Ryland swallowed rapidly.Really significant.His eyes begged to be allowed to look down, but Ryland forced himself to keep his gaze on the professor’s face.
He’d always wondered what Arslan would look like if all that long dark brown hair wasn’t caught back by a strip of leather at the nape of his neck.Now he knew.It looked like a lion’s mane.Ryland took a shaky breath.Behind his back, his hands clenched into tight fists as he fought against a sudden spike of panic at the reminder of the L word.
“I asked you a question.”
Ryland nodded.Yes.Arslan had asked him a question, and everyone who had ever attended one of his lectures knew that when the Professor Arslan asked a question, you’d better bloody well know the answer.
Who had he been expecting?Quite frankly, someone who looked like they needed to pay for sex.
“I…” There was no way in hell he could say that.If he said that, then he’d end up blurting out something even more embarrassing—like the fact Professor Arslan would never have to pay for sex because damn near every student in the university who was the least bit interested in men would happily drop to their knees for him for free.And, if he told him that half the student population had a crush on him, then he’d soon be telling him which half he fell into and…
“I didn’t know what to expect, sir,” Ryland whispered.
Arslan studied him for a long time before he finally nodded his willingness to accept his answer.
Ryland let out a relieved little sigh.
“He’s one of your students?”
Ryland jumped at the reminder that other people existed in the world—existed in that very room.Before he had a chance to turn toward the voice or descend into panic, Arslan’s hand was on the back of Ryland’s head, his fingers tangling in his hair.As the professor held him in place, he somehow managed to ease Ryland’s need to look over his shoulder to see who’d asked the question.
“No,” Arslan said.His tone left no room for argument as he looked past Ryland and glared at whoever had interrupted them.“He’s not one of my students.”
Ryland stared up at Arslan, wondering how a sentence that disclaimed all knowledge of him could also manage to sound as possessive as hell.
“You’re a…?”Ryland trailed off as he realised he had no idea what to call him.
Arslan raised an eyebrow.“A shifter?A were?A lion?Yes.”
Ryland swallowed and nodded as if that was nothing to worry about.His wrists pulled nervously at his cuffs.
Since Arslan could never need to tie someone up to ensure they did as he wished, the bondage was obviously there because he liked it.The professor wasn’t just a lion.He was a kinky lion.Ryland wasn’t sure if that was objectively better or worse, although his cock certainly wasn’t complaining about the possibility.
Suddenly, Arslan reached behind Ryland.In a second, the cuffs were unbuckled from his wrists.He tossed them out of Ryland’s line of sight, perhaps to another lion.Ryland didn’t hear them land.He didn’t try to look in the direction where they disappeared either.
His shoulders ached, but he still kept his freed hands behind him and waited for Arslan to give him permission to move them.
The professor had always been able to make him sit still through a two-hour lecture with nothing more than a glare in his general direction.No one in their right mind tapped his pen against his desk or fidgeted with his phone when Arslan was in charge of the room.Ryland tried to tell himself that standing there naked with his hands behind his back was no different to minding his manners in a lecture hall.But it wasn’t the same; it felt far more natural.
“I thought you didn’t do students.”
Arslan’s fingers tightened in Ryland’s hair.Nails that suddenly felt long enough to resemble a lion’s claws scraped against his scalp.The professor snarled at someone outside Ryland’s field of vision.
The harsh, angry little noise wasn’t directed at him, but Ryland still felt his heart hesitate before taking its next beat.
The professor’s snarl morphed into words without any clear line being drawn between the two.“Do you have something to say, Blaine?”
*
Professor Joseph Arslan quickly searched the gloom that lingered outside the bright circle of firelight.As he met Blaine’s eyes, the younger lion took a step back and dropped his gaze.Arslan watched Blaine’s posture change further as he apparently realised just how badly he’d misjudged the situation.
Arslan wasn’t inclined to be sympathetic.It was well past time the boy learned to show due respect to the leader of his pride.Blaine was more than old enough to recognise the situations when he might be allowed to play silly games and when the moment was too serious for such foolishness to be tolerated.
If the younger lions couldn’t look at the man currently standing in their midst and tell that he was different to all the sacrifices who had come before him, then Arslan had no problem with calling them to heel and reminding them of their respective places in his pride.
Blaine kept his eyes down.Satisfied for the moment, Arslan looked, in turn, at each of the other lions who lurked around the edges of the room, daring any of them to speak.
No one said a word.No one held his gaze for longer than a second before they looked down either.Arslan turned his attention back to Ryland.He quickly dropped his gaze, too.
