Professor Levine…
Maddox…
Mad. My lips lift into a smile at the last word. It’s so weird, the way my brain has slowly sorted him from one category to the other. It feels like I’ve known him longer than a few months—honestly, with the way he touches me, with the way I’m missing him even though he’s barely been gone for a few minutes, it feels like I’ve known him my entire life.
Maybe I should tell him that.
Maybe I should?—
The sound of clapping makes my head jerk up. I have no idea why I know who it is before my eyes focus, but my fingers grip the stack of scripts I’ve been neatly organizing and I frown.
“What do you want, Professor Hilman?” I can’t keep the disdain out of my voice, but it doesn’t seem to put him off. He keeps slapping his hands together like he’s determined to make a point, and he doesn’t stop until I feel my shoulders slump.
“That was… quite the performance you put on, Luca.”
Quite the…
There’s no way he saw…
There’s no way he knows.
I…
“What?”
“Imagine my surprise when I borrowed the extra set of keys from the janitor because I told him I forgot something in here and saw you and Professor Levine.” He tsks softly, stalking toward the stage. I’m frozen in the low lighting, my fingers clutching the scripts so hard I’m pretty sure my arms are shaking. “I see why you’re confused now… he’s filled your head with a bunch of nonsense, hasn’t he?”
He’s still moving toward me like this is all normal, and all I want to do is throw the papers at his face and push him off the stage.
“It’s not like that.” My brows draw together and I hope the conviction in my voice rings true. “I don’t know what you think you saw, but?—”
He pulls out his phone… and there on the screen is my worst nightmare. Professor Levine between my legs and my head thrown back.
It isn’t the expression on my face that catches me off guard, it’s his.
The soft reverence in his eyes. The adoration.
The love.
Maddox Levine is looking at me like I’m his entire world, and now the fate of that world is hovering between me and an asshole with a smirk on his face. I feel almost numb as I put the papers down on the chair and blow out a slow, shaking breath.
“What do you want, Professor Hilman?”
“Please, call me Alec,” he smirks… and when he steps toward me, I know I’m not going to like whatever he has to say.
Chapter
Twenty-Eight
MADDOX
There’s something…strange going on with Luca. He’s usually fluttery and tripping over himself around me, even after all this time. But now he’s even more fluttery and shaky, his hands clumsy and his movements jerky.
Did I push him too far with sex at school?
I told him to use his safe word if he wanted me to stop. He seemed into it… but that doesn’t mean he didn’t do something past his limits just to please me.
When I told him about my past, I’d hoped it would give him some insight into who I am and who I used to be, not for him to fear that I’d hurt him if he told me no.
