"Maggie." I say with a mock serious tone. "More than half the class wants to fuck him. Boys and girls. You are not special in that regards, sorry to break it to you, love." She says. It is one of the traits I find admirable about her. She is straightforward and never minces words. But right now, I had like to shove her honesty back into her throat. I can't stand the thought of not being special to Zane in some way. I want to add the little important detail that we already fucked. Just to be smug and rub it in her face. But I swallow the words. "Oh well." I shrug."What I want to know is Claire's business in all this. That girl's weirdness is of the dangerous type. I don't feel good about her." Maggie is serious again, holding my eyes earnestly. I like that she is worried about me. It makes me feel flattered. I am worried about Claire too. Even more so now, realising that she didn't really forget about me in the past few weeks I have been going out of my way to ignore her. How she

Alex POV:"You seem more fidgety this morning than I know you to be." Penny eyes me suspiciously as I fluff my ponytail over and over again, biting my lips, ruining the lipstick, and applying it over and over again. I am a mess this morning and it is only for one reason. Mentoring sessions are slated to start today. It is a week since the class got responses from their potential mentees. Classes have been rescheduled to make room for the two hour sessions. These mentoring sessions could be held however the mentor wants. Online. Calls. Texts. Mails. In person. There are no limits, really. The point is that the class gets two hours of free period in the morning. Professor Orion told me he preferred physical meetings last week. Of course he will choose the most nerve wracking option, not considering our history. How the hell are we supposed to be together alone for two whole hours and not tear eachother's clothes off? I remember less of his ex-wife's outburst that unfortunate Sunday

"Thank you, Zane. I am not even going to bother asking why. I am just grateful." I say and he smiles without showing teeth. I asked him the other day already, there is no need going around in circles. "Good girl." He says offhandedly and yet I blush furiously because of how erotic it sounded to me. A dark vision of me stroking him just to hear that rich velvety baritone of his grunt in my ears moaning, urging me on, flashes across my head and I blush even deeper. "What? Is that too much? Okay, okay, I will stick to just Alex. I am sorry." Zane says, he leans forward because I keep looking down at my shoes and the contrast of the brown leather against the blood red of the rug. "Yeah." I smile though I feel like bolting out of the couch and running away, and to keep running till I am out of his reach. His pull. Before I damn all the restraints holding me back and do something I might regret. I look up at him, he has a gentle teasing smile on his face. I must be the funniest thing he

I didn't mean to raise my voice. I didn't mean to project all my insecurities from the Shane business on her. I am probably jumping the gun here but I don't care. She drives me crazy. She gets up suddenly, I am still seated and have no intention to get up too. I am too worked up. "Right. I am sorry for putting you in such a tight spot, Sirr" She says, I hear the slight trembling in her voice and I feel even more terrible. "Alex." I get up but she is already at my door. She doesn't look back as she steps out hurriedly, in the defiance of her shoulders, I think I see them shaking but I can't be sure. I sink back into the chair and Shane's face comes back to me, laughing, taunting, I cover my eyes with my hands but he won't go away. ♠︎♠︎♠︎♠︎Alex POV:I don't know how I got to the room but I find myself at the door and I push in blindly. I managed to reel in the hot bubbling tornado of tears of embarrassment threatening to spill out of me in torrents since I ran out of his office.

"Ow!" Maggie yells and moves away from me. The people seated around us turn their attention to us and I cringe even more. "Okay class. Today, we are just going to discuss the assignment I gave. We are pretty ahead with our course work and I am proud of that. So, I am going to call someone at random to help us out today." Zane's voice booms from the head of the class. Everybody goes quiet. Even Maggie stops her fidgeting. In moments like this, I am stunned by the deep contrast between this man who commanded attention and respect like this and the man who spoke dirty to me privately. He rarely laughs in class. Yet we laughed together yesterday. I manage to raise my head and our eyes meet instantly, I look away. My heart starts beating. A cold fist twists my insides painfully with awful nerves. Oh God, he shouldn't pick me for this task. I can barely speak to him and he would pick me to speak to the whole class? I guess he must think there should be a difference, but there really isn