16. Ethan

16

ETHAN

Never in my life have I wanted to destroy a human so much as I wanted to obliterate Lucas from the face of the earth. Vibrations shook my body, tightening my shoulders and keeping my fists locked in place.

Seeing him grab Rebecca ignited a fuse I didn't know how to put out. She'd said he didn't hurt her, but the sudden paleness said otherwise.

"I can't keep standing here." Rebecca inched around from behind me, bringing more of her profile, then her full face, into view. "I have another class."

"I'll walk with you." I kept my distance, not even daring to let my sleeve brush her arm. One touch and I'd lose control. One moment without my control, and I'd have her in my arms where she belonged.

No. After what I'd seen from Lucas, I didn't dare turn on the least bit of aggression. She deserved better. She deserved everything.

"Thank you." Her shoulders hitched toward her ears, then fell. "I'm sorry you saw that."

"I'm not. I'm glad I was there." I wouldn't tell her I'd been watching for her from my window and had raced across campus the instant I saw her confronting Lucas with her eyes wide in fear and apprehension.

I wouldn't tell her I'd envisioned punching the man out cold. Violence wasn't typically in my nature, but I was finding that I had a mean streak of protectiveness when it came to Rebecca.

We slid into the quiet space between buildings, a place overshadowed by the sloping roofs where the sun didn't penetrate.

Rebecca locked her arms around her waist and bowed her head until her forehead touched my chest. "I know you don't like me, and you have every right to hate me."

"I don't hate you." I grasped her shoulders and pulled her closer, waiting for the moment when she jerked away.

She fucking melted into me, her arms creeping around my waist. "But you don't like me."

"Wrong again." A chuckle tightened my gut. I brushed her hair back from her face, my thumbs grazing the soft spot beneath her ear. "I want you so much it frightens me. Seeing Lucas touch you…" My grip tried to tighten, but I maintained control. "You deserve so much better. Better than me."

We were not safe here. Anyone could walk past and spot us, but I'd be damned for all eternity if I was going to let her go when she clung to me and shuddered.

Rebecca pushed onto her tiptoes, her lips skimming my collar, then my jaw, before coming to rest against my mouth. I held back and let her set the pace, winding my hands around her shoulders and deep into her hair.

God, I loved her hair. The silky strands were perfect for knotting into my fists. A slight tug, and she arched against me, the light nip of her teeth on my lower lip asking for more.

Not here. Not like this. I pulled away from the kiss. Disappointment flashed in her eyes before she lowered her gaze.

"No." I tipped her chin up. "This is not a rejection." My cock strained against my zipper, and I let her feel the thickness pressing into her.

"Professor Halstead?" A high, feminine voice pierced the space.

"Fuck." I released Rebecca and turned to face the quad. Rebecca remained at my back, her quiet presence summoning a deep need within me. A thin woman with straight black hair glared back at me from the sunlight. "What is it, Katrina?"

"I saw you bring a student in here." She crossed her arms. A victorious smile flashed. "I thought you were not interested in dating students."

"Miss Roberts experienced a traumatic event. She wanted a quiet place to recover. I decided to keep an eye on her in case of any further unfortunate events." I stood to my full height. "Not that it is any business of yours. As a former student of mine, I appreciate your concern, but it is misplaced." I did my best to keep my expression calm without displaying the dislike pumping through me.

"Oh, I'm well aware how your concern works." She scoffed on the words, her face twisting. "I was more curious why you're choosing her ." A quick flick of her fingers dismissed Rebecca.

"You offered sex in exchange for better grades in my class."

Rebecca made a soft sound behind me that might've been dismay but was hard to ascertain without seeing her face.

Katrina shrugged her pointed shoulders. "And you turned me down with some self-righteous bullshit. But here you are, comforting a distraught student in a dark alley."

Not quite what I'd call an alley, but I wasn't going to quibble logistics with a woman like Katrina.

"I could expose you, you know." Her lips curled upward in a cruel smile. "You went to the dean first and outed me. But this." She made another flicking motion with her fingers. "This is way beyond me offering you sex. This looks like coercion."

"Everything okay here?" David strolled in front of Katrina without giving her a passing glance.

Katrina eyed his back with a desperate sort of hunger. Apparently, she'd gone to all her professors, offering each of them the same thing. We'd all turned her down. The only reason she was still on campus was because she'd sworn it would never happen again and the few classes she took in person now had female professors. She fluffed her lanky hair. "Oh, it's fine. I was just making sure Professor Halstead hadn't gone back on his convictions that students were off limits."

My blood boiled. I could try to defend myself, but why should I bother? A woman like Katrina didn't deserve my time or attention, and anything I said in defense would be taken as a confession.

David somehow managed to look at Katrina without scowling. "Thank you for your concern."

She recognized the dismissal and her eyes narrowed. Did she understand what was happening? "Rebecca, would you come with me?" The innocent way she looked at Rebecca sent my temper skyrocketing, but there was nothing I could say or do without giving us away.

"I'm on my way to Professor Tipton's lecture." Rebecca slid past me and walked toward Katrina without even glancing my way. She passed David without breaking stride, and if I didn't know her after all these weeks in class, I would think she didn't even like him with the way she focused on the quad.

But I did know her, and I recognized the split second of hesitation when she reached the edge of the building and crossed back into the sunlight. It caught her hair and heightened the color in her cheeks, the sunshine almost playful as it glimmered around her.

Katrina clapped, transforming into the giddy schoolgirl who had almost fooled me those first few days in class. "Great. Me too. I'll walk with you." She shot a parting glare for me and David over her shoulder. "Make sure no more creeps get ahold of you." Her head dipped toward Rebecca, but her voice carried to me. "You know, I'd be happy to report Professor Halstead if you're not feeling up to it."

"There's nothing to report." Rebecca waved away Katrina's concern. "He was giving me a minute to recover after my shitty ex embarrassed me."

"Oh, I know all about shitty exes." Katrina hooked her arm around Rebecca's and led her across the quad.

The urge to go after them, to tear Rebecca away from Katrina before she found a way to ruin Rebecca as she'd almost ruined us, roared up with enough fury that heat burned the back of my throat.

"Let them go." David cut me off, pushing my shoulders before I left the shadows. "Rebecca can handle her."

Yeah, she could. She shouldn't have to. Rebecca should not be dealing with our problems. A problem I'd thought was over. "What are you doing here?"

David released me and leaned against the biology building. An open window at the end released the scent of formaldehyde into the breeze. David wrinkled his nose and pushed away from the wall. "We can talk on the way back to your office." Striding past me, he shot a quick look toward where Katrina and Rebecca disappeared amid a crowd of students. "What happened?"

I gave him a quick rundown of Lucas's behavior, his infiltration into my class, and what I'd seen on the quad.

"Asshole." David speared a hand through his hair. "You're sure she's okay? He's off campus?"

"I told security to ban him. We don't need guys like that roaming around." He never should have made it onto campus to begin with, but men like Lucas had a way of getting what they wanted. But he wouldn't get Rebecca. I'd make damned sure of that. "You going to tell me how you found us?"

"Saw you go feral on the quad. I couldn't leave in the middle of my lecture, but I came as soon as I could."

Feral. That was one way of putting it. I felt absolutely fucking feral. Even thinking about that bastard having his hands on Rebecca sent my thoughts raging until I saw red in the corners of my vision.

"Settle the fuck down." David pushed me ahead of him, into the building where I'd been a professor my entire tenure here, and guided me into my office. "Sit down." Without waiting to see if I'd comply, he stalked over to his favorite chair and collapsed into it. "I'm glad you were there to watch over her."

Cole walked up next. "Saw the commotion on the quad. Everything taken care of?"

"Yeah." I dropped into my chair and kicked my feet onto the desk. I'd rather go for a run, but I still had another class to teach before the end of the day. Pretending nonchalance might not work on David and Cole, but maybe it would trick my brain into thinking there was nothing to worry about.

"Katrina made some remarks that are concerning." David motioned for Cole to sit. "What happened with Rebecca?"

"Nothing." Not nearly as much as I'd wanted.

"Tell us the truth." David smacked my feet, knocking them to the floor. "What's the damage? Did Katrina see anything?"

"I don't know." I replayed the moment in slow motion, savoring the memory of Rebecca's arms around me and her lips on mine. "I had my back to the quad. All she could have seen was Rebecca's arms around my waist."

"What really happened?" Cole cracked open a bottle of water from my mini fridge, then passed one to David.

I held out my hand and he slapped a bottle onto the desk. "She kissed me." She kissed me, and now that the box was unlocked, I didn't think I had the strength to lock it again.

How was this supposed to work? It wasn't. That was the whole shitty truth of it. No matter how much I wanted her, how deeply I felt about her, none of this worked because it would ultimately ruin her.

Or me. Us. I eyed my two best friends. Romance wasn't in the cards for us. We'd accepted that a long time ago. Then Rebecca came along and we all fell head over heels. It didn't make sense. Maybe that was why I dared to risk it.

"You'd better make sure you're above reproach." Cole swigged his water. "Katrina's a vengeful bitch. Even something as common as a hug is enough to send the dean down here again."

And this time, he wouldn't be as accommodating since he had a ‘witness' to my indiscretions.