Page 8 of Forbidden Professor

Before he could protest, I turned on my heel and walked out of the lecture hall as fast as I could without breaking into a jog. The spring breeze outside cooled my sizzling cheeks when I burst out of the building, but I didn't hesitate. I didn't want to risk the chance that Camden would come out of the building to find me. I needed to get him as far out of my mind as I could. As of now, he couldn't be anything but a student.

"Now, full disclosure, I don't really remember the details of that particular encounter, but from what I do remember, he was really cute."

I gave Brianne a look and reached for another tiny organza bag to fill. The conversation didn't exactly fit thematically with creating her wedding favors for that weekend, but I had to talk it through with her. The whole situation was bothering me.

"Not remembering the details clearly is being very generous to your condition that night. I'm surprised you remember that you left home."

"I wasn't that drunk," she said. I gave her a look, and she shrugged. "All right, I was. But that's on Viv. She didn't tell me how much alcohol was in those Jell-O shots."

"Did you think she just brought you a refreshing snack?" I asked.

"Possibly." She shook her head. "Stop trying to redirect the conversation. This isn't about my bachelorette party. This is about you and the cute guy."

I pointed at her. "See, right there. The fact that you call him 'cute' just highlights exactly what's wrong with this whole situation. He's my student."

Brianne rolled her eyes so hard I thought she might tip over off the couch. "He's a grown man, Kristen." She paused and looked at me with a questioning look. "He is a grown man, right?"

"Yes," I said. "He's a grown man. Probably a couple years older than us. He came back to school to finish the degree he didn't finish when he was younger."

"See?" Brianne said, holding a hand out like she was gesturing toward the explanation as clear evidence of her stance. "Grown man. Officially not a problem."

"It's not his age that's the problem. It's the fact that I'm a professor and he's my student," I said.

"But you are both grown adults," she argued. "It's not like it's a real teacher-student thing."

"That's not how the school looks at it. There's a policy against faculty getting involved with their students. It doesn't matter how old they are. Granted, they probably would appreciate that he's grown rather than one of the eighteen-year-olds, but the policy still stands. And I really don't want to do anything that might compromise future full professor positions," I said.

"Don't you think you're making a big jump?" Brianne asked. "He just asked you to go out for drinks. That's it. You're not hanging your future on it."

"Everything is about my future," I said. "I want to do more than just teach at Slater for the rest of my career. I want to do something that matters more."

"I know. And you do. You're always doing something at the community center. You teach the adult education courses. The mentor program. In fact, this might be a non-issue since you are always so busy you probably wouldn't have time to actually date the man anyway."

She continued stuffing the bags, making a show of not looking at me.

"I know you well enough to know you're trying to use reverse psychology on me, but you have a valid point there. I really should be focusing just on my career and not even considering starting a relationship. Especially one with someone who would cause so much complication for me."

"That's not what I meant," Brianne said.

"Too late. You convinced me," I said.

She hadn't, but it was fun to see the frustrated look on her face. The truth was, I didn't need her to convince me. I already knew I couldn't give in to the attraction I had to Camden. At least I’d gotten to enjoy that happy feeling for a little while.

5

CAMDEN

This was becoming a problem.

I couldn’t get Kristen out of my mind. Correction. I couldn’t get Professor Moyer out of my mind. The professor. Of my class. In ethics.

Of course, this was happening to me. I hadn’t been really truly interested in a woman in years, and when I finally was, it was an impossible situation. Either I tried to pursue it and potentially get us both in trouble with the school or I could drop the class and potentially have gone through all this for nothing, or I could just revert to being a student of hers and ignore the way I felt when I heard her voice.

Or saw her face.

Or remembered how her lips felt against mine.

Dammit.

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