Page 14 of Forbidden Professor

Yes. Unequivocally yes.

Will I let Eve get in my way, though?

No fucking way.

Heading out of my classroom, I make a pit stop at my office to scoop up a few more books. I have to get serious about teaching what is listed on the syllabus and that means a fuck ton of research.

After that, I slowly meander back to my little house. As I’m walking back, I get a text from Aiden, my recently discovered half-brother. That part of my life was hard enough, but now I have to deal with his adopted half-sister.

Yeah, our family is a little complicated, to say the least. How I’m supposed to pretend I don’t even know Eve is beyond me.

I check my phone. A text from Aiden waits for me.

I’m going to be in town for the next few days to get Eve settled in. Feel like going for a beer?

I feel like I need something a little stiffer than a beer, but a drink does sound good. My relationship with Aiden is still new and fragile, so him reaching out to me for something like this is actually pretty meaningful. I want to foster a relationship with him, and adding my feelings for Eve into the mix will not do much to benefit the already fragile situation.

Sure,I reply.I just need to drop some stuff off at my house. Come meet me and we’ll walk somewhere.

I text him my address and just get a thumbs up emoji. So I hurry back to my house and put my books down. I barely have enough time to do that before Aiden is knocking on my front door.

Swinging the door wide open, I grin at him. He’s like looking in a mirror, one that shows me if I were a little bit different. He’s lighter skinned than I am, lacking the deep mocha skin that my mom gave me. His hair is trimmed short and his face shaved smooth. But his jeans, dark t-shirt, and blue fleece are way more relaxed than my usual button up and dark slacks.

Other than that, though, we look the same. Our dad gave us the same barrel chested Viking bearing, and we even walk with the same swagger. The same shape eyes, though mine are brown-black where his are blue. And we have the same cocky grin.

“Hey man,” he greets me. He looks back behind him at the neighborhood. “Eve just rented a place a few blocks from here.”

I have a split second to decide whether I’m going to tell Aiden the truth or not. I can’t help but wonder if he’d be weird about Eve and I being attracted to each other. He looks back at me and I smile.

“I actually ran into her this morning,” I admit. “She locked herself out of the house without a coat. I was out on a jog and ran past her place.”

He cocks a brow. “Yeah?”

“Yep. I figured you would be upset if she melted into a lake of Eve soup, so I helped her out.” It’s a little white lie, told mainly to make things less awkward between us.

A slow smile spreads across his face. “Thanks for not letting her die of embarrassment, I guess.”

I hesitate, then figure I’d better tell him everything.

“That’s not all. I walked into the classroom today and there she was, looking at me like she wished a hole would open up in the earth and swallow her whole. It was really something.”

He makes a puzzled face. “Wait, you’re working at the University of Washington’s med school?”

“Yep. The position was sort of sprung upon me on Friday,” I say with a shrug. Grabbing a windbreaker, I point toward the door. “We can talk about it on the way to get some food. Come on. I want to make it over to the pizza place a few blocks away while they’re still serving lunch. I’m starving.”

“Huh.” Aiden trails behind me as I head through the yard. “So… this basically means that you can’t touch Eve. Right? I mean, aside from the fact that I clearly do not want you to fuck with her head.”

I glance back to see him grinning and scowl.

“What makes you think I’d be touching Eve?”

“I saw the way you looked at her when we were last at the Morgan estate,” he laughs. “It’s pretty gross. You two are almost siblings.”

Eve and I definitely do not have a sibling relationship. Besides which, I have a list in my head of the reasons I’m not related to her.

I met Aiden as an adult, not as a child. I didn’t ever know Eve. And she was adopted into Aiden’s nuclear family… it’s a little weird to be attracted to her, maybe. But not gross.

Eve is a knockout. Anyone who says she’s not is either lying or crazy.

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