Licked (Devoured #1) (4 page)

Kirk watched Madeline’s mother shovel another scoop of mashed
potato in her mouth and cringed on the inside as a tiny bit clung to her lip.

“Seconds Kirk?” Mrs. Henry asked. “Don’t be shy now.”

“No, thanks, Dee Dee. I’m stuffed,” he said, rubbing his belly.
“You know your fried chicken does me in every time.”

“You and me both,” Ed Henry said, winking at Kirk like they were
in on a joke together.

Kirk smiled. He didn’t dislike spending time with Madeline’s
parents because they were bad people. It was just that he was sure she was
switched at birth.

There was no way that such a tiny, polite, sophisticated young
woman could have been raised by these large, animated people who often spat
when they talked. He just wasn’t used to it. His parents were dull in the most
pleasant, civilized way possible.

His dad was a pastor and his mom was a substitute teacher. They
were disciplined. They never talked with their mouth open and they never ate
seconds. They had enjoyed the same television programs for the last two decades,
and if one of their shows wasn’t on, they turned the TV off.

Meanwhile, Madeline’s parents talked about Honey Boo Boo like
she was a distant relative and her dad actually shot rabbits that came into the
backyard. With a gun. Which he kept in the house.

It was all too much for Kirk.

Sometimes Madeline accused him of being a stick in the mud and
suggested that he lighten up a little. But he would only ever think of
something horrible to say like, “You mean the way your folks should lighten up
on the mayonnaise?”

So he kept his mouth shut, silently cursing Ed’s diabetes in his
quiet moments as it was one of the reasons Madeline had wanted to move back
near her parents.

“How’s your new job treating you, Kirk?” Ed asked, buttering a
piece of bread to finish a meal which would have easily seen a healthy person
through the winter.

“Great, Ed. Thanks for asking.”

“They good kids in your classes?” Dee Dee asked.

“Great kids, yeah. Smart,” Kirk said.

Madeline smiled at him and put her hand on his knee under the
table.

“And the new house is holding up?” Ed said. “You have to be
careful these days with all those cowboys in the real estate business.”

“No surprises yet,” Kirk said, knocking on the wooden table.

“Well it’s like Christmas come early having you guys here,” Dee
Dee said, scraping her plate clean.

Kirk winced when she mentioned Christmas. After last year, he
had sworn to Madeline he would never set foot in her parent’s house again. This
meal was the first time he’d been there since, and besides Dee Dee’s slip, no
one else had brought it up. Probably because they were too drunk to remember.

“If only we could get your brother to move back, we’d be a big
happy family again!” Ed said.

As if you could be bigger
, Kirk
thought, hating himself.

That’s when he realized what his real problem with the Henrys
was: their company filled him with nasty, judgmental thoughts. As a result, he
felt shallow and ugly on the inside whenever they were on his outside. And it
was all because they were everything he didn’t want to be: lazy, unmotivated,
and overweight.

Ed put his silverware down on his plate and licked his fingers.

It was moments like this that made Kirk feel in awe of his love
for Madeline. It was powerful. It was uplifting. It was everything his loathing
for her family was not.

“Madeline tells me you have some news?” Ed asked, taking a sip
from a can of Pabst.

“Yes,” Kirk said. “We do, actually.”

He looked at Madeline and his heart expanded for a moment,
giving him the strength to go on. “Madeline and I are engaged to be married.”

“WhooooHOOOO,” Dee Dee yelled. “Finally! A doctor in the
family!”

“Congratulations!” Ed said, standing up to shake Kirk’s hand.
“You shoulda asked me first, of course, but I woulda said yes anyway so let’s
celebrate!”

Kirk gave hugs all around or at least as far around as he could
reach. He was relieved the news went down as well as it did considering he
hadn’t even thought to ask her dad’s permission first.

“Ed,” Dee Dee said. “Help me clear the table and get dessert,
will you?”

Ed stood and did as he was told.

Kirk turned to Madeline and draped his hands behind her waist.

 “I love you, babe,” she said, looking up at him with her big
brown eyes.

He gave her a little kiss. “You too, honey.”

As soon as her parents left the room, she leaned up to his ear
and whispered. “I told you last Christmas was a one off. Everything’s going
fine. See?”

“Right again,” he said, pressing his hips against hers.

“You realize when we get married they’ll be your family, too?”

Kirk smiled. “Let’s not ruin this beautiful moment.”

Madeline pushed his chest playfully and went in for another kiss
but was interrupted by a buzzing in Kirk’s pocket.

As Kirk stepped back and reached for his phone, Madeline’s arms
fell from around his neck.

He held the phone out in front of him and opened the text from
the unknown number.

She raised her eyebrows.

“Probably work,” he said.

But when he looked back down, he was holding up a picture of
another woman’s breasts in front of his fiancée’s body. And they weren’t just
anyone’s breasts. He’d recognize that gold cross anywhere.

Julianna tried to ignore the distracting buzz of the fluorescent
lighting as she highlighted another paragraph from start to finish.

“It’s not going to help you study if you highlight everything,”
Sam whispered across the table.

Julianna shrugged. “You meeting Kevin later?”

“No,” Sam said. “I have a test tomorrow. That’s the reason I’m
here. Remember?”

Julianna looked around at the other students, hunched over the
library tables, their noses growing out of their books. “I’m surprised he
didn’t offer to help you study.”

“He did,” Sam said, “but I’m sure it wouldn’t have been very
productive.”

“Skank.”

Sam smiled into her book.

“Oh my God, it’s him.”

“Who?” Sam looked up. “Kevin?”

“No, Kirk.”

Sam gave her a blank stare.

“The professor I’m in the process of seducing?”

“Oh right. How’s that going?”

Julianna watched Kirk walk to the last row of bookshelves and
disappear down the aisle. “Ask me in five minutes.” She got up and pushed her heavy
wooden chair back under the table. “Watch my stuff.”

“Of course,” Sam said, her eyebrows lifted.

Julianna walked over to the coffee machine and filled up a small
paper cup. She added two crèmes and two sugars before making her way to the aisle
where she’d seen him disappear, looking over her shoulder repeatedly to make
sure she wasn’t being followed.

Kirk was standing in the dark corner at the far end all alone.
As she approached him, he turned to look at her. From the startled look on his
face, she was confident that he’d received her text.

“Julianna.”

She noticed that his finger slipped from its place in the book
he was holding.

“Hi,” she whispered. “I saw you from where I was sitting and
brought you a coffee.”

“Oh. Thank you.” He took the cup and found room for it on the
metal shelf in front of him.

“It’s just how you like it,” she said, moving into his personal
space.

“That’s very nice of you.”

She whispered again, letting the words take their time leaving
her mouth. “I always return favors.”

His Adam’s apple dipped as he swallowed. “I’ll be sure to
remember that.”

He turned his eyes back to his book.

Julianna leaned her back against the solid shelf and made bedroom
eyes at him.

Kirk closed his finger inside the book, lowered it beside him,
and looked at her.

She smiled. “That’s a pretty sexy shirt for a professor,” she
said, trailing a red fingernail down his hunter green top. “Are you always this
buttoned up?”

“Yes,” he barely said.

“Really?” Her voice was breathy. “Is that so you don’t make
mistakes? So you don’t… give away something you shouldn’t?”

“Everyone makes mistakes, Julianna.”

She stepped in front of him so that her breasts were right up
against him.

He didn’t move. He just stood stiff with his arms hanging down
at his sides.

She looked him in the eye as she slipped her hand down against
the outside of his pants, sliding it between his leg and his cock until she
could gently cup his balls. “When was the last time you made a mistake, Kirk?”

She squeezed her hand to size him up, to measure the effect she
was having on him. She was invigorated at his responsiveness and the way he smelled.
Like spearmint.

She watched as he closed his eyes and took a deep breath, no
doubt smelling her sweet perfume and considering his options. She looked at his
slightly parted lips and imagined how inexperienced they might be as they explored
the curves of her body. She thought of the places she might ask him to put
them.

She was considering snagging his lower lip with her teeth when
he opened his eyes.

“Julianna,” he said.

She raised her eyebrows, inviting him to continue.

“Can I go back to my research or do you need help with something?”

“Oh not at all. I’m fine,” she said, her hand still gripping his
hardened cock. “I just wanted to bring you a coffee and thank you for being so…
responsive.”

He pushed his glasses up his nose. “Thank you and you’re
welcome,” he said, holding his breath.

“You know,” she whispered. “Your tone isn’t getting nearly as
firm as your cock.”

“See you in class, Julianna.”

“Looking forward to it,” she said, letting go of him. She rose
on her tippy toes and let her warm breath wash over his ear. “And if you don’t
find what you’re looking for back here, you know where to find me.”

She sank back down onto the balls of her feet and walked away.
She didn’t look back over her shoulder to check if he was watching her. She
knew she had done enough. She had felt what he felt.

And actions speak louder than words.

Kirk turned off the ignition and sat in the driveway thinking
about the incident in the library.

After she left, he did his best to check for library security.
He hadn’t found any cameras near that row of shelves, but it still made him
shudder to think that anyone could have just walked around the corner and seen
them.

And not only had he been aroused by her, she knew it, and that
made him vulnerable. His body had let him down.

He leaned his head back and straightened his arms against the steering
wheel. Maybe it was his fault. Maybe if he hadn’t thought of her in the shower
as he came down the drain, he wouldn’t have been so sensitive to her touch, so
primed to the thought of her pleasuring him.

Obviously, he had deleted the text as fast as he could. But it
didn’t matter. He saw it. He saw the small gold cross laying on her full
breasts. Madeline didn’t have breasts like that. She had cute
less-than-a-handful breasts, the kind that didn’t always require a bra. He
adored them.

But in a moment of weakness, he imagined the way the gold cross
would bounce against Julianna’s chest if he were having her, how he might bite
it as she smothered him with her tits. At the time, he actually thought he was
doing the right thing. Like it was better for him not to think those impure
thoughts about his fiancée. For both their sakes.

But he was kidding himself. He had thought about Julianna
because he wanted to. Because she made him think about her by sending that
picture. Because he was so horny for his fiancée that his balls were sore all
the time. Because he needed a release.

But admiring her rack didn’t mean he ever had any intention of
acting on it. She was his student for Christ sakes! He thought if he never
mentioned the picture it would go away. There was always a chance it was
intended for someone else. After all, he hadn’t even given her his number.

But what happened at the library dispelled that theory. It was no
accident. She sent that text to him deliberately. He felt himself getting hard
again just thinking about the way she fondled him so expertly. Her calculated
movements made it impossible for his body to hide its arousal.

It was wrong. Even if she wanted it. Kirk knew his job, his
future, everything was riding on his ability to get through the semester like a
professional. And at no point had his education prepared him for this. He’d
attended hours of courses about preventing harassment in the classroom and
maintaining a professional relationship with students of the opposite sex. No
one had ever even suggested that the teacher might be the victim.

But victim seemed too strong a word. After all, Julianna was a
grown woman, and even though it was wrong on so many levels, he got off on her
and her attention.

He shuddered to think about how unpredictable she was. He had to
say something to her, had to ask that she spare him. He couldn’t trust himself.
He was afraid, afraid that if she kept it up, he might not be able to resist
her.

After all, his primal urges were dangerous, and all this time
waiting for Madeline had made him weak.

He had to put a stop to it. He promised himself he would do
whatever it took to keep his priorities straight and his zipper zipped.

Kirk rubbed his crotch and thought about his soon to be mother
in law which sorted his hard-on right out. Then he took a deep breath and put a
smile on his face. After all, keeping this little issue a secret from Madeline
was priority number one. He loved how fragile she was, how trusting, but if she
knew one of his students had fondled him in a public place, she would probably
have a catastrophic meltdown.

Kirk turned the key in the lock and pushed the weighty door
open.

“Honey?” he asked, closing the door behind him. “I’m home.” He
took his shoes off and put them neatly under the entry way table.

Kirk walked around the downstairs and checked the back garden.
The oven door was open and there was cornbread cooling inside. His mouth
watered, and he was tempted to cut into the bread but decided he would find
Madeline first.

He was halfway upstairs before he heard the muffled crying.

“Madeline?” He started taking the stairs two at a time. “Honey?”
He threw the bedroom door open and the crying got louder.

It was coming from the bathroom.

He knocked hard on the closed door. “Madeline? Are you okay?!”

“Yes,” she sniffled.

“I’m coming in.”

“Okay.”

He opened the door and was hit with a wall of lavender scent.

Madeline had her hair tied up and was having a bubble bath. Her
eyes and nose were red. There were women’s magazines all over the bathroom
floor.

“What’s going on here?” he said, stepping over the magazines until
he reached her side. “I thought you were hurt.”

“I’m okay,” Madeline said. She raised a warm hand out of the bathwater
and gripped the side of the tub. “How was your day?”

“Fine.” Kirk looked around the bathroom floor again. “Why are
you crying? What the Hell is going on? Heck, sorry,” he corrected.

“I just got a bit overwhelmed,” she said, looking up and
blinking to keep the tears in her eyes.

“By women’s magazines?”

Madeline laughed, her bee stung eyes closing almost to nothing.
“Looks that way, doesn’t it?”

“Yeah. Where did you even get them?”

“I bought them,” she said. “To study.”

“Study what? Fall fashion?”

“No.” She let her hand slip back in the tub. “I was studying for
our wedding night.”

“What on Earth would you do that for?”

“Cause I want… Cause I want to be good for you.”

“Don’t be silly, Maddy.” He knelt down beside the tub. “Of
course you’ll be good.”

“But there’s so much to know about everything and, I don’t know.
I just don’t want to make a fool of myself.”

Kirk smiled and put his palm on the side of her face. “People
far less intelligent than us have figured it out.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. Just look at Honey Boo Boo.”

Madeline chuckled and sniffed.

“Well figure it out together,” Kirk said, “and it will be good
because it will be us and we love each other.”

Madeline swallowed. “But there are all these different positions,
and they all have these intimidating names. And I know I was a cheerleader and
everything, but I don’t think I can do some of those things.”

Kirk smiled and took his glasses off so he could rub his eyes. “Honey,
that stuff is advanced. We’re beginners. We have all that stuff to look forward
to, okay?”

“But I don’t know anything.”

“All you have to know is that you love me and I love you.”

Madeline smiled.

“And we’ll figure it out together when the time comes.”

She nodded.

“But I think you should toss these magazines and put your energy
into planning the wedding.”

“You in some kind of hurry?”

“To marry you? Heck yes I am!” he said, rising to his feet. “The
sooner you plan the wedding, the sooner we get to the wedding night!”

She laughed.

Kirk unbuttoned his top button. “Better?”

“Yeah,” she said, pushing the bubbles around. “Thanks.”

“Good.”

“I’m going to get out soon because I’ve gone all pruney,” she
said, “but if you want to cut into that cornbread, go ahead.”

Kirk smiled. “See now
that
is something I can’t wait
for.”

“Just don’t spoil your appetite.”

“Don’t you worry,” Kirk said. “There is absolutely nothing wrong
with my appetite.”