The ache heightens on the sides of my forehead. My eyes gloss over the problem, constantly rubbing them with my fists. I think I see geometric shapes all over my bedroom. While I loved learning, studying wasn't exactly my forte. If the subject isn't interesting, it doesn't remain in my head for longer than an hour.

Which means anything math related vanishes like a ghost.

Arithmetic. Algebra. Data analysis. Geometry.

How do people go through four years of learning this? Every other subject is like a piece of cake, but math? It doesn't help that Damien randomly popped up last week and forced me to miss my math lessons.

Knock.

My eyes bounce to my bedroom door.

Julian pokes his head in through the cracked door and raises a side of his lip to mirror a half grin. Instantly, like a chain reaction, my heart accelerates at his presence alone. I wanted to slam my notebook against my forehead. Why is my heart reacting like this? A few weeks ago, I dreaded every second of being around him, and now I'm behaving like a schoolgirl with a secret crush.

It's not a crush.

It's Everleigh's fault!

She planted a seed in my mind and watered it with examples to bloom into a full-grown crush tree. Julian certainly didn't help with his trap in the club and his adequate manners by sharing his blazer. Turmoil churns in the wheels in my head. He doesn't like me. Julian wouldn't ever cross the line, even if I begged on my knees.

"How's it going?" Julian asks, wandering in his casual Armani black suit. There's a tiny difference between them. Only a girl with a harboring crush would notice things like that. Dang, it! "You have been at it for two hours already."

My eyebrows wiggle. "So, what I'm hearing is you miss me?"

A foreign sound escapes from Julian's throat, and I almost fall off my chair from the hoarse laughter. It's precious. Truly. It's sincere, full and vibrant. After our authentic conversation the other night, I didn't ever want to see Julian upset-- just like my mother's passing, his sister's death weighs like a truck on his chest.

His tongue drags across the seam of his lips. "I wouldn't go that far, Miss Arias, but I did come to bother you."

My brow raises. "How do you plan on bothering me?"

Pulling out of his pocket, he drops two packets of gummy worms and chocolate turtles on my desk by my notebook. "My mere presence is bothersome alone, according to you."

I roll my eyes. "It's hard to find you annoying when you spoil me with candy. You do know Damien will kill you if he sees you buying this for me."

Julian shrugs. "He can try. We both know I'll be the one to make it out the other side."

My heart flips.

Gosh, dang it.

I love when a man is confident.

My body shivers when Julian's breath grazes my cheek as he leans over to inspect my notebook. "What has you stumped?"

Eyeing him cautiously, I prompt. "What is it to you? Do you have a secret sorcery in math that I never knew about?"

Julian scoffs. "There are still quite a few things you don't know about me, Miss Arias." His hand rests on mine, causing me to jolt upward like I've been electrocuted. "I specialized in math. It is my favorite subject. I planned to become an instructor or a computer programmer, but life happened."

The thought of Julian being my professor invades my brain for a milli-second. God might've had mercy on us humans for steering Julian towards this career, because no one can learn from a man like him teaching. Julian lugs my hand across the page, adding pressure to the pencil as he writes unreadable numbers. Fudge. His jaw is so chiseled-- do me a favor and cut me already.

"Do I have something on my face, Miss Arias?" Julian asks, piercing my gaze with his stormy blue irises.

"No, why?"

"Then why do you keep staring at me?"

Embarrassment creeps up my neck. "Uh-. Um. No reason. Sorry."

What am I doing? The urge to violently bulge my head in with a hammer consumes me. Can I make it any more obvious? How does the heroine in my favorite stories keep composure around the guy they may or may not like? Google is about to become my best friend tonight. Julian discourses the proper way to complete this problem, but it goes in one ear and straight out the other.

His body heat.

His voice.

His touch.

How do I pay attention when all I can hear is my heartbeat?

Abruptly, I jolt up from my chair and extract myself from Julian's hold. Confusion mars his face from the crease between his eyebrows.

"Sorry, I'm just tired of this problem," I swiftly lie through my teeth. "Can we just skip to the next one? I'll take the zero points."

Julian steals my chair, his trousers tightening around his meaty, muscular thighs. Jesus Christ, when did I turn into such a horn dog? An itty bitty part of me wanted to rip his clothes off of him and help him reach his climax. My cheeks burn as if the sun was directly on them. Is there a way to shut my brain off completely?

Julian squeezes my hand in his grip as a sign of reassurance. "Relax, Miss Arias. The stress isn't helping. You haven't eaten anything all day-- that also isn't helping."

I lick my lips. "Okay."

Using the prepared tear, I yank the material, and a purple gummy worm flies out of the bag. I inhale three gummy worms, unable to enjoy the flavor from the excitement swirling through my veins. I love sugar. Julian thuds the eraser head of the pencil on my page to the rhythm of an unfamiliar song.

"Okay." I exhale, my heart regaining its natural rhythm. "I'm ready. S-Should I just sit on the floor? Or my knees?"

Julian opens his legs, extending into a man spread, and his veiny hands pat his thighs. "What do you mean? Sit with me."

My eyes widen. "On your lap?"

He bobs his head. "It's not weird unless we make it weird."

Okay.

True.

Two platonic friends-- sharing one chair, totally normal.

His metal belt presses against my butt as I fit perfectly in his lap, and Julian doesn't waste a moment wrapping his arm around me. Mainly to reach the papers in front of us. The firmness of his muscle against my thighs sends a throb of heat at the kitty between them. My head spins. Am I seriously sitting on my bodyguard's lap?

"Show me," I say, hoping my breathing doesn't sound like I've been running a marathon.

"It's quite simple," Julian begins, scribbling on the page. "The sum of all sides is 50, which leads us to the next step-- combine terms. 50= 3x+5. Subtract five from fifty, making it forty-five. 3x=45. What's next?"

I gnaw at my lip, shaking my leg up and down. "Divide by three, which makes fifteen? So, the third side is twenty? Holy moly! Did I just do a math problem?" Julian hides the faint shadow of a smile with the back of his hand. "Woah. Don't get so cocky now. Obviously, the only reason why I understood the problem is because of the gummy worms."

I shove a pink gummy worm into my mouth, teasing him by wiggling my eyebrows.

"Really? Is that so?" Julian's ocean-blue eyes darken like the night sky. "Can I try one?"

I bob my head, extending a green one to him, and use my other hand to shove a blue worm between my teeth. My heart clenches when his hand tilts my chin towards his face, and he leans in as if he's about to kiss me.

His fingertip traces my lower lip as his nose rubs against mine, and I feel a slight tug on my gummy worm. I nearly combust into dust when I pierce into his excruciatingly, mesmerizing gaze. Jesus, take the steering wheel because I'm about to crash!

He pulls away--unfazed with the other half of my gummy in his mouth.

"I think I found my new favorite dessert," Julian teases, winking his eye, automatically sending an arrow to my heart like cupid."

I clear my throat, forcing my gaze onto the figures on the page. "Should we go to the next problem?"

His fingers brush the silhouette of my waist as he peeks over my shoulder, resting his chin on my shoulders. I adore this entire moment, even if I'm losing my mind because of it--even if I'm not supposed to like it. It's almost empowering to have a secret hidden crush on someone I would never have a chance with... I can't explain it.

His skin-- his demeanor-- his presence, his energy-- it's intoxicating.

The sensation fuels my veins.

"Okay, do you know what to do?" Julian asks, his fingers snagging a gummy from the pack.

My leg trembles as I stare at numbers, completely blanking and zoning in on his electrifying, woodsy scent. Is it possible to make Julian-scented candles? Seriously, Isabela? Someone shoot me, and not with an arrow. The numbers combine into one in my head, and I can't recall which step to start with.

"Mr. Lui, what's the first st-?" My breath catches.

Julian grips my thighs, tightening around my bare leg as my skirt rises higher, and I instantly stop squirming, too afraid to move a muscle. Butterflies swarm around, tingling all my organs.

His breath fans the back of my ear, lifting the hairs on my arms and neck. "If you keep moving, we're going to have another problem to solve..."

Ten seconds go by before his words sink in. My sense heightens. Something long, thick, and hard pokes at my butt. Is that his-- holy moly? My thigh feels sticky, warm, slick with excitement. Until the entire situation falls on me like a collapsing Jenga tower, and I bounce out of his lap.

I slump onto my mattress.

Julian doesn't move a step.

Why is a hint of desire looming over us? Julian must feel the same urges I do. Does he stay up thinking about me, touching himself to the thought of me? Is that why he offered his jacket? To have a reason to touch me without feeling guilty? Spending months in my personal asylum, it's easy to lose confidence in myself when my fiance belittles me at every corner.

But knowing I made Julian hard...

Ignites a fire underneath my butt.

"What if..." I nibble on my bottom lip. "What if I want to help solve that problem?"

Julian's gaze snaps at me, his irises darkening with hunger. "What?"

My cheeks roast as if I was under the sun with no sunscreen. His irises flicker over my body, settling on the floor. I guess it must've something I don't have, but I will make Julian see me. You only live once, right?

Kneeling in front of him, I tug his thighs apart, his dick bulging against the button of his trousers. My mouth waters. Even constricted, it looks thick and long. His eyes widen like saucers. It's about time I make him speechless.

Slowly, I use the hair tie on my wrist to pull my hair into a ponytail. "I said, what if I want to help solve that problem?"

Confusion dominates his eyebrows, forming a crease between them. "I'm old enough to be your father, Isabela. "

"Should I call you daddy then?" I tease, my fingers shuddering with eagerness as I unclasp the button of his trousers, letting his Calvin Klein underwear peek through. "All I'm doing is offering. You can always say no."

Julian drops his head back, sighing deeply. "Miss Arias, do you realize how impossibly hard it is to say no to you?"

A smile stretches across my face. "Then say yes."

My fingers tug at his trousers and underwear low, exposing his massive, veiny, bulging cock. He looks mesmerized at the sight of me. I haven't even done much. My fingertips trail down the hard ridges of his cock, and Julian jolt from the sensation. The tip of his cock spills with a bit of white liquid.

Through hooded eyes, I confess, "You know... I have never done this to anyone before."

The lust and need in Julian's irises disappear for a moment as they dilate in alarm. "Your first time?" His thumb brushes against my jawline. My skin lights with sparks. "Are you sure about this, Isabela? I want this, but there are a million reasons why we shouldn't."

"I. Don't. Care."

His thumb grazes across my lips, from bottom to top. "What do you want, Bellissima? What do you want to do to me?"

My fingers tighten around the base. "I want to suck your cock. I want to make you cream all over my face."

His nose flares as a strained gasp escapes his throat. "Fuck, Isabela. You're such a good girl."

Empowerment.

That's how I feel, having Julian at my mercy. His other hand grips the armrest, elaborating the veins in his arm. Woah. Five minutes ago, I was trying to finish my math homework, and now I'm about to suck my bodyguard's dick. Nerves fill my veins. What if I do it wrong? What if I accidentally bite him?

I'm not a total idiot.

I watched a few educational videos, but I never put them to the test.

Until today.

Leisurely, I lower my lips towards his cock, pucker them up and press a quick kiss on the tip of his dick. Julian stifles a moan, clenching his hand on the armrest. I fear he might break the wooden thing.

"Isabela!" A voice booms through the house like an alarm.

Our eyes widen.

It's Damien.

Julian hustles, pulling his pants and underwear up and fixing his dick to hide the prominent boner. His blunt force causes me to fall onto my butt, and all I can think about is my throbbing heartbeat. I hoist onto my two feet, trying to act like I wasn't about to suck my bodyguard's cock, but trip over my own foot-- and fall.

Thud!

"What the fuck happened?" Damien yells, storming into my room, his furious irises falling on me. "Why was the bedroom door closed?"

Embarrassment spreads to my cheeks as I feel a drift on my butt-- my freaking skirt has risen up. "We were just studying, Damien-- I have a math exam tomorrow."

His eyebrows knot, his irises flickering between the both of us. "Julian, take the night off. I'm taking my fiance out to dinner."

My eyes internally roll.

How did I go from seconds away to sucking my bodyguard's lollipop to attending a date with my fiance?

Only me.

Isabela is a woman 😝😝... she's definitely ready to take it to the next level. What you guys think? Did she throw you off guard? Did you think she would've gone this far so soon?

How do you think Julian is going to react? The ball is in his court— what do you think? He's doing to take it or dip?

I really like this chapter just because it's a little spicy and push their relationship to the next level 🤭🤭😝😝

What do you guys hope happens next?

Love ya💜💜❤️💜❤️💜💜

Can't wait to chat in the comments!!!