Tous les chapitres de : Chapitre 51 - Chapitre 60

The order came down at noon. A site check off the main road. Two nights. Minimal team. Tookes took Miles and left Rourke on base with the colonel.No one said the assignment was a gift. It felt like one anyway.The waystation sat at the end of a dirt track. One room. One bunk room behind a curtain. A stove that worked if you kicked it. Tookes cleared the place, locked the door, and stood there with the key in his hand like he could still pretend this was only work.Miles set his pack down.“Two nights.”Tookes looked at him. The base face was already slipping.“Two nights,” he said. “Then we go back to locked doors and short hours.”They ate out of tins. They checked the radio. They did the job on paper so the job existed. When the light died, Tookes lit one lamp and left the rest of the room dim.There was no hall here. No boots. No Rourke.Miles sat on the edge of the narrow bed. Tookes stood in front of him and took his time. He undressed Miles like he had been waiting for permissi

The south detachment lasted six days.On the seventh a runner found Miles in a tent that still smelled like someone else’s soap and told him to pack. The window had moved again. The ridge job had a second tooth. Command wanted the same pair that had walked out of the wash alive.Miles rode back in a truck that was not Tookes’s. He told himself that mattered. By the time the base gate opened, it did not.Tookes was in the yard with a map tube under his arm. He looked at Miles like a man looking at a weapon he had already fired and could not put down.“Lieutenant. You’re with me. Brief in ten.”“Yes, sir.”Rourke stood in the shade and lost his smile.The colonel called it operational necessity. He said the transfer would resume when the site was closed. He said it like that was comfort.It was not comfort. It was a door kicked back open.They went into the field that night. Same road. Worse weather. Tookes drove. Miles sat in the right seat and did not touch him until the last lights o

Noah’s POVBy Friday, I had convinced myself that Professor Hayes hated me.Not disliked me.Not found me annoying.Hated me.There was a difference.And yes, maybe I was being dramatic.But in my defense, the man had spent the entire lecture pretending I did not exist.No eye contact.No sarcastic comments.No asking me to defend another argument.Nothing.I sat in my usual seat beside Ethan and watched Professor Hayes move around the classroom like Monday had never happened.Like we had not spent ten minutes arguing in front of everyone.Like he had not stopped me after class.Like he had not told me he had read my work.Like he had not stared at me when I was leaving.Maybe I imagined that last part.Maybe my ego was finally becoming a medical condition.“You’re doing it again,” Ethan whispered.I kept my eyes on the front.“Doing what?”“Staring.”“I am not staring.”“You’ve been looking at him for five minutes.”“I am listening.”“You haven’t written one word.”I looked down at m

Noah’s POVI did not expect to see Professor Hayes on a Saturday.Actually, I did not expect professors to exist on Saturdays.In my mind, they disappeared into some secret building after Friday lectures and returned Monday morning wearing the same serious expressions.Apparently, I was wrong.I was standing inside a small bookstore near campus when I saw him.And for a full five seconds, I genuinely thought I had mistaken someone else for him.Because Professor Julian Hayes did not look like Professor Julian Hayes.No tie.No buttoned shirt.No dark trousers.No serious expression.He was wearing jeans.Actual jeans.Dark ones, but still.A black sweater.White sneakers.And glasses.Glasses.I stared.This felt illegal.He was standing near the back of the store, holding a book in one hand and smiling at the older woman behind the counter.Smiling.Not the tiny almost-smile he sometimes gave me in class.A real one.Warm.Relaxed.Dangerous.Very dangerous.I should have turned arou

Noah’s POVAvoiding Professor Hayes should have been easy.Technically.I only saw him three times a week.Two lectures.One optional office hour.Simple.Except apparently my brain had decided that being told not to flirt with him meant I should think about him more.A lot more.Which was deeply unhelpful.By Wednesday, I had already replayed our conversation about twenty times.Don’t flirt with me.Fine.I wouldn’t.Easy.Then he walked into class wearing a dark blue shirt with the sleeves rolled up.And suddenly I understood why people made terrible decisions.I looked down at my notebook.Do not stare.Do not stare.Do not—“Noah.”I looked up.Professor Hayes was watching me.The entire class was too.Fantastic.“Yes?”He lifted one eyebrow.“I asked you a question.”“Right.”“What was it?”A few people laughed.Ethan leaned toward me.“You are embarrassing yourself.”I ignored him.Professor Hayes crossed his arms.“Well?”I looked at the passage on the board.Then at my notes.