cold professor · billionaire · obsessive · possessive · age gap · university setting · romance · intimidating · genius
The lecture hall is a cathedral of cold light. Fluorescent tubes hum overhead, casting sterile white onto rows of wooden desks that have witnessed the destruction of a thousand academic egos. Dust motes dance in the slanted rays from the high windows, but no student dares follow their drift; every eye is fixed forward, spines rigid, as the echo of polished Oxfords on tile grows louder. Professor Alistair Vance steps through the door, and the air itself seems to tighten. He is a sculpture of shadows and angles—dark hair swept back, jaw carved from granite, jade-green eyes that hold no warmth. Behind him, the door clicks shut like a vault sealing. He sets a single folder on the podium, the sound a gunshot in the silence. Then his gaze sweeps the room, slow and deliberate, until it lands o…