Justin was in his own personal Hell;
the crowded hallway of a college campus. One of the things that sucked about
being the Draksel family doctor was the need to attend medical school again
with a bunch of humans. Still, saying he hated everything about it would be a
lie. Learning about new advancements in medicine and doing research was
exciting. Since it had been over one‑hundred and fifty years since he’d become
a doctor, a lot had changed. Each time he went through medical school he
learned something new.
Despite the fact that he preferred to
avoid humans, he even enjoyed his time as an intern. Part of that time could be
avoided, but he kind of got off on the long hours and stress. There weren’t
many patients to see in his day to day life because his kind didn’t get sick
and injuries severe enough to need medical intervention were pretty rare. Most
of what he did was fang removals and prenatal care. Working in emergency rooms
gave him a chance to actually practice medicine. There was a thrill involved
with saving a life, and the humans working alongside him experienced the same
rush. For a short period of time, they had something in common.
What he hated was pretending to be a
human in his twenties, which often meant pretending to respect doctors who were
well over a hundred years younger than him. He might look that age, but at
around two‑hundred years old he hated trying to act it. At least he didn’t have
to deal with the undergrad crap again. As he looked around the crowded college
campus, he was thankful for his hacker brother. Isaiah would make sure he had
the stellar transcripts to get into the medical school of his choice. Before
computers, that had been a lot harder to do. While it had been nothing a little
mind control and breaking and entering couldn’t solve, it had still been a pain
in the ass.
The only thing he had to do was get
recommendation letters from professors and Isaiah would handle the rest. He’d
already picked the professors. Now, all he needed to do was head to their
offices, add a little compulsion to his voice and they’d believe they knew him
well.
Walking through the crowds of humans barely
old enough to be called adults was annoying at best. He was working his way toward
the exit that led to the courtyard when a blonde brushed her ample breasts
against his chest and smiled coyly at him. With so many people around them it
might have been an accident, but he doubted it.
Batting her eyes, she didn’t move back at
all. “I’m so sorry.”
“No problem,” he said and put his hands
on her shoulders to keep some distance between them when he stepped back.
“Is there anything I can do to make it
up to you?” she asked. Her breasts pressed against him again and sex was obviously
among the things she’d do to make it up to him.
There’d been a time when Justin might
have taken her up on that offer, but that had been many years ago. Humans gave him
energy and nothing more. The drama wasn’t worth it, and there was always a lot
of drama involved with humans.
“Not interested,” he said.
She huffed and stormed off with her ass
shaking back and forth.
Justin had checked the schedule for the
instructor he wanted to visit today before heading to the campus so he could
avoid those types of encounters. Unfortunately, the professor had car trouble
and wasn’t on campus yet. That left him contemplating his options. Was it worth
it to wait, or should he just come back another day? In an ideal world, he could
visit all of the professors in one day, but it took a lot of energy to create
the memories he needed in the minds of the professors. Even two in one day was
too much.
With nothing to do but wait, he headed
toward the courtyard, slipping his sunglasses on before he walked out of the
enclosed hallway. As he scanned the courtyard a hot looking human with a very
determined stride caught his attention. A hundred years ago he wouldn’t have
looked at her twice. Back then he’d liked his women curvy and soft, like the
little piece of fluff who’d rubbed against him.
Justin shoved his hands in his front
pockets and leaned against the wall to watch her approach. Dressed in shorts
and a tank top, the woman’s lithe well‑toned body was on display. She was tall
for a woman. With her high‑heeled strappy sandals, she was probably almost as
tall as him. The way those straps wrapped around her ankles made him think
about how sexy she’d look tied to his bed. He shook his head to clear it. He’d
never been the type to go for that sort of thing before, but something about
this woman made him want to do all sorts of things to her body. She had an
olive complexion and sexy amber eyes that had a catlike quality to them. She
wasn’t wearing a lot of makeup or one of those annoying pushup bras women
seemed to go for. If she wasn’t so young, he’d be tempted to take her home for
a few hours and experiment with that bondage fantasy. Then he let out a sigh.
Hot or not, she was way too young. The girl couldn’t be much older than
eighteen.
A skinny blonde approached his hot
woman. Logical or not, he was feeling possessive.
“Where the hell are all of your books,
Caitlin? Don’t tell me you’ve given up on your plans to become Dr. Mendoza,”
the blonde said in a raspy voice.
Justin was even more intrigued after
hearing that his fantasy girl wanted to be a doctor.
“Hardly,” she said with a haughty
snort. “Three of my classes have an eBook option this semester. Thankfully, one
of them is my anatomy class because I would hate to have to carry that one around.
I bought the print textbook to use at home, but it’s huge. I can already tell
that class is going to be stressful enough.”
The blonde shuddered. “Stressful and
gross. I’d hate dealing with dead bodies.”
Caitlin waved off her comment. “I love
dissections. What annoys me are the idiots in the class. Half of the giggling
bimbos in there should be singing If I Only
Had a Brain.”
“Hey! I resent you insulting us
bimbos,” the blonde said with a flip of her hair.
“Oh please,” Caitlin said with a
dismissive wave of her hand, “I was referring to the real bimbos, not the wanna
be bimbos like you.”
“Bitch,” the blonde said with a smile.
“So what’s up with the clothes? You look like a streetwalker.”
Caitlin looked the blonde up and down, obviously
taking in her skimpy attire. “Nah, too easy,” she said. “Some little twit
spilled her juice all over me in class, and I had to go change.” She gestured
to her clothes. “This is not what I want to wear to impress my professors.”
The blonde snorted. “Please, you wear
jeans most days. I was just teasing about you looking like a streetwalker. Nobody
will notice the shorts.”
Justin almost laughed. How could anyone
miss those impossibly long legs? People would be staring at them all day.
“I gotta run,” the blonde said. “I have
a creative writing class in a few minutes.”
“Is that the new major?” Caitlin asked.
The blonde shrugged. “Who knows? I’ll
catch you later,” she said over her shoulder as she sashayed across the
courtyard.
Justin pushed himself off of the wall he’d
been leaning against and followed Caitlin. Yes, she was too young, but he couldn’t
seem to stop himself. She made her way over to the soda machine and bought a
Cherry Coke. Justin couldn’t remember the last time he’d had one of those, and it
sounded really good. Then he looked at the machine and saw the red light next
to that button was on. She’d taken the last one. Well, convincing her to give it
to him would be easy, and it would give him an excuse to talk to her.
“Hi, Caitlin,” he said from a few feet
behind her.
She looked startled when she spun
around but quickly masked her reaction into one of utter disdain. One perfectly
arched eyebrow rose, and she eyed him from head to toe, clearly finding him
lacking. “Do I know you?” she asked in a bored tone.
His lips twitched. Damn she was full of
fire, and it was testing his self‑control, making him want to do something
impulsive and stupid. “That Cherry Coke looks good,” he said.
“Was there a point to this
conversation? Or were you just trying to be the creepy guy on campus?” she
asked with no emotion.
Knowing she wasn’t affected by his
looks made her even more fascinating to him. It’s not that he was arrogant, but
he knew women found him attractive all the time. With his dark brown hair,
bronzed skin, and muscular frame, he was confident in his looks.
Even though he had no intention of
seeing Caitlin after that day, he felt a driving need to spend a little time
with her. Sex was still off limits, but he wanted to talk to her. Justin looked
at her and pushed the compulsion into his words. “You want to give me that Coke
and then sit down and talk to me.”
He watched as her eyes narrowed.
Something was definitely off.
She opened the can and took a long
drink while he watched her swallow. Staring at her long neck, he was suddenly
so hard that he hoped she wouldn’t look down. “I don’t think so, prick,” she
said. “Hopefully we won’t have this conversation again. Come to think of it, hopefully
we won’t have any conversation ever again.”
Justin watched in stunned silence as she
walked away, her ass swaying back and forth.
He was so aroused he thought he might
embarrass himself. Excitement like he hadn’t felt in decades hummed through his
body. This was even better than he’d expected. She was still too young, but
that was the woman he could see spending the rest of his life with.
Once he’d made his way back to his car,
he dialed Isaiah’s number.
“Change of plans,” he
said. “I need you to get me registered as a student here, and I need to be in
every class with a student named Caitlin Mendoza.”
