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“But is it the sort of thing that might threaten either my job or his status as a student?” Jamie asked.
Dr. Epstein shrugged. “I don’t think so, since you didn’t meet through your interactions here.” Jamie started to breathe a sigh of relief, but Dr. Epstein went on with, “I recommend keeping the whole thing hush-hush, however.”
There it was. The thing Jamie had been hoping to avoid. Secret relationships were never a good idea. Some people might have found them thrilling, but to him, they were more trouble than they were worth. He just wanted to be with Aled and not care who knew it.
“I see,” he told Dr. Epstein, sliding his satchel over his shoulder and adjusting his glasses. “Thank you for the advice.”
“You’re most welcome, Professor Croft.”
Jamie left the conference room feeling as if the issue of him and Aled had been muddled instead of resolved. Chances were they could get away with dating, if it came down to it, but there would inevitably be people who would make an issue of it.
Ronny was one of them. Jamie searched for him and Alexandra as he stepped out of the administration building and onto the path leading across the square. No doubt Ronny would scream bloody murder and try to have Jamie fired on the spot if he discovered Aled was a student at RUL. Jamie’s stomach already twisted with acid at the thought.
The feeling in Jamie’s gut tightened even more, but in an entirely different way, when he spotted Aled himself leaning against one of the trees off to the side of the path. He had three seconds to drink in the sight of Aled’s lazy stance, the way the sunlight painted golden highlights in his hair, and the way his muscles worked to keep him balanced against the tree. The man was absolute perfection.
Then Aled glanced up, as if he could feel Jamie’s appreciative gaze, and met his eyes. Aled smiled, and everything else seemed right with the world. He pushed off the tree and walked to meet Jamie by the side of the path.
“Hello,” Aled said, with all the breathless excitement of one of the new, green students.
“Hello,” Jamie replied with what he hoped was suave calm, but what probably sounded like the intro to a bad porno.
Both of them laughed, relaxing and settling into a much more normal energy with each other.
“I was just hanging out, waiting for my next class,” Aled said, nodding to one of the nearby buildings.
“I just got out of a meeting of the fundraising committee,” Jamie said with mock importance.
“Oh, thefundraisingcommittee,” Aled pretended to be deeply impressed.
Jamie loved it. It was so free and easy, even though they weren’t anywhere remotely close to their kinky inclinations, their interaction just felt right.
His good feelings took a bit of a hit when he spotted Dr. Epstein and another member from the committee walking out of the administration building. The whole secrecy thing was fresh and weighed heavily on him.
“Can I walk you to class?” he asked, worried that even walking with Aled would put a target on his head.
“Yeah,” Aled said with a smile, shouldering his backpack. “I’m still getting used to this whole thing of having my time scheduled,” he said as they headed down a side path toward one of the Humanities buildings.
“It’s different from—” He stopped, then laughed. “I was about to say it’s different from secondary school. I must say that phrase about a thousand times at the beginning of each school year. I recite it by rote now.”
“I can imagine,” Aled said, smiling.
“You’re not the average student who needs to hear that, though,” Jamie said. He swayed as close to Aled as he dared and brushed his hand subtly against Aled’s.
Aled grinned at him in return and pretended to lose his footing a bit as they stepped off the gravel path and onto the pavement in front of the Humanities building so that he could press his weight against Jamie.
God, they were like kids playing. It was beautiful and raised Jamie's temperature about ten degrees. But it was also ridiculously dangerous, especially since Ronny was probably still on campus somewhere.
It was a short walk that was over too soon, but Jamie didn’t want things to end.
“So could I treat you to supper some night this week?” he asked quickly, glancing around to make sure none of the rushing, distracted students heard them.
Aled tensed in surprise for a moment before relaxing into a warm smile. “I was going to ask you something similar. Technically, I already did. And yes, by the way. I’d love that. Friday would be best.”
It was downright cute. Jamie supposed that was what dating a younger man felt like. Everything felt new and fresh again.
He sent another look around before saying, “For reasons that are perhaps obvious, this isn’t something we should broadcast,” he said, taking a little bit of comfort in saying “we have to keep this secret” in as vague a way as possible. “I was thinking we could meet at The Chameleon Club.”
Aled frowned. “The Chameleon Club? That place that belongs to the Brotherhood?”
