Page 7 of Professor Platonic

“Raintree is part of a fraudulent research grant scheme.”

He turned to face me. His expression was fiercely defiant. “What? No way.”

I balled my hands into fists to keep from going over there to hold him again. I wanted to touch him so fucking badly. Instead, I focused on giving him the explanation he deserved.

“It’s true. Dr. Raintree has been pocketing the bulk of the grant money. He gets his grad students to help apply for research grants, the grant money comes to him, and then he half-asses the research and pockets most of the money. He’s had two expeditions in the past five years get canceled for bad weather, and the money hasn’t been returned or used for other research.”

Jack stared at me in disbelief as his brain worked through what I was saying. He was a smart guy. I knew he’d have done his research on the Raintree expeditions, and he’d know about the canceled trips.

“How do you know about this?” he asked.

I sighed and dropped my chin to my chest. “I’ve been watching him for the past four years. I finally couldn’t stand it anymore, and I said something to the dean. If… no,whenword gets out, it’s going to put all of us in a bad light. The university wanted time to mitigate the fallout.”

“You turned him in?” he asked.

I nodded cautiously. I couldn’t decide if he thought I was a terrible human being for ratting out a colleague or a decent one for trying to protect the students and the program.

He reached up to run his fingers through his hair and yank on the ends. I could tell the information was taking time to process. “So… what does this mean for the department? Is Dr. Raintree leaving? And what about the students in the middle of research?”

“I don’t know. That’ll be up to the dean.”

My fingers itched to touch him. Now that I was here, now that I knew he wanted—no,needed—touch, I couldn’t stop imagining my hands on him.

“Come here,” I said.

Jack’s eyes widened. “W-why?”

“I want to hold you.”

My heart thundered even though I tried my best to project a calm, controlled demeanor.

“Why?” he asked in a slightly higher-pitched voice.

Instead of answering him, I pinned him with a look—one I hoped held all the longing and frustration I’d been repressing for an entire semester.

Jack’s chest rose and fell before he whispered, “You can’t mean it.”

“I do. I wanted to hold someone tonight. It’s been a hell of a week. A hell of asemester. My colleagues turned their backs on me when they learned what I’d done. I had to find another job. I felt so isolated and alone, I was willing to take comfort with a stranger. But now that I knowyouwere the one who wrote that post… I want it even more.”

Emotion flashed through his eyes. Surprise, and if I wasn’t mistaken, heat. My chest tightened.

“Please,” I added softly.

FIVE

JACK

This was too good to be true.

I moved toward him slowly, waiting for him to laugh and admit it was all a setup of some kind. But then I saw the sincerity in his eyes. His chest heaved up and down, revealing maybe he wasn’t quite as calm and collected as he appeared to be about this.

“Isn’t this fraternization?” I asked weakly.

“I already turned in your grade. I’m no longer your professor.”

It was true. I’d checked my grades before heading to the hotel and hadn’t really been surprised at the strong showing in my evolutionary biology class. In being a total hard-ass to me all semester, it turned out Dr. Henry had managed to thoroughly prepare me for the final.

I’d aced it.

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