Page 18 of Dream a Little Dream

“No offense, but we don’t all pine over you on Insta.”

He wouldn’t find anything on there, anyway. Kenny kept his image out of social media. But people could find him. He wasAssociate Professor at the University of Ryston. He’d authored books. Spoken at conferences. His image was there if someone wanted it. But why would this bloke want it?

“So, this is as much of a shock for you as it is for me?”

“Mmm hmm.”

Kenny fell back in his chair, studying Aaron’s reluctance to say anything more.

So he jumped over the unrest. “Were you in care?”

Aaron’s intake of breath showed his annoyance at having been called out. “What does that matter?”

“It doesn’t.” Kenny studied his reaction. Okay, that riled him up. The stigma. The humiliation of being a child in need. He hated it.Detestedit. Kenny could tell by the slight grimace curling his lips. “But that would be one reason I can’t open your file.”

“Why do you want to look in my file?”

“Because you picked me out in a club, then ended up in my lecture hall. I’m curious about how that happened.”

“One, you picked me.”

“I di—it doesn’t matter the details.”

“Surely, the details matter. You literally lecture about the details.”

“Not in this case.”

Aaron shrugged, looking away, running a finger over a book on the shelf, eyes distant and faraway. Kenny thought perhaps appealing to his self-important nature might help strike a chord.

“You had the highest entry points in the year.”

Aaron tossed his eyes back on him. Pride rippled within them. A hint of confidence, not quite melding into arrogance. As if he wasn’t used to compliments about his brains when he looked as good as he did.

Kenny inhaled, chest rising to psych himself up enough to say what he needed. “If this is really coincidence, and there’s noulterior motive for you being here, for what happened the other night, and you’re willing to forget, to keep Saturday nameless, then I’m happy for you to remain on my course.”

Aaron twisted, foot dropping from his knee, and slanted forward.Nowhe was in Kenny’s space. Remnants of cigarette smoke masked by mint chewing gum wafted through the static air and Kenny inhaled Aaron’s breath as if it gave him life, preventing his need to swallow and ingest it to fill the hunger he’d had since he’d left the club on Saturday night. Like the lingering recollection of a fantastic meal, he was desperate to reheat it and eat it again. And his eyes, that penetrating blue, observed him as if he could read every single thought he’d ever had. Now he understood why Jack had always hated that look. Kenny couldn’t breathe.

“You have the power to remove me?”

“I can make suggestions for it, yes.”

“And you’d do that because I sucked your cock?”

Kenny flickered his eyes shut. He cracked his neck from side to side before opening them again. Aaron licked his lips with a grin full of relish.

Cocky bastard.

“I’d do it because our encounter could cause our student-tutor relationship to be uncomfortable. Unbalanced.”

“Unbalanced?” Aaron pursed his lips, nodding his head as if contemplating the meaning. “I’d say we were pretty balanced. Level. Tit for tat.”

“I’ll declare it.” Kenny reached behind him, waggling the mouse for his machine to light up. “I’ll complete the form now.”

“Wow. Do you have to write a detailed description? Do they get sent to the creative writing course for plot material?”

“Do you want me to declare it?”

“What would happen if you did?”

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