The Forbidden Professor

Chapter 10

My heart had been beating hard the entire time that I waited in my room.

I changed my shirt twice.

Then changed it again.

I realized what I was doing and stopped. Then I made myself leave the dorm before I drove myself mad or worse yet, ran into Lia. Lia would have taken one look at me and known something was up. And I wasn’t prepared to answer her or lie to her.

One hour.

Meet him in one hour.

I had fifteen more minutes.

Whitmore Hall was only ten minutes from my dorm.

I tried to walk slowly to calm my nerves.

It didn't help.

~0~

He was at the window when I entered his office. His back to me.

The afternoon sun poured through the glass in front of him. My eyes traced the line of his broad shoulders, the muscles of his arms, the white shirt pulled taut across them. I saw a tension in his shoulders that hadn't been there before. Something coiled. Waiting.

He didn't turn around.

I let the door close behind me.

The room stayed quiet.

Then finally, he broke it.

“Do you understand the game you’re playing,” he said, still facing the window.

“Yes,” I said, surprised that my voice was steady even though nothing else about me was.

He turned then. I met his gaze. Something pulled low in me, the way it always did when he looked at me.

Then he came towards me and didn’t stop until the space between us was nothing.

His hand gripped my chin. He tilted my face up. Looked at me.

I looked at him, my pulse hammering somewhere high in my throat where I was sure he could see it.

His eyes darkened.

“Good.”

Then he kissed me.

His mouth demanding.

I kissed him back.

His grip held me exactly where he wanted me and my hands found his shirt and fisted in it because the room had tilted and he was the only solid thing left. I felt the hard lines of his body pressed against mine and something reckless tore through me, tightening deep in me.

His hand slid into my hair. His mouth moving over mine rough and thorough, parting it, tasting, taking. A sound slipped out of me that I hadn't meant to make. He swallowed it. Kissed me harder for it, like the sound had told him something, like it had only made him want more.

I was feeling dizzy. Delirious. Lost in the feel of it. Of him.

Three sharp knocks came at the door and I startled, my heart hammering against my chest. I stared at him, eyes wide, breathing hard.

He pulled back.

His hand was still in my hair and he took in my ragged breathing. His expression unreadable. He dragged his thumb across my bottom lip. I shivered.

Then he let go. Moved away from me and went back to his chair behind the desk.

He held my gaze. “When you’re ready,” he said. “Open the door.”

I swallowed. Then nodded. I smoothed my hair, my clothes. Made my face do something that I hoped passed for normal.

Then I took a deep breath and pulled open the door.

The man who waited outside was in his mid-fifties, silver haired. He was a professor who taught law classes as well. I’d seen him around campus a few times.

I watched as his eyes went to Professor Blackwell first, then me. His eyes stayed on me, taking in the slight unevenness of my breathing.

"Aldric," Professor Blackwell greeted. Flat. Indifferent.

I looked between the both of them.

I didn’t need to stay a moment longer.

“Thank you again for your help with my question on constitutional liberties, Professor,” I said and gave him a quick smile. Normal. What a normal student would do. Then I waved a small goodbye to Professor Aldric and left before I could end up doing or saying something I’d regret.