Chapter 68. Welcome to the Club, Professor

Ava

The second the lock clicked, the air in the hallway turned thick enough to taste.

He stood two feet away, hands clenched at his sides, breathing like he’d sprinted here.

I didn’t move to touch him. Not yet.

I just looked at him, slow and deliberate, letting the silence stretch until it snapped.

“Say it,” I murmured, voice barely above a whisper. “Say why you’re really here.”

His throat worked. His eyes dropped to my mouth, to the wet cotton clinging to my nipples, to the bare thighs I hadn’t bothered to cover.

“I tried,” he rasped. “I tried to stay away. I tried to do the right thing.”

I took one step closer.

“And how did that work out for you, Professor?”

His control fractured, just a hairline crack, but I saw it.

Another step. Close enough that the heat rolling off him licked my skin.

“Tell me you don’t want this,” I said, soft, deadly. “Look me in the eye and lie one more time. I dare you.”

H