Lusting For Elliot

:Part One: Chapter Twelve

~Chapter Twelve~

Pulling back a chair and sitting down, I tucked my leg under the other and fought back a scowl.

"What do you have in mind, Elliot?" I asked. The hair at the back of my neck was on high alert.

One of his brows quirked upward in an attempt to pull off a show of innocence. I nearly scoffed at that. "I think I know enough now to know silence is the worst thing when it comes to you. It's either you are a perverted jerk, or a perverted, conniving jerk. Which will it be?"

Elliot's lips tugged at one corner, but he pushed it away. I nearly let mine show. He leaned forward and laced his fingers together on the table. "I have a solution for you," he said.

My brows shot upward in astonishment. Curiosity soon followed that feeling. "I'm listening, Elliot," I said steadily. Being president of the student committee back in my old school served its benefits, that and attending to most of my grandmother's businesses.

"You're a stubborn girl, I know that now," he said. "And in light of recent attempts and failed occurrences-"

"I think they were fairly successful," I interjected, studying my nails. As always, they were clean and short. Grandmother didn't condone coloured nails or long lengths; she said they made one seem untidy and unhygienic. It was something I honestly agreed with her.

Elliot studied me for a moment, staring straight at me with a ticking jaw. The fact that we were seated in a corner table with no one within ear shot to hear us, it certainly made people curious.

I sighed when I started fidgeting. "Please, continue," I said.

Elliot rolled his eyes. "I propose a deal that will keep you on top of your score targets for the whole year to come," Elliot said. I perked up immediately.

This wasn't possibly happening. It had to be some kind of trick, a trip at mockery. Elliot, the Elliot I'd grown accustomed to in a short burst of days, wasn't proposing a mutual agreement between us.

I narrowed my eyes at him, attempting to discover the slightest tug of a lip, the simplest form of mockery or deceit.

"What am I missing in this picture?" I asked out aloud. Elliot rolled his eyes at my obvious distaste.

"Nothing," he said. I realised what it was then. Elliot wasn't smirking, nor was he acting like his usual cocky self. If I had to say a word that would describe the entirety of his visage, I'd flat out say 'serious'.

I didn't like it.

But I'd quickly learned that acting on one's emotions wasn't the sure way to go about a proposal. No, a leader, as I'd been raised to become, handled and tackled situations with a steady heart and astute mind.

There were always more options than one, all I had to do was make them, and later, make my choices lead to my destination. One had to be tactfully skilled when handling the likes of Elliot Dupree.

"Lay out your plan for me, Elliot," I said, watching him as I'd watch a poker player, not that I'd played poker before. "I want it all in detail."

Finally, Elliot smirked. It lit up his sharp eyes and I was suddenly breathless. "You can have me compliant and mindful every time a project comes up, in all the classes we take together, and all you have to do..." he leaned forward.

Something wasn't right.

Perhaps it was the sudden way my breathing spiked up and I became breathless, staring deep into his eyes. I lied to myself it was because I wanted to make certain there was no underhanded ploy I could see.

Perhaps it was the way my phone suddenly buzzed in my hand, or it was because of the immediate flare of an unfathomable expression on Elliot's face.

But I ignored it.

I shouldn't have.

"You will be whatever I want you to be until the end of the term."