He wasn’t supposed to look at you that way. Not as your professor. Not as someone years older, someone who should’ve known better. He was too old to touch you, too old to kiss you, too old to pin you under the weight of his stare like you belonged to him. And yet, he did. Constantly. Shamelessly.

You didn’t know when it began—when the shift happened. One moment he was just another face at the front of the lecture hall, and the next he was everywhere. Lingering in your thoughts. Haunting your dreams. Watching you in ways that made your skin burn and your pulse race, until you stopped pretending you didn’t feel it too.

Now, in the quiet of his apartment, it was impossible to ignore. His gaze was heavy on you as you stood in front of the mirror, the early light catching on your skin. His shirt—wrinkled, stolen from him—hung loose on your body, doing nothing to hide the curve of your shoulders or the marks he had left the night before. Behind you, he sat propped against the headboard, sheets pooled low at his waist. His hair was a tousled mess, his chest bare, his eyes dark with that familiar hunger.

“You’re up early,” he murmured, voice still rough with sleep. That voice—low and gravelly—was your undoing every time.

You caught his reflection, and your breath caught too. He looked at you like you were more than human, like you were something holy. Worshipful, almost reverent, yet tinged with an obsession he never tried to disguise.

Rafe Cameron wasn’t just infatuated. He was consumed. Addicted. Every move you made, every word, every stolen smile seemed to drag him deeper. He wanted to do everything for you—tear down walls, rearrange the world, keep you so wrapped up in his hands that you’d never have to lift a finger. To him, you weren’t just a student. You weren’t just a girl. You were it.

You didn’t understand it. You weren’t sure you ever could. But when he looked at you like that—raw, unguarded, and utterly yours—you knew it wasn’t shallow. Whatever this was, it was dangerous. It was forbidden. And it was far too late to stop.