CHAPTER 10

JAX

"Like what?"

"Like you're thinking about last night. It's making me hard, and this is not the appropriate place to come down that throat again."

Jax's fingers tightened around his notebook and the wound tingled beneath the bandage. There was nothing Jax wanted to do more than grab his fucking head and smash it against that desk.

Spill his blood.

Cut his dick off.

But then that would be impulsive. And Jax did not do that.

Or did not—past tense. Because, in reality, since last night, Jax had been the personification of a time bomb.

Jax let his lips curl into a smile. "That won't be happening."

"Let's disagree agreeably."

"What's agreeably defined as to you? A gun against my head?"

"If you want."

"I want nothing from you. Oh wait, I want you to rot in jail."

A flick of his eyelid brushed against the corner of his mouth. "Not a chance."

"Because you can twist the justice you preach?"

"No. Because you'd be decomposing right there with me." He rose to his full height. "I don't need to tell you what I'd do to you in that cell, do I?"

Fucking creep.

Jax kept up his smile, adopting a sneering inflection. "Wow. I'm impressed that you don't hold a PhD in outrageous behavior. Do you usually prey on students?"

"Only wee monsters like you." He moved in close to Jax and Jax held his ground, not giving in to the authority he emitted with every movement.

Like a robot—or a tank—heading to roll over everything behind it.

Well, Jax was the fort in front of the tank.

There would be no breaking. At least, not from his side.

He hovered inches from Jax, but Jax could still catch a whiff of him. A scent of the coldest wood and amber drifted into Jax's nose and a chain of memories followed.

Thrusting, gagging, choking, groaning, thrashing for something, anything. Stop.

"Tell me, WENTZ." His voice had finally reached him and so had his eyes boring into Jax's soul. "How did you manage to hide that repulsive personality for so long?"

Jax glared at him but said nothing. If he thought he could get in his face, then he really didn't have any idea who he was addressing. Punching down has never fazed Jax.

And despite the colossal headache and the relentless whine of his demons for a sacrifice of blood, Jax stayed cool.

He cocked his head to the side, giving Jax a mechanical once-over, as if Jax was a piece of art he found unsightly. "The other professors can't stop singing your praises. They said you're so hardworking and loveable. The best student any professor could have. Either they're excruciatingly blind or you're just so staggeringly charming."

"You don't find me charming?" Jax let his lips form a mock pout.

His eyes tracked down, focusing on the movement, and something flickered there before he caught Jax's gaze again. "I believe we've made it clear that you have a wonderful talent for being grotesque."

Jax's lip curled into a snarl, but he forced them into a smile. "I didn't look so bad when you rode my face, either. You loved it so much you just kept going and going, I thought it was never gonna stop."

"Your hole is the one nice thing about you." Jax thought he had picked up a change of expression, but it was so fleeting, Jax couldn't capture it as he continued, "But enough about that."

"And here I was dying to keep bringing up the subject."

"Listen the way you talk to me. I'm your teacher and won't tolerate any disrespect." The way he spoke, sternly, made Jax's flesh tingle. It's uncomfortable, this feeling that's making Jax clasp the notebook tightly.

"I don't respect you at all, Professor."

I'm only going to say it once, so listen up, WENTZ." He loomed over him, forcing Jax to crane his head back to look up at him. "I've got zero tolerance for spoiled rich kids like you that believe they can rule the world on their daddies' money. If you don't drop the attitude and mind your mouth, I'll fuck it into submission. Got it?

Jax's teeth grind, biting down on the demons that were trying to force their way through and strangle the shit out of him.

Jax was working on a good insult when he said, "Now that we got that over with. I have an offer for you."

"As a witness to your crimes? Sure.".

He narrowed his eyes a fraction of an inch, like some authoritarian asshole who hates being talked back to, but that just made Jax want to do it more.

Usually, Jax liked meeting people's expectations of him, behaving himself and charming those around him into believing he was his public face.

But Jax didn't give a shit about this asshole. He was going to get the actual Jax, unfiltered and unapologetic. And Jax's true self loved being upset and getting on others' last goddamn nerve, especially if they'd gotten on his first. "You found that funny?" he asked with that damn serious tone.

"Only a little?"

"It wasn't, and you're a brat who needs to be pushed to his knees for proper punishment your parents clearly didn't give you. That what you truly desire, WENTZ? My dick in your hot little mouth again?"

"I'll never let you touch me again, you damn bastard."

That flame flickered back, like lightning on a dark night. "Never is a stretch. And anyway, you obviously had such a great time last night, you were practically begging to come." "I was not!" "My, getting all worked up, are we?" He invaded her space and Jax stiffened, his jaw locked so tightly, Jax couldn't breathe.

This close, Jax could see planes of his muscles showing through the first few buttons of his shirt, his collarbone, the tensed coils of muscles in his neck and that pulse point.

The one Jax wanted to bite the fuck off.

He leaned in toward Jax's ear, the gruff whisper sending his skin tingling. "Wank to the memory of getting screwed by me into your sweaty, wet mouth, you little monster? Or were you so afraid you'd have the best orgasm ever and not bother touching your sore cock?"

Jax stepped back, his breathing sizzling the husk of his ear. It was everything in Jax to smile. "Are you in the fantasy that I remember anything from last night? Halting performances don't quite linger in memory, you know." "So it was the second option. Interesting. Hmph." His small smirk made Jax angry, but before Jax could strike back, he continued, "Business at hand, the work I have for you is legal aid."

"What?"

"Sorry. I forgot you come from a legal empire and don't know about legal aid. It's giving legal help to those who can't."

"Don't be insulting. I do know what legal aid is. I also know I won't be a legal aid because I'm a first-year law student."

"You'll intern under me."

"No, thank you. I intern under my father or grandfather in the summer."

"Very typical." He returned to his desk. "You're free to go." The complete dismissal was bitter at the back of Jax's throat, and his head started pounding all the harder. His wound ached hotter, throbbed with pain, and the bandage chafed. Maybe that is why Jax snapped, "You expected me to work under you after you attacked me?"

He did not look up as he closed his laptop and gathered his files. "I don't mix business and pleasure."

"There was no fucking pleasure."

"Language."

"I didn't take any goddamn pleasure at all."

He lifted his head, pinning Jax under severe dark-gray stare. "If you persist in using profanity, I will terminate this discussion, WENTZ."

"I said." Jax released an exasperated breath. "I took pleasure in nothing of what happened last night."

"Your hard-on was a witness otherwise."

"That was a physical reaction." "If you say so." A sneer curled his lip, and Jax's instinct was to push it and watch his blood run at his feet.

But Jax did no more than smile back. "Just in case you didn't realize. Sofia, the girl you have a crush on, is mooning over another guy. So sad. For a high-end professor, you just don't have much luck."

Jax's smile remained steadfast as he bided his time for the anger, the agitation, but nothing disturbed that look in his eyes.

The empty, dead one.

Hell, he was more expressive taunting Jax than when Jax spoke of Sofia.

It can't be. He is suppressing his reaction in some way.

He must care.

He was fucking livid last night over imagining Jax touched Sofia.

But, at any rate, since Jax knew his identity now, that gave Jax a lot of options to trap him like he trapped Jax.

Humiliate him.

Shatter him on Jax's edges.

"If you're done wasting my time and polluting my air with your revolting face." He clutched his briefcase and started to walk past Jax.

Jax hesitated not as he pinned him by the collar at the back. His stench overwhelmed Jax's senses as Jax took a deep breath into his ear, "Watch your back, Professor. You have no idea who the fuck you fucked with."