2. RECKLESS PROXIMITY

SKYLAR POV 

My heart was still slamming against my ribs when he finally tore his eyes away from me and turned back to the board, like nothing had happened. Like he hadn't had his hands all over my body less than twelve hours ago.

"Find a seat," he said to the class, his voice calm, controlled, nothing like the husky whisper that had been in my ear the night before.

I didn't move at first. Emma nudged me from behind, whispering something about how I looked like I'd seen a ghost. If only she knew.

Somehow my legs carried me to an empty seat near the back, far enough that I could still breathe, close enough that I could feel his presence like static in the air. Kyle dropped into the chair beside me, completely unaware, already pulling out his notebook and complaining about how early the class was.

"You good?" he asked, glancing at me. "You look pale."

"I'm fine," I lied, my eyes fixed on the man at the front of the room.

He turned to the board and wrote his name in neat, deliberate letters. Professor Lucian Cross. My stomach dropped all over again. Cross. That name wasn't just familiar, it was everywhere. Carved into the stone above the main entrance of Ravencrest University. Printed on every banner across campus. His family had practically built this school from the ground up, which meant he probably could get me expelled with a single phone call if he wanted to.

He turned to face the class, hands tucked into his pockets, and for one unbearable second his gaze slid back to me. Just for a second. Then it was gone, like it never happened, and he launched straight into the syllabus as if I were just another face in a room full of strangers.

I barely heard a word of it. My mind kept replaying last night on a loop. His hands. His mouth. The way he'd looked at me like I was something he wanted to devour slowly. And now here he was, standing in front of a whiteboard wearing a crisp button down, looking every bit the professor and nothing like the man who'd had me pinned beneath him.

"Skylar." Emma's whisper cut through my thoughts. She was sitting one row ahead, twisted around in her seat, eyes wide. "Skylar, is that him?"

I shook my head slightly, praying she'd drop it, but Emma had never once dropped anything in her life.

"Oh my god," she mouthed, slapping a hand over her mouth to keep from laughing out loud.

I shot her a look that I hoped said shut up before someone notices, and thankfully she turned back around, shoulders shaking with silent laughter.

The next forty minutes crawled by. Professor Cross moved through everything with an ease that made it clear he'd done this a hundred times before, outlining assignments, grading policies, attendance expectations. His voice was steady, professional, completely detached from the man who'd whispered against my neck like he had all the time in the world.

I kept my eyes on my notebook, writing nothing, just doodling random lines to keep my hands busy. Every time his voice got close to my side of the room, my whole body tensed, waiting for him to say something, do something, acknowledge what had happened between us. He never did.

By the time the class ended, I felt like I'd run a marathon just sitting still.

"Office hours are posted outside my door," he said as everyone started packing up. "If you have questions about anything, come find me. Otherwise, I'll see you all Thursday."

I grabbed my bag and practically sprinted for the door, but of course Emma and Kyle caught up to me before I made it two steps into the hallway.

"Okay, we need to talk," Emma said, grabbing my arm and pulling me off to the side, away from the flow of students. "That's him. That's the guy from last night."

"Keep your voice down," I hissed, glancing around to make sure nobody was listening.

"This is insane," Kyle said, grinning like this was the best thing that had happened to him all semester. "You hooked up with a professor. On the first night of school. Before you even knew he was a professor."

"I didn't hook up with him," I said. "We kissed. That's it."

"With tongue," Emma added unhelpfully.

"Emma."

"I'm just saying, those hickeys didn't come from a handshake."

I pulled my hoodie collar up higher, suddenly way more aware of the marks hidden beneath the fabric. "Can we please not talk about this here? Anyone could hear you."

"Fine, fine," Emma said, though the grin never left her face. "But you have to admit, this is wild. Lucian Cross. As in, Cross like the building. Cross like half the scholarships at Ravencrest. That family basically owns this school." 

"I know who he is," I muttered, even though until twenty minutes ago I absolutely had not known.

"So what are you gonna do?" Kyle asked.

"Nothing. I'm going to go to class, take notes, and pretend last night never happened."

Emma raised an eyebrow like she didn't believe a word of it, but thankfully she let it go, mostly because we had somewhere to be. We said our goodbyes and I promised to meet them for lunch later, then I made my way across campus toward my next class, my mind still tangled up in everything that had happened.

I tried to focus on my classes for the rest of the day, I really did, but every few minutes my brain would drift right back to him. The way his hand had felt on my thigh. The low rasp of his voice in my ear. The way he'd looked at me across that classroom like he recognized every inch of me, even with an entire room of students between us.

By the time my last class ended, I was exhausted in a way that had nothing to do with how little sleep I'd gotten. I decided to take the long way back to Emma's dorm,  hoping the fresh air would clear my head.

It didn't.

I was crossing through the quad when I spotted him. Professor Cross, walking with another faculty member, both of them deep in conversation. My feet slowed without permission, my whole body locking up like I'd been caught doing something wrong, even though I was just existing in the same open space he happened to be walking through.

He glanced up, like he'd felt me staring, and for the second time that day our eyes met across a distance that suddenly didn't feel wide enough. The other professor kept talking beside him, completely unaware that the air around us had shifted. Lucian's jaw tightened, just slightly, and then he looked away first, saying something to the man beside him that made them both turn down a different path.

I stood there a moment longer than I should have, watching him walk away, my heart doing something stupid and complicated in my chest.

This wasn't supposed to happen. Ravencrest had thousands of students and hundreds of faculty, and somehow I had managed to end up tangled with the one man on this entire campus whose last name was carved into the walls. The one man who could ruin me with a single sentence to the dean. The one man who, despite everything telling me to stay away, I couldn't stop thinking about.

I pulled out my phone and typed his name into the search bar before I could talk myself out of it. Lucian Cross. The results loaded instantly, articles and photos and a university bio with his face staring back at me, serious and composed in a way that didn't match the man who'd had his mouth on my neck less than a day ago.

I read exactly one line of his bio before I shoved my phone back into my pocket, heart racing all over again.

Son of Ravencrest's founding family.

Great. Just great.

I had exactly one semester to figure out how to sit in his classroom twice a week and act like my entire body didn't remember every single thing he'd done to it.

I shoved my phone into my bag and kept walking, trying to force my legs to move at a normal pace instead of the shaky, unsteady rhythm they'd settled into. The sun was starting to dip behind the clock tower, casting long shadows across the quad, and Ravencrest's manicured lawns suddenly felt a lot less peaceful than they had that morning.

By the time I reached Emma's dorm, Emma was already sprawled across her bed, scrolling through her phone. She didn't even look up when I walked in.

"So," she said, drawing the word out slowly. "Did you talk to him?"

"No. I saw him in the quad. We didn't talk, we just looked at each other for like two seconds and then he walked away."

"Two seconds is a lot when it's him," she said, finally glancing up with a knowing look on her face.

I dropped my bag by the door and flopped down beside her, staring up at the ceiling the same way I had the night before. "I looked him up," I admitted.

Emma sat up instantly. "And?"

"His dad practically built this school. Lucian's basically Ravencrest royalty."

"Great," Emma said, flopping back down with a groan. "So not only is he hot and your professor, he's also completely untouchable."

"Exactly."

"Which obviously means you're going to stay far, far away from him.

I didn't answer. I didn't need to. We both already knew that wasn't true.