Learning the Hard Way Read online

  No doubt this was a retribution for Troy’s actions. Since when was good sex punishable?

  Ava sat a stack of papers in front of Troy, glaring at him for good measure. Thank goodness he had actually read the chapters. Whether or not he remembered the information since the only thing on his mind was Ava and her incredible body would be a different story.

  Even after the test, Ava kept riding Troy throughout the class, asking him questions and concentrating her focus on him.

  “I don’t know what you did, but you had better straighten up and fly right,” Maggie whispered to Troy after the class.

  No, he hadn’t done anything wrong. He would get to the bottom of her new attitude and why she left him yesterday morning.

  At the end of class, Ava didn’t make herself available to students. She jetted out of the room, but Troy wouldn’t let her go that easily. He packed his backpack and raced behind her. Instead of taking the elevator, he scaled the stairs to the sixth floor.

  He arrived on the floor just as Ava walked into her office. When she turned to close the door, he stood in the doorway, blocking her.

  “We need to talk.”

  “I’m very busy, Mr. Whitten. I don’t have time to—”

  He pushed his way into her office and closed the door behind him. “Why did you leave?”

  Ava sought sanctuary behind her desk. “Lower your voice. These walls are thin. I told you earlier that morning that I couldn’t stay. Besides, your job was over.”

  “I am not an escort. I did it to help out a friend.”

  From the look on her face, he knew she didn’t believe him. The look matched the one Meredith gave him whenever she’d questioned him about his female clients. The thought that Ava could be that judgmental hit him like a punch in his gut.

  “I’m telling you the truth.”

  “And I’m being truthful when I say that I don’t want to continue any relationship beyond what we did at your home.” She crossed her arms over her chest.

  “So you ran like a little girl.” He dropped his backpack onto the floor.

  The statement triggered an unexpected response from Ava. She brought her fists to her hips, ran from behind her desk, and squared off in front of him. “I’m not a coward. I had things to do that day and I didn’t want to sit around waiting for you. You don’t know me.”

  He moved in closer. “I know that you’re scared. So am I. I also know that you’ve been hurt before. So have I.” He put his hand to the side of her face. His thumb stroked her cheek. “I know that I can’t stop thinking about you. I hope to God you feel the same way.”

  Ava stared at him. He could have sworn he saw a tear cresting on her bottom lid. He cradled her face.

  “I can’t do this. Not again.” She shook her head. “And not with you.”

  “Richard. He was a student?”

  She nodded. “He dropped my class in order to go out with me because he knew I wouldn’t date a student. Then he humiliated me.”

  “I won’t do that to you. I’m staying with the class no matter how hard you ride me.”

  As though his words triggered it, she held his waist. “Can I?”

  “You can do anything.” Troy smiled.

  “Fine. May I?”

  He shook his head. “Unless you have condoms in your purse, I don’t have any on me.”

  “Oh.” She peered down.

  When Troy did the same, he saw her nipples jutting forward in her body-hugging top. No way could he leave her unsatisfied. “Is there a lock on your door?”

  She nodded. Troy turned and flipped the locking mechanism for her office door. In a slow and easy motion, he pulled up the hem of her skirt then lowered her panties to the floor. When her skirt was pulled up to her waist, he instructed her to sit on her desk.

  Like he had done it a million times before, he parted her thighs and slipped in between them. His fingertips danced along her smooth inner thigh as his mouth sought hers. He kissed her in a soft and gentle fashion as his middle finger circled her clit. As soon as he slipped his finger inside of her hot pussy, she grabbed his shoulders.

  It didn’t take her long to start grinding her hips to fuck his singular digit.

  In her ear, Troy growled, “I want to be inside you so much right now. You’re so sexy.”

  The more he spoke, the more Ava moved until she had to hold onto him to keep from falling off of the desk. His heart pounded so hard he thought people in the hallway would be able to hear it.

  Probably to ensure that no one heard her, she kissed him hard and moaned into his mouth. After only a few times being with her, he recognized the signs of her impending climax. Her body trembled. Ava drew in her lower lip and chewed it. Her breathing labored.

  The hell if Troy’s finger would get all of the satisfaction. He dropped to his knees and covered her clit with his mouth while he let his finger retain its piston motion inside of her.

  “Oh, God!” Ava closed her legs around Troy’s head.

  If he was going to die by suffocation, this was a good way to go.

  A knock sounded on her door just as her body settled down. “Are you all right in there, Dr. Kushnell?” the female voice on the other side asked.

  After a couple of deep breaths, Ava managed to respond. “Yes, I’m fine. I’m meeting with a student right now.”

  “Oh, okay. Sorry.”

  Troy gazed up at her.

  “You’re really bad, you know that?” Ava smiled.

  “I guess you mean bad in a good way.” Troy stood.

  “The very best way.” She slid down from her desk and had to grab his shoulders to steady herself. “As much fun as this is, I don’t know if we should keep doing this.”

  “But you still want to, right?” He reached down and picked up her panties. When she didn’t answer, he filled in the blanks for her. “Let’s make this arrangement. I’m not going to drop your class. I came to school for a reason and I intend to reach my goal. To make sure I stay on the straight and narrow, why don’t you reward me?” He picked up his backpack. “If I pass a test or an assignment, you come see me. I’ll teach you more about my lifestyle. If I fail, we won’t see each other. Sound like a plan?”

  “No.”

  Troy stopped moving at her single-word response.

  Then she continued. “If you pass assignments and tests, you’ll get special calls or e-mails. If you pass the entire course, I’ll consider seeing you again.”

  “Always on your terms, huh?” He shrugged. “Fine. I get to dominate you during calls.”

  “What does that mean? You can’t do what you did to me over the phone.” That didn’t stop Ava from being curious about it.

  “You would be surprised at what I can do.”

  Ava watched Troy clean off his juice-covered finger with her white panties, then he shoved the panties into his jeans pocket.

  Ava laughed. “By the end of the semester, I won’t have any underwear left.”

  Troy kissed the tip of her nose. “You say that like it’s a bad thing.”

  She pulled her skirt down and straightened out her blouse.

  As he held the doorknob, he glanced back at her. “If that’s the only way I get to have some contact with you, so be it. The end of the semester is in four more weeks. I guess I’ll be studying my ass off until then.”

  He opened her door and strolled out.

  This new plan would give him enough incentive to do well, at least in Ava’s class. Perhaps if she saw his effort, she would see he was nothing like her last idiot boyfriend. He could only hope.

  Chapter Ten

  “So?” Gross asked over the phone. “You pissed, man?”

  Troy sighed. Even though Gross took more time than he originally promised, an extra two weeks to be exact, how could Troy be mad at his friend? If it wasn’t for Gross’s strange favor in the first place, Troy would have never gotten close to Ava.

  “No, I’m not pissed.” Troy glanced at his watch. It was almost time for his specia
l call from Ava. “I will be if you don’t get off the phone, though.”

  “Why?”

  “I’m waiting for a call.”

  “From who?”

  Frustration started to build in Troy. He balled his hand into a fist. “What the hell are you, two years old? What’s with all of the questions?”

  Gross didn’t let up. “You met someone, didn’t you?”

  Troy rubbed the back of his head. “Maybe.”

  Faster than Troy had given Gross credit for, his friend put two and two together. “Oh. Did you hook up with your client?”

  Troy’s silence screamed his answer.

  “I knew it. I knew it. And you busted my balls for doing the same thing.”

  “I’m going to bust your head if you don’t get off my damn phone.” A beeping sound signaled an incoming call. “I got to go. Talk to you later.” Before Gross could get out another question, Troy clicked over to the other call. “Hi.”

  “Good evening, Mr. Whitten.” Ava’s voice oozed through the phone like honey.

  “You know it drives me crazy when you call me that.”

  She chuckled without her usual snort, which he missed.

  “So if you’re calling me this week, that must mean—”

  “You passed the mid-semester exam. Actually you had the highest score in the class.”

  He pumped his fist in the air. “Cool. Don’t tell Maggie about the score thing. It’ll crush the poor girl.”

  This time when Ava laughed she released her trademark snort. Hearing that produced a laugh from Troy.

  “I got a good grade. You’re calling me.” He braced his free hand on his thigh. “That must mean that you’re naked, right?”

  Silence.

  He sighed loud enough that she couldn’t mistake his disappointment. “Ava?”

  “I just got home from work.” She did have a harried tone to her voice.

  “Hang up and call me back by video chat. I want to see you.” He didn’t give her a chance to argue or think.

  Troy disconnected the call and set up his tablet to await her video conference. After a couple of minutes, right before he had planned to call her back to find out what held her up, his tablet chirped. He engaged the call and found her sitting in her bedroom on her bed…naked.

  As much as he could, Troy attempted to corral his heavy breathing. He nodded. “Good.” When he noticed she wrinkled her nose as she looked at him, he made one crucial request. “Put your glasses on.”

  Ava shook her head. “That’s not sexy, and I want to be sexy for you.”

  “You will be if you put your glasses on and can see me clearly.” Watching her pick up her spectacles and put them back on had his cock throbbing. “Better?”

  She shook her head. “I look like a nerd. No one does the brainiac. They want the woman who can be naked on a video call.” Ava smiled.

  “I want both.” He moved in closer to the tablet. “I was wondering what took you so long to call me back.”

  “First, it was because I was contemplating if I wanted to do this.” A smile slithered across her angelic face. “Then I realized that a deal is a deal. You’re doing great in my class. I promised to learn from you.” She positioned her body on her stomach, hiding her rounded tits and her tantalizing pussy. “So what will you teach me this time?”

  “Have you opened that package that got delivered to your office earlier this week?” He watched her smile.

  Ava shook her head. “There was a big note on the outside of it that said not to open unless instructed to do so.”

  “Get it.” He lowered his voice to make himself sound serious. Inside, though, he did back flips. He couldn’t wait to do this play session.

  Ava sat up and turned over, showing off her perfect ass as she reached on the other side of her bed for the package. Troy recognized it immediately—a large, yellow envelope with the words, “Do not open until told” on the outside in black marker.

  She placed the envelope on the bed in front of the camera and positioned her body on her side behind it. “May I open it now?” She caressed the envelope, dragging her fingertips over it until the stiff paper snapped and crinkled under her touch.

  “May you open it now, what?” He rested his hands on his knees.

  Ava smiled. “May I open your special package, Mr. Whitten?” Then she giggled with her trademark snort.

  “Yes, you may.” Troy wanted her to rip the package open faster.

  She took her time, carefully parting the envelope flap from its adhesive. When he started to blurt out to open the damn thing already, she popped it open and looked inside.

  “I believe you complained at one time that you may run out of panties. I’m paying you back.” He gave her a devilish smile as she reached inside and removed a pair of black lace panties with a crucial enhancement.

  “What is this?” she asked as she sat up.

  “They’re vibrating panties.” He grabbed his phone. “There’s a vibrating egg.”

  She glanced up at him.

  Before she could even question him, he said, “It goes inside you.”

  Ava covered her mouth as she looked at the garment. “Are you serious?”

  Troy sat up taller. “Stand up. I want to watch you put them on.”

  She jumped off the bed and out of view.

  “Turn the camera around. I want to see you.” He even tried craning his neck as though it would help.

  “Sorry.” She turned her phone around so that he could see her standing now, fully naked and holding his gift.

  After figuring out how to put the thin undergarment on, she stepped into them then stopped when she got them below her pussy. She held the pink orb that dangled from the panty in between her fingers before she slipped it inside her vagina.

  Until she did that, Troy had been holding his breath. He exhaled and relaxed his shoulders. “Nice. How does it feel?”

  She secured the panties around her hips and then turned back and forth. “Odd. I’ve never done anything like this before.”

  “Great. A vibrating-panty virgin.” He snickered.

  Ava laughed. “Funny. Should I get back in bed now?”

  Troy picked up his phone. “Yes, especially after I do this.” He opened an app and engaged it to start the vibration.

  He should have waited until she made it to bed. As soon as he activated it, Ava brought her knees together and fell to the floor.

  “Oh, God.” She used one hand to press against her pussy. She gripped her cream-colored comforter with her other hand.

  “I’ll turn it off so that you can get into bed.” Troy deactivated it.

  “That is so good and so weird at the same time.” She crawled into bed and repositioned the phone. “I can’t believe you had these delivered to my office.”

  “What else could I do? I don’t know where you live.” He waited for her to say something, anything, blurt her address or even offer to meet him.

  Instead, she positioned herself on her stomach again and stared at him through the camera. “Teach me.”

  His heartbeat slowed when she didn’t pick up the bait. He held up his phone so that she could see it. “What is the BDSM credo?”

  That made her smile. “Safe, sane, and consensual.” She finished her answer by swaying her hips back and forth.

  “Very good.” He activated the app again.

  Ava moaned and closed her eyes.

  “No. Open your eyes. Look at me.”

  After a beat, she opened her eyes and looked at Troy. She chewed on her lower lip and moved her hand down to her vagina.

  Troy shook his head. “Don’t do it. Don’t touch yourself.”

  Ava drew her eyebrows together. “I’m a grown woman. I can do what I want.”

  That response made him blink. “Oh, really?” He quickly turned off the app. “Let’s just stop this all together then if you want to play it that way.”

  She held up her hand. “No, no, no. Wait.” She rubbed her face against a pill
ow. “I need this.” She lowered her voice. “I need you.”

  If only Troy could have heard those words in person. If only she meant it for more than just getting her off. So that he didn’t get lost in his own thoughts, he continued with the lesson.

  “Please tell me what you would do to me if I were with you right now?” She curled her legs up and lay on her side. “Please.”

  He shouldn’t have indulged her, especially since he didn’t know how this relationship would end once he finished her class. Looking at her, seeing how sexy she looked, he couldn’t deny her. Denying her would be cutting off his chance to express his inner desires.

  “I have this thing in my house called a St. Andrew’s cross.” Troy thought about the heavy piece of equipment that got Meredith to call him a freak.

  “You do? I don’t remember seeing it when I was there.” Ava’s voice vibrated as she spoke.

  He hadn’t turned off the vibrator. He wouldn’t during this story. “Had you stayed and not run home, I would have shown you.”

  She dropped her gaze.

  Troy continued with the fantasy. “It looks like a large X.”

  Ava returned her attention to him.

  “There are cuffs at the peaks of the X.” He paused for a moment before he revealed his intent. “I would strap you on it facing me.”

  She cupped her breast in one hand.

  This time he didn’t have the heart to tell her to stop. “I would first take a flogger, one of my softer ones, and I would whip you between your legs.”

  At the mention of her sex, she closed her eyes and moaned as though she knew the feeling would relieve her. It amazed Troy how fast she’d gotten used to the quirks of his lifestyle and things he wanted to do to her in it.

  “Like now, I won’t allow you to come.”

  She opened her eyes. “I’ll want to because of that?”

  He nodded. “It’ll feel like a hard pat against your clit. Do it for me now. Show me.”

  Her face transformed into a dark crimson color. “I can’t do that.”

  “Yes, you can. You can do anything. You are so damn sexy.” He meant every word.

  After a beat, Ava rolled onto her back. He thought about telling her to face her pussy in his direction so that he could see her, but he allowed her to stay on her back. With one hand still on her tit, she eased the other hand down between her legs. She gave herself one modest pat and started to roll back onto her side.