Dark Blue: Study in Seduction, Book 1 Read Online Free PDF Page A

want to intimidate you. I may be way off the mark, you seemed a little bit uncomfortable at some points in the tutorial. I hope I haven’t pushed you too far beyond your comfort zone. Not, of course, that being taken beyond one’s comfort zone isn’t healthy once in a while.”
    Was he playing cat and mouse with her again? Was it possible that he really hadn’t recognised her? After all, he hadn’t had his specs on that night, and she’d been masked and wearing, oh God, a bustier so tight her boobs had almost spilled out of it. Carla shook her head firmly, and her coffee wobbled in her hand. “Not at all. I was well within my zone.”
    “Good. I’d hate it if you felt you couldn’t contribute fully to the discussion because of something I’ve done.”
    “Something you’ve done? Not all, all Prof—Alex. It was a very stimulating tute. I really enjoyed it. I’m looking forward to the next one.” Bugger, every word she said to him was doomed to be an innuendo.
    “Excellent. So I’ll see you next week for our one-on-one session on nineteenth-century novels?”
    “One-on-one session?”
    “Yes. Why, did Dr. Bhide not do individual tutes with students? I thought she did.”
    Individual tutor meetings were one of the shining beacons of the Oxford system. They gave the students the chance to “enjoy” a whole hour of their brilliant and usually world-famous tutor’s undivided scrutiny.
    “Yes, of course she did. I’d forgotten, that’s all. It’s been a long time since last term.”
    “I’m sure you’ll be back up to speed in no time, and I’m hoping your fresh insights will revive my enthusiasm for some of these nineteenth-century novels. I find them rather tedious myself. However, we have to cover the exam syllabus, no matter how boring parts of it may be. Let’s start with Austen, shall we? I expect you to amaze me with something about dear old Jane that doesn’t make me want to rip my own entrails out.”
    Dear old Jane? Carla’s spirits took a nosedive. Jane was her favourite. In fact, Austen was the main reason she wanted to study English lit at all, but Alex was right in one way: Jane Austen had already been dissected to death, and Carla knew that any ideas she could offer would hardly light Alex’s intellectual fire. At least she knew there would be no coupling or tingling in Austen. Shut up in a personal tute with Alex, she definitely could not cope with an hour of swiving.
    “I’ll look forward to hearing your Rochester essay at the next group tute. You can e-mail the Austen one to me, if that makes you feel less inhibited.”
    Alex Lemaitre was surely the only man she’d ever met who could smile and smoulder at the same time. Any more of this and there would be scorch marks on the floor. As for less inhibited? She smiled weakly as he headed out of the JCR, coffee in hand.
    She’d fantasised about meeting this man again for so long; now she was going to be shut up alone with him, and she was scared—of what they might do, and what they might not. Even if she’d wanted to take her opportunity with him, it was impossible now. The game had changed beyond recognition. He was her tutor, and any relationship between them was forbidden. Just as he’d promised, it could only end in tears.

Chapter Two
    “What the hell’s got into you, Alex? You ran that last few K like you had the devil on your back!”
    Alex straightened up to find his friend Rana hobbling onto the driveway of his house. He waved a hand, because it was all he was able to do between drawing in lungfuls of air. Rana was right in one sense—he really did have the devil on his back. She was called Carla Jonas, and after their tute earlier that day, he’d just tried and failed to run her sweet ass out of his system.
    He checked his watch and clicked the button as Rana staggered up to the front door and leaned against the porch.
    “We both broke our PBs today,” he said as his breathing settled a little.
    “Yeah, great,