Living in Shadow (Living In…) by Jackie Ashenden Read Free Book Online Page B

it.
    “I don’t know what you hope to achieve,” she said at last, which didn’t sound at all like the no she’d meant to say.
    Something in his eyes flickered, but it wasn’t satisfaction, or at least she didn’t think it was. “Perhaps all I want is a mutual understanding.”
    It was on the tip of her tongue to tell him there was no point, she already understood, yet she stopped herself.
    You’re making assumptions about me. Patronizing me…
    She’d read his file and had met so many young men like him—rich, arrogant and entitled—that, yes, she’d made those assumptions. And in all the years she’d been teaching, those assumptions had inevitably proved correct every time. Of course that was her own arrogance talking, and, really, if she wanted to be a proper lawyer about it, she should be giving him the opportunity to argue his case.
    You should be telling him no. That’s what you should be doing.
    One simple word and she would never have to deal with him again. So why hadn’t she said it? Why hadn’t she turned on her heel and left?
    Because you can still feel his hand around your ankle. And you like it.
    Eleanor gritted her teeth. “Okay, fine.”
    Sitting down in a pencil skirt was difficult but she managed, arranging herself fastidiously on the grass. “All right,” she said, smoothing her skirt, looking him directly in the eye. “So talk.”
    He sat there with his arms looped casually around his knees, long fingers interlaced, watching her. “I want to know why you’re lying. I want to know why you’re afraid.” He paused and that hint of steel entered his voice, the one that made her want to shiver. “And don’t bother denying it this time, Professor. We both know I can see right through you.”
    Goddamn him. That tone might work for her in the bedroom, but out of it, not so much. “Give me one reason why I should tell you anything?”
    “Because I’ve been honest about what I want.”
    “And you want me.” It felt curiously freeing to say it out loud.
    His gaze was full of sexual heat and something else she didn’t understand. “Yeah. I do.”
    A flame licked up inside her. She tried to ignore it. “And what do you expect me to do with that, Lucien? I mean, seriously. You think I’m going to risk my job for a bit of casual sex with a student?”
    He lifted one lean, powerful shoulder. “What makes you think it would be casual?”
    “Because a relationship is out of the question. Even if you weren’t a student and thirteen years younger than me, I’m not looking for involvement with anyone.”
    He studied her, the look on his face unreadable. “Why not?”
    “That’s none of your damn business.”
    “Fair enough.” Slowly Luc uncoiled, putting his arms behind him, leaning back on his hands, stretching out his long, muscular body. The denim of his jeans pulled tight around his thighs, the fabric of his T-shirt settling on the taut planes of his abdomen.
    She shouldn’t watch him, shouldn’t notice those things, and yet she did. They made her mouth go dry.
    “I’m not looking for a relationship either,” he went on, the faint lilt of his accent making his deep voice even sexier than it was already. Which was something else she shouldn’t be noticing. “But I don’t think the sex between us would ever be casual.”
    Eleanor ignored the heat building in her gut. “A moot point since it’s not going to happen,” she said impatiently. “Look, there are plenty of other women you can have noncasual casual sex with. You don’t need me. Or do you have a thing for older women?”
    “I have a thing for you.” His expression was intent, fierce. “Every Thursday I sit in that fucking lecture theatre listening to you talk. And at the end of every lecture I look down at my notes and realize I haven’t written a single damn word. Because I can’t take my eyes off you. Because you make me so goddamn hard.”
    She couldn’t move. Her mouth so dry she couldn’t