When Paths Cross Again (Prof./Student)

Chapter 7 - Keep a distance

Eric Harrison's POV

I forced myself to keep my mouth from hanging open in disbelief as I watched her walk up the stairs and exit the room. 

My eyes unconsciously traveled over her back and to her butt, the swing of her hips seriously driving me insane. The little sparks of desire, that flowed through my veins almost unnoticably, mixed with an immense amount of anger was a dangerous combination. My hands tingled while my body stood still like a statue. I didn't allow myself to let out any emotion or facial expression. 

However, underneath all of that a tornado was raging inside of me. I felt like my whole body was trembling, desperately trying to stay in control and not run after her, give into my predatory need and allow myself to have her. 

Showing her what she did to me. Releasing a tension I had held for who knows how long. And fucking stopping her from provoking me, trying to lure me away from my so well build facade. God, what I would do to her to keep that sweet mouth shut...

I almost had to groan as different ideas crossed my mind, the thought alone making me clench my hands into fists to stay at my spot where she had left me. 

But I couldn't. The realisation hit me hard and cut through me like a sharp knife. I simply couldn't. Not after...-

The noise of the door falling shut, made me snap back and without letting the storm inside of me show, I turned around and walked back to my desk to continue the lecture. My mood had dropped drastically and the harsh way in which I finished the lecture made it quite obvious. 

However, I didn't care. As I had seen her at the beginning in the middle of all the other students, a triumphant glitter in her eyes, I had to suppress a smile, whose reason for coming up I didn't know. My eyes caught her immediately as she, somehow, managed to stand out from the rest of the crowd. For a moment I really believed that our little argument concerning her late arrivals were over now. I hoped that she wouldn't stand out anymore so that I wouldn't have to talk or deal with her in any way again. I hoped that she would just become a normal student like everybody else. 

Because I needed to keep a certain distance between us. I always had. But for some reason it had been easier in high school than it was now. 

As my eyes had registered that she was leaving, I was almost desperate, running my hand through my hair before I slipped back into my role, calling her out. I damn well wanted to hear an answer from her. 

Why was she leaving? 

I didn't know why I was after her like that but I just couldn't let it go. With any other student I would have dropped the subject but she was different. I had mixed feelings having her in one of my classes but I also wanted to know why she suddenly had turned into this. In high school, she had always been on time, her homework had been excellent, her behaviour nothing but polite. She wasn't the type of girl who came late because of a lack of interest. There had to be something she was hiding.

And I yearned to know. 

What had happened? 

I wanted to scream the question into her face, grab her by the shoulders and shake her out of this state in which she was covering herself up behind a new found confidence. 

She had always been so pure, honest and quite shy. 

Back in high school she would have told me everything I had the audacity to ask for. Not one time that I had made fun of her did she give me a counterattack. She had swallowed it all and simply evaded me, which I had observed with great relief. 

But now, it seemed that this side of her was completely gone. Another reason to feel a certain fear creep up my back that made me look up alarmed whenever she was in the same room as me, searching for ways to keep her at distance whenever she came too close to me, physically or emotionally.