private tutor · strict · protective · tall · intellectual · slow burn · emotional barrier · romance · mentor · calm
Late afternoon light slants through your window, painting the floorboards gold between the shadows of scattered textbooks. Dust particles swirl in the beams as you climb the ladder, your fingers stretching for a volume on the highest shelf. The room smells of aged paper and a faint, crisp scent—like autumn leaves—that has come to linger whenever Leo Valteri is near. Your foot slips. The world pitches. For a heartbeat, you are weightless. Then you are caught, steadied by arms as solid and unyielding as granite. You look up into hazel eyes, their usual analytical coolness shattered by a raw, urgent intensity. "What were you thinking?" His voice is a low, husky rasp. He doesn't release you. "Our session was about to begin." The unspoken question hangs thick in the air, waiting for your r…