...Aidan reached out as if he were going to stroke Nate’s cheek, but then he stopped, his fingers curled into his palm, and his hand fell to his side. The intensity of his gaze, which seconds before had been a swirling window to his soul, grew dull. He shook his head and his voice was little more than a hoarse whisper. “I’m sorry, Nathan. You’re my student, and my friend, but nothing more. I don’t feel what you want me to feel.”

The cold plunge of the words hit the pit of Nate’s stomach, then spread outward, leaving him numb. He’d been so certain there was something there... He stared at Aidan, wishing him to take it back, change his mind. But as the seconds ticked by on the wall clock, he didn’t.

So that’s in then.

He felt himself nod, but it was like an out of body experience—he was present, but not. “I understand,” he murmured.

Mechanically, he released Aidan’s hand, grabbed his book bag, and felt his heavy feet carry him to the door. Felt his hand close around the cool metal of the knob.

But then, as if he were suddenly stepping out of the fog, his head cleared. Puzzle pieces shifted in his mind, and in a moment of crystal clarity, everything fell into place—Aidan’s odd behavior this evening, his hot and cold emotions, his denial moments ago.

Nate released the knob, spun around, and turned toward the professor, who still stood by the desk. Aidan looked startled. His face was paler than Nate had ever seen it.

The book bag thunked to the floor. Keeping his gaze locked with Aidan’s, Nate crossed the space between them in two steps, lightly grasped the man’s head in his hands, and settled his lips over Aidan’s. He tasted warm and cinnamony, like the cinnamon mints he kept in his desk drawer.

Nate teased at Aidan’s lips, sucking, nibbling, slowly urging them open, and Aidan put up no resistance. In fact, when their tongues at last made contact, he moaned softly, and his hands snaked around to clutch Nate’s back, confirming everything Nate had suspected.

Nate kissed him thoroughly. Passionately. Trying to pour all his own intimate feelings into it so Aidan would understand this was the real thing. When he finally pulled back, he gazed into those green eyes he’d come to know and love so well. “I don’t believe you don’t care,” he said. “When you’re ready, I’ll be here.”

This time Nate’s steps to the door were as light as his heart. All he’d needed was to know that Aidan felt something. And now that he had that, he could wait until Aidan was ready to accept those feelings.

Before he reached to open the door, however, Aidan was behind him. Gripping Nate’s arm, he turned him around and pushed Nate back until the heavy wood collided with his backside.

Now it was Nate’s turn to stare in surprise. At the intense expression on Aidan’s face, a surge of heat coursed through Nate and detonated in a white-hot burst right below his balls.

Hands braced on either side of Nate’s head, Aidan slanted his mouth over his with a hungry, forceful urgency that caught the younger man off guard. It was pent-up desire in its raw form, almost more of a claiming than a kiss.

Moments later, breathing hard, Aidan gasped, “Damn you, Nathan. You were supposed to walk away.”

“But I didn’t,” Nate said softly.

“No. You didn’t.” He rested his forehead against Nate’s and sighed. “I shouldn’t be feeling these things for you that I feel.”

Contented satisfaction filled Nate. “Why the hell shouldn’t you,” he demanded. Then quickly added, “Never mind, we’re not going to have that conversation again.” His hand automatically moved up to caress Aidan’s lightly stubbled cheek, and he stared in appreciation at this man he’d admired, craved, cared about for months.

“I’ve wanted for a long time to kiss you like that,” Aidan admitted, eyes closed as if he were struggling with himself.

“Then you should have. I would have let you, you know?”

“Nathan—”

Nate pressed his lips against Aidan’s to silence any protests he might make. He’d managed to pull the man out of his shell, and now he wanted to concentrate on keeping him there, showing him how good it could be between them so he’d stay out.

As the kiss deepened, and as their tongues moved in slow, sensuous thrusts against one another, the burn of arousal that had begun when Aidan pushed him against the door, continued to build in Nate. His cock, never truly soft anytime he’d been around Aidan for the past few months, stiffened to full size. It bulged indecently—and damned uncomfortably—against the seam of his pants. He didn’t want to scare Aidan off by jumping his bones this fast, but he didn’t have a prayer of hiding his blatant hard-on if their bodies got any closer together.

Aidan rendered the thought moot when he cupped the back of Nate’s head with one hand, and slid the other around his waist, tugging him in tight against his own body. Their groins notched together, Nate’s yin to Aidan’s yang, and vice versa, melding them in perfect, complimentary harmony.

Aidan’s erection pulsing against his caused Nate’s brain to temporarily shut down, and he floated in a sea of sensual haze. Two hard cocks rubbing together, even separated by layers of clothing, was erotic as hell. But when their hips began to move instinctively, pressing their groins tighter together, thrusting, grinding, the friction was so intense it was all Nate could do not to cum in his jeans.