Page 17 of Masters of Play

"Come again?"

The blush swarmed my cheeks before my brain could process his words. Was I mistaken, or did the corner of Professor Sinead's eye twitch at his choice of words?

"I'm trying to include a quantitative data set, like you said, but I'm stuck," I said as I marched into the room. I slammed my black and white notes and colorful pens and calculator down on his desk. "I was almost finished. It was perfect until you showed up and showed me my flaw. Now I can't get it out of my head."

"I knew you wouldn't be able to." Professor Sinead leaned back in his chair. He brought his right hand up to rub at his chin as he did so. The flex of his biceps made my mouth water.

"You bastard," I hissed.

Professor Sinead cocked his head and raised his eyebrow, an indication that I'd gone too far. He was right. I was completely far gone.

"I've tried to map the central tendencies," I said. "But the values are all askew."

He nodded at me patiently. "The central tendencies would show you the mean, median, and mode. That's not what you're looking for at this juncture."

"I don't know what I'm looking for."

"Of course you do, Ms. Prince. You are one of the most brilliant minds I've come across in these walls."

"I am?"

Professor Sinead lowered his eyebrow. He looked away from me, but it was too late. The praise was out there. "You know you are. And I know you're smart enough to figure this out."

I arched my back. If anyone had asked, I would've said it was to remove my backpack. My backpack sat at the entrance to the classroom, so that was a lie. I arched my back because I wanted this man to run his hand over me to find the mean, median, and mode of all of my curves.

"Maybe I should start with a dispersion measurement," I said as my nipples hardened with the thought of his fingers dispersing to cup my mounds.

Professor Sinead's glance dipped down to my twin peaks, but he didn't reach out. "No."

I was more disappointed that he was saying no to my answer to his question than my sexual advance. My back caved in and breasts dropped as I slumped down, my hands going onto his desk.

"You're guessing, Ms. Prince. I need you to think." His index finger came under my chin to tilt my head up. "Try again."

It was the first time that he'd ever touched me. I stared into those eyes. I could see him pulling for me. I wanted to please him.

I told my brain to think. "I'm looking for the frequency of occurrences."

"Yes."

"So I should first turn each occurrence in a data set into a percentile value."

"And what might that tell you?"

I watched his lips form the words, and then my brain kicked into gear. "It should tell me the standard deviation of kinkery across all my subjects."

A slow grin spread across his face. "Good girl."

A tendril of my hair slid forward between us. It brushed against the side of the finger that still held my chin up. Professor Sinead's gaze went to that single lock of hair.

Slowly, gently, he pulled the lock toward him. I held my breath, hoping against hope that he would… and then he did. He wound the lock of my hair once, twice around his index finger.

That was all the foreplay I could stand.

I leaned in and brushed my lips against his. Professor Sinead gasped and pulled back. Not out of my reach. Just enough to break the kiss.

He still held my hair coiled around his finger as he stared at me. I saw the battle in his eyes. That bright flick of desire along with the cool assessment that I was so used to. In the next breath, the fire flared and burned all logical thought from his vision, and his lips crashed into mine.

Professor Sinead gave a tug of my hair, and I came to him. My papers fell to the floor as he plunged into my mouth. My legs spread as he pulled my thighs closer to him from his seated position.