Chapter 5 Wanting Professor Zane

• Alex's POV::
• My heart pounds wildly in my chest as I walk down the hallway of the fourth floor where Professor Zane Orion's office is located. I took the stairs here so I can have more time to relax my nerves but here I am, at his door and I feel nauseous with how tightly knot my stomach has gotten.
• I didn't expect him to pick me as the class assistant. I hoped what happened on Monday was a one time thing but I can't deny that I felt secretly happy that he chose me. He picked me. It felt good.
• I knock on the door, with my breath hitched in my throat.
• "Come in, Alex." His smooth voice calls to me. How does he know it is me?
• I know I am playing a dangerous game here but I feel like I am in too deep already to pull out. I have always been attracted to him from afar, before I got accepted to NYU. The fact that he even gives me a bit of his attention makes me dizzy with euphoria. Fifteen year old Alex wouldn't believe it. I can't believe I get to be in the same room as my long time crush and mentor and he pays me attention.
• But even in my euphoria, I know it is wrong. He is almost twice my age and he has a kid. A five year old girl he mentioned only once during an interview last year. He said he was divorced too, but that is about as much as anyone knows. He keeps a pretty tight lid on his private life.
• There has been speculations around the online community about who he is currently dating or even if he is getting married again so as to give his daughter a stable home. I am not particularly keen on all these gossips, but just the fact that he is my professor is enough reason for me to back off.
• But I can't. Physically, it is impossible for me. I get weak for him. I step into the office and my train of thought halts at the sight of Zane seated at the edge of his desk, his tie is undone and the top buttons of his shirt is open, revealing smoth olive skin.
• His Adam apple is visible and I ache to press my lips to the skin of his sculpted neck.
• I gulp down air, looking away but getting pulled back to him again. He just sits there, watching me with a neutral look on his face that disarms me all the same.
• "How do you know I was the one at the door?" I ask, looking around his office. It is spacious and well furnished. Of course, the college treasures him. He could be at any university across the country but he is here, at the very best. And I am lucky to be here too.
• Though I suspect I would have done everything within my power to get admitted into whichever school he teaches at.
• My reason at first was innocent. I just wanted to learn from him, all the tricks and what it takes to succeed as a writer in our cutthroat industry. But now, now, my reasons have gotten dirtier and less noble.
• "Who else would it be?" Zane says, waving me to take the seat in front of his desk, the very desk he is seated at the edge of, with his tie undone and his sleeves rolled up exposing his hairy muscly forearms. I stare at the network of veins rippled along his arm and I know he is watching me drink him in. I try to swallow but my mouth has gone dry.
• I get the feeling again, that I am playing at something dangerous here. But I can't run. Or maybe I don't want to. Maybe I am pulled in by the very reason I should stay away. He is dark and mysterious with enough power in the industry to command respect wherever he goes. And I am pulled to that. I want him.
• "Okay." I say pulling the chair away from his long legs splayed in front of him, I sit down and cross my legs, my dress rides up my thigh and I watch his eyes go dark as they linger on my exposed thighs.
• My heart is hammering away and it feels like I might collapse from lack of oxygen in my brain as it seems like I have forgotten how to breath since I stepped in this damn office.
• "Aren't you hot, Alex? I came back to find my air conditioner not working." He says out of the blue, pulling me out of my blind panic. I look up at him, my brows drawn into a question mark. I haven't noticed the temperature in the office because I have been too busy pulling myself together with the way his eyes are raking over my body.
• "No, I am fine." I reply and he shrugs.
• "Okay, If you say so." Zane gets up and walks towards me, I clench my thighs together, hating the instant reaction to him. Heat rises up my neck and I look down. My pulse elevates and when he stops to stand in front of me, I feel like I might suffocate with the intensity of his attention.
• "Get up, Alex." Zane's voice has gone dangerously low. Gravelly and deep.
• "Why?" I peer up at him, he is intimidatingly tall standing over me like this, it makes my heart jump in my chest.
• "Get up." The tight edge in his low baritone makes me want to run for the door but instead my body obeys him and I get out of the chair. He is too close. His scent permeates my senses. It conjures images of dark mysterious masculine silhouettes. Mint, coffee and something faintly floral. It is an heady mix. I breath him in, closing my eyes. Surrendering.
• "I hate that you always have to counter me in class. I find your outspokenness both fucking hot and aggravating. What would I do with you, Alex?" Zane is watching me closely like a predator with its prey in sight.
• I bite down on my lower lip and his eyes go instantly darker, "you should stop doing that." Zane says and before I can ask what he is talking about, he reaches for me, covering the distance between us in a flash.