A box of red wine was perched at the edge of the coffee table. Half-full wineglasses sat on top, without coasters underneath to prevent rings. Tenley unfolded her legs and rose from the floor, making her way across the room. Lisa said something, but I didn’t hear a word. My erection was immediate and painful.

“What are you wearing?” I ran my hand through my hair, keeping in mind Lisa and Sarah were in Tenley’s apartment. Ripping those pajamas off her was not on the agenda this evening.

“I bought some new jammies.”

“I see that.”

The tank top had thin, little straps that I could bite apart. Cup-cakes were all over it, and I could see the outline of her barbells through the thin cotton. A lace band traveled along the edge of the top and at the bottom. Provocative little cupcake shorts barely covered her ass.

I pulled her into the hall, skimmed her sides, and shoved my hands down the back of her shorts. I met with bare ass and slid my thumbs along the divide, all the way down. Tenley rewarded me with a soft whimper.

“I guess you like them.” She did that smile thing that made her look all cute and sweet. Except she was almost naked.

“You could say that.” Like didn’t quite cover it.

I closed the door to her apartment, giving us the privacy of the hall. Then I sank to the floor and kissed the warm flesh right under her navel.

“What are you doing?” she asked with a panicked laugh.

I nosed along the waistband of her shorts. “I’m having a conversation with my kitty.”

I parted my lips over the seam of her shorts and pressed my tongue against the fabric. She gasped and grabbed my hair, leaning against the wall for support.

“I can’t wait to have my mouth on you.” I skimmed the seam with my nose. I pulled the waistband of Tenley’s shorts down to expose the top of her slit, then kissed the cupcake tattoo and then lower, where that tiny steel ball peeked out. I planned to drag those shorts down her creamy thighs and hitch her leg over my shoulder, so I could lick my way up her kitty. Fuck the location.

The door opened and Lisa poked her head out. “Your two minutes— Oh, for chrissake, Hayden!”

“What?” I allowed the waistband to snap back into place but I stayed on my knees.

“You’re worse than a teenager! Get a handle on your hormones.” Lisa raised her hand in front of her face to block us out.

Tenley bit her lip to keep from smiling.

“You think this is funny?” I asked.

“Not at all.” She shook her head emphatically.

I stood up and put my mouth to her ear. “You remember what I said this morning?”

“Yes.”

“I’m making good on that promise tomorrow, so you better be ready for me.”

When I stepped away, her face was flushed. Perfect. By tomorrow night she was going to be a hot mess. Which was exactly how I wanted her.

I picked Tenley up for her meeting with Professor Assface at nine in the morning. She looked a little tired. The trip to Northwestern was quiet and I didn’t push for conversation. I had a feeling we were both nervous for similar reasons. I’d had enough of people fucking with me, particularly where Tenley was concerned. I wasn’t about to let anything happen to her.

In the lot closest to her professor’s building, I parked and turned off the engine.

“I need to tell you something,” Tenley blurted out.

From the look on her face, it wasn’t good. I tried not to panic. “Okay.”

“I recorded the sex on my phone.”

“Pardon?”

“Professor Calder was having sex with a student in his office. I recorded it.”

“Jesus. Does he know?”

“Not yet. I made it into an MP3 and saved it on a USB and sent it to my e-mail address.”

“Smart girl.” I smiled. She was always surprising me.

“Do you want to hear it?”

“Right now?”

“Mm-hm.”

She had twenty minutes before the meeting; it couldn’t hurt to have a listen. “I guess.”

She passed her phone over to me, and a video popped up on the screen. The camera panned over the door, zeroing in on the nameplate as faint noises that could have been mistaken for talking changed into the unmistakable sounds of sex.

Some sex is hot to listen to. This was not. The high-pitched, whiny moans of the girl-woman on the other side of the door, interspersed with the male’s deep grunts and groans, were erection shriveling. The clincher came when the female shrieked Calder’s name, followed by a harsh admonishment from his easily recognizable voice and a loud slap. Any doubt about who was behind the door was erased by that wretched orgasm.

“Wow.” I was a little worried I might hurl.

“You think it’s enough?”

“Oh, yeah. I think it’s more than enough.”

Given the irrefutable evidence, Tenley persuaded me to let her go into the meeting without making my presence known. She had her phone with her and she’d sent me the file in an e-mail. There was also the backup USB of the video. This fucker was abusing his power, and I wanted her to report him.

I sat in the lounge for about five minutes before I got restless and walked down the hallway to his door. I listened to the low murmur of voices. I didn’t like Assface’s tone, or that he suddenly got louder.

The door flew open and Tenley stumbled out, her expression panicked, tears threatening to spill over. The neck of her dress was pulled to one side, exposing her bra strap and my ink. Professor Assface looked irate. My eyes dropped lower. He had a fucking hard-on.

All the anger and aggression I’d been holding back crashed over me in a wave of red.

“Wait for me in the lobby.” I kissed Tenley’s forehead and walked past her, closing the office door. I locked it behind me.

“You can’t be in here.” He reached for the phone on his desk with an unsteady hand.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” I said through clenched teeth.

When he didn’t remove his hand from the receiver, I crossed the room, clamping my hand over his and squeezing until he let go, then I shoved him into his chair. I hovered over him, the violent urge to beat him until he was a bleeding mess almost too strong to deny.

“Let me explain something to you.” I took a deep breath and continued as calmly as possible, “You don’t touch Tenley. Ever.”

He sat back in his chair, a sneer pulling up the corner of his mouth. To make my point clear, I cocked my fist and punched him in the balls. A gasping wheeze shot out of him and he doubled over, coughing and sputtering.

I grabbed him by his receding hairline; the comb-over gave me perfect leverage. I jerked his head up. “Do you understand?”

His eyes bulged and his mouth moved, but no sound came out. Eventually he nodded. I let go of his hair, trapping him in the chair as I leaned over him, holding the USB stick in front of me. “Do you know what’s on this?”

“Miss Page—” he rasped.

“Yes or no.”

“Yes.”

“Good. So you’re aware of how fucked you are if this happens to get out.”

“You can’t prove—”

“It wasn’t a question, and it wasn’t rhetorical, fuckhead—so shut up and listen. This is what’s going to happen. You’re going to recommend that Tenley be paired with a different adviser, one who specializes in deviant behaviors. I know there’s more than one female professor in the department who’s willing to take on a new student; I’ve already checked into it. You will not recommend her to another male adviser, or I will come back here and beat the living fuck out of you. If Tenley tells me that you so much as looked at her, I will come back and beat the fuck out of you. And if you touch her again, so help me God, I will rip your dick off and feed it to you.

“Now, I’m not sure what your problem is with Tenley’s thesis, but I think you will find, if you take a closer look, that she has been nothing but thorough and eloquent. Her connections to Merton, Routledge, and Thoreau are cohesive and provide an in-depth exploration of cultural norms and deviations, primarily based on, but not limited to, Strain Theory, Functional Structuralism, and Conflict Theory. I could go into greater detail, but I don’t think I need to, since you won’t be her adviser anymore.”

Professor Assface looked at me as if I had two heads, his mouth opening and closing like an idiot.

“You look surprised. I can run circles around you, you dumb fuck. Just because I don’t choose to fit in with the general masses doesn’t mean I have a subpar intellect.”

When I grabbed a pen off his desk, he jumped and squeaked. I assumed he thought I was going to stab him with it, which I wanted to do. I jotted down the names of the professors I’d researched while Tenley was away, in case something like this happened. “This should help get you started. Someone other than you will call Tenley when a new adviser has been appointed.”

“What about the video?” he asked.

“What about it?”

“What are you going to do with it?”

“That’s a very good question, now, isn’t it? If the board got wind of your behavior, you’d lose your tenure, wouldn’t you? Not to mention your wife.” I tapped the ashtray with the wedding band tossed carelessly inside. “Unless she’s down with you fucking your students?”

His expression told me she had no clue as to what he was doing.

I smiled maliciously. “Just thought I’d ask. I suppose it would be in your best interest to get your ass in gear and start making phone calls, then. You might also want to consider keeping your dick in your pants. You’d be amazed at how quickly rumors spread—especially when they’re vetted through YouTube.”