All Bets Are Off

by Marguerite Labbe

  Well, at least Ash hadn’t completely blown his chances with Eli, not if that brief flash of heat meant what Ash thought it did. He grinned as his day went from crap to “oh hell yeah.” He strolled around the chairs to the empty one directly across from Eli and took a seat, stretching his legs out in front of him. His opinion on having to take an English class went up a hundred notches.

  He was aware of the other students looking at him, but he only had eyes for Eli. “I apologize for being late,” he drawled, as amusement over their situation struck him. “Unexpected room change.”

  Two faint spots of color appeared on Eli’s cheeks and the corners of his mouth twitched as if he were fighting a smile. “That is my fault. I prefer a more intimate setting for my smaller classes. I figured it would be a more comfortable place to meet and have discussions than a classroom. And since you all are going to be doing the majority of your research in here, I wanted to show everyone how to access the online archives.”

  I like intimate settings. Ash pressed his lips together before he said the comment that flashed into his mind. He had to behave, but oh, was it going to be hard when he knew very well how good Eli was at bantering right back at him.

  Eli had said he was a teacher, but for some reason with his laid-back, easygoing attitude, Ash had pictured him teaching little ones. Like kindergarten or first grade. He’d never met a professor who had long hair, rode a motorcycle, and hung out at sports bars.

  Ash let his gaze drift over Eli. Judging from the way he kept shuffling his papers, not quite looking at him, Ash was sure that seeing him in his class was the last thing Eli had expected. Ash hadn’t seen him anything but confident and this hint of uncertainty on Eli’s face was kinda cute. Unless it meant that Eli regretted last night, and that thought didn’t settle well with Ash at all.

  “Well, then, now that we’re all here….” Eli cleared his throat and slipped on a pair of gold-rimmed glasses as he looked down at the stack of papers in his lap. “Why don’t we take a few minutes to look at the syllabus? Then we can discuss what you’re looking to get out of this class and get to know one another a bit before calling it an early day.”

  There were so many things that Ash wanted to say with an opening like that and none of them were appropriate. He wanted to get to know every inch of Eli, and his expectations for this class had entirely changed. Ash set his book bag down at his feet and pulled out a pen, trying to figure out what he should say when class was over. He definitely wasn’t about to suggest talking over a couple of beers. Lord, he was disgusted with himself for passing out like that.

  “As you can see, I have a strict attendance policy,” Eli said as the girl next to Ash passed a stack of bound papers with a shy expression on her face. There were only ten of them in all, Eli included. Oh damn, what should he call him? He’d have to work hard not to slip up and say something that would embarrass Eli. “A good portion of your grade will be based on discussions, and you can’t discuss if you’re not here.”

  He stole a glance at Eli. What did he think about this? The firelight glinted off the frames of Eli’s glasses and brought out the deep red highlights in his auburn hair. There was a serious expression on his face, a look Ash had not seen before and one he couldn’t decipher. He kind of liked this side to him and those glasses were sexy.

  Ash glanced down at the syllabus, not really seeing the words, nothing except the location of Eli’s office and the hours when he could be found there. Eli’s voice washed over him as he asked one of the other students a question. Heat pooled in his stomach. The sound made Ash remember how husky it had been last night when they’d been entangled on his couch, teasing each other over the outcome of the game. And that made Ash remember how Eli had looked naked, with his hair free of that tie and…. He shifted in his chair as a punch of unfulfilled lust hit him in his gut.

  He needed to concentrate on unsexy thoughts. Ash pictured his drill instructor at boot camp as the voices of the other students murmured in the background. The man’s face had been shaped like a misshapen lump, with a mole on his cheek that had always made him think of a potato eye. Ash would always be grateful for the guidance the man had given him, but sexy he was not.

  Ash stole a quick look at his watch. Really? Only fifteen minutes had passed? He was going to go out of his skin by the time class ended. He needed a chance to speak to Eli, personally, even though this situation might be a little awkward, between last night and the fact that Eli was now his teacher. That didn’t stop Ash from wanting to get with him again. They were both grown adults, and he didn’t see the harm in continuing, as long as they were discreet. As discreet as you could be in a small town where everyone knew Eli and his entire family.

  He wanted to groan and bury his face in his hands.

  “Ash?”

  Ash glanced up to see the rest of the students and Eli staring at him, and he scrambled to recover the thread of the conversation before he completely embarrassed himself again. Something about reasons for taking the class, and he gathered that so far everyone else was an English major, so he was the odd man out.

  “Is there a particular reason you chose this course?” Eli prompted him. He’d taken off his glasses again, hooking them in the collar of his shirt, and Ash wondered how often he forgot they were there.

  “Well.” Ash tugged on one earlobe and cast a quick smile around at the group. “Don’t shoot me for this, but until now, I’d always thought English classes were dead boring. And I didn’t particularly want to take another one, but my advisor didn’t leave me much of a choice. So I put it off until this one caught my eye.”

  One of the other guys in the group smirked, and the girl sitting next to Eli leaned forward, the hem of her short shirt hiking up another inch. “What was it about this class that did?”

  Ash looked back at Eli, who had his head cocked with a silent question in his blue-gray eyes. Ash thought that his reason for taking the class was silly, but if anyone would understand, it would be Eli, so instead of giving some bullshit answer he told the truth. “When I was in Iraq, nothing meant more to me than the letters I got from back home. Even more than the e-mails, because I could carry them out on the field with me and re-read them. And somehow the handwriting made it more personal.”

  Eli’s eyes warmed and a gentle smile crossed his lips as Ash shrugged in embarrassment at the admission. “Sounds like you’ll really connect with the class, then, and offer some good insights.” Eli turned to the girl next to him as if he knew Ash would rather not elaborate further. “Hannah, how about you?”

  Ash relaxed and gave him a grateful smile in return. Words actually couldn’t express how much those letters had meant to him, or to the other men in his unit, especially to those men who’d had no one back home to get letters from. He made it a point every week to send one to his best friend, Kurtis, who was in Afghanistan now, and another through one of the organizations that collected letters and care packages for those who had to do without.

  He glanced at his watch again and only hard-won discipline kept him from shifting in his seat. He preferred action to waiting, even though he knew that sometimes waiting was a better option. He still didn’t know what Eli thought about the whole situation. And his expression wasn’t giving Ash one clue. The not knowing drove him crazy.

  Not that Ash was looking for anything long-term. Hell no. But boning his hot professor would be far more preferable to sitting near him all semester and knowing he’d totally blown his chance.

  By the time class ended, Ash still had no answers. He’d never been in a situation remotely like this before and somehow he was sure Eli hadn’t either. He just couldn’t picture Eli starting up relationships with students on a regular basis. And Ash had never been one to hit on a superior officer when he’d known the guy had swung his way. It had seemed too much like trading sex to get ahead.

  Ash lingered, putting his new materials in his bag with deliberate care as the rest of the students wandered off. All except one, the l
eggy brunette with the short skirt. She cast Ash a look, as if silently telling him to shoo, and his brows rose. He glanced at Eli as she gave him an inviting smile.

  Sorry, honey, that one’s mine.

  “Is there something I can help you with, Whitney?” Eli asked, tucking his reading glasses in a hard case before stowing it away in a battered leather satchel stuffed haphazardly with papers and books.

  The girl cast Ash another glance, and he grinned back at her. She seemed to realize that she was not going to get a few minutes alone with Eli and she bristled in irritation before bestowing a smile at Eli. “It’s private,” she murmured and leaned in to whisper in Eli’s ear.

  Ash shook his head and fought a smirk. That one had eyes for Eli, and it amused him that Eli didn’t seem to see it at all.

  “Just get here when you can and have a good day,” Eli said as he straightened.

  Ash watched Whitney go with a grin, and then Eli turned to him and squared his shoulders. His grin faltered; that couldn’t be a good sign. “Ash, want to talk in my office?”

  “I really think we should.”

  Eli was grateful for Ash’s silence as they went up to the third floor, where his office was tucked way in the back. Randall Britton had decided that as the youngest professor of the English department, Eli should have the most out-of-the-way space and finagled for him to be stuck back there. In truth, it suited him, so Eli had let the man think he won that one.

  The view was amazing. The windows looked out over the tree-covered mountains behind the school. And its remote location usually kept him from receiving too many students just looking to drop in and complain. Eli liked the stillness up here, it let him think.

  Only this time neither the walk nor the stillness helped him come to any easy answers as he had hoped they would. His initial surprise at seeing Ash in his class had been replaced with acute disappointment. He’d been jockeying to get more Cultural Studies classes offered and finally felt like he was making some headway with getting permission for this class. And then one of his students was the same guy he’d been naked with the night before.

  Damn, Ash had to be the hottest guy on campus. And now he was hands-off. Normally, Eli wouldn’t care, since no one had to know what wicked fantasies went on his mind. With Ash, he had memories to give potency to said fantasies. And Ash would know Eli’s thoughts were anything but pure every time Eli looked at him. Plus he genuinely liked Ash on top of the chemistry between them.

  Eli hadn’t been able to tell what Ash thought, beyond his initial amusement when he’d first shown up. A couple of years ago Eli would have been just as amused, even if he’d unwittingly broken one of his few rules. He didn’t get involved with students. Period. It would just open up more trouble than he wanted to deal with, especially for something so fleeting as lust.

  Ash was different, though. Dammit, why was it that all the guys he really felt a connection to came with complicated situations as well?

  Eli unlocked his office door and motioned for Ash to go first. How the hell did one start a conversation like this? He’d been in many strange circumstances before, but this one had enough fodder for a situation comedy. He had no desire to star in that kind of a show.

  To be honest, if it was just between him and Ash and there wasn’t all this other bullshit going on at the college, he’d say fuck the rules.

  “Look, I’m so sorry about last night,” Ash said as he shut the door. “I shouldn’t have had those beers, not with how tired I was.”

  Eli faced Ash, leaning back against the desk, his arms crossed. “You don’t need to apologize, Ash. I knew you were exhausted when I offered the massage. I wanted my greedy hands all over you and was thinking of that first. You did warn me.”

  He still wanted his hands all over Ash. Last night had just been a taste, a tease. Just thinking about it woke up the heat and hunger inside of him. He had very vivid memories of how Ash looked naked on his bed. How he tasted when they kissed. What Eli didn’t know was how it felt to be fucked by him, and he hated an unsatisfied curiosity.

  “Senior year?” Eli asked, going back over their conversation the night before. He didn’t remember Ash saying anything about being a student.

  Ash tossed his book bag down on the chair and remained standing as well. He looked good in his jeans and faded U2 T-shirt, and when he met Eli’s gaze, heat sparked between them. “Yeah, I’m majoring in Criminology and Criminal Justice. I plan on joining the state police or one of the federal agencies after I graduate. Haven’t decided where yet. I guess anywhere that’ll have me.”

  Eli heard the quiet pride in Ash’s voice and had to smile. Somehow that revelation did not surprise him at all. “I could easily see you as an agent.” And his major explained why he’d never seen him before. The Behavioral Sciences building was on the other side of campus, and Eli didn’t venture that way often.

  “Thanks.” Ash shifted and cocked his head, giving him a speculative look. “I have to say, when you said you were a teacher I was thinking elementary school.”

  “I’m too much of a nerd to do elementary school. I like books too much and I like sharing them with people who get as excited as I do.” Eli sighed. Neither one of them were getting around to what they had really come here to talk about. “I shouldn’t see you again outside of class, Ash. At least not until the semester is over with.” There, it was said, despite Eli’s reluctance to do so.

  Ash’s green eyes brightened, and he took a step closer, making Eli’s pulse race. “You’re hedging. You said shouldn’t, does that mean you’d be willing? Because I’d sure as hell like to pick up where we left off last night.”

  Temptation thrummed in Eli’s blood. He couldn’t see harm in a little consensual nookie. It wasn’t like Ash was a kid straight out of high school, and it wasn’t like Eli was the kind of guy who let his dick decide grades. “You do entice me to break my own rules.”

  Ash took another step closer, and his husky chuckle had heat rippling over Eli’s skin. “I haven’t even started on the temptation, Eli,” he drawled.

  Eli was about to say fuck caution and lean in to kiss those teasing lips when the sound of very familiar footsteps echoed down the long hallway toward his door. He swore, pressed his lips in irritation, and gently pushed Ash back.

  “And the reason why I cannot give into that temptation is about to come in here and chew my ass off because he wouldn’t understand creativity if it shoved its way past the stick in his ass.”

  Surprise crossed Ash’s face as Eli slipped behind his desk and the door opened without the courtesy of a knock. He sat down, schooling his expression so he wouldn’t scowl at the tall, older man with silvering wings in his dark hair. Britton was the head of his department at Amwich State College and the thorn digging into Eli’s proverbial paw. He’d probably get along much better with the man if he conformed to all of his ridiculous, bullshit nagging. The perverse part of his nature would not allow it. As long as there weren’t official rules about how long he kept his hair, or whether or not he really had to wear boring suits, or if it was appropriate or not to conduct a lecture outside on a beautiful day, he’d continue to do things his own way.

  Britton would love to see him axed. At least for now, Eli was on good terms with the dean, and he figured that as long as he never broke any real rules, his tenure track was safe. At least Britton’s days as head were almost over. This was his last year, and Eli was careful not to give him any true cause to have him sacked. Too bad the other man had tenure. He’d lost touch with the times two decades ago and his classes were among the most unpopular.

  Britton strode in, his mouth tight and Eli cast him a look of irritation at the interruption. “Excuse me, Professor Britton, but I am meeting with a student.” He forced himself to keep his tone civil and to stop before he said what was really burning on his tongue. This had to be a record: day one and already Britton was hounding him. He was probably still pissed over Eli strong-arming him into allowing his Historic Letters
class.

  “That’s okay, Doc. I can wait outside.” Ash grabbed his bag and was gone before Eli could stop him. He pressed his lips together as the door shut behind Ash. It bothered him that he didn’t know what Ash was thinking.

  “Well, now that you’ve chased him off, what can I do for you?” Eli gave in to the urge to lean back in his chair and prop his feet up on his desk, knowing how much it would irk Britton. And sure enough, the man’s mouth tightened even more.

  The system sucked. Britton was safe, but if Eli irked the wrong person, he could kiss his chances of ever making tenure goodbye. It wasn’t like he didn’t have other options at other colleges, but Eli loved Amwich. He loved having the option to hike to work when he wanted to. Besides, he toed the line on all of the actual rules. He had no real interest in outright rebellion. He just couldn’t stand to have his every little action scrutinized. Not when he was good at teaching and at making his classes interesting.