One Night

Chapter 15

Audrey

The sensation of something touching my nose caused my dream to shift from one into another. As soon as my eyes fluttered open, I was met with a familiar sight two gray eyes staring at me from beneath a head of dark hair. A set of full lips framed by stubble.

A soft smile graced my lips at the sight of him. “Another dream about you, Professor?” I muttered, slowly sitting up and stretching. My back arched a bit as I moved, and Edwin’s eyes flicked across my body, his jaw clenching hard.

It was only then that I felt the jacket slip off of my shoulders and pool on the floor behind my chair, jolting me back into reality.

Suddenly, the realization hit me: I was no longer sleeping, and this wasn’t a dream like I had initially thought. Edwin was really standing in front of me in the flesh, and it was his jacket that I had just dropped.

My face flushed red with embarrassment in a matter of milliseconds. I quickly jumped to my feet and grabbed his jacket from the floor, shoving it back into his hands. “I–I’m so—”

“Another dream?” Edwin cut me off before I could finish, a ghost of a smirk tugging at the corners of his lips, “What’s that supposed to mean?”

I swallowed and quickly spat out, “I had a dream the other night that you were yelling at me over grading papers.”

Edwin blinked at me curiously, and for a moment, I thought he might see through my lie. In actuality, I had had a rather, intimate dream about him the other night. One that involved the hard planes of his body and his warm, throbbing member inside of me.

But of course I wasn’t going to tell him about that.

Thankfully, if he did see through my bluff, he didn’t call me ondt. “What are you doing here so late?” he asked. “It’s almost midnight.”

I shrugged. “I got in a fight with Linda earlier, or rather, she got in a fight with me.”

“So I heard.” He folded his arms across his chest and regarded me down the length of his nose for a moment. “Well? Did you win?”

My face heated up beneath his gaze, so much so that I had to quickly look away to hide in. Something about his tone made my heart pound, 1 could still remember the way that Linda had fallen to the floor, screaming, after knocking poor Avis out

What a drama queen. I hadn’t even touched her; I had only kicked her knife away so that she couldn’t hurt anyone else. And yet, somehow, I had been roped into a punishment alongside her.

“It doesn’t matter.” I finally said with a wave of my hand. “We both got the same punishment in the end–cleaning the library

Edwin let out a small scoff. “Something tells me that’s not much of a punishment for you.”

I felt a smirk tug at my lips as I shook my head. He seemed to know me well, surprisingly. “No,” I admitted, glancing around at the towering bookshelves. “Not really,”

“Well,” Edwin said with a sigh, shrugging his jacket back on. “It’s late. I’ll take you home.”

“No,” I quickly refused, “I—”

Before I could finish my refusal, however, my stomach growled. Loudly. Goddess, of course this would happen twice in front of him; he must have thought that I never ate, or that I was just hungry all of the time.

Edwin’s frown deepened. “Come on. Let’s get you something to eat. And then I’ll take you home.”

I shouldn’t have accepted Edwin’s invitation. But, when he had insisted, I couldn’t say no–and besides, I was hungry.

The two of us stepped into his small apartment, and I was once again hit by that comforting smell of ink and paper. I slipped my shoes off by the door and followed him to the kitchen, which was just as messy as the rest of the apartment papers strewn about, mugs of coffee leaving rings, a pair of wire–rimmed reading glasses sitting on top of a notebook.

“Sit down.” Edwin said, gesturing to the kitchen table as he strode over to the fridge.

I did as he said, my fingers instinctively reaching for the glasses. I put them on and looked around, sinirking at Inaked.

how blin

(blurry everything suddenly

“Your eyesight is really this bad?” Lasked

Edwin glanced at in over his shoulder and frowned. “They’re just for reading when I get eye strain. My eyesight is fine.”

0190

Chapter 15

I shrugged, not fully believing him, and set the glasses down. For a moment, I watched as he began to prepare a pot of water for pasta, then crushed some cloves of garlic with the side of a knife and began chopping.

Seeing him like this, an Alpha, cooking in the kitchen was a strange sight. He looked incredibly handsome with his sleeves rolled up to his elbows and his hair a little mussed, but something about the scene was also unexpected. I had always been raised to believe that Alphas often had their own. private chefs or relied on their wives to do the cooking and cleaning because domestic tasks were considered to be beneath them.

“Do you cook often?” I hedged, leaning forward on my elbows.

“I do. My mother taught me to cook from a tongue age,” he said without lifting his gaze from the cutting board. “So I could prepare dinners for my

loved ones.

My cheeks reddened at that, and I quickly cleared my throat and looked away. “My stepfather always insisted that I cook growing up,” I said slowly. “But only because he believed that women belong in the kitchen.”

Much to my surprise, Edwin scoffed. “I can’t stand men who think like that. It’s the twenty–first century. It’s time we move on.”

I felt my eyes widen slightly. Edwin, noticing my hesitation, shot me a curious glance. “What?” he asked.

1 was only able to manage a shrug. “Nothing, it’s just.. It’s rare to hear that kind of thing from an Alpha,” I said softly. “I hope I don’t cause offense, Professor.

Edwin huffed. “Yes, well… before I’m an Alpha or a professor, I’m myself. Speaking of which… call me Edwin in private from now on, would you?”

“Okay.. Edwin.”

As I watched Edwin cook, the scent of garlic and spices filling the small kitchen, I felt my phone buzz. Slipping it out of my pocket to see a text from Tina, I felt my stomach twist: “Whatever you do, don’t come back to the dorms tonight. Linda and her new friends are waiting for you.”

…my

“Something wrong?” Edwin asked, noticing my frown.

I swallowed and stood, walking over to the counter. “Nothing, it’s just. Linda wants to start another fight,” I said. “She’s waiting outside my dorm”

Edwin paused his chopping and stared at me for a breathless moment. “You want me to escort you back, then?” he asked. “I’ll handle her for you.”

I quickly shook my head. The idea of bringing the professor that everyone thought I was seducing back to my dorm just sounded like more of a nightmare. “No, it’s fine,” I blurted out, maybe a little too quickly. I cleared my throat and looked away.

“I, um. I actually have some more studying to do,” I finally managed, “so I think I’ll just go back to the library and spend the night there.”

For a long moment, Edwin simply glared at me. Then, with a wave of his hand, he turned and dropped the pasta into the

“Nonsense,” he said. “You can stay with me tonight.”