Seducing Professor Coyle (10 page)

Relief flooded through Ben as he walked over and took the chair beside the couch.

“It’s a special detox smoothie from that vegetarian deli. Supposed to be a hangover cure.”

He passed Ben the drink, and he took a sip from the straw. It was sweet, banana flavored, and cooled his dry throat. “Thank you. Dom, I’m so sorry about last night.”

He nodded, his ginger ponytail bouncing. “I know you are.”

“You can’t move out. Please, Dom, I swear, nothing like that will ever happen again.”

Dominick sighed, resting back against the sofa. He drummed his fingers on his stomach, finally meeting Ben’s eyes. “I think I have to.”

Ben’s stomach lurched. A flash of shame touched his conscience as worry over his financial situation warred with his emotional angst over losing Dom as a roommate. He would miss the extra rent money. But he would miss Dominick more.

“No, Dom please, listen—”

“It’s not all your fault,” he said. “In fact it’s mostly mine, Ben. I wasn’t honest with you. When we first met, that night we were together, I knew I’d never see you again if I told you I wanted to. But I did want to. I was crazy for you. You’re the most amazing man I’ve ever met.”

“Dom, don’t.”

“Listen. I need to say this.”

Ben shifted in his chair. “Okay.”

Dominick sighed, shaking his head. “I just wanted to stay in touch with you. I figured I would take what I could get. If we were friends, at least I’d have you in my life. And eventually, I got over it. I stopped thinking of you like that, and started to really value our friendship. But even though I learned to deal with my feelings, even though I did start to think of you as just a friend, I should never have moved in. Once I started living here, seeing you every day. Every night. Those feelings started to come back. I should have told you. I should have been honest weeks ago. But I wasn’t. I figured maybe I could win you over, that maybe if I was having these feelings, you were having them too.” He looked at Ben, his eyes raw with sadness. “But you weren’t. And now this thing with your teacher...”

“There’s nothing going on with him,” Ben said softly.

“It doesn’t matter. I’ve watched you the past week. The way you want him. I saw the way you reacted to him at the party. It’s made you a mess. And all I’ve been thinking is...he’ll never be like that with me. I’ll never be able to make a mess of him that way. He’ll never think about me like that. And then last night, for a few minutes I thought I was wrong. That you did want me. That maybe you’d been hiding it, like I was. That maybe you were in love with me, too. But you’re not. Are you?”

Ben dropped his head, sighing. “No.” He looked up. “But I do love you, Dom. You’re more than just a friend. You’re my touchstone. You’re my strength. I’ve felt so much more together since you moved in, you make me feel solid.”

“I know.” Dom smiled sadly. “But that’s all I’ll ever be to you. And it’s not enough for me. I can’t stay here, Ben. I have to move out. For both our sakes.”

Ben felt like he was going to cry again. He wanted to be selfish and beg Dominick to stay, but that wouldn’t be fair to him. He wasn’t in love with Dominick, and he never would be. But the thought of not seeing him every day, not having him to talk to, it was unbearable. “Can we still hang out?” he asked.

Dominick laughed. “Of course. But give me a little time, okay?”

Ben looked up. “How much time?”

“Don’t worry, I can’t stay away from you that long.” He smiled. “But I figure a little time away will snap me out of this. I got over you before, I can do it again. And I do want to be your friend, always.”

Ben frowned at him. “If you stop talking to me, I swear to God I’ll beat you up.”

Dom let out one of his belly laughs, and the sound made Ben feel world’s better. It was a happy sound, normal and nice. “Well as much as I enjoyed your little display of aggression last night—”

“Oh, no,” Ben groaned, dropping his face into his hands. “Don’t talk about that.”

Dom sighed. “As much as I enjoyed it, I don’t want you to beat me up. So I promise. We’ll hang out soon.”

Ben nodded. “Okay. When will you leave?”

“I got a room in town temporarily.”

“You’re leaving
tonight
?”

Dominick frowned. “Don’t make that face, Ben. Come on. Don’t make this harder. It’s hard enough.”

He nodded, shoulders slumping. “All right. I’m sorry.”

They sat quietly for several minutes, eating the sandwiches Dominick brought home. Then Dom wiped his mouth and looked over at Ben. “You should talk to your teacher.”

Ben did a double take at him. “What do you mean?”

He shrugged. “You like him, right?”

Ben huffed. “Doesn’t matter. He told me last night he didn’t want me. After he practically kissed my face off.” He looked up in time to see the vague pain in Dom’s eyes, and he winced. “Sorry.”

Dom chuckled. “Don’t be. I want you to be happy. So he kissed you? Really?”

“Well...” Ben grinned sheepishly. “I kind of started it. But he responded. Oh boy, did he respond. But then all of a sudden he’s pushing me off, and he’s all ‘Fuck off, I don’t want you, leave me alone’ and he just takes off. He actually
ran
away from me. I’ve had some bad dates, but no one’s ever literally run from me before.”

“Oh, jeez.” Dom laughed, shaking his head. “Well, I still think you should talk to him, just to clear the air. You should probably do it before your class with him on Friday at any rate.”

Ben winced. “Oh, crap, I forgot about class.”

“But wait until tomorrow. You look like shit. You should look fabulous when you go to see him, make him regret it. Let him eat his heart out.”

Ben snickered. “I doubt he’ll give a crap how I look.”

“Don’t be so sure,” Dom said. “He’s a teacher, he’s not supposed to mess with students and he knows it. The fact that he allowed
anything
to happen tells me he’s probably got it for you as bad as you’ve got it for him.”

“Hey.” Ben pointed at him. “Don’t try and talk me into making a fool of myself as some sort of revenge scheme for fucking you over.”

“Damn, that’s a good idea.” He grinned. “Sadly I’m not that diabolical.”

“And I can manage fucking things up just fine on my own, apparently.” Ben sighed.

“Come on.” Dom stood. “You want to help me pack?”

He shook his head. “No. But I will.”

He followed Dom into his bedroom and helped pack his things into boxes. It was sad, and he was still upset about losing him as a roommate. But amidst it all, his thoughts still drifted to Peter Coyle. He knew Dominick was right. He should try to clear the air. And he told himself he would. But he didn’t quite trust himself. Because deep down, though it went against his nature—his determination to maintain control over all aspects of his life—he knew that when it came to Coyle, he was no longer in the driver’s seat.

And as irrational as he knew it was, he planned to give seducing his professor one more try.

Chapter Nine

Two days. It had been two days since his display of weakness with Ben LeClair, and Peter hadn’t heard a word from him. He hadn’t seen him. And that was a good thing. It was also a good thing that no one had come knocking on his office door to fire him, or tell him that a student reported him for inappropriate behavior. While he knew he should be the adult here, and seek Ben out to apologize, he was hoping the problem would simply go away.

You weren’t being the adult when you shoved your tongue down a student’s throat two nights ago.

He winced at the memory. How could he have been so stupid, so out of control? Christ, he’d just gotten laid Friday night, it wasn’t like he hadn’t had it in a while. But Benjamin...the intensity in that kid’s eyes. The desperation in his kiss.

He squeezed his eyes closed. He couldn’t let his mind go there. He should just go home, the day was done, and being on campus only made him think of Benjamin. But being at home sounded lonely. Silly really; he was as alone in this office as he would be at home. And he loved his house. But he’d felt an uncharacteristic emptiness since Thorn’s party. He didn’t want a boyfriend, it had been years since he’d been serious with anyone, and his life had benefited from the lack of emotional chaos. But he craved...something.

You mean
someone
, and you know damn well who, you nasty old perv
.

Letting out a long breath, he turned to his computer, determined to distract himself with grading papers. Since the debacle with Benjamin’s test, he’d started asking students to use the electronic system when turning in work. He didn’t want to go through
that
again. Benjamin, the sexy little bastard, was right. It was safer having everything online.

It took forever for the page to load. Then once it did, it kept freezing up. “Not again.” He gritted his teeth. He hated computers. “Come on, you piece of shit.” He slammed his hand down on the keyboard, growling.

“They don’t respond well to violence, I’ve found.”

Peter wheeled around in his chair, and saw Ben LeClair. He leaned against the open doorway, arms crossed in front of his chest, absolutely radiant in soft jeans and a baby blue tee shirt, his sandy hair neat and coiffed.

“Benjamin.” Peter glanced around his office as though seeking a means of escape.
No windows to climb out of, Petie, you’re trapped like a rat
. Resigning himself, he sighed. “Come in. I guess we need to talk.”

Ben stepped hesitantly into the room, and Peter tried not to stare at his tanned arms, so strong and perfect-looking. “Talking can wait. What’s wrong with your computer?” He pointed at the laptop.

Peter swiveled his chair back, thankful for the distraction. “Oh, this piece of junk, I don’t know. It’s been running slow and keeps freezing up, it’s probably on its way out. They don’t exactly shower us with top-of-the-line equipment at this school.”

“Can I have a look?”

Peter’s heart sped. He scowled at the computer screen, pretending to be enthralled by what he saw there. It gave him a moment to calm himself.

“What the hell.” He stood, pulling his chair out. “Knock yourself out. Just stay out of the student files.”

Ben smiled at him, green eyes sparkling. He stepped over and sat down. His fingers flew across the keyboard with great speed, and Peter stood behind him, pretending to understand what he was doing. “Let’s just take a look at your task manager,” he said.

Peter grunted.

Ben stopped typing and looked up at him. “Christ, you’ve got like a hundred and fifty background processes running. You don’t need all this shit.”

Peter was forced to lean over to see, and tried not to notice Ben’s spicy scent, the vague body heat coming off him. “I don’t even know what half that is,” he said.

Ben looked back at the screen, shaking his head. “Well no wonder it’s running slow. This stuff’s hogging all your RAM. You want me to fix it?”

Peter straightened up. “What’s RAM?”

Snickering, Benjamin glanced up at him. “You’re kidding, right?”

A grin escaped as Peter looked back at him. “You want me to toss some literary trivia at you, see how smart you are then?”

Benjamin beamed, holding his gaze.

Heat climbed up Peter’s neck, and he forced his eyes away. “So you can help with this?”

Clearing his throat, Ben turned back to the computer, fingers flying again. “RAM is random access memory. It’s sort of the intermediary between your core processor and your hard drive. All this crap you’ve got running in the background is bogging it down, using all your resources.”

Peter studied his profile as he mouse-clicked his way down the list. The baby blue tee shirt was sexy as hell on him, enhanced his beauty and showed off his physique. He forgave himself for being such a weakling. It was no wonder. This kid was sex on legs, the most alluring thing he’d ever seen.

“That should do it. Let me know if you have more problems, I’m pretty good at this stuff.”

“Yes, so I’ve heard,” Peter said. “Dr. Albert speaks very highly of you.”

Ben stood, stepping away from the desk. “Tammy’s a great teacher and a good advisor. I owe her a lot.”

Peter nodded, sliding back into his chair. He motioned to the other chair across his desk, and Ben walked slowly around, glancing at Peter as he sat.

“So,” Ben said.

Peter glanced at the open door. He was about to get up and close it but wasn’t sure if that would send the wrong message.

“I’ll get it,” Ben said, and went and closed the door. The simple action caused Peter’s pulse to race again.

When he sat back down, Peter decided to bite the bullet and cut through the tension in the air. “I owe you an apology, Ben,” he said. “My actions the other night were inexcusable. It was my responsibility to abstain, not yours, and I should have—”

“Why don’t you want me?”

Peter looked at him. Ben’s eyes held that intensity again, that determination he’d come to associate with him. He ordered himself to stay strong and use his logic. Be the grownup. Sighing, he linked his hands and leaned forward, unwilling to display his nervousness. “Why
do
you want me, Ben?”

He shrugged. “Why does anyone want anyone? I like you. I like the way you look. I like the way you talk.” He hesitated. “I like the way you fuck. Least what I’ve seen of it.”

Peter’s stomach lurched, his cock twitching involuntarily.
Focus
. “I don’t think any of that is the reason. Benjamin, I’m your teacher.”

“Only for three more weeks,” he said. He kept his chin to his chest, green eyes peering up shyly.

“Yes. And in three more weeks, I won’t be your teacher. I’ll be just another guy. A guy I suspect won’t be nearly as appealing to you.”

Ben frowned, then let out a soft chuckle. “What are you saying, that I’m attracted to you because of some power thing? That you’re more exciting because you’ve got authority over me?”

Peter raised his eyebrows. “Well, you’re obviously a smart kid. You can’t deny it’s a possibility.”