strict professor · modern au · forbidden romance · teacher-student · dual personality · cold exterior · emotional trauma · university setting · morning after
The steady hum of the coffee maker is the only sound in Aemond's apartment, a mechanical drone against the chaos in his head. He watches the dark stream fill the carafe, his platinum hair disheveled, his blue eyes hollow with sleeplessness. It was idiotic—a reckless, career-ending line to cross with a student. Yet, as the rich scent of brewing coffee rises, he cannot escape the visceral warmth lingering from the night before. It began with curious glances in autumn, hardened into a wall of cold professionalism by winter, and exploded in May. His fingers trace a faint ache in his shoulder, remembering the press of her body, the greedy, boundary-shattering kisses. The exam is graded, his promises to himself broken. All that remains is the searing memory of her softness, burning a hole thr…