Chapter 3- Power Play

ALEENA'S POV

I closed the door and the lock clicked, and that was when he finally looked up. His gaze travelled slowly, from my face down to my knees, lingering on my exposed thigh, and then back up.

“My office hours are Tuesdays.” he said flatly.

"I'm not here for office hours. I'm here to ask about my paper." I said and stepped closer, and the edge of the desk pressed into my thigh. "I wanted to know why you failed me. My essay was perfect."

He tilted his head. "Was it?"

Then he leaned to the corner of his desk, brought out a copy of my paper and started flipping through it without looking at me.

“I must admit though,” he said, still flipping. “This is the best paper I've read this semester. Arguably, the best I've read in three years.”

I blinked and shook my head. “Then why—”

“Because I needed you to come here.” he set the paper down and finally looked at me.

"You've been trying to get my attention for a very long time, Aleena,” a small smile tugged at the corner of his lips. “I noticed that. But I let it happen because I wanted to see how far you'd take it.”

My throat went dry instantly. He had noticed?

“And now look,” he gestured in the air. “You're here in my office, door locked—after visiting hours.”

He stood up slowly, and started walking. He came around the desk and finally stopped a few feet away from me.

“So, Aleena. I'd ask you once. What do you actually want from me?”

I didn't answer because I definitely couldn't tell him that I had been trying to get his attention, so I could get revenge on my ex who embarrassed me publicly.

“Because I know if it were only about the grade, you would have appealed it through the department, not coming straight to my office after I had already given you an answer in class.”

I still couldn't say anything because my throat felt too tight to push any words out. How did he—

“That's what I thought.” He said and nodded slowly. “Hold on.” He reached into his desk drawer from across, pulled out a file, flipped it open to a particular page and set it on the down on the desk.

“Read this.” He pointed at a paragraph on the opened page.

I frowned. “What's that?”

“Something you'll find interesting.” He smiled again. “Now go on, read it.”

I swallowed the huge lump that formed in my throat and picked up the file, my eyes sweeping across the paragraph that Lorcan had pointed, and my heart sank. I knew that clause quite too well.

“Any scholarship student found in a compromising situation woth a member of faculty or senior staff would have no other choice than to forfeit all scholarship fund, be subjected to immediate academic review and would have no other choice than to leave Westhaven.”

I pressed my lips together, and my eyes remained glued to the paragraph.

A smirk appeared on Lorcan’s face. “I think you know what that means.”

I closed the file and dropped it on the desk. “Nothing has happened between us.”

"Not yet,” his lips curved downwards as he picked up the file again. “But I want you to understand what you're walking to.” He picked up his phone from the desk and clicked a button—he had been recording our conversation?!

“If I wanted to hurt you, I could do that right now.” He turned the phone over in his hands. “I could walk to the Dean's office with this recorder and tell him you came to my office after school hours without a valid reason—which means you wanted to offer yourself in exchange for your grade.”

My blood ran cold. “That's not what happened!” I protested.

He shrugged. “It doesn’t matter what actually happened, Aleena." He said quietly. “What matters is what I say, backed up with proper proof.” He set his phone down. “I'm a tenured professor, and you are a scholarship student who didn't deny that you were trying to get my attention.” He crossed his arm. “Now tell me, who do you think the board is going to believe?”

I stared at him, and my heart had already started pounding hard. I had to fist my hands to stop them from shaking. “You wouldn't do that.”

His expression flickered, just for a moment before it slipped back into place. "I wouldn't have to. I could just leave my phone unlocked on my desk, and let someone else find it." He tilted his head. "Accidentally."

“So here's my offer instead.” He settled down on the desk. “We'll have detentions—three times a week.” He smiled coldly. “I hope you're not expecting me to actually tutor you. You know quite well what this detention means.”

“That's unethical!” I snapped. “It's against the rules, and you showed me the damn clause yourself!”

“You will follow my rules, and won't ask unnecessary questions.” He said and ignored what I said totally. “When it's over, you get your A, your scholarship stays intact, and I'd pretend this sad seduction attempt never happened.”

“Hell no!” I said through gritted teeth, the seduction plan that had been in my head, slowly fading away because I couldn't imagine— “I'm not doing this” I said and turned around, my hand already reaching for the handle.

“No?”

“No!” I said sharpy and turned around. “I'll appeal the grade, I'd do something else—find an alternative. Because you don't expect me to be your new plaything.”

“Fine,” he picked up his phone and walked to his seat. “If you walk out that door, I would fail you, and report to the dean about your conduct in my office today. If you agree to my offer, I'd give you an A. But if you refuse—” his hand scrolled on his phone nonchalantly.

My eyes curved into slits."You have nothing to file."

“I have a recording with your voice on it, and I can make this look like whatever I want it to look like, and you know what it can do.”

I looked at him closely—he wasn’t bluffing, and it made a cold knot of dread form in my stomach. He is doing this not because he wanted me—because he was probably getting bored with Sylvie, and he knew that I was a scholarship student with a very thin line of protection.

I clenched my fists together, anger bubbling over. "You're a monster."

"No." He picked up the file, put it back in his drawer, and closed it. "I'm a man who knows what he wants. And I want you to stay."

I stood there staring daggers at him, my chest heaving.

"So what's it going to be, Aleena?" His voice was soft—almost gentle.

I thought about the recording—the one thing that Lorcan could use against me, against everything I had worked for since freshman year, and how all these would just slide if I said yes to Lorcan's offer.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.

“No!”