under my department or there was a discrimination issue. I hoped like hell it wasn’t something major—I didn’t want to lose an instructor now that we had a strategic plan on how we were going to build our extracurriculars and attract new students. I’d spent the last two and a half months planning off of the staff count I’d been told to expect. A firing would result in more work.
“Go right in. She’s waiting for you.” Dean Mackelroy’s assistant nodded toward her door. I followed her instructions, opening the door with a single soft knock.
“Dean Mackelroy,” I said when I walked in. “You wanted to see me.”
“Yes, Dean Goodridge.” Dolores Mackelroy stood, looking over at the people on the couch across her office. The people I knew. One of whom I knew far too well, whose relationship with me could have just lost me my job. I couldn’t show fear, though. Couldn’t show doubt. It was time to put on my professional armor.
Dolores simply waved me toward the seating area where everything good and bad in my world was crashing together, clueless as to the storm inside me. “A parent came to see me this morning regarding what is potentially inappropriate conduct between a faculty member and a student. I’m hoping we could smooth this out with conversation. I believe you know Trustee Charles Monroe and his daughter, Samantha?”
Charles glared, his arm protectively thrown around Sam, who looked just as mad, just as fierce, though that ire wasn’t directed at me. It was directed at her father.
This would not end well.