Beneath the Boardwalk (Alex Turner)

14 {morality, indecency, seductively}

"I don't know."

"You're lying." He tilts his head slightly, almost daring me to contradict him. I want to, but at the same time I had thought about it. 

I pull the hair from my face. "I couldn't say what I would've done if he wouldn't have called."

"Oh, so it was a he?" Turner stops me. 

"Yeah," I say slowly. 

He hesitates, and I listen to the silence of the auditorium. "What's your relationship like with this person?"

"Your questions are very pressuring and might I add, subliminally suggesting," I inhale sharply, playing underneath my fingernails at the dirt. 

"I don't mean it like that," he smirks. "Curious."

"I don't have an obligation to tell you," I clear my throat.  

"You said you always liked the unknown. Right now you're in particular running away from it," he says underneath his breath. 

"I don't know what unknown you're referring to."

"Lying, again."

"Fine. He's just a friend."

"Just a friend?" Turner raises an eyebrow, lips parting slighty. 

I take a moment to gather myself again. Everytime I'm near him I seem to lose track of what I'm supposed to be doing. I raise my chin. "Mr. Turner, you're really bordering the fence on strictly professional."

"I suppose," he stands up, then takes an agonizingly slow step forward, "but I may be rethinking my original proposition."

He smells of smoke and musk. "On what grounds."

"What do you think of me?" He switches the subject unexpectedly. He stands right beisde me, and I take a deep breath. Turner's gaze is deep, demanding. 

"Honestly?" I pick at my lip. "You're not an open book. I have nothing to base you on. But you're a teacher," I make sure to add in. 

"In that case Greene, I'm dying to know what would have happened if your friend hadn't called." He says that with a sharp tongue. 

"I would have let myself out."

"Lying." I sense impatience.

"I would've!"

"You're transparent," he walks around behind me, all across the platform. "You're the perfect character to write around. Stubborn. Intriguing," he says in a low voice. When I don't respond, he continues, and I shift in my seat. "Rules are made to be bent. So I ask you again, what would you have done if there was no call?"

"I don't know," I mumble, just to piss him off. 

"Don't you feel the tension?" Turner snaps. He walks behind me, and I don't want to move. "Greene, tell me you feel it, don't you?"

I bite my lip, feeling his gaze on the back of my neck. I open my mouth and close it--not knowing what to say--and my mouth is too dry. 

My heart is pounding. "Who wouldn't," I whisper. 

He's right behind me now, leaning slightly against the back of the chair. "You do feel it, don't you," he growls. "What...would you have done," he mumbles, sending shivers down my spine, "if you wouldn't have gotten a call."

"I wouldn't have done anything," I finally utter out, unsure about why I had answered or why. I was too distracted.

He leans down to my left ear, and I inhale sharply. HIs breath is hot and he pulls all my hair, agonizingly slow, to my other shoulder, exposing my neck. I feel Turner's hair brush against mine. Soft and unkempt. 

His lips brush against my ear. "Is that why you're not doing anything right now," he whispers seductively. 

My lips part. I can't breathe. 

"I know what I want," Turner breathes, trailing down my neck. He chuckles darkly. "I almost never get it... but I know what I do." I feel his smirk on my skin, and my blood is hot. His teeth drag slightly. "And I want... you."

I exhale slowly. I couldn't believe what I was doing. What he was doing. This was wrong. Immoral, implusive. Just wrong. But it didn't feel that way, and in some way, some sick way, it felt right. "Is this what you say to all of your students," I say, a bitter taste in my mouth. 

"The age difference isn't bad. We're very close in age," he stands back up and walks in front of me. His eyes are piercing and something of a smirk plays on his lips. "And the whole teacher-student thing," he pauses. "Kind of kinky, don't you think?"

Okay, if I wasn't already turned on I most certainly was now. I run a hand through my hair, needing to calm myself down and not get distracted by the dark eyes in front of me. "It's not at all wrong to you."

"Morality is simply the attitude we adopt to things generally disliked," Turner says fluently. He raises one eyebrow. "I don't oppose. Do you, darling Greene?"

I stand up. "I wouldn't oppose if it were not for my self-respect," I whisper. I'm close to him, and I really want to run my hands through his hair or bite his lip. Undo the buttons on his suit. "I just gave you money to loan. I don't want to walk out of here feeling like I'm a whore right now for it," I pull my hair behind my ears. 

Mr. Turner looks down at me, and I can't read his pokerface. "Fair enough. How long is your 'right now'?"

"It means, Turner--"

"Call me Alex."

I bite my lip.  "It means, Alexander, take the cheque and we'll see where this goes."