RUIN ME, PROFESSOR HYDE

Five

Elara pov

The next morning, I woke up to a text from an unknown number.

Meet me at the old chapel. Midnight. Come alone. – A

My heart leaped into my throat.

How did you get my number? I texted back.

A pause. Then: I told you. I notice everything.

I stared at the screen, my pulse hammering.

What happens at midnight?

Another pause. Longer this time.

Something I've wanted to do since the moment I saw you.

I should have said no. I should have blocked the number. I should have done literally anything except agree to meet my professor at an abandoned chapel at midnight.

But I wasn't that girl anymore.

The girl who followed the rules was gone. She'd died the moment Aldric Hyde kissed her in the woods.

I'll be there, I texted back.

Good, he replied. Don't be late.

I put down my phone and stared at the ceiling, my body humming with anticipation.

Midnight was fourteen hours away.

It felt like forever.

I couldn't concentrate in my afternoon classes. The professor's voice blurred into static. All I could think about was Aldric – his hands on my face, his mouth on mine, the way he'd said soon like a promise and a threat.

Something I've wanted to do since the moment I saw you.

What did that mean? What had he been holding back?

I tried to tell myself to be smart. To cancel. To text him back and say I changed my mind. But my fingers wouldn't type the words. Because I didn't want to change my mind. I wanted to know what happened when a man like Aldric Hyde stopped holding back.

The clock on my dorm wall ticked slower than any clock I'd ever known.

I tried to nap. Failed.

I tried to read. The words swam.

I tried to convince myself this was a terrible idea. It was. He was my professor. Twenty-two years older. And there was something wrong with his eyes – something that should have frightened me.

But when I closed my eyes, I didn't see danger.

I saw the way he'd looked at me in the dining hall – like he wanted to destroy any man who came near me. I saw the way his hands had trembled when he touched my face. I heard the way he'd said my name – Elara – like it was a prayer and a curse.

I wanted more.

---

At 11:15 PM, I put on my darkest jeans and a black sweater. I slipped out of my dorm while my roommate was asleep. The campus was quiet – just a few security lights and the distant sound of music from someone's window.

The old chapel sat at the edge of campus, half-consumed by ivy and time. Its stained-glass windows were shattered, its wooden doors weathered gray. No one came here. That was why he'd chosen it.

I arrived at five minutes to midnight.

The moon was nearly full – swollen and silver, hanging low over the trees. The air smelled of damp earth and something else – something wild, like the woods after a storm.

He was already there.

Aldric stood at the foot of the chapel steps, his back to me, his dark coat blending into the shadows. He didn't turn when I approached. But I knew he knew I was there. I could feel his awareness like a heat.

"You came," he said. His voice was low, rough.

"You asked me to."

"I asked you to do something dangerous, Elara. There's a difference."

I stopped a few feet behind him. "I'm not afraid of you."

He turned then. Slowly. Deliberately.

His eyes were not brown.

They were gold – bright, molten, burning. The scar on his eyebrow caught the moonlight. His jaw was tight, his hands fisted at his sides. He looked like a man standing on the edge of a cliff, deciding whether to jump.

"You should be afraid," he said. "Not of me. Of what I want to do to you."

My breath caught. "Then tell me."

"I've wanted you since the moment you walked into my class." He stepped closer. One step. Two. "I've fantasized about you. In my office. In my apartment. In the middle of lectures, while students were taking notes, I've imagined taking you against that desk."

My thighs pressed together. "Professor—"

"Aldric," he corrected. "Tonight, I'm not your professor. I'm just the man who's been starving for you."

He was close enough to touch now. Close enough that I could see the pulse hammering in his throat, the way his chest rose and fell too fast.

"Tell me to stop," he said. "Tell me to walk away, and I will. I'll transfer you out of my class. I'll never look at you again. But you have to say it now."

I didn't say it.

I reached up and touched his face. His stubble was rough under my fingers. He closed his eyes and leaned into my palm like a starving thing.

"Don't stop," I whispered.

He kissed me.

Not like the first time – not desperate or hungry or rushed. This was slower. Deeper. His hands cupped my face, tilted my head, and his mouth moved over mine like he was learning a language he'd been dying to speak.

I melted into him. My fingers slid into his hair – thick, soft, darker than the night sky. He groaned against my lips, a low sound that vibrated through my entire body.

"Elara," he breathed. "You have no idea what you do to me."

"Show me."

His hands slid down my back, gripping my hips, pulling me against him. I felt him – hard and ready beneath his trousers – and a spike of heat shot through my core.

He walked me backward until my spine hit the cold stone of the chapel wall. His mouth left mine, trailing down my jaw, my throat, the collar of my sweater. He bit gently at the curve of my shoulder, and I gasped.

"I want to mark you," he murmured against my skin. "I want to leave bruises so everyone knows you're mine."

"I'm not yours."

"You will be." His hands slipped under the hem of my sweater, fingers splaying across my bare waist. His skin was hot – almost feverishly so. "Tonight, Elara. I'm going to ruin you for anyone else."

My heart slammed against my ribs. "Then do it."

He pulled back just enough to look at me. His eyes were fully gold now, glowing in the darkness. And I could have sworn I saw something shift behind them – something ancient and hungry and not entirely human.

"Not here," he said. "Not against a wall like you mean nothing."

He took my hand and led me around the side of the chapel, to a small wooden door hidden by ivy. It opened with a soft creak.

Inside, the chapel was cavernous and cold. Moonlight streamed through the shattered rose window, painting silver patterns on the stone floor. Broken pews leaned like sleeping giants. And at the far end, an old altar stood draped in shadows.

Aldric led me to the altar. He turned me to face him.

"Last chance," he said. "After this, I don't know if I can stop."

I looked up at him – this impossible, forbidden man with his golden eyes and his scar and his hidden world. I should have run. I should have been terrified.

Instead, I pulled him down by his collar and kissed him.

"I don't want you to stop," I said against his lips.

He lifted me onto the altar. The cold stone bit through my jeans, but I didn't care. He stood between my legs, his hands on my thighs, his mouth on my throat.

"We can't go all the way," he said, his voice strained. "Not tonight. Not until I'm sure I won't hurt you."

"Then what—"

"I'm going to touch you." His hands slid up my thighs, pushing under the hem of my sweater. "I'm going to learn every sound you make. And tomorrow, when you're in my class, you'll remember exactly what it felt like to have my hands on you."

I shivered – half from cold, half from want.

"Yes," I breathed.