Chapter 227: 227. Taking A Bath Together With The Professor While Drinking!
The bathroom was a sanctuary of steam and marble, the air so thick with humidity that it felt like breathing in silk. The massive soaking tub sat in the center of the room, filled to the brim with steaming water that caught the soft, recessed lighting, shimmering like a pool of liquid moonlight.
They sat side by side on the edge of the tub, the unyielding marble a sharp contrast to the warmth radiating from the water. Both were wrapped in heavy, white towels that clung to their damp skin, the fabric heavy with the moisture of the room.
Mike sat with his legs spread slightly, a posture of easy, unbothered dominance, while Sabrina sat with her knees pressed together, her posture still retaining a ghost of her usual academic rigidity.
The Scotch was doing its work, but slowly. The high-quality malt was a slow burn, a creeping warmth that settled in their chests rather than a sudden rush to the head.
"You’re staring," Sabrina said, her voice a little huskier than it had been in the bedroom.
She took a sip from her glass, the amber liquid stinging her throat in a way that felt grounding.
"It’s hard not to," Mike replied, his gaze tracing the line of her collarbone where a stray droplet of water was slowly trekking down toward the tuck of her towel. "You have a very disciplined way of existing, Sabrina."
"Even now, sitting in a bathtub in a hotel room with a man who just threatened your life, you’re trying to maintain a perimeter."
"It’s called composure," she countered, though she didn’t pull away when his knee brushed hers under the rim of the towels. "Something you seem to use as a weapon rather than a trait."
Mike chuckled, a low, vibrating sound. He reached out, his hand moving through the steam to rest on the small of her back, just above the top edge of her towel.
His touch was casual, but the heat of his palm was unmistakable through the damp fabric. "Composure is just a mask we wear so people don’t see how much we actually want to break the rules."
Sabrina turned her head to look at him, her eyes searching his. She was observant, and she was starting to see the pattern in the way he moved, the way he spoke, the way he used silence as a tool of intimacy.
"You’re a playboy, aren’t you?" she asked, her tone more curious than accusatory. "A professional at this..."
"The calculated glances, the ’accidental’ touches, the way you make every woman feel like she’s the only person in the world right before you move in for the kill."
Mike didn’t deny it. He didn’t even flinch.
He just leaned in a fraction closer, the scent of the Scotch and his masculine musk mingling with the eucalyptus steam. "Is ’playboy’ the word you want to use?"
"It sounds so... unrefined. I prefer to think of myself as an enthusiast of the human connection." Mike grinned. "I simply don’t waste time on connections that don’t have... heat."
"You mean you don’t waste time on women you can’t manipulate," she corrected, though the sting of the words was softened by the warmth of the alcohol.
"Manipulation implies a lack of honesty," Mike said, his hand on her back sliding upward, his fingers grazing the sensitive skin of her spine.
The touch was electric, a sharp contrast to the heavy, humid air. "I’m being very honest with you, Sabrina."
"I want you. Not just the scholar, not just the woman who ran with the Phoenix data..."
"I want the woman who is currently pretending she isn’t enjoying the way my hand feels on her skin."
Sabrina felt a flush that had nothing to do with the steam. She wanted to argue, to use her intellect to dismantle his smooth, practiced rhetoric, but the Scotch was beginning to blur the sharp edges of her logic.
The world was becoming a little softer, a little more fluid.
"You’re very good," she admitted, her voice dropping to a whisper. "But don’t mistake my curiosity for surrender."
"I know your type. You find a woman who is a challenge, you enjoy the hunt, and once the prize is won, you’re already looking for the next one."
"And what if you’re the one who changes the game?" Mike asked, his voice dropping to a low, intimate murmur.
He moved his other hand, the one holding the glass, to rest on her thigh, just above the towel. The pressure was firm and possessive.
"What if the hunt is the only part that isn’t a game?"
He leaned in, his face inches from hers, the heat between them becoming almost unbearable. The silence in the room was no longer just quiet; it was heavy, pregnant with the tension of everything they weren’t saying.
"You’re trying to get me drunk so the ’safe’ version of me disappears," she whispered, her eyes locked onto his.
"I’m not trying to make you disappear, Sabrina," Mike said, his gaze dropping to her lips. "I’m trying to let you out."
Mike leaned back slightly, though he didn’t break the contact of his hand on her thigh. He took a slow, deliberate sip of his Scotch, watching her over the rim of the glass with a look of pure, unadulterated mischief.
The heat of the room and the steady climb of the alcohol were finally starting to melt the frost in Sabrina’s gaze, making her eyes look heavy and dark.
"You know," Mike said, his voice a low, teasing rumble that seemed to vibrate in the small space, "you’re a much more dangerous person to be in a bathtub with than the women I’m used to. Most of them are... well, they’re predictable."
"They follow the script."
Sabrina arched a perfectly groomed eyebrow, the movement slow and languid. "And what is the script, Mike?"
"Since you seem to be the director of this little production."
"The script is usually ’act surprised when he touches you,’ ’act offended when he gets too close,’ and then ’eventually give in because he’s charming,’" he joked, a cocky grin spreading across his face.
He shifted his weight, his muscular frame moving with an effortless confidence that filled the room. "But you? You’re playing a different game entirely."
"You’re trying to use logic to fight a feeling... It’s a losing battle, by the way."
He let out a short, amused breath, his eyes dancing. "It reminds me of a woman I knew back in the university circuit."
"A professor at Valcrest. Brilliant, terrifying, and absolutely devastating."
"She had this habit of wearing these high-waisted skirts and silk blouses that, every time she leaned over a lectern, gave just a hint of her midriff. Just a sliver of skin, but enough to drive a man insane."
Sabrina felt a strange, prickling sensation in her chest. She knew exactly the kind of woman he was describing, and she knew the effect such a woman had on a room full of hungry, distracted men.
"She was a goddess of intellect," Mike continued, his tone shifting into a mock reverent brag. "But let’s be honest, half the male student body wasn’t listening to her lectures on socioeconomics."
"They were too busy staring at that sliver of skin, probably heading back to their dorms to... well, let’s just say they were ’studying’ her in private."
"The sheer amount of collective frustration in those lecture halls must have been astronomical."
He chuckled, a dark, rich sound. "And here you are..."
"The woman who keeps everything tucked away, everything controlled, everything ’professional.’ And yet, here we are..."
"In a tub. In towels. And I can see that the ’professor’ is starting to lose her grip on the syllabus."
"You are incredibly arrogant," Sabrina whispered, though she didn’t pull away. In fact, she found herself leaning a fraction of an inch closer to the heat of his body. "You talk as if you’ve already won."
"I don’t talk as if I’ve won; I talk as if the outcome is inevitable," Mike corrected, his voice dropping into that smooth, dominant register that made her skin prickle.
He wasn’t simping; he wasn’t begging for her attention. He was claiming it.
He was the prize, and he knew it. "Most men would kill to be this close to you, Sabrina."
"To see the woman behind the intellect, the one who isn’t afraid of a little chaos."
"They’re all looking at the surface, dreaming about the idea of you. But me?" Mike scoffed. "I’m actually in the room..."
"I’m the one seeing the way your breath hitches when the steam hits your skin."
"I’m the one seeing how much you actually want to stop being the smartest person in the room and just... be a woman."
He moved his hand from her thigh, his fingers tracing the edge of her towel with a slow, agonizing precision. He wasn’t rushing.
He was a man who knew that the best part of the meal was the anticipation.
"I’m the lucky one," he added, his eyes locking onto hers with a predatory intensity that made the air feel even thinner. "But don’t mistake my luck for weakness."
"I didn’t just stumble into this tub, Sabrina."
"I navigated my way here. And now that the ’professor’ is losing her composure, the real lesson is about to begin."
