“I don’t know,” Noah said, feigning indifference.
There was a long pause, and Noah watched a hundred emotions play out over Adam’s face before he said, “You don’t know?”
“Yeah, how do I know you really want to marry me?” Noah teased at Adam’s dumbfounded expression.
When Adam caught on, he gave a heaving sigh. “Because I’m the son of a billionaire and I’m not asking you to sign a prenup,” he deadpanned.
“Well, when you put it that way.” He brandished his left hand, waggling his ring finger in Adam’s face.
Adam rolled his eyes but pushed the band into place. It was cool against his overheated skin. “There. Now, we’re engaged.”
“Swoon.” Noah laughed, dumping Adam off him to go to the bathroom. He bounced off the bed only to find himself dragged into Adam’s lap. “What? I have to pee,” he cried, wiggling in his lap.
“I maybe love you,” Adam said, words muffled against his skin.
Butterflies erupted in Noah’s belly. He never got tired of this silly little game. “I maybe love you, too.”
Lucas was sitting on top of his desk at the front of the lecture hall, a picture of serial killer Ed Kemper displayed on the overhead projector. “Why do you think a serial murderer like Kemper would have an interest in helping the police profile killers like himself?”
“Ego?” a voice called out.
“Reliving his crimes?” another suggested.
“Maybe both,” Lucas agreed. “Kemper was exceptionally smart. Had a high IQ, was well spoken, and was surprisingly self-aware for a predator?—”
Lucas broke off as the door at the back of the auditorium creaked open, like they were in a horror movie, then slammed shut and Cricket speed walked towards him, leaning close to whisper, “Sorry, but August said I needed to give you this now.”
A shiver of fear went through Lucas, but he nodded, peering into the bag as she scurried away. Inside was an envelope withUmnishkawritten in August’s script. He reached a hand inside, carefully extracting it, then opened the envelope to find a card with a bubbly heart with a lock. Why would August want him to see this right now?
When he opened it, a vision of August hit him hard enough to knock the air from his lungs—Lucas pressed up against the stacks, August on his knees, Lucas’s hands grasping in his hair as August muffled his moans. Lucas slammed the card closed, yanking himself forcibly from his vision before he embarrassed himself in front of the class, who watched him intently.
When he examined the card, it was blank inside, but on the back it said, FIND ME.
“Is that from Professor Mulvaney?” one of his first year’s—Daria—simpered.
“Is it a love note?” her little brunette sidekick, Maria, asked, forming a heart with her hands.
August’s and Lucas’s relationship was still the talk of the school months later. Thankfully, the wild rumors of Lucas being a money grubbing mental patient looking for a cash grab had faded, leaving behind a bunch of staff and students who were weirdly invested in their relationship. It was sweet, if not somewhat creepy.
Crychek, a burly football player currently sprawled in third row shouted, “Nah, man. Look at his face. Professor M wants a nooner. Some lunch time lovin’.” He nudged his friend. “The quiet ones are always freaky.”
Lucas chuckled, placing the card back in the envelope and pushing it aside.
“You’re not gonna just leave your man hanging, are you?” Daria asked.
Was he? Was August waiting for him on the third floor of the library? Was he looking to recreate that hookup? Lucas shifted, grateful his button down shirt was untucked, hiding his rapidly growing erection.
“He didn’t actually ask for a hookup,” Lucas said.Not exactly.“Not that it’s any of your business.” He glanced at hiswatch. “Besides, we still have twenty minutes left of class and then I have another after this.”
His TA, a lanky grad student—ironically named Ed—waved a hand. “I got you, Professor B.”
Lucas looked down at the card longingly. “Are you sure?”
Ed nodded. “Yeah, sure. No problem.”
Lucas hopped off his desk, snatching his work bag and the envelope. “Thanks.”
Lucas flushed as his students wolf whistled and shouted like he was on his way to get laid. Though, he supposed it was just as likely as anything else August might have planned. Being with a man whose brain worked like his made for interesting times. August was painfully literal sometimes, shockingly overwhelmed at others. Lucas had seen him melt down from overstimulation and go into a bubble of silence when he was working on a theory that just wouldn’t let go of him.
