Borrowed Time

Chapter Twenty

Mixing chemicals together wasn't something that Juliette could find joy in, it was so fucking boring... aside from the time she'd almost poured them on her skin, that could've been fun, it would've felt weird. But, it was fun to sit next to Esme, to hold her hand under the table and listen to the way that she would breathe and whisper little encouragements to the things she was pouring or the things she was doing... It was cute, the way she existed, like everything had a meaning... and like nothing truly mattered all at the same time.

But Esme had been making class painstakingly difficult to get through ever since they'd established their relationship. How? By flirting with Juliette in covert ways to elicit responses from her that could really get her in trouble if she ever got in trouble for anything. Today, for example, she sighed and pushed her pencil across the table, giving Juliette an apologetic look as she straightened up... Fuck, she looked so good... Juliette wanted to pull her in by the chain of her necklace that was dangling so close to her, she wanted to kiss her deeply and murmur sweet nothings in her ear as she bit her neck... but she couldn't do that here. That wouldn't be something she could talk her way out of.

"Oh, I'm sorry... Let me grab that..." Juliette sucked in a breath as Esme leaned over her, pressing her chest against her arm for a long moment as she grabbed the pencil that rolled across the table. "There we go." She pulled back with a smirk, giving Juliette a wink. Shit, she felt faint just from that... How was any of this fair? She was pretty sure Esme didn't get that same reaction when they touched, or if she did she was a little better at hiding it.

"Fuck..." She cleared her throat, turning to Esme with a serious look. If she wanted to pass this class, Esme had to not touch her at all so that she could focus on the labs. "You cannot do that during class, it's not fair." She said, and Esme blinked innocently, furrowing her brows like she had no idea what Juliette was talking about. Asshole.

"Hm? What isn't fair?" Esme asked, and Juliette gave her a look. There was no way she was letting her get away with faux innocence, she knew what Esme was... and what she was, but this wasn't about her.

"You know what I'm talking about, Esme." She watched as Esme's lips curled into a smirk, as her eyes darkened. Oh, great... This was gonna be a pleasurable way to pass away, no doubt, but also an embarrassing one.

"Do I? I think you might have to be a bit more specific for me to fully get it." Esme leaned closer, her voice silky as she traced her finger up Juliette's arm, making her shiver. Nope. Nope, this was not the time for that, she couldn't let herself get worked up in class because she didn't have enough self control to handle it. She pushed Esme's hands away and gave her a warning look.

"Don't do things that make me want to kiss you in class." Juliette insisted, and Esme snorted, shaking her head as she leaned back, fiddling with her pencil. God, how could someone look so good when all she was doing was sitting in class? It should be illegal to be that beautiful.

"I mean, I don't think that's possible, part of that is just my natural charm-." Cute. But it wasn't something that was going to work right now because Juliette was serious... and she needed to put out a very serious warning.

"Esme. I have enough self control to not touch you for a week." Esme scoffed, shaking her head at that as she leaned her chin on her hand.

"No, you don't." Juliette raised an eyebrow and Esme sat up, looking a little more concerned than she had a moment before. Good. Heed the warning. "Do you?" She had a lot of hidden talents, and when she really tried, tormenting people could be one of them... it would certainly be a power trip to watch Esme beg for her... Maybe she'd get on her knees again, God knows she looked so good like that... No. Thoughts like that defeated the whole purpose of the ground rule in the first place.