Learning the Hard Way (3 page)

“It’s an easy gig. You’ll get a call from the office if anyone is interested in you. The woman pays upfront and decides what kind of package she wants, whether it’s the basic: you meet her at the event, be a little arm candy for her, and take her home. Or she could go for the deluxe, which means she pays for limos, a tux for you.”

Troy blinked. “Tux? Wow. You’re kidding.”

Gross shook his head. “No, she’ll do it. And she pays for dinner, if that’s what you all do, and that’s it.”

“I don’t like for a woman to pay for dinner or anything when I’m on a date.” Call it a gentlemanly gesture or just his need to control, Troy couldn’t get past the idea of being a piece of meat on the arm of an influential woman.

“Man, it’s just a job, not, like, a real date or something. They want to pay, let them.” Gross lowered his voice and nudged Troy’s side with his elbow. “That’s all that Master/slave stuff you do, right? I think the women would dig that. A few times a couple of them asked me to get rough with them.”

The hairs on the back of Troy’s neck stood on end. “BDSM is more than just rough sex. Anything else is just kinky sex.”

Gross held up his hands like he needed to calm Troy down. “Easy, man. Didn’t mean to offend your thing. I thought when you told me you were into that shit when we graduated high school that you would have grown out of it by now.”

Gross talked about Troy’s chosen lifestyle like he had a disease or disorder. Growing out of BDSM would be like saying a person could grow out of heterosexuality. He wouldn’t apologize for his life. Since he hadn’t played with anyone in a while, he did have to lament his relationship status.

Troy directed his attention back to Gross. “So you’re saying in all of the times you’ve done this, none of these ladies wanted something more from you.” Troy crossed his arms over his chest. “They pay for your meals and your tuxes, and they want nothing in return.”

“Not exactly.” Gross tugged on his shirt.

Troy shook his head. “That’s what I thought.”

“There was one who wanted me to rub her feet. Another one wanted me to hold her hand while she got a tattoo.”

Those things seemed pretty harmless. Maybe Troy blew this situation out of proportion.

“Oh, and I guess my reputation of licking pussy has gone out to these ladies. They like when I do that.” Gross shrugged as he stared at Troy.

“Get out.” Troy pointed to the door. “You just wasted five minutes of my life that I’ll never get back.” Even if he wasn’t trying to get a jumpstart on his upcoming classes for summer school, listening to his friend’s bullshit bored him.

“Wait.” Gross held up his hands as Troy grabbed Gross’s shoulders to forcibly send his friend packing. “What else are you going to do since you and Meredith split?”

The breakup from his longtime girlfriend had hit him hard. With his work as a contractor, Troy came in contact with lots of people. At one point, only women hired him. Meredith recognized the trend and accused Troy of cheating on her, which had no merit. She saw what she saw and assumed the worst. He couldn’t change her perception. Without trust, they had no strong foundation for a lasting relationship.

Troy lifted his backpack. “Got that covered. I’m going back to school.”

Gross scrunched up his face. “At your age? Dude, don’t you think you’re too old to be back in school again?”

“Dude, don’t you think you’re too old to call someone a ‘dude?’ I’m just trying to better myself. That’s all.” He already prepared himself to be judged by kids half his age.

That wasn’t all. Troy wanted to finally pursue his dream of becoming a teacher. He wouldn’t get paid as much as did now, but he wanted to follow his dream. 

“I’m in my thirties.” Gross chewed his lower lip.

“What the hell? We’re both forty-five. As a matter of fact, you’re a month older than me.”

“Hey, I don’t want anyone knowing I’m in my forties. Besides, the ladies would like your type.” He smacked Troy in his midsection. “You stay in shape.” Then he peered up. “Your hair hasn’t gone gray yet. And you have that distinguished, settled down look.”

Troy rubbed his hand over his chin. “Oh, really? And what’s your look? Aging slacker?”

“I’m dangerous and mysterious. I’m getting a lot more play now that I’ve shaved off the dreads.”

“Wow, imagine that. A woman of our age finding a man who looks like a professional appealing.” Troy grabbed Gross’s arm and pulled him through his house to his front door. “Go home, Gross. Contact one of your other friends.”

“Those kids? The ladies wouldn’t find them good-looking at all. Maybe the cougars would.”

“Cougars?” Troy really had to get out more.

“You know. The older women looking for younger men.”

Troy rolled his eyes. “Why did I even ask? So what makes you think I’m their type?”

Gross waited a beat before answering. “Because I gave the company a picture of you that one Halloween where you dressed up like James Bond and they loved it. It’s gotten the most hits on the company website.”

The feeling of flames that started at Troy’s feet quickly moved up his body like a brush fire. Even his eyes felt hot, like he could shoot laser beams from them.

If Gross knew any better, he would have kept his mouth closed. He didn’t. “And I told them about your…thing.” He waved his hand in the air like he didn’t want to say anything more.

“What thing would that be?” Troy had a feeling this would slam the hammer on the final nail in Gross’s coffin. He had to hear what his friend had to say.

“You know. What we were just talking about. The spanking thing.” He glanced around Troy’s living room. He stopped when he saw something in the corner. “Do you hit the women with that thing or do you chain them up to that bar and hoist it in the air? Tell me how it works.”

Troy peered at the item Gross stared at in the corner. “Look down, man. It’s a broom. If you need help learning how to use a broom, you have bigger problems than with me.”

“Fine. Whatever. They included on your ad that you like to take control, that you dominate in all areas of your life.” Gross tapped Troy’s chest. “The women are loving it. What do you say?”

Although it sounded good to be desired again, Troy didn’t want it this way. There had to be something more, something deeper. As long as sex stayed out of the equation, he could discern who wanted him for him and who wanted the image.

“You son of a bitch. Get the fuck out of my house.” Troy opened the front door.

“Before you say no, remember that you owe me.” Gross shrieked, but Troy didn’t want to hear it.

Troy shoved Gross out but left the door open.

“You know after everything that went down, you still owe me big time.” Gross strolled back up to the door and stood in front of Troy. “No brothers or sisters. Parents died. No real family to speak of. Who gave you blood when you needed it after your accident?”

Damn, Troy knew he would go back to that. “You think that makes me obligated to you for the rest of my life or something?”

“Not the rest of your life.” He put his hands in prayer form. “But it should be good enough for a favor. Have I ever used the blood card before?”

Troy opened his mouth knowing that sometime after the accident Gross must have asked for some favor where he used the transfusion as his only leverage. In his memory bank, nothing registered. That didn’t mean Troy would do this stupid favor for Gross.

“Goodbye, Gross. I’ll talk to you later.” He slammed the door in his face. As soon as he turned around, he heard loud cries coming from his porch. Troy ran back to the door and opened it, finding Gross looking like a lost child in his skater shorts, a torn up Motorhead T-shirt, and checkered sneakers.

“If I don’t get a replacement in for me, they’re going to break my legs.” Gross covered his eyes then peeked through his fingers.

“You are a piece of work, aren’t you?” Troy glanced at his watch and cursed. “I need to go check out the campus, see where my classes are. Go home, Gross. Tell your friend that you’re not able to go out of town with her to be her boy toy.” Troy snatched his keys from the hook by the front door.

“I don’t see what the big deal is. You may not even get called.”

“Says the man who just admitted that a Halloween gag and a sensational description got the most hits on the company’s website. No, thank you. I’m trying to better myself so that I don’t have to keep seeing lonely, insecure women.” Troy locked his front door. “Besides, it wouldn’t exactly look good on my résumé to become a middle school teacher if I had ‘paid escort’ on it.”

“Why not?” Gross stomped his foot like a child.

Clueless.

“I’ll talk to you later.” Troy hopped into his truck then powered down his window. “And get my profile off of that damn website. I mean it.”

Gross nodded.

“I mean it.”

“Okay, okay. I hear you. Guess a little life means nothing between friends now.” Gross shrugged as he stomped his way to his tricked-out BMW SUV.

“Trust me. There will be bigger favors than this that you’ll request from me. This is nothing.” Troy sped off to East Coast University where his destiny awaited him.

It had been a long time since Troy walked around a college campus. Thankfully the classes he took more than twenty years ago transferred over, so he only needed a few classes to take to get his degree.

He pulled into the parking lot of the building where most of his classes would be this summer. A full load. He must have been crazy to do that to himself. Normally he would be the one to push people to their physical and mental limits, not the other way around.

With a pad and pen in hand, Troy walked into the building. After locating where all of his classes would be, he scanned the directory until he found his professors’ names. First stop: ethics professor.

“Ah, there it is. Kushnell comma A. Sixth floor.” Instead of taking the stairs on this hot summer day, Troy braved the elevator.

He enjoyed the nearly vacant parking lot and the few people milling around the hallway today. Pretty soon, the place would be full of students and he would be the old guy out.

Going back to school after all of these years would be a challenge, but Troy knew that before making the decision to return.

As soon as the elevator doors opened, he heard music blaring from down the hall. Probably some student working in an office, or someone on the cleaning crew trying to make their time enjoyable while they worked. Hell, his own guys in his company played music louder than this on job sites so it didn’t bother him.

Troy strolled down the hallway toward his new professor’s office. The closer he got, the louder the music became until he got a sinking feeling in his stomach that the music emanated from his professor’s office.

Damn, that either meant that he’d missed the professor or worse, he found him or her and his new professor had a maturity level a hair above Gross’s.

As he suspected, Troy stood outside the door of the office where the music blared. He steeled his nerves before knocking.

“Um, excuse me.” His knuckle rapped against the wood and the door eased open. What he saw on the other side unhinged his jaw.

He watched a woman with her back to him dancing around her office, if you could call it dancing. Dim the lights and install a silver pole in the small office, and this woman could pull a late shift at any strip club in the city.

She swayed her hips back and forth. In her thin tank top and her tiny black shorts, she looked sexy, damn sexy.

She had her dark brown hair pulled back into a tight bun, an unusual look with an outfit so very casual. Her smooth skin seemed like it had caramel spread over it. Beautiful color.

She hugged her arms around her body and danced her fingers up and down her sides. Cute. Troy leaned against the doorframe and watched the show for a while.

The song she listened to while her body wiggled and writhed around had some lyric in it about a guy missing his chance at marriage. With a body like this woman had, she probably had to beat guys off with a stick.

In that moment, she twirled around. Instantly, Troy’s gaze dropped to her chest where he confirmed what he suspected. Her dark areolas showed clearly through her thin top and her nipples peaked. The true crime came when she crossed her arms over her chest as soon as she saw him.

After turning down the music, which took her a while to figure out how to do so, she asked, “Who are you?” When she needed to drop at least one of her hands to pick up something from her desk, she took refuge behind her computer monitor to hide her breasts.

Damn.

“Sorry, I was looking for a Professor Kushnell.” Troy walked into the office, which for a professor’s, and considering its cramped space, had not one item out of place.

She picked up a pair of glasses and slipped them on her face. Like a bunny, her cute nose wrinkled as she tried to focus on him. “I’m, uh, Dr. Kushnell.”

Holy shit! This smoking hot woman could not be the professor he would be spending every day with for the next month.

Troy extended his hand and approached her. “Hi, my name is Troy Whitten. I’ll be one of your students in your
Sex and Ethics
class this summer.”

“Oh.” She smoothed her long, slender fingers over her hair. “Nice to meet you, Mr. Whitten.” She accepted his hand, giving him a firm handshake with her soft hand.

“Troy, please.”
And please say you aren’t married
, he wanted to add.

As though she had heard his thoughts, she removed her hand from his. “Classes don’t start until next week. What can I do for you?” She rested her hands on the flat screen monitor and moved closer to it.

In that moment, he envied the monitor.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve been at college. I wanted to get a jump on classes because I have a feeling things will move really quickly.” He cringed when he admitted his shortcomings.

It had nothing to do with him being a Dominant. Troy didn’t like asking for help.

“That’s correct. I do hand out my syllabus on the first day so that students will know what to expect. And it’s on the website.”

“Website?”