He turns around and inventories the population until he lands right on me with that killer smile.
A breath gets caught in my throat.
Shit!
It is Cruise!
I straighten in my seat completely caught off guard by the fact I’ve secretly been devising a plan to sleep with faculty of all people. It feels innately dirty and oh so delicious all at the same time. I give a private wave before sinking in my seat a little.
“Love.” He steps away from the blackboard and reveals the word scrawled out in large block letters. “Welcome to Gender Relations. Professor Bradshaw is out indefinitely for the semester, and until he’s able to reprise his role I’ll be stepping in. You can call me Cruise or Mr. Elton if you feel so moved.” He glances up at me and the curve of a wicked smile ignites. “Master, if you like.”
Half the girls in class have a Cruise-gasam at the quasi innuendo.
A thin girl with a razor-sharp haircut leans in and whispers. “Can you believe this?” She looks completely unfazed by Cruise’s godlike qualities and sudden desire to be addressed in such an egotistical manner.
“Nope, I can’t believe this at all.” I give a wry smile, never taking my eyes off Mr. Elton.
God, he cleans up nice. He even shaved for the occasion—he’s wearing a tie and shiny brown shoes, which totally make him look official and everything. To think I came this close to raking up against one of my professors. Not that he’s a bona fide professor. He’s more of a sexy fill-in, but still.
A wave of heat spreads through me as he passes out the syllabus. He hands a thick stack to the girl seated to my left and one to me before moving on.
Gender Relations Spring Semester
Syllabus
On your Knees
Tongues and Tickles
Art of Whoredom
Touch me, Tease me, Lick me, Please me.
The Fine Art of Moaning
Skin on Skin
Ask and You Shall Receive
Strip Xbox
Body Frosting
Role Playing and Erotic Fantasy; A journey into mental imagery
Show and Tell
Master and Servant
Sex Video
Sex Video? What the hell is this? Porn 101?
Oh my God, this is completely perverse. Cruise is going to get himself sued or fired, or worse. Obviously, he’s got some sex addiction if he plans on living out these scenarios with each one of us. I scan the room quickly, expecting half the class to burst out laughing or screaming, but they don’t say a word.
The extras get passed in my direction and I gloss over one.
Gender Relations: Spring Semester
Read: The Great Gatsby
Essays and quizzes are listed, and I take a paper for myself before shooting a look to the not-so-funny man in question. He’s got his arms folded across his chest, and he’s leering at me with his lips curled to the side. He’s so enjoying this, I can tell.
It’s illegal and unethical to proposition a student, let alone gift her with incriminating evidence should I be moved to initiate legal action. But I’m not. I’m moved to see what the “Fine Art of Moaning” might entail. The rest of the class fades to nothing as I negotiate the deep recesses of my mind and envelop myself in a warped fantasy that involves a whole lot of vocal cords and very little clothing.
“Good morning.” Cruise paces until he sits on the edge of his desk. “I’d like to open the class with having each of you introduce yourselves and share your position on love in the sensual, sexual sense. And why, outside of the preservation of the species, do you feel it continues to prosper as the single most valued human desire.”
He starts in the front and goes student by student as they give a dry, rather morose view of their position on sensual love. Three girls in a row give an expository on how love degrades women and reduces our species to nothing more than a sexual porthole of pleasure, and I nod in silent agreement.
Cruise twists his lips as he considers the words of the last girl. You’d think Cruise himself just knocked the feminist movement down three full decades the way the girl in the bright pink rain slicker cut him off at the balls for implying that love was the “single most valued human desire.”
Things are falling to shit quickly, and a part of me feels sorry for him. Although, I’m still a little miffed he didn’t tell me he’d be morphing into my teacher in the literal sense since he was already sort of filling that role anyway. Plus that whole sexual syllabus just makes me roll my eyes, even though I plan on going over it in detail as soon as I’m alone. I have to admit, the “Role Playing and Erotic Fantasy; a journey into mental imagery” does sound interesting.
“Ms. Jordan?” Cruise calls from the front and I spike up in my seat.
“Yes? Oh, right, love. Um…” I pull a strand of hair over my lips the way I do when I’m nervous and consider it a moment.