Mr. Palmer (Chloe PoV)

Taking a breath, I smoothed out the front of my uniform before opening the door and walking inside. The front office was luxury in excess. The school had an image to maintain after all. The secretary was busy pretending she had work as she moved her gaze from one of the three screens on her desk to the others. I knew it was all bullshit. She was lazy and a ditz. Probably why she was married to Mr. Palmer.

She looked up at me as if she hadn’t known I was standing there next to her for the past dozen seconds. On her desk was Mrs. Palmer in a fancy nameplate. My face remained expressionless as I stared at her, betraying none of the contempt I felt for her. She was the gatekeeper and guardian for her husband. She knew full well what happened in his office with the young girls he ‘mentored.’ I had no idea what she got out of the arrangement, but she had no qualms letting her husband stick his dick in other women.

Of course, it was always the ones like me. The lotto winners. The scholarship girls. Girls who would never rock the boat and could always be paid for their silence.

“Again, Ms. Reed?” she said with a knowing smile.

“I didn’t do anything.”

“If that was the case, you wouldn’t be here, right?”

“Yeah, well… I’m not staying long.”

Her eyes ran over me. “Mm-hm. Go on in. He’s waiting for you.”

Head held high, I moved over to the door. It was open, so I stepped inside. “Ah, Ms. Reed,” Mr. Palmer said, getting to his feet. This pompous asshole was pretending he was in the middle of something important—as if he hadn’t arrived thirty seconds before me. “Please, close the door behind you.”

“I think the door is fine open.”

He didn’t look happy at that and I didn’t give a shit about his feelings on the matter. “We are about to discuss some sensitive matters. It would be best for everyone if you closed the door.”

I rolled my eyes, crossing my arms. “Look, Mr. Palmer. In case you haven’t heard, I’m a reformed student. My grades are up and I’m not getting in trouble anymore. There really isn’t anything for us to discuss. I have no plans of causing trouble the rest of the year either.”

“I see,” he said quietly. His eyes lingered on me in an inappropriate way. My arms tightened around my chest. There was something about that look I didn’t like, but couldn’t figure out. It went beyond the simple, ‘I want to fuck you’ look I dealt with in the halls. That I could deal with.

“That is certainly good to hear. Always happy to see a student improve.”

“Then are we done here?” I asked. To make my point clear, I took a step back towards the door.

“Not quite.” He gestured to the chair in front of his desk. “Please, sit.”

“I’d rather stand.”

He shrugged. Moving away from his desk, he walked past me and closed the door himself. My stomach sank as he remained between me and the door.

“I’m not going to lie,” he said as his eyes lingered over places they had no business being. “I was disappointed to hear you had quit your small business. This school prides itself on encouraging and supporting our entrepreneurial students.”

No way in hell was I going to let him know I was frightened. Jake had been right. I needed to be careful. “If that were the case, you should have paid like everyone else.”

His smile was a condescending one. The type that an adult gave a child who didn’t know better. “All businesses deal with the costs of business. It wasn’t like you got nothing from our arrangement. The key to the infirmary… Missing security footage… Staff turning a blind eye to certain behaviors…”

“And now that I’m done, I need none of that.” I gestured to the door. “So we are done talking.”

“True. I suppose you no longer need my assistance.” Relief flooded me as he stepped away from the door. I was already moving to the door when his voice stopped me. “Though there is the matter of…”

My hand was touching the door handle. I was so close. A twist and I was free. Turning, I gave him a suspicious look. “What?”

“Oh, it’s nothing. Just the matter of your graduation.”

“Are you threatening me?”

His eyes went wide in mock outrage. “Threatening you? Of course not. I’m only saying there is evidence of academic misconduct in several of your classes. Misconduct where, if investigated, could put your graduation—your very enrollment here—at risk.”

I was fuming. This pudgy bastard was blackmailing me. It was true that I’d slept with several teachers in exchange for above-average grades and he was using that as an excuse to get rid of me if I didn’t play along.

There was a smug smile on his face. The smile of someone who already knew they won. “Still don’t want to take a seat?” With clenched fists and body quivering with rage, I moved towards the chair in front of his desk. “Ah,” he said, eyes tracking me. “Not there.”

My chest rose and fell, nostrils flaring from the sheer fury I felt pumping through me. Moving around his desk, I took a seat on his lap. His hand was immediately on my leg, wasting no time finding its way up my skirt.

“A wise decision,” he said, eyes resting on my breasts as his hand continued to slide between my legs. My face twitched as I felt his fingers brush against my panties. His other arm wrapped around me to pull me in closer, his belly pressing against me. My eyes went up to the ceiling as I tried to swallow the lump in my throat. My eyes squeezed shut, trying to stop the tears as his fingers slid my panties aside to touch me directly.

“Now, shall we discuss your continued enrollment here?”

That was the last thing I wanted to do. None of this was right. I was supposed to be done with this, but this was the ugly truth of reality. Adam was right. I could try and pretend I was the girlfriend Jake deserved, but I could never escape the reality that I was a whore. For all my effort to put this behind me, all my disgust, the moment he touched me it all collapsed. Brushed away like the illusion it always was.

I saw the victory in his eyes. The lust there. He was going to fuck me. Right here in his office.

And I was okay with that.

I gasped, my head going back as a finger entered me.

The phone on his desk beeped. “Mr. Palmer? There is a student—Hey! You can’t go in—!”

The door burst open and there was Jake. I felt the blood rush from my face as I realized what he was seeing. There was no hiding or mistaking what was happening here. The man still had his hand up my skirt.

“Jake—” My voice croaked as I felt my body deflate. What the hell was I doing?

His face was a wall as he marched over to us. Grabbing my arm, he pulled me from Mr. Palmer’s lap. His grip was painful as he stood between me and the stunned principal.

“T-this—”

“Touch her again and I will remove your penis and feed it to you.” I looked at him in shocked horror. It wasn’t what he said, it was how he said it. The complete detachment of emotion and monotone had made it sound like a simple fact. There was zero doubt that he was anything less than committed to making good on his threat. Before I could process Mr. Palmer’s reaction, he was pulling me from the room. His grip was painful, but I didn’t dare speak out.

Mrs. Palmer was standing outside the office with a frightened expression on her face. Jake paused, turning his head to stare at her. He said nothing, simply staring at her. I knew all too well the intensity he could bring. By now, I was used to it. She was terrified, shrinking back a few steps. Then we were moving again. He was practically dragging me from the front office and down the halls. With his long strides, it was hard for me to keep up.

“Jake,” I said, wincing as his fingers pressed into my arm. “Jake.”

He stopped. Releasing me, my hand immediately touched the sore area he had been grabbing and rubbed it. I wasn’t angry about that. It was the last thing I was concerned about. This pain was nothing compared to what would have happened if he hadn’t shown up. What I had been about to do… What I had wanted to do…

“I promised myself I would protect you,” he said, still not turning around. He hung his head.

Stepping around him, I looked up at him. “You did.”

“You should have never been in there alone in the first place. I should have—”

My hand pressed against his chest. His eyes found mine and I smiled at him. “How about we play hooky?”

“Chloe—”

“No more of this. We both understood the risks of me quitting.” My smile widened. “We are there for each other when we need it, right?” He stared at me with his blank expression. Slowly, he nodded. “Good. Now let’s get the fuck out of here.”