“How did you…find out?” Bay asked.
“About your cute little attempts at spying?” Sila chuckled. “My brother told me.”
“So Rin does know.”
“I am Rin.”
Bay’s head snapped up. “What?” He scowled. “No, you aren’t. You can’t fool me. I know it’s you. You’ve been sitting in my class for over a month, driving me half mad with your presence. How could I not recognize you?”
“Yeah, I’m the one who’s been taking your class this semester, Professor Delmar.”
“Exactly. You’re not—”
“But I’m not always the one you saw on campus,” he continued.
“What do you mean?” Bay wasn’t following.
“I am Rin,” he repeated. “Sometimes. And sometimes I’m Sila.”
“That doesn’t make any sense.” He’d seen the brothers together before. He knew there were two of them.
“Sure it does. Sometimes he’s Rin, and sometimes he’s Sila. Are you catching on now?”
Bay gave a tentative shake of his head even though, yeah, he sort of was. “You swap places.”
“Not always. Less frequently since we came to this planet.”
“Then why…?”
“My brother didn’t want to deal with your leering, so he asked me to handle it. That’s why I’m always the one who shows up for your class. We don’t interact anywhere else on campus since you fear getting exposed and having to explain your inappropriate behavior to your colleagues, so it’s a simple enough setup.”
Bay opened his mouth and then snapped it shut again, then repeated the process before he was finally able to formulate another question. “Then…Which of you is the one I’ve actually been obsessing over?"
“I can’t answer that,” Sila said. His gaze suddenly turned dark and the energy in the room altered, growing heavy and almost stifling. When he leaned over to put them at eye level, there was a flicker of something dangerous in his gaze. “What I can tell you is that from here on out, the one you’re obsessed with is me. Understand, Kitten?”
“That’s not how attraction works.”
The corner of his mouth tipped up, but the look was far from kind or boyish like Bay had always thought of him in the past. “We both know how your attraction works. It’s better for you to accept the things you can’t change. For now, I’m your man.”
Something a lot like excitement skittered its slimy fingers down Bay’s spine. Had Sila seen it? If so, he didn’t give a reaction. Which was good, since Bay was embarrassed enough as it was.
He’d always known he was messed up, but this? This was on a whole different level.
How could he be turned on by the note of ownership in Sila’s tone just now?
“Which leads me to choices.” Sila straightened.
“Please.” Bay didn’t even know what he was begging for anymore.
“You’ll want to hear me out,” he said, “I promise. Option one, I turn around now and we can pretend like this whole thing never happened. So long as you keep away from my brother, as agreed upon.”
“That’s it? You’ll just…,” Bay motioned toward the door, “go?”
Sila hummed in the affirmative. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m keeping the videos, but yeah. The population of the capital city is over ten thousand, Professor.”
He pulled back slightly. “You’re telling me you’ll just go find someone else.”
“Why does it sound like you’re not a fan of that idea?”
