By the end of the night, we were both sitting on the floor, stretched out with white papers everywhere. I was so tired, but I wasn’t ready for the study session to end.
I started to yawn. Jake bonked me on the forehead with a rolled up piece of paper. “What do you say…one more practice problem?”
I yawned again and nodded. “Sure, one more.”
“No falling asleep on me,” he said.
I wish I were falling asleep on you.
“Okay…let’s try this,” he said as he began writing out a new chart with different variables.
Sitting on the floor with my legs crossed next to him, I stared at his intense expression as he wrote in bold, hard strokes. He was so focused and was one of the smartest people I had ever met. His intelligence made him even sexier in my mind and made me feel even more inadequate. He was a badass.
My eyes were glued to the way his tongue moved back and forth over the bottom of his mouth as he concentrated, his tongue ring clanking against the metal of the ring on his lip. It was so erotic, and I was so out of line for thinking like that while he was trying to help me. As my gaze meandered down to his tattooed arms, I also concluded that his masculine scent mixed with cigarette smoke was just about the most arousing smell I had ever known.
His eyes suddenly darted to the side at me, as if he could feel me staring, and I looked away instinctively.
Even though I wasn’t facing toward him anymore, my mind still went to places I knew it shouldn’t, like what his tongue would feel like…on me. I knew the answer. I wasn’t sure if it was because I was overtired or merely the fact that I hadn’t been with a man in so long, but I was suddenly experiencing sensory overload when it came to him.
He stopped writing and looked toward me. “Okay…so two trains 150 miles apart travel toward each other along the same track…” He paused and waved his hand in front of my face. “Earth to Nina.”
“Huh?” I then realized I had been staring at his mouth the entire time.
“You’re not paying attention,” he said firmly, his gravelly voice vibrating through me.
“I’m…I’m sorry,” I said.
“You want to just stop?” He sounded frustrated with me.
Instead of providing a yes or no answer, my exhausted (and horny) mind decided to take a detour.
“Did it hurt?” I asked.
Jake squinted his eyes. “Did what hurt?” he asked abruptly, almost seeming annoyed at me.
“That,” I said pointing to his lip ring. “The tongue ring, the lip ring, the brow ring…all of them. Was it painful?”
Shrugging his shoulders, he said, “I don’t really remember. I got them when I was like sixteen. I had way more of them back then, too. I don’t think it was that bad, though.” He lifted his brow with a smirk. “Why…are you considering getting one?”
I giggled like a drunk schoolgirl. “Me? No. Uh-uh. I don’t think I could withstand the pain.”
Jake’s eyes darkened and met mine. “Sometimes if you are willing to withstand a little pain in life, Nina, you might discover a pleasure that you never would have otherwise known existed.”
I felt flushed. “Are we still talking about piercings?” My voice lowered to a whisper. “Are you talking about…piercings…down there?”
His eyes widened, and he slammed the textbook down. “Down there? No, actually. I was referring to your fear of everything, Nina, but now I believe you might be referring to whether or not my cock is pierced.”
Mortified, I looked down at the ground and shook my head vigorously. “Oh my God. Forget I ever said anything! I think I am so tired that I am delirious. It’s probably time for me to hit the hay.”
I immediately started messily gathering papers, along with my textbook and stood up. Speed talking, I said, “Jake, thank you so much for this. I think I really get it now. I’ll let you know how I make out tomorrow.”
He got up but didn’t say anything.
I walked backwards out of the room, dropping things and tripped over his wastebasket which made him chuckle.
I practically ran to my room, and as I opened my bedroom door, Jake’s voice stopped me from down the hall.
“To answer your question, Nina, that pleasure is worth the pain too.”
Speechless, I entered my room and shut the door behind me, gearing up for another night of restlessness.
CHAPTER 6
As I sat in class thinking about last night’s tutoring session, Professor Hernandez began to address the room and startled me out of my daydream.
“Please quiet down, folks. We have a lot to get to today. We’re going to spend the first half of class running through some of the examples you turned in. Then, the last half will be the exam.”