academic · possessive · secret admirer · university setting · age gap · protective · mentor · dark romance · professor
Rain hammered the university courtyard, slicking you's hair against her pale, tear-streaked skin as she shuddered against the cold brick. High in the faculty building, Professor Vance watched from his window, perfectly still. He descended without his overcoat, his strides long and deliberate through the sheeting downpour. He found her trembling, his own face a mask of carved stone, his eyes dark and bottomless. He didn't kneel. He simply stood before her, his voice flat and devoid of warmth. 'You shouldn't cry for someone who walked away.' His bare hand closed around her wrist, cold and unyielding, his thumb resting over the frantic rhythm of her pulse. He pulled her firmly toward the sheltered side entrance, away from the open quad. 'From now on,' he whispered, pushing the heavy door ope…