Schooled Page 2

  I force myself to take a few notes, even though there’s no real point. I won’t have to do any more homework for English Lit after today.

  I feel a rush of nerves after class as I head for Professor Lowe’s office.

  Am I really going to do this?

  I am. I have to. I can’t afford for my GPA to drop, and I can’t concentrate on school right now. I wish I could just drop all this for a semester, but I can’t.

  I summon up my father’s drink-slurred response whenever I try to tell him I’m worried about something.

  “Self-doubt is for commoners. We’re Caldwells.”

  All right then.

  Chapter Three

  Professor Lowe

  I’m sitting at my desk waiting for Josie. Naughty little Josie. My heart thrums in my chest with anticipation, and my mind drifts back to the first time I laid eyes on her. The memory is scorched into my heart and mind. It was over the summer, during new student orientation.

  I was sitting on a bench idly skimming the reviews of my newly published book, most of which were excellent, brimming with praise.

  Josie was standing on the quad in front of the humanities building, with a thin, older woman who was wearing a sweater that seemed too heavy for a warm summer day. The woman looked to be in her sixties, and she was wearing a red turban; her grandmother, I figured. Josie’s lush hair was a waterfall of ebony silk, and her artfully shredded jean shorts revealed tan, lithe legs. The older woman said something to Josie. When she threw her head back and laughed, it was the most beautiful sound I’d ever heard, sweet and musical.

  Something melted inside me at the sound. Something tight and tense unclenched, and the air smelled a little sweeter, the sun felt a little warmer. I’d never experienced a feeling like that before—but I’d been waiting all my life for it, first with anticipation, and then with a growing, gnawing sense of worry that it would never come.

  And here it was, fifty feet away from me. Everything about her was right; her looks, her tinkling laugh, her smile, and the way she held her body. I can read body language as easily as I can parse iambic pentameter, and I could tell she was a natural submissive who just didn’t know it yet. Visions of my hand slapping her firm young ass until it stung rushed before me.

  But she was a student, and worse, a freshman, which meant that she was ten years younger than me. I felt an instant physical attraction, but I would do nothing to pursue it, I told myself firmly.

  And if I could feel like this for her, then it meant that I was capable of feeling that way for someone else, right?

  That’s not how it works, a little voice whispered in my head. Once in a lifetime—that’s all you get. A lot of people don’t even get that.

  “Penny for your thoughts!” a cheerful voice chirped, jerking me roughly from my reverie. I glanced up in annoyance as Faith Bellingham plopped down on the bench next to me, much too close. A new hire history teacher who’d been looking at me with big moon eyes from the first day she’d laid eyes on me. I’d worked at the college for three years, and she’d sidled up to me and begged me to give her a tour on the first day she met me, but I knew what she was really asking for. I’m well aware of the effect I have on women, and Faith was pretty enough, but she did nothing for me.

  “I was just thinking that I have to get back to my office,” I said, standing up. Her face fell. I was being a dick, and I was completely okay with that.

  When I walked away, I could almost feel the physical pull from Josie, like a gravitational force. I glanced back briefly – and she was staring right at me, her lips slightly parted. When she caught my gaze, she blushed and looked away quickly.

  But I kept my resolve not to find out any more information about Josie—I didn’t even know her name at the time—even though I couldn’t stop thinking about her all summer long. Or the whole first semester. I’d see her walking around campus, talking to guys, and a thick rage would twist through me, but I tamped it down.

  I saw the way she looked at me when she thought I wasn’t paying attention. The way her gaze wandered over my body, the hidden hunger in her beautiful amber eyes. And I still stayed cold and aloof, not even returning her warm smiles.

  And then she signed up for my spring English Lit class, and my resolve broke. She was much too good for the dumb jocks who buzzed around her like bees sniffing a sweet, sweet flower. She needed a man to teach her the ways of the world.

  And I will be that man.

  My door bangs open and she strides in, smiling. Wearing a tight T-shirt and a short denim skirt, showing off those firm legs that I can’t wait to spread wide open.

  So young. So forbidden. So mine.

  “Lock the door,” I say coolly. “I don’t want to be disturbed.”

  Her eyes sparkle with defiance. “I don’t think so. This won’t take long.”

  And she settles into the chair facing my desk.

  She starts to speak, but I interrupt her.

  “Josie Caldwell. You’re bright and talented and beautiful. You’re also spoiled, lazy, and in severe need of some discipline.”

  She smirks when I say that. She won’t be making that face for long. I’ll wipe the smirk from her beautiful pink lips and give her the firm guidance she needs. Then I’ll kiss the crystalline tears off those smooth, pretty cheeks.

  “You’ve been late to every single class since we started. You failed to hand in two homework assignments. You were rude to me today in front of the entire class, which undermines my authority. I’m sure you were raised better than that.”

  That actually makes her laugh. “You don’t know a thing about how I was raised, Professor Lowe.”

  As she speaks, she’s digging into her purse. She pulls out her laptop and turns it to face me. She looks a little apologetic.

  “There’s something you need to see.” And she presses a button, and shows me a video recording of myself, whipping Slave Kira up on the stage. I feel a surge of anger. I suspected that she was in the club on some sort of spy mission, but I wasn’t aware that she was recording me.

  I arch my eyebrows. “That’s a violation of club rules. But I did enjoy spanking your naughty little ass. And that schoolgirl costume was adorable on you.”

  Her eyes widen. “You recognized me?”

  “Of course.”

  Surprise laces her voice. “And you spanked me anyway?”

  “Did you forget so soon? I must have been too easy on you.”

  “So you’re not going to try to deny that you’re Master Simon?” She smiles triumphantly.

  I just lean back in my seat and tent my fingers. Poor little girl. She’s in so far over her head. And I’m delighted.

  “And before you state the obvious,” she says in a rush, “that it’s not illegal for you to work at a BDSM club, I know that. And I know plenty of professors have side jobs. But not that kind of side job. Think of how the parents at Briarthorne would react if they knew what kind of man was teaching their precious little children.”

  I smile politely at her. “Very true.” Briarthorne is a college for spoiled little brat rich kids who didn’t make it into any of the Ivies.

  She looks at me suspiciously. She was expecting more of a fight. “So here’s what’s going to happen. You’re going to give me a B-plus for this class. And you’re going to write my papers for me and submit them for me. In case you want to try to complain about me to the dean’s office, just think about who my parents are. The Caldwell Science Center? Yeah, they funded that.”

  I leap to my feet and stalk around the desk. She’s staring at me in shock. I grab her arm and pull her to her feet.

  “What are you doing?” she gasps, eyes wide with fright. “I’ll scream.”

  Then I clamp my hand over her mouth. “Now will you scream?”

  She tries to yank her arm away from me, and I tighten my grip until she squeaks in pain. I’m so hard I could explode.

  I lean in as she frantically jerks at my arm. “Listen up, little Josie, here’s wh
at’s going to happen. I am going to contact the administrators of your trust fund.” She goes rigid. “Oh, yes, I know all about it. I am intimately familiar with the terms of your trust, down to the tiniest detail.” Then I remove my hand from her mouth and spin her around to face me.

  Her eyes are huge with shock. “No you’re not.”

  “For instance, if you ever do drugs, you’re instantly cut off. Your granddaddy hated drugs.”

  She glares at me. “How would you know that?”

  I know that because one of the trustees is a member of Club Surrender, and Josie isn’t the only one who would stoop to blackmail. It’s utterly wrong of me to do that, but I don’t care. When it comes to getting what I want, I’m ruthless. And if Mr. Bartholomew doesn’t want his wife to know about how much he likes to crawl across the floor for his club daddy Master Wolfsbane, he will cooperate with me completely. He handed over those trust documents without a single word of protest.

  “I don’t do drugs. If you tested me right now, I’d come up clean.” She tosses her head defiantly.

  “But you did overdose on ecstasy three weeks ago, and you ended up in the hospital. Your friends Melody and Savannah drove you there.” I don’t like Savannah, and I’m on the fence about Melody, but that’s a problem for another day.

  Her eyes brim with tears. “Professor Lowe, I never do drugs, that’s why I reacted so badly. It was my eighteenth birthday. My parents didn’t even call. They didn’t send a single present. My nanny Louise, she used to buy me presents…” Her shoulders heave. “She used to use her own money and tell me they were from my parents. I always knew she was lying. You…you want to know how I—” she sobs harder, then manages to collect herself— “how I knew?”

  I just cock an eyebrow and wait for her to finish.

  “Because the presents were perfect for me. My parents never knew what my favorite color was, or what I liked, or what I wanted for my birthday. But Louise…” gulp… “she knew. But this time, she was in the hospital, and she couldn’t…she couldn’t… I was just so lonely…”

  I do a polite slow clap. “Bravo, Josie. That was a masterful performance. Could you do it once more, with a little more feeling?”

  She gasps in shock and staggers back. Her tears vanish instantly. “You bastard!” she snaps at me.

  “Josie. You’re wasting my time with this crap. I’m not your theater teacher watching you audition. If you don’t knock it off, I’ll call up your trustee immediately.”

  “Fine!” she yells, and swipes angrily at her cheeks. She glares at me with magnificent defiance. She’s not used to being told no.

  That’s about to change.

  “Now,” I say. “I know you get five thousand dollars a month allowance, and you inherit five million when you turn twenty-five. I also happen to know that if you drop out of college, you are cut off without a penny until your twenty-fifth birthday. If your GPA falls below a C, you are cut off. If you don’t graduate on time, you are cut off. Your trust fund pays for tutoring if you need it, but you haven’t taken advantage of that.”

  “How do you know all this?” she demands, her eyes sparking with anger.

  “Doesn’t matter. And furthermore, I know that you aren’t used to hearing the word no, but you’re going to become very comfortable with that word from now on.”

  Her cheeks are flushed a luscious rosy hue. “I swear to God I’ll… I’ll…” Her voice trails off. My gaze wanders over her slim body. Her nipples are so hard now that they’re poking through the thin fabric of her pink T-shirt, and I catch a faint whiff of her sweet musk.

  “You’ll what, Josie?” I smile pleasantly.

  She sucks in a deep breath, and her gaze drops shamefully to the carpeted floor. “Nothing. I’m sorry I talked back to you. Please don’t call the trustees; I really need that money.” Her voice is shaking, and tears glitter in her beautiful eyes.

  I’m near to bursting out of my slacks. I’m a sick bastard, but I came to terms with that a long time ago. I’m not all bad, though. I’m going to take my sweet little Josie to the heights of ecstasy and beyond—after I punish that round little ass of hers.

  “That’s much better, Josie. Here’s what’s going to happen. You will meet me at seven p.m. for tutoring every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and also on Saturday afternoons. We will review all your homework, not just your homework for my class. You will show up on time for every class—not just mine, but every class that you’re taking. You will make up your two missing assignments. And now it’s time for your punishment.”

  She stumbles back.

  “Punishment?” Her voice trembles with fright.

  “Go lock the door.”

  Chapter Four

  Carter

  Her eyes are wide as she stares up at me.

  “I don’t want to.”

  I move closer to her. “What you want isn’t important. And you will address me as “sir” from now on, both in here and in class. Let’s try it out. Say, ‘Yes, sir.’”

  She just glares up at me. “I hate you, sir.” There’s that sass that I love so much—because I’m going to enjoy beating it right out of her.

  I spin her around and slap her butt so hard she lets out a loud, startled scream.

  The door swings open a moment later, and Mr. Hendricks pokes his head in. “Is everything all right?”

  “I saw a spider,” Josie gasps. My girl is a masterful actress. “Oh God, I hate them so much! I totally have a phobia!”

  He smiles sympathetically. “They can look frightening, but most spiders are harmless. They eat mosquitoes and flies, which spread diseases, so really they’re our friends.” He shuts the door. Yeah, Mr. Hendricks doesn’t get laid much.

  “Lock. The. Door.” I bite out each word harshly, and she hurries to obey.

  She walks back much more slowly, her face flushed, shoulders slumped in defeat.

  Then she crosses her arms defensively over her chest. “You can’t punish me in here. What if…what if I make noise?”

  “You’ll just have to keep quiet, won’t you? Most nights, we’ll be meeting here at seven p.m., when the building is empty. So then you can scream as loud as you want.”

  She goes pale. “You’re joking, right? Sir?”

  “Am I?” I taunt.

  I point to the desk.

  “Walk over to the desk and bend over.”

  “Yes, sir.” Her eyes shimmer with tears, and her lower lip quivers. That might work on most people; all it does for me is sing out to my raging hard-on.

  She walks over to the desk and bends over, lying across it with her head turned to the side. Her cheek is pressed to my desk blotter.

  I stalk up behind her and kick her legs apart. Then I flip up her skirt and slide her pink cotton panties down. The heavenly musk of her arousal tickles my nostrils.

  I reach around the desk and pick up a shiny metal ruler. Then I run my hands over the perfect round globe of her left butt cheek. She quivers, and her fists clench.

  “Please, sir, just get it over with,” she begs. My cock twitches in my pants.

  “Are you in charge here, Josie?”

  “No, sir,” she sniffles.

  “Who’s in charge?”

  “You are, sir.”

  I trace the circle of her right butt cheek with my fingers, and she moans.

  Then I drag her back to reality. “Each time I spank you, you will count out loud,” I tell her.

  “Yes, sir.” She chokes out the words. She’s furious and helpless.

  I smack her across the left cheek with the ruler, and she bites back a shriek. “One,” she whimpers. The ruler leaves a perfect rectangular red mark.

  “That was for the first assignment you missed.”

  Smack! I lay the ruler across the right cheek. She jumps and squirms. “Two!” she squeaks.

  “That was for the second assignment.”

  “Sir, it hurts!” she whimpers. “You’re hitting me harder than you did at the nightclub!”<
br />
  “That’s because this is punishment.” I lay down a flurry of smacks on her butt cheek, and her legs kick back and she squirms wildly. “Three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten!” she wails. I press my hand down on the small of her back to hold her down.

  “Those were for each day that you were late.”

  “Please, no more,” she begs. She buries her face in the crook of her arm.

  I am relentless. I lay another red stripe across her quivering flesh. “Eleven!” she sobs into her arm.

  “That was for talking back to me in class today. Now stand up.”

  She stands up, her chest heaving with quiet sobs, and frantically rubs her burning ass with her hands. Then she quickly pulls up her panties and smooths down her skirt. Her cheeks are stained with tears. I can hear the faint murmur of voices in the hallway, and that just adds to the thrill of it all.

  I hold the ruler up to her mouth. “Kiss it, and thank me.”

  She opens her mouth as if to protest, then thinks better of it. She leans forward and kisses the ruler.

  “Thank you, sir,” she chokes out.

  Then she looks up at me woefully.

  “Are you done spanking me, sir?”

  “For now.” I take the ruler from her and lay it down on my desk. Then I slide my finger under her chin to tip her head back. I kiss her tear-stained cheek. “You were so brave, Josie. Such a good girl.”

  “Th-thank you. It really hurt.” The expression on her face is so pitiful, lower lip trembling, eyes big as saucers.

  I smile at her gently. “I know. But you loved it at the same time.”

  “Yes,” she whispers, staring at me, entranced and a little bewildered. Oh, I have so much to teach her.

  I lean back against my desk. “You are free to go now.”

  “You mean…that’s all you’re going to do to me?” She peeps up at me shyly through thick fringed lashes that glitter with diamond tears.

  I brush a lock of her thick hair behind her ear and trail my finger down her tear-stained cheek. “Do you want more?”

  Shamefacedly, she stares down at the ground. “Yes, sir.”