Seducing Professor Coyle (6 page)

Peter looked at him, wincing. “It’s a little embarrassing.”

Thorn tilted his head, doing his best to look offended. “Peter Coyle, you’ve got enough dirt on me to write a scandalous tell-all book, don’t talk to me about embarrassing. Spill it, what’s wrong? Tell me!”

“Okay, okay...stop shouting.” Peter rubbed his temples.

“Here.” Thorn passed him a nip of coffee brandy from the box.

Chuckling, Peter held it up. “A little early for me. But okay.” He uncapped it and took a sip of the sweet liquor. “So there’s this boy.”

“There always is.” Thorn smirked. “The little blond from last night? Name’s Scotty, in case you never bothered to ask. He comes to all my parties. Bit of a slut, but I’m not one to judge, as you know.”

“No, not him. A different boy.”

Thorn’s eyebrows lifted. “You don’t say. My, you
were
busy last night.”

Peter shook his head, laughing. He took another sip of the brandy. “It’s not like that. Let me explain.”

He told Thorn about Benjamin LeClair’s visit to his office the previous afternoon. Thorn listened, nodding, his usual smirk given over to a serious expression. “So let me guess,” Thorn said. “You were reminded of Reggie Cutler, and got freaked out.”

“Yeah,” Peter said, shrugging. “But I’m not worried about that, really, he seems like a good kid. It’s just...Christ, this is embarrassing.”

“Ah,” Thorn said. “You finally want to bang one of your students? I knew it would happen eventually.”

“Okay, here’s the thing,” Peter said, raising his hands.

Thorn let out a guffaw. “I’ll take that as a yes.”

“I’d never let anything happen.”

“I know,” Thorn said. “So what’s the problem then?” The coffee had finished brewing, and Thorn stood and poured them each a cup. He returned to the table and set one down in front of Peter. “Go on. Talk to me, baby.”

Peter took a sip of coffee, savoring the strong flavor. “All right,” he said. “So I couldn’t get this Benjamin kid out of my head. But I wanted to.”

“Of course,” Thorn said. “Go on.”

“So I’m in your cabana, slamming Scotty, imagining it’s Benjamin, trying to get him out of my system, you know?”

Thorn grinned, resting his chin on his index finger. “I can’t
wait
to see where this is going.”

Peter snickered. “It’s not funny! So I finished with Scotty, and I hear this loud bang.”

“A bang?” Thorn’s nose wrinkled. “What happened, the kid’s dick explode?”

Peter smirked at him. “Yes, but that’s not what caused the bang. Something slammed against the wall of the cabana, outside. So I look up, and in the window...oh Jesus, this is gonna sound so crazy.”

“Spill it!” Thorn gave his shoulder a shove. “You’re killing me.”

“I look up, and I swear, I see Benjamin’s face in the window.”

Thorn’s brow lowered. “Benjamin...the
student
.”

“Yes.”

“He was
there
?”

Peter shook his head. “No. He wasn’t.”

Thorn stared at him for a long moment. “How many daiquiris did you drink?”

Peter stood, pacing back and forth, shaking his head. “I wasn’t drunk. I wasn’t. I ran outside to see, and ran into that friend of yours. What’s it you call him...Married Wayne?”

“Ah,” Thorn said. “Married Wayne. That’s right, he’s home from leave from the army. I swear he times his leave to coincide with my parties, bless his cheating little soul.”

Peter stopped pacing and faced Thorn. “He said it was him who fell against the cabana. Said he was drunk and stumbled. He was all apologies. But Thorn...I fucking swear. I saw Benjamin. I think I’m losing my mind. Seriously.”

Thorn sighed. “You’re not losing your mind. You imagined it. You just said you were thinking of this Benjamin kid while you were fucking Scotty. You had him on the brain. Your mind played a little trick on you, that’s all.”

He shook his head. “My mind doesn’t play tricks. I have a very disciplined mind. I’m telling you, it freaked me out.”

Thorn smirked up at him, biting his lip, his belly quaking.

“Go ahead,” Peter said. “Laugh. I know how it sounds.”

Giggles pealed out of Thorn and he fell forward, howling.

Peter nodded and grinned, arms crossed over his chest. “All right, all right. Get it out of your system.”

“Oh, that’s gonna take a while I think,” Thorn said, his face flushed with laughter.

“Glad I could amuse you. I have to
see
this kid next week, he takes my Friday class. And he owes me a test, I could have him sitting in my office Monday morning for all I know. But by all means, laugh it up.”

The last of Thorn’s giggles drained out of him with a long sigh. “Your house is lovely, by the way.”

“Thank you. For changing the subject. It is nice, isn’t it?” He smiled as he looked around. “Home sweet home.”

“I have to tell you though, Pete, I would
love
to see this Benjamin. If he’s got you hallucinating, he must be something special.”

Peter pulled the chair out and sat down. “Oh, my friend. You have no idea. He’s lethal. I’ll be taking cold showers for lunch until the end of the semester I’m sure. Kid’s sat in my class for weeks and I never even noticed him.”

“That’s because you don’t look at your students,” Thorn said. “You’re gun shy. And with good reason.”

Peter sighed. “Yeah. Oh wait! You want to see him? I can pull up his student profile.” He stood, then paused, turning back. He pointed at Thorn. “This is between us, of course.”

Thorn sighed. “Do I have to remind you again how much dirt you have on me? You can trust me, you know that. Now show me this dream boy, you dirty old man.” He stood, rubbing his hands together as he followed Peter to the computer in his study.

While Peter pulled up the file, Thorn dragged a chair in from the living room.

“Here he is.” He angled the monitor so Thorn could see. “The picture’s pretty small, but that’s him. The kid that may be literally making me lose my mind.”

“Benjamin LeClair,” Thorn said. “Information Science major. Wow, he is cute.”

“You should see him live in living color, that photo doesn’t do him justice. Christ, to be ten years younger.”

Thorn gave him a look. “Try closer to twenty.”

“Fuck off.” Peter grinned. “I look good for my age.” He glanced at Thorn, whose smirk had slid away, replaced by a frown as he stared at the computer screen. “What’s the matter?”

“Is this the only picture you have of him? Have you checked his Facebook page?”

Peter huffed. “No! At least here I can fool myself that it’s work-related, I’m not going full stalker and searching the kid’s Facebook.”

Thorn let out a long breath. “Can you make that photo any bigger, then?”

Peter shrugged, eyeing him warily. “I can probably magnify it in Photoshop. Why?”

Thorn stared at the photo, blinking. “Do it.”

“Why?”

He turned to Peter, brown eyes serious. “
Do
it.”

Peter stared back at him, then shook his head. “Okay.” Thorn moved aside, and Peter saved the small picture, then magnified it to twice the size. It was a face and shoulders shot. Benjamin wasn’t smiling in the photo. He looked somewhat angry. No, not angry.
Determined
, Peter thought. His expression held that same intensity Peter had seen in him yesterday.

He looked at Thorn. “You want me to make it bigger?”

Thorn shook his head, his face sour. “No. That’s big enough.”

Peter stared at him expectantly, but Thorn remained silent, still looking at the screen. “So? What is it?”

Thorn sighed through his nose, then turned in his seat, finally looking away from the screen. “Peter. I think that kid
was
at my party last night.”

Peter glanced at the screen, then back at Thorn. He let out a soft chuckle. “What?”

Thorn pointed to the photo. “I can’t be one hundred percent sure. But I am almost certain I served him a drink. He was sitting by the pool. Watching
you
.”

Peter waited for him to laugh. But Thorn’s expression remained stoic. “You are fucking with me. Aren’t you?”

“I’m sorry, Pete, but I’m not.”

“But...why would he have been at your party? I mean, are you sure? It’s not a very clear photo.”

“No,” Thorn said. “It’s not. Doesn’t show the color of his eyes.” He glanced at Peter. “Bright green, right?”

Bile rose in his throat, and Peter felt like he’d been punched in the gut. “Yes,” he whispered.

Thorn nodded. “He was there. You don’t think this kid is following you, do you? I mean, because of the grade thing? Does he know you’re gay?”

“No one does.” Peter leaned forward in his chair, hands on his head. “Oh God. This can’t be happening again.”

Thorn rubbed his back. “Breathe. Just calm down. Even if he was there, it could mean nothing.”

Peter straightened up. “Nothing? You just told me that this kid, who’s angling for me to change his grade, was at your party
watching
me.” He slapped the desk. “Damn it, I knew I saw him there. What if he was taking pictures or some fucked up shit like that?”

“Don’t panic,” Thorn said. “It’s not the first time a college boy has found his way to one of my parties. There are more gays on campus than you know. He probably heard about the party from someone in the inner circle, or maybe someone took him as a guest. He was sitting with another guy.”

Peter met his eyes. “Were they together?” he asked, hopeful. If Benjamin was there by coincidence, it was an awkward scenario, but not nearly as bad as the prospect that the kid was spying on him. Possibly planning to blackmail him. Or worse.

“I’m not sure,” Thorn said. “I saw the guy he was with later on, and Benjamin wasn’t with him. The other guy was in the pool, draped in beefcake. They could have come together, or they could have met at the party and just been talking. I don’t know, Peter, there were a lot of people there, and I was busy hosting.”

“Oh, God. I think I’m gonna throw up.”

Thorn patted his shoulder. “
Don’t
panic. You said Wayne was the one outside the cabana. Why would he say it was him if it wasn’t?”

Peter shook his head. “I have no idea.”

“I’ll try and get hold of Wayne, if he’s still in town. It won’t be easy; he’ll be spending time with his wife and kids. But I’ll try. If he knows anything about Benjamin, I’ll find out, okay?”

Peter’s eyes drifted to the photograph on the screen. Abruptly, he closed the laptop. Then ran to the bathroom to vomit.

Chapter Five

Ben stood by the printer, absentmindedly watching the pages churn out. He looked up when Dominick stepped into the room, dressed in his jeans and work boots. “You’re up early on a Monday,” Dom said. “Even for you.”

Ben gave him a grin, then turned his focus back down to the printer. Dom had barely spoken to him all weekend, and he was irritated by it. Was it
that
big a sin to leave a party early? “I’m printing out an assignment I have to hand in today.”

Dominick moved to the sofa and sat down, lacing up his boots. “That computer program for your final project?”

“No, I submitted that last week, it’s done. This is a paper I wrote for Dr. Coyle. I’m turning it in with that test, hoping he’ll take it as a sign of good faith.”

Dom frowned, scratching his head. “So it wasn’t actually assigned to you, but you did it anyway?”

The pages finished spitting out of the printer, and Ben took them and arranged them into a pile. “I’m handing a test in late. I’m hoping that doing a volunteer essay will work in my favor.”

“Why didn’t you just ask him first if he’d take an extra paper as a supplement to your grade?”

Stuffing his things into his backpack, Ben didn’t meet Dominick’s eyes. “Because I have no intentions on talking to him. I’m gonna put this all in an envelope and stuff it in his mailbox with a note. Gonna huck the grenade from a foxhole then duck and run.”

Dom chuckled. “I’m guessing this has to do with seeing Mr. Teacher Man naked on Friday.”

Ben smirked, happy that their friendly banter seemed to be returning. Things had never been strained between them, and he didn’t like the feeling. “Yeah.”

Dominick went to the kitchen and got his lunch cooler out of the fridge. “I don’t see what the big deal is,” he said. “It’s not like he saw you.” When Ben said nothing, he turned around. “He didn’t see you, did he?”

“He might have.”

Dom shrugged. “So what if he did? You just pretend nothing happened. I mean,
he’s
certainly not gonna bring it up.”

“It’s complicated.”

Dominick set his lunch cooler down and approached Ben, eyebrows pinched. “What aren’t you telling me? Did something happen with the teacher at Thorn’s party? Did you bone him?”

Ben snorted. “No, I didn’t
bone
him. I just don’t want to see him. I’m afraid I won’t be able to look him in the eye without picturing him naked. And he’s got this...smoldering stare, like he knows what you’re thinking. It made me uncomfortable while I was in his office Friday, so you can imagine how much worse it will be now. After, you know. The party.”

Dom pointed a finger at Ben, grinning. “You’re
into
him. Aren’t you?”

Ben made a sour face. “What? No! Why would you think that?”

“Because I know you, and you’ve never given a crap what anyone else thinks, Benny. Doesn’t matter if they’re a teacher, a cop, the queen of freaking England, you don’t get intimidated.”

“I’m not intimidated. I just don’t want to pop a boner in my lit professor’s office, if you don’t mind.”

Dominick laughed. “Ha! I knew it. You are into him.”

Ben faced his roommate and sighed. “I’m sorry I made us leave the party.”

Dom shrugged, looking down at the floor. “I overreacted. I’m sorry, too.”

“It was just...he saw me. I freaked out. I was inconsiderate to you. I should have called a cab and let you stay and have your fun.”

Dom’s blue eyes met Ben’s. “I wanted to have fun with
you
.”