Page 39 of Killing Me Softly

“Concerns?”

“Not for any of your academic achievements. The peer reviews are outstanding. But I have come across some concerns about your methods. Boundaries with subjects. And your…” She paused. Deliberately. “Personal life.”

There it was. The other shoe dropping. Speculation dressed up as professional critique.

“My personal life?” Kenny’s voice edged with frustration. “What does my personal life have to do with my professional one?”

“Quite a lot.” Ellie tilted her head. “There are questions about your ability to maintain professional boundaries and until those questions are addressed—”

“What sort of questions?”

“Three years ago, Kenny, you were involved in a highly disruptive relationship with a research assistant, which culminated in a significant incident within the faculty administration office. In which I had to intervene. She subsequently left the university and did not return. The occupational psychology unit spent weeks addressing the impact on staff productivity and morale.”

“That was…” Kenny fell back in his chair, wiping a hand over his forehead. That was a really fucking long time ago.A lifetime ago.“Ill advised, yes. Granted. But if we judged everyone on their ill-advised relationships, none of us would be in the positions we are now.”

“Indeed. But there are now morerecentconcerns. One I can’t gloss over like I did that one.”

“Recent?” Kenny’s heart thumped.

Ellie didn’t blink. “Perception matters, Kenny. Particularly in academia. Your ability to separate personal and professional boundaries has been…questioned.”

“By whom?”

“I’m not at liberty to discuss specifics.”

Of course she wasn’t. She never was.

“So how can I challenge this…perception, if you can’t offer details? Specifics?”

He wasn’t sure he wanted to hear them. To find out this was, once again, all about Aaron. Because what else could it be about? But hehadto know. At least be offered the chance to refute it. Or explain it. Rather than merely have all the speculation surrounding him. And he’d quite like to know who had the suspicions. Who’d brought it up to his line manager and not him? He’d been careful. Despite what Jack had said. He’d declared he was supporting Aaron through his personal trauma. He was taking him to therapy. That the things that had happened on campus had deeply affected him, which Kenny could support him through. All to put aside any whispers about their relationship outside the classroom. Deceptive? Yes. Of course. But apart from Barcelona, they’d never been anywhere outside of Kenny’s house in the nine months he’d been sleeping with him. No dates. No holding hands in the street. Not even a fucking shopping trip. Kenny took him to his therapy sessions. Brought him back to his house. Okay, yes, he fucked him while he was there but…

Damn. It fuckinghurtwhen he thought about it like that.

That he hadn’t, in nine months, given Aaron anything other than that.

“Because we’re still gathering evidence.”

Kenny shot up from his seat, pacing to the window as the tightness in his chest threatened to choke him. The campus stretched out below, students bustling through the quad,blissfully ignorant of how small their world was. He turned back to Ellie, her serene expression somehow more infuriating than outright hostility.

“You know my work is solid.” He held her gaze, refusing to back down from the title he deserved. Despite appearances. “You know I’ve earned this.”

“I know your work is exceptional,” Ellie replied with a challenging gaze of her own. “But exceptional work isn’t enough when there are unresolved questions about professional integrity. I needmorethan brilliance. I needtrust.”

He laughed bitterly, running a hand through his hair. “Trust? I haven’t earned your trust enough by catching not one buttwokillers on the payroll?”

“For which we are grateful. But that isn’t the trust we are talking about here.”

“So, what are we talking about?”

Ellie sighed, her gaze steady but unyielding. “This isn’t a dismissal, Kenny. It’s a deferment. You may reapply once we’ve addressed these concerns.”

“So address them.”

Ellie parted her lips to respond, but a sharp knock at the door sliced through the tension. “I can’t right now. There’s another matter we need to discuss.” Raising her voice, she called to beyond the wood. “Come in!”

The door creaked open and soft footsteps crossed the threshold, making the air in the room shift. It was an almost imperceptible change, but enough to send a jolt of unease through Kenny’s spine. He turned his head, a casual glance over his shoulder. Then flinched in surprise.

No.

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