Dirty Detail: Sexy Bodyguard Romance (Down N' Dirty in Love Book 3) Read online

  I failed.

  “Ms. Sythe, a word please.” The professor’s low command had my heart racing as I paused in the aisle. I’d gotten halfway to the door when Humphry’s voice stopped me in my tracks.

  I kept my chin tucked down, afraid to look at the professor or Dan as my classmates filed out around me.

  Was I in trouble? I felt like I was in trouble, and I couldn’t shake the feeling that this was somehow related to my acceptance into the sorority, or my epic first night at the house.

  When I was the last student remaining, Dan came over and gently took my arm, guiding me toward the professor’s office which adjoined the classroom. “Come on, Rachel. There’s nothing to be afraid of.”

  I was that obvious, apparently. I stumbled along beside him, still unable to look up at the professor, though I could feel those cold grey eyes focused on me with that hawk-like intensity I feared.

  Dan ushered me into the office and guided me into a chair as the professor slipped into his seat behind the desk and Dan hovered nearby.

  Finally, after several heartbeats of silence, I forced myself to look up.

  Shit. My stomach plummeted as my gaze met the professor’s. He was too intimidating. I couldn’t be here. I thought about running but his steely tone kept me frozen in place.

  “Ms. Sythe.” He said my name as if that in itself was a warning. “Thank you for meeting with us.”

  I nodded, unable to form words. The professor looked up at Dan with a raised brow and the moment his eyes moved away from me, I felt my lungs expand. I could breathe again. “I believe Dan here has an offer he’d like to run by you.”

  I turned my attention to Dan, who was smiling down at me. Warm, kind, utterly charming Dan. I felt myself relaxing into the chair even as the temperature in the office started to rise.

  “Rachel, I wanted to talk to you about your new sorority.”

  I stiffened immediately, shifting to the edge of my seat, ready to bolt. Shit. He knew and he was going to call me out on it.

  “I’m working on my master’s thesis at the moment and was hoping to persuade you to let me watch you.”

  That…. That was not what I was expecting. I swallowed past the fear that threatened to choke me as I looked up at him. “Watch me? Why?”

  He started to explain his thesis—about the effects of peer pressure on young adults in college. Particularly in fraternity and sorority settings. How the group mentality affects an individual’s choices and decision making.

  While it sounded interesting, I was finding it hard to concentrate when the professor’s eyes were fixed on me from across the desk.

  Dan gestured to the professor at one point. “John here is my advisor on the project so he would be a part of this study as well.”

  I risked a glance at the professor but his expression was unreadable. Well, at least that explained what he was doing in the room with us.

  There was a silence and I got the distinct impression that they were waiting for me to speak.

  In case this wasn’t apparent already, I’ll say it plainly. I am a people pleaser. Particularly with people in authority. I can’t help it, I’ve always been that way. I’ve always wanted teachers to like me. I’ve never been able to say no to those in a power position above me.

  And that included now.

  “Sure,” I found myself saying, before I could even properly think it through. “Yeah, okay.”

  Dan rewarded me with a broad smile and when I flicked my gaze over to the professor, I was surprised to see that his expression had thawed a bit. His lips turned up at the corners as his gray eyes seemed to warm. The effect was powerful and confusing. The change in his appearance wasn’t drastic but it took my breath away and heated me to my core.

  Holy cow he had charisma in spades when he wanted to use it. The approval in his eyes was heady. Addictive. I could see myself doing anything and everything to earn that look from him in the future. Just when I thought I couldn’t be any more shocked by the change in him…by the change in us, he murmured words of approval. “Good girl.”

  It wasn’t much, but those words made me hot. It was something about the commanding tone of his voice and that rare warmth in his eyes. Whatever it was, it was hard to breathe. I couldn’t seem to get enough oxygen.

  Worse, way worse—I was turned on. Like, really turned on. My panties were wet and I squeezed my thighs together to help alleviate the throbbing ache.

  The professor’s small smile turned into a smirk and I heard Dan’s soft laugh beside me before he leaned over to speak quietly directly into my ear. “We’re glad to have you on board, Rachel. Something tells me the three of us are going to have a lot of fun together.”

  My mouth went dry with nerves. I had the sudden and distinct impression that I’d just gotten myself into something and that I was in over my head. Was it too late to turn back?

  The answer was yes, because no sooner did I have the thought than the professor leaned forward in his chair and rested his clasped hands on the desk. Dan slid into the seat beside mine.

  “It would be helpful to the project, Ms. Sythe, if you tell us a little about yourself now, at the outset, so we have a base standard to work with,” the professor said. I shifted in my seat. His words were harmless enough, but it was his eyes that made me uncomfortable. The cold, unreadable mask he wore during class was intimidating, but this was different. His eyes were far from cold and the unflappable mask seemed to slip. Now there were all sorts of emotions flickering across the surface but I couldn’t make sense of it. His look was challenging, but intrigued. Commanding, but charismatic. His eyes were filled with something dark that made my lower belly feel heavy and my breasts strain against the lace of my bra.

  I was still intimidated by him but that anxiousness was tempered by this overwhelming physical reaction.

  He was waiting for me to speak and I glanced over at Dan, as if for help. Wasn’t this his paper? My mind drew a blank when I tried to think of ways to describe myself that didn’t make me sound as lame and vanilla as I felt at that moment.

  I was just your average college freshman—nothing of significance compared to the handsome, witty TA, let alone the professor with his cool confidence and sexy intelligence.

  Dan leaned forward and once again I was overwhelmed by the heat and scent of him. “Why don’t you start with the basics?” he prompted. “How do you see yourself physically?”

  I licked my lips to ease the dry, scratchy feeling in my throat. I glanced up just in time to see the professor’s eyes fixed on my lips and I know I wasn’t imagining the fact that his eyes grew even darker.

  “Um,” I started. “I guess I would say my looks are pretty average.” That was the truth. I had long brown hair, brown eyes, and a curvy body. Big breasts, rounded hips, and a butt that Morgan had described as “juicy” when I wore a bikini during rush week. I’d decided to take that as a compliment.

  I supposed I was pretty enough, but I wasn’t about to win any competitions and I paled in comparison to most of the slinky, waif-like girls at the house.

  Dan pulled out a notepad and started jotting something down.

  “Keep going,” the professor insisted. “Would you say you’re studious?”

  “Yes.”

  “An overachiever?”

  I felt a smile tugging at my lips at that understatement. “Yes.”

  “A prude?” The professor’s tone was as bland and benign as it had been during the other questions but my heart leapt into my throat at the personal question. I willed my body not to overreact, but it was too late. My cheeks felt like they were on fire.

  Was I a prude? Up until the night before I would have said yes, without a second thought. Yes, I’d had sex a handful of times but only after I’d turned eighteen my senior year and only with a boy I’d thought I loved.

  Besides, each time had been pretty boring, if I was being honest. Missionary style and over before I knew it had begun. I’d never even orgasmed…until last night.


  Up until twelve hours ago I would have said yes to being a prude, but that was before I’d had a threesome and before I’d found out that I was now part of a house that was considered raunchy. Somehow none of that aligned with the prudish reputation I’d had all during high school.

  As I continued to stare at the professor in embarrassed confusion, his lips twitched up at the corners once more and I saw a hint of amusement flicker across his face. “That wasn’t intended to be a difficult question, Ms. Sythe.”

  “Rachel,” I said automatically. Every time he called me Ms. Sythe I felt like I was sitting in the principal’s office. “Please, call me Rachel.”

  He tipped his head in acknowledgement. “All right…Rachel.”

  My heart did a funny flip in my chest at the way he drawled my name in that low voice of his. He seemed to be saying so much more than just my name.

  Dan caught my attention with a hand on my forearm. “There’s nothing to be embarrassed about here in this office, Rachel. Anything you say is strictly confidential.”

  I nodded and tucked some hair behind my ear. I was being silly, reading something into the professor’s question that wasn’t there. He wasn’t propositioning me, he was just trying to get some answers.”

  I forced myself to respond without overthinking. “I think so,” I said. “Yes.”

  The professor tipped his head to the side. “You don’t sound too confident in that answer.”

  I licked my lips again and nearly gasped aloud as his eyes zeroed in again, making me hyper aware of my lips.

  “I-I’m,” I swallowed and tried again. “I’m not confident.” There, that was honest, at least.

  “Go on,” Dan urged.

  I looked from the professor and then back to Dan, my cheeks painfully hot, but I plunged ahead. “I was a prude. Definitely. But then….” I shook my head. There was no way I would tell them what happened the night before.

  “But then….” The professor’s voice was close to a growl.

  “But then I came to college,” I said. “And there are more opportunities here. Less rules.” I shrugged, at a loss for words. “I guess I’m not quite sure what I’m capable of. That remains to be seen.”

  Their silence was deafening.

  Had I said too much? Had I said the wrong thing?

  Maybe some of my anxiety was evident because the professor gave me the first true smile I’d ever seen from him. “Your honesty is refreshing. You, my dear, might just be the perfect case study.”

  That did nothing to ease the heat in my cheeks but it did help the tension ease in my stomach.

  He leaned back in his seat. “I think I can speak for Dan when I say it will be a great pleasure to watch you.” His expression was enigmatic but his tone hinted at something dark and delicious. “I’d love to see what you’re capable of.”

  To keep reading, head to The Naughty Sorority