Her Dirty Professor Series (21+)

He smiles, and it’s genuine when I expect it to be creepy. “Yes, I do, but you don’t know me. You’re Esme.” He sticks out his hand. “I’m Malcolm Fideri. I work with Vito. I saw a photo of you on Vito’s phone, but it’s good to meet you in the flesh. Hey, I’m so sorry, but I overheard you talking-”

“Leave me the fuck alone!” I scream as I step back, throwing my arms up between us like they’re some sort of force field. My mind is spinning.

“Hey. I’m not going to-”

“You don’t know me, and I don’t know you. Just get back, or I swear to God…”

He throws his arms up. “Okay, okay, this is me stepping back. I don’t know what’s going on here, but I’m trying to help. I can help you. Vito can help you.”

“I don’t want your help.” I turn and glance down the road. There’s a cab, and I stick my arm out, but it drives right past. “Damn it.” Turning back to the parking lot, I see Malcolm disappearing inside the back door of the restaurant, and I know where he’s going. I need to get out of here.

Running in my bare feet isn’t much better than running in the heels.

I just have to hope a cab comes along before it’s too late.

Vito

“VITO, I NEED A WORD.” Malcolm leans down close to me at the table, and I turn his way, lowering my voice.

“What are you doing here?”

“Just wanted you to have a friendly face nearby.” He glances around the table, smiling at Salvatore. “Besides, I’m hungry.”

Salvatore laughs. “Hey, Malcolm, you know if you want to join the winning team there’s always a place at my table for a man of your… specific talents.”

Malcolm shoots him a look but doesn’t respond. There’s no love lost between the two of them. “It’s Esme,” he says, quiet enough that only I can hear it.

My hackles go up. “What about her?”

“She’s was out in the back parking lot. I overheard her on the phone. It sounded bad. Sounded like family.”

“What the fuck? Why didn’t she come in? Why didn’t you bring her in here to me? Why the fuck didn’t Hamilton let me know they were on their way?” Something feels wrong, and I need to get out of here.

I scribble my signature on the handwritten paper in front of me, no longer caring if I could have negotiated something better. It’s not exactly a contract, but it’s as close as they come in my line of work. The courts may not think much of it, but the crime families will honor it to the end of their bloodlines.

“I have to go. Sal, that concludes our business.”

I was pissed already when Sal and I were halfway through with our chat and the two girls showed up and he let them sit down. Good thing we were done with our discussion, a signature and a handshake all that was left to do, but still. It was fucking disrespectful, and I know he was trying to throw his new business in my face.

I turn to Malcolm, and he steps back when he sees the look in my eyes.

“Hey, I tried, you know? She started screaming for me to stay away from her. What was I supposed to do?”

A waiter walks up behind him holding a pair of shoes and a heel that’s broken off one of them. They’re the same heels I bought for Esme that she had on this morning.

“Mr. Vitaglia? Sir, sorry, I think your lady friend dropped these. She seemed in quite a state-”

“What the fuck?” I think I’m losing it. “Why the hell didn’t you bring this to me before?”

“I-I-didn’t know what to do, sir. You were busy, and she told me not to tell you she was here-”

“Fuck.”

Something’s very wrong. I can feel it. Malcolm isn’t exactly a saint, but nor is he a monster, and he doesn’t look like one. For Esme to be scared of him means she’s scared of me, and the fact that she’s at this restaurant but told the waiter not to let me know says I’ve done something wrong.

I grab my copy of the agreement off the table, foregoing the handshake and giving Salvatore a death glare. I scrunch the paper in my hand as I rush out through the kitchens toward the parking lot with Malcolm on my heels.

Esme works for the DA. I’m not exactly the poster child for a law-abiding citizen. Maybe when she got to work today, she did some digging. Found out things…

Fuck. I’m not losing her. I’ll turn my life upside down if need be, but she’s not getting away from me, especially after last night. My baby could be inside her right now. She’s bound to me, and I will figure out how to fix this.

Outside, there’s no sign of Esme. “Fuck!” I grunt out, then turn to Malcolm. “Was she here? Right here?”

“Yeah, she was trying to hail a cab.” He points toward the street. “Tell me what to do, and I’ll do it.”

I step out into the road and see a cab disappearing around the corner. It’s busy, and there are hundreds of cabs around here, but something tells me it’s her. As crazy as it sounds, it’s like I can feel her heartbeat from here-like we’re connected on some other level.

“Go over to her place, wait for me there. If Esme turns up, don’t fucking let her leave.”

I give Malcolm the address, and he doesn’t say a word before jumping back into his car. It’s closer than mine, so he’s the first out of the parking lot. I’m only a split second behind as I tear out of there in my Suburban, ignoring the blare of horns as I join the traffic and speed down the road, cutting across the sidewalk as I take the corner.

The traffic isn’t light, but I can see the cab a few hundred yards down the road. I weave around some cars traveling way too slow and then cut off another, hearing the screaming horn as I put my foot down. As I pull up behind her cab, I flash my lights and lean on the horn, then push forward, getting up close. I can see someone in the back of the cab, and when they turn around to see who’s behind, it’s like a weight is lifted.

It’s her. It’s Esme.

She tries to wave me off, but I shake my head and mouth that I’m not going anywhere. Esme looks furious, but she’s not getting rid of me that easily. I call her, but after one ring it goes straight to voicemail-either she has it turned off, or more likely she rejected my call.

A second later, she holds up a sign to the back window. “Leave me ALONE. I know!” It’s written in her trademark red lipstick on the drawing pad she picked out yesterday. Even now, the thought of that red lipstick smeared down the shaft of my cock as she sucks me off flashes through my mind.

I’m a fucking monster.

I shake my head, then hold my hand up to my ear in the shape of a phone. A second later, I try calling her again, and this time she answers, but there’s fury in her voice.

“Leave. Me. Alone.” Her voice slices through the silence inside the car on the speaker.

“No fucking way, Bambina. I can’t. I’d rather die than live another day without you.”

She chokes out a laugh. “Yeah, or maybe you’d rather I die instead, huh?”

“What are you talking about? Has someone threatened you, Esme? Because if they have, they just breathed their last breath and they don’t even know it. I will chase them down in a heartbeat and break every fucking bone in their body.”

“Sure. I saw you, Vito. I saw you with that guy from my interview the other night… never mind, doesn’t matter, I don’t want to think about it. I don’t want to think about the two of you comparing notes and-”

I slam my fists on the steering wheel in a rage. Fucking Salvatore. I should have put it together, but she said she went to a restaurant to interview, not a seedy office in the back of a warehouse. Still, I should have asked more questions.

The cab speeds up to get through traffic lights before they change to red, and I follow suit, running through the next light, but I don’t care. I’m not losing her.

“Don’t act like you don’t know, Vito. You, him, Nadine, that guy from your house yesterday. You all looked pretty damn cozy. Nadine said it was just going to be a hostess job, but of course, all of you were planning to draw me in from the start, weren’t you? So was I just another girl, or did you look for me specifically? Did I fit some sick bastard’s requirements or-”

“Esme, I didn’t have anything to do with any of this. We used to be in business together. Used to. I severed ties with him as soon as he said he was going to start running girls. I always said that was my line, and he agreed for a long time. As soon as he broke that pact, I called off our arrangement. We were finalizing things, that’s all.”

“Sure, of course, you did, I’m really that gullible.”

I grab the handwritten agreement off the seat beside me and slap it against the windshield. “This is an agreement. It’s a kind of contract between Salvatore and me. It says that I give up all claim to his parts of the business and he gives up any claim to mine. We’ve parted ways, Esme. That’s what that meeting was about. We settled everything. I don’t know those girls. Truth is, I was fucking pissed when they showed up and sat down. Fucking Sal disrespecting me is what that was, as his final fuck you.”