3. Ethan

3

ETHAN

I was supposed to be better than this. Damn it. The sight of Rebecca in the middle of my lecture hall set my blood boiling. She'd challenged me in front of everyone, and I couldn't even be mad because she had a valid point.

Off limits . I reminded myself on a continuous loop as I paced up and down the room in front of the lectern. Standing still was impossible. I had to move and burn off some of this energy before I combusted. She tracked me, her eyes locked and her lips slightly parted.

Growling beneath my breath, I turned my back on the students and focused on the projector screen. "As you'll see here, the depth of emotion conveyed through the English language changes from person to person. An ‘I love you' from one person does not mean the same as from another. The beauty of the written word is that a man can say, ‘You are my moon and stars', and the woman swoons." A smile hitched my lips upward at the groans of dismay. I faced the students. "You see. Spoken aloud, it sounds ridiculous. Many men would be offended by such flowery language. However." I stopped and held up one finger. "Men might not think this way, and it may never cross our minds to say something like this. That is where story comes in. A character can be anything, say anything, as long as it makes sense to how you've written them from the beginning."

Rebecca scribbled furiously in her notebook. I'd noticed she didn't bother with the computer as many of them did but set it to record my lectures while she wrote. What did she write that had her brows pulled low over her expressive eyes and caused her to bite down on her lower lip?

"You really think saying that to a woman would have her swoon?" Matthew, a young man in the front row, shifted in his seat. He tapped his pencil on the top of his computer. "Pretty sure I'd get laughed out of a room if I said that."

"Because you've never said more than three words to a girl before." The guy beside him nudged his shoulder and cackled.

Matthew blushed bright red all the way to the tips of his ears.

"It's all about the context." Rebecca leaned forward.

I tried to ignore how the move pushed her breasts upward. She seemed to have no idea how much that simple move affected me.

She was off limits. Professors and students were a strict no-no. I'd adhered to the rule my entire career, was never even tempted to break the taboo… until now.

Matthew and his neighbor turned around to face Rebecca.

She glanced at me, her silent question plain on her face.

I gave her a small nod. Curiosity got the better of me. I wanted to know which angle she'd take.

"If you look at your favorite movie, you get annoyed with the character when they say or do something that doesn't fit what you've come to expect from them. A superhero with savage banter and sarcasm isn't going to go moon-eyed over a woman and start spouting sonnets. But his banter will be flirty, even if it's savage." She concentrated on Matthew, but her words carried around the room.

I'd seen her as timid and shy on that first day, but get her talking about books and characterization and she came alive. Interesting.

Matthew nodded. The guy beside him screwed up his nose, completely lost.

My watch buzzed, reminding me that class was about to end. "Alright. Assignments. Now that we've covered this section, and thanks to Rebecca's clarification, you have a new task. Tonight, I want you to watch your favorite movie, take your favorite character from that movie, and write a short story that forces that character to change who they are at their core. They need to have reason, motivation, and conflict." I ticked off each of the points as the students gathered their materials and scrambled for the door. One more class. Then I'd take a break and visit Cole.

The emptiness in the room turned stifling without Rebecca. What kind of craziness was this? I'd never experienced this kind of attraction for a student. I didn't like it. I'd not come this far in my career to risk it all.

Maybe once she graduated…

My next class piled in, and I started the lecture all over again. This time, it went as planned without Rebecca there to offer her insights and distractions. By the time it ended, I almost shoved the kids out of the way to get outside where I could breathe.

Students filled the quad, many of them sitting in the grass or shuffling around as they laughed and talked. I tried not to look for Rebecca, but it was like telling myself not to breathe.

Cole's lecture hall loomed ahead, and I burst into the building where cold air snapped across my face. Better. Much better. Silence closed in around me until I marched forward and my dress shoes announced my arrival.

Cole popped his head out from the room on the left, a grin spreading over his face. "Ethan. What's up?"

"Needed a break." I followed him into the office he'd occupied for the last five years and kicked back in a cushy chair, propping my feet on the corner of his desk. "Anything good happening on this side of campus?"

"Good? Here?" He spread his hands wide and shrugged. "Same old job. Same old groans and grumbles from students wanting to know why the hell they need statistics."

"I'm curious about that myself." I couldn't help teasing him. "English Lit. Now that's a subject with something to sink your teeth into."

"Right." Cole snorted and shoved his hands into his pockets. He rolled his eyes. "I do have this one student, Rebecca. She looks like trouble."

I stilled, my blood turning to ice. It couldn't be the same Rebecca. "Really? What kind of trouble?"

"Hard to say. Something about her, though. Haven't heard her say a word, but she watches, you know? Like she sees everything. And I catch her writing at the weirdest times like her hand's on fire." The look on Cole's face, the flash of hungry attraction, curled my hands into fists.

Shit. That sounded like my Rebecca. No. Not mine. She could never be mine. Or Cole's.

Cole looked past me, staring toward the lecture hall while wearing a goofy grin. "I wonder what it would take to get her to talk."

"I can't get her to shut up." I said it with more bite than I intended, and Cole arched a brow. "She has very clear feelings about English Literature." I picked lint from my slacks and crossed my ankle over my knee, attempting to appear nonchalant.

I failed, and Cole was quick to call me out on my bullshit. "You like her." He straightened his shoulders. "Damn. Didn't see that coming."

Standing, I pointed at him. "You do too. Don't even try to argue. I saw your face when you said her name." Heat seared through me. "She's off limits, Cole."

"I know that, Ethan." He drew my name out into a curse. "We could lose our jobs. Our credibility. We'd never work at another college."

The risk was too high. Rebecca was perfectly legal as far as her age, but not in this situation.

"I need a drink." Pushing both hands through my hair, I upended the careful style and shrugged out of my suit jacket. "You coming?"

"Absolutely." Cole snatched his keys from the desk drawer and spun them around his finger. "I'll drive."

I didn't argue. I might need to get shit-faced drunk tonight if I wanted to knock Rebecca loose from my brain. Nothing else was working. Hell, I'd jerked off in the shower this morning while imagining her face and still ended up with a semi during class today.

Cole whistled as we walked out the back door and into the employee parking lot. His jovial demeanor pissed me off.

"Do you have to do that?" I yanked open the door to his blue sedan and waved a hand to dispel the heat.

"Do what?" Cole smirked, always the little shit.

I dropped into the car and cranked up the air conditioning. "I'm calling David. Maybe he'll meet us at Joe's."

Joe's, the local bar and lounge, hosted a variety of drinks, meals, and entertainment for the local college scene.

Most students went further into town, to the swankier places. Cole, David, and I preferred the dim, old-school vibe at Joe's.

"It's karaoke night." Cole tapped his watch like I'd forgotten which day of the week it was. "Things might get noisy."

Good. I could use the caterwauling to drown out my own thoughts and the constant cycle that brought me back to Rebecca.

"David's not answering." I pocketed my phone and leaned my head back against the seat rest.

Cole wheeled into the lot and shut off the engine. "More drinks for us. Come on." He slapped my knee. "Let's go."

Joe's parking lot held a grand total of twenty cars, which meant things were still slow inside.

Great. Maybe we'd get faster service and I could drown my problems faster.

The bouncer at the door waved us inside without checking our ID. Guess he'd gotten tired of it after seeing us on the weekly for five-plus years. We walked into the dim interior and paused until our eyes adjusted. The smells of greasy food, beer, and too much cologne mingled into a spicy concoction unique to the place. I breathed it in like a fucking aphrodisiac, though that was the last thing I needed tonight. Men and women carried drinks to tables and booths. Joe stood behind the bar, pouring a drink for two men with their attention more on each other than Joe. He jerked his head in a silent greeting.

I held up two fingers, and we made our way to a booth on the left, tucked in the corner where we could see the whole place but were far enough away from the stage that we wouldn't go deaf. A band played there now, the low hum of voices mingling with the acoustic guitar and general noise. "Fuck, yes." Sinking into the seat, I rubbed my eyes.

Joe himself carried over our drinks, a whiskey neat for me and a top-shelf beer for Cole.

"Keep 'em coming." I downed the whiskey and slammed the glass on the table.

Cole didn't say a word but drained half his beer in one go.

I held up a steady finger, intent on getting my point across before I forgot. "You're the designated driver. Only two for you."

"He's drowning his sorrows." Cole's shitty grin caused Joe to smile back.

He took my glass and backed away. "Just don't cause trouble."

"Have we ever?" Cole splayed his hands innocently, the gleam in his eyes on the verge of dangerous.

We'd never started anything, but we damned well finished it when needed.

Krista brought my next whiskey, stopping to chat with Cole. They'd had a brief thing a year or so ago that ended on amicable terms. He still looked out for her and had gone a little batshit crazy when another guy manhandled her during her shift.

"Any trouble?" When Cole looked at Krista now, it was with the careful consideration of a friend. It held none of the heat I'd noticed when he talked about Rebecca.

Shit. I downed the next drink and tried to physically scrub Rebecca from my thoughts. My nails scraped my scalp. I tuned out Cole and Krista, peering over the woman's head in search of a distraction.

A familiar head of silvery brown hair snagged my attention. David. I kicked Cole beneath the table. "Found out why David's not answering his phone. He's already here. And he's with someone."

The ‘someone' raised her head far enough that I got a full view of her face. Curses spewed out so fast that Cole started to stand. "What the fuck?" He leaned over me and squinted. "Tell me I'm going blind. For fuck's sake, Ethan, tell me he's not on a date with Rebecca. Tell me he's here with the other girl."

I couldn't tell him that because from where we sat, with the two of them leaning closer and closer, her hand on his arm and the soft smile bending her luscious mouth, they were definitely on a date.

The other woman whispered into Rebecca's ear, then stood and joined a man at the bar. Rebecca and David stared into each other's eyes with enough intensity I could almost smell their arousal from here.

"Fuck." I grabbed Cole's beer and finished it for him. "What do we do?"