Page 1

Prologue

Then

Alastair

“Professor Ignatius, would you mind staying a moment after class?” Calista, the new librarian and the woman of my most decadent fantasies, asked as she traipsed into my classroom, her heels clicking on the stone floors.

“For you? Anything,” I answered with what I’d hoped was an easy grin, my heart rate picking up as she grew nearer.

“I’m glad to hear that, Professor. It’ll make my next request that much easier,” she said with a wink as she rounded my desk and planted herself upon the lip of the deep mahogany wood, crimson velvet gathering at her thighs.

I sucked in a pained breath, willing my erection to stand down.

Her light chuckle and the silky feel of her fingertips playing over my taut bicep brought me back to reality, my eyes cracking open to meet hers. Those molten honey irises twinkled beneath the warm oil candelabras lighting my classroom. Red, orange and purple streaked across her cheeks as the setting sun illuminated the space through the stained glass panels behind my desk.

She was a vision—long fiery waves like spun silk hung down her shoulders, striking eyes eating me alive. The patch of dark freckles beneath her right eye danced like a constellation of stars over her creamy complexion, and those plump burgundy lips curved with a tantalizing smirk as she watched me take her in.

“I’m sorry, Dr. Ravenna. What had you come to ask?”

She tilted her head, shifting one thigh over her knee. The movement showed off a glimpse of her black panties, and my slacks tightened, as did my lungs.

“This job, it’s exhausting, isn’t it? Teaching young minds, never leaving the place of our constant torment.”

She wasn’t wrong. It was exhausting. But there was never anything I’d rather have been doing.

“That it is. Though, if it’s such a torment, why endure it?” Please don’t leave. This place would be dreadfully boring without you.

“For the same reasons you do, I’m sure.”

The love of literature or the cold comfort of dusty tomes, the quiet companionship of ink-stained shadows? A lack of family and no one to go home to each night?

Each of these are reasons I remain rooted here, though her sheer existence in this sorrowful place has improved my mood a considerable amount this last year.

She leaned forward. My breath had gotten caught in my throat as she slid her lithe fingers up my neck, swiping the pad of her thumb over my lower lip. It had been over a year of sidelong glances, afternoon coffee breaks and stolen touches, but this? She'd never touched me so bold as now, and my flesh felt like it would light anew.

“Meet me on the top floor of the library at eight o’clock sharp. No strings attached. No feelings. Mere comfort.”

And with that, she hopped down from my desk, wobbling on her feet like she so often did. For a woman who held herself with such confidence, she’d been rather unsteady on her heels, as if there was something more lurking beneath her surface, threatening to break free and drag her down with it—and I’d been desperate to get to the bottom of it.

My palms snapped to her hips, steadying her before she waltzed away, shooting me a sly smile over her shoulder. “Thank you for the assist, Professor. I look forward to seeing what else those capable hands of yours can do.”

I should’ve known right then that this woman would be my ruin.

Journal Entry

It’s been ages since anyone new has passed through these doors, but today, my own personal glimpse of sunshine has arrived in the form of our new librarian, Calista Ravenna. I’m taken with her in a way I have no business being.

I know next to nothing about her aside from her arrival from the city and the minimal information she shared with me about her doctoral degree. But I want to know more.

I need to know more.

I crave it.

This university, with its abysmal lighting and dark, dreary corridors, does little to ebb away the darkness that always seems to lurk in the periphery of my mind. My inner demons grow stronger with each breath I take, but in the end, I’ve been stronger. I’ve pushed through them, never taking the leap I so desperately wish to when the cold months arrive, stealing any semblance of light.

But today, amidst the steady trickling of rain and dark clouds, which hang overhead without a second thought for my sanity, there was sunshine. And I plan to soak up her rays as long as she’ll allow.

Until tomorrow,