“You carried me in here,” I reminded with a sassy wink.
Arching a brow, he agreed. “That’s true. I did. I was also contemplating how sexy you are in just my shirt.”
I don’t know exactly what I’d been expecting, but that hadn’t been it. I suppose somewhere in the back of my mind I’d expected regret or rejection, but it seemed like my teacher had finally accepted the unthinkable. Me.
Giving him a coy smile, I fingered the material tickling my bare thighs and played with him a little. “Yeah?”
“Yes, Addison. Very much.”
“Well, I like wearing your shirt. It makes me feel sexy.”
He must have pushed off the floor with his foot, because his chair rocked back slightly. “Good. Maybe I’ll keep you in it.”
I liked that idea and was about to say more when I spotted the opposite wall and a large black-and-white photograph centered on its own.
It was beautiful, and I was drawn to it.
Walking across the plush carpet, I stopped and studied the image. I had no words. It was mesmerizing.
The sculpture was of a nude woman lying on her side with her arms raised back over her head and wrapped around the neck of a winged—
“That’s Cupid.”
Grayson’s voice, that hypnotic, commanding voice, found me and made my body shiver.
“And who is she?”
“That’s Psyche.”
I traced my index finger along her naked form. I started at her head then moved down over her breast and continued all the way to her toes.
“What’s their story?”
The chair behind me creaked, and I looked back to see Grayson sitting up with his arms resting on the desk.
“Well, Venus, Cupid’s mother, led Psyche down to the Underworld to retrieve a flask.”
Curious, I frowned at…my history teacher.
“Why?”
Grayson’s mouth stretched into a slow smile as he checked out my legs. When his eyes came back up and rested on my face, he answered.
“Venus was jealous of the way the villagers revered Psyche. They spoke of her as a goddess because she was so beautiful, and that enraged Venus. She ordered her son Eros, better known as Cupid, to avenge her. But he took one look at Psyche and became enamored with her instead. He believed she was perfect in every way.”
I shifted from one foot to another and pushed my right toes down onto the top of my left.
“But no one’s perfect.”
Grayson shook his head. “No, no one’s perfect. Not even Psyche.”
I agreed with a swift nod of my head and waited for him to continue.
“Psyche’s father was very upset that his daughter wasn’t married because she was too beautiful not to be. So, he took her to see the oracle who told them that they would all meet a disastrous fate unless she was sacrificed to a monster.”
“That’s horrible! He got rid of her to save his own ass?”
I shot an annoyed look at Grayson, and I could tell he was enjoying himself. His eyes were lit up, and he was grinning at me in a way that made my heart thump harder. He was enjoying teaching me this lesson.
“Well, yes. He left her where he was told to, however, instead of a monster coming and taking her away…”
“Cupid did?”
Grayson chuckled and sat back in his chair. “Yes. But she didn’t know that. He took her to a palace, one that was covered in sparkling gemstones, where she would live for the rest of her life. Every night when it was dark, he came to her, and they made love, but he forbade her to know who he was...it was a secret.”
Grayson’s eyes zeroed in on me, warming all of the places he had touched earlier. I was his secret, and in that moment, he was conveying it with no more than a look.
“Psyche was curious, though…too curious. She wanted to see her lover. Wanted to see who touched her. So one night while he was asleep beside her, she shined a light over his face, and her lamp dripped hot oil on Cupid, waking him.”
I brought my thumbnail up to my mouth and began nibbling as I listened. I was enthralled.
Grayson stopped for a moment to ask, “Nervous?”
I nodded. “What did he do? Was he pissed off?”
“He wasn’t happy. He felt betrayed, so he left her there.”
My mouth dropped open in outrage.
“What? That makes him just as bad as her father. He took her to a palace where no one else lives and then just leaves her there? Because she wanted to see him? That’s not fair.”
“Maybe so. But that’s what happened.”
“Yeah? Well, that’s shit.”
Grayson laughed then, a full-bodied belly laugh. His shoulders shook, his chest moved, and his teeth gleamed at me. I wanted him. Bad.
“Gee, Addison, tell me how you really feel.”
I walked forward, rolling my eyes. “So how did she end up with him in the sculpture if he left her?”
“Well, Psyche went after him. She was distraught and wanted him back. When she fled the palace, Venus saw her and began unleashing horrible events. Eventually, Psyche was led down to the Underworld to retrieve a flask. The only condition…she was not, under any circumstances, allowed to open it.”
Almost as if he was calling to me, I moved closer to the desk and raised my hands to the top of his shirt.
“But she did, didn’t she? Psyche was too curious not to.”
Grayson’s eyes shifted to what I was doing as I unbuttoned the top button and moved on to the one between my breasts.
“That’s right. It didn’t matter that she’d been told not to. Psyche wanted to know…”
His words trailed off as the third button was freed, and I parted the material, leaving a wide strip of skin.
“Wanted to know what?”
“She wanted to know what was in the flask.”
I pushed one of the sleeves down my arm and let his shirt fall to the floor, leaving me completely naked.
“The first day we met, you told me to be curious. This is me being curious. What was in the flask, sir?”
Grayson’s brow rose as he opened jeans and freed his cock. He was hard, I was wet, and I wanted him all over again.
“Sometimes curiosity should stay just that,” he advised as he pushed his chair away from the desk.
“Should it?”
Standing slowly, he made his way behind me, and my entire body shivered with anticipation.
“Yes. There’s a reason Psyche was told not to open the flask.”
This was wrong. He’d told me that so many times. But I wanted him, and I was going nowhere.
“And that reason was?”
“Because opening it would only bring about the most severe of consequences.”
“Which was?”
“Death. Except she was revived by Cupid, who touched her with his arrow. That sculpture depicts the moment he finds her and fears he’s too late. He reaches for her as she does for him, and his touch makes her immortal.”
I thought his words over as I read the quote hanging above his desk.
“Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster.”
Suddenly, I had a different question. “Do you fight monsters?”
I wondered if Grayson and I had more in common than the need to be with one another.
His hands clasped my bare shoulders before he ran them down my arms—then his mouth was by my ear. “Don’t we all?”
I turned my head to the side until our mouths were only inches apart and pushed for an answer. “What’s your monster?”
“What’s yours?” he pushed back, not responding to my feeble attempt to dig.
Instead of telling him the one thing that would make me less than perfect, I looked back at the quote.