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grabbing his arm, steering him toward the elevators.
    We watched them leave.
    “Spooky guy.” Sean grinned, leaning closer.
    I realized I’d been right and not imagining things. Sean had been intimidated, or maybe even scared, by Dreo Fiore. “Really? Michael scared you?” I teased, wanting to soothe whatever concern he had.
    “Funny.” He chuckled, slipping an arm around my waist. “Now come on, I’m starving. You promised to feed me.”
    “Yes, I did. Tell me where you live.”
    “In Lakeview, you?”
    “Lincoln Park.”
    “Okay, so we can eat somewhere in the middle,” he said as he tightened his arm around me. “Or you can just take me home with you.”
    Oh, the man was very good for my ego.
     
     
    T HE diner had good home-cooked food, and I had pot roast and he had swiss steak. It was nice, talking to him, and as I listened, I found myself completely charmed. His family, friends, his career, all of it was interesting and fun. By the time we finished off our meal with coffee and pie, it was late. Since I had to teach in the morning and he had to be back on call at nine, we decided to call it a night.
    It was raining outside, and as we stood under the canvas awning in the downpour, he told me that he’d really had a great time.
    “So where are we going tomorrow?” I asked.
    “I’m going to wine you and dine you,” he promised, and I watched as he caught his breath as he stared at me. “And then take you home.”
    “Oh,” I teased. “I was hoping for more.”
    “To my home,” he told me, laughing. “God, you’re an ass.”
    I reached for him, took his face in my hands, and bent him toward me. The way his eyes closed, the long, thick lashes brushing his cheek, the sigh that came out of him… man, I was blind.
    When my lips closed over his, he parted them instantly and my tongue met his in a wicked, wanton tangle. The whimper in the back of his throat was very sexy, and when I deepened the kiss, I felt him jolt against me, his hands fisted in my sweater.
    I mauled his sweet mouth and understood at that moment how wrong my dear friend had been. The man wanted desperately to submit to me. There was no top in him in at all.
    “Jesus,” he gasped, breaking the kiss to breathe, staring at me with heavy-lidded eyes. “Forget what I said, Nate, just come home with me now.”
    But I didn’t want rushed, I wanted real, so I leaned back in and told him so in his ear before I kissed him again. I put him in a cab a minute later. When my phone rang as I was in a cab traveling in the opposite direction, I smiled before answering.
    “Not sick of me yet?”
    “Nate,” he breathed out my name. “Why didn’t you put me over your desk when I used to come by your office when I was your student?”
    “Because that would have been unethical,” I teased. “And you’re all about the ethics, right?”
    He laughed, and it was a good sound.
    “So I’ll see you tomorrow, right?”
    “Definitely. I’ll be the guy on your front stoop at seven sharp.”
    “I can’t wait,” I assured him.
    “Thank you for saying that. The honesty is really nice.”
    “Same here.”
    “God, I really don’t want to say goodnight.”
    “Then say you’ll see me later, since you will.”
    “Okay.” He took a breath. “I’ll see you later.”
    “Good.”
    I couldn’t stop smiling even after I hung up.

Chapter 3

     
    T HE auditorium was a sea of blank stares. I had to make them understand, because only my grad student, Ashton Cross, seemed to be following what I was talking about, as was evidenced by the eye rolling.
    “Okay,” I told the room, “so we’re talking about just switching out two characters from two of Shakespeare’s plays and then writing either about what the plays would look like with those new protagonists in place or writing them into one pivotal scene.”
    Nothing.
    A girl in the back raised her hand.
    “Yes?”
    “Is this going to be on the test?”
    Dear. God. “An exercise like this,