Hudson was positive he wasn't going to make it through the rest of the school year with his sanity intact. He couldn't stand having Reagan in his classroom every week and not be able to touch her again. He’d been an incredible idiot for fucking her in his office, and what he’d done in the aftermath was even worse. He hadn't meant to tread on her heart quite the way he had; the words just came out of his mouth before really processing through his brain. He couldn't lose this job for something as trite as having sex with a student. It was the worst decision he’d ever made in his life, including the week before school started when he let her stay in his hotel room.

Never had he been so tempted by a woman before. He couldn't put his finger on it, but the more time that passed with her in his class, the more he realized how smart she was. She was incredibly intuitive, received excellent grades, and she’d begun to open up. More than once she’d expressed her opinion on what they were studying and she’d been deep and thoughtful on the subject. It was clear that she excelled at language arts, and it made him feel even worse that he had treated her the way he had. He didn't actually know anything about her, though, and he promised himself he wouldn't look up her personal information in his files. That was the worst kind of line to cross, the one into her privacy. Though he was entitled to look as her professor, he had no reasons outside of his own curiosity.

Seeing her in the pizzeria with her friends had been the worst. He wanted to talk to her, to apologize, but then that boy had come in the restaurant and started touching her so familiarly just days after she’d begged Hudson to fuck her. The thought that she was fucking both of them sent fury racing through his veins. He knew he had no real right to be upset about it, but he couldn't help himself. He felt a sense of possessiveness when it came to Reagan, and the forbidden nature of that left him feeling twisted up and anxious. It weighed on his mind enough that he was having trouble sleeping. It gnawed at his gut. He wanted her all the time, and his control was at a tenuous grip at the best of times.

The weather had begun to change. September was drawing to a close, and thankfully, Reagan was wearing more concealing layers. She had a habit of wearing short shorts and skinny tank tops that drove Hudson crazy. Now she was wearing leggings and long shirts and jackets, and though he liked the look of her legs in the skin-tight pants, at least he couldn't see as much bare skin. Once again, he wondered why he was so damned attracted to her. She was the opposite of what he liked. He should look the other way and never consider her again; he should stop fantasizing about her, about spreading her out on his bed back at his apartment and spending all of his time kissing every inch of her body. He should stop picturing her hair wrapped around his fist as her head bobbed up and down while she swallowed his cock.

He had to stop that train of thought immediately. He had a lecture to give in less than five minutes. He stood and adjusted himself, taking long, slow, deep breaths as he calmed down. He'd come to expect to be in a permanent state of arousal whenever she was around, and now he’d moved into a place of projecting her into all of his fantasies even when she wasn't around.

He walked into class right on time, refusing to let his eyes scan the lecture hall for her. He was tempted, as always, but he couldn't risk it. Someone was bound to notice if he did. He began with recapping the previous lecture and then moving on to the new subject. The more engaged students were receptive and talkative. Most of them participated, but of course, there were the ones that couldn't be bothered to rouse themselves from their stupor. It was an interesting hour, and then it was over and she was leaving. It was hard to watch her walk out the door and not even give him a glance.

He had an hour of downtime between his next classes so he went back to his office and locked the door behind himself. He only had to worry about being available to students during his open office hours but he wanted to be cautious. He tried to work on grading papers, but his mind kept wandering. He realized that the only time Reagan had been completely naked in his presence had been in the darkened hotel room, so of course, his mind wandered to what her body would look like completely bare and in bright light. He’d seen her in her bra and a thong, which was a good place to start. She was pale with no freckles, her eyes a light shade of brown. She had a sweet smile when she was happy, and a hell of a mouth on her when she was pissed.

And there he went imaging them together in more ways than just having sex. He wasn't ready to settle down, and he wasn't sure if or when he would be. He had a ten-year goal planned out and it didn't include a wife or kids. It didn't even include a girlfriend. He wanted to focus on his position there and making his parents proud. It seemed as though all of his life, no matter how many accomplishments he achieved, it wasn't enough for them. He’d starved for attention, and instead, he’d been sent to a private school away from home. He’d been expected to be a lawyer or a doctor, or the worst of all, a career politician like his father. It wasn't what he wanted. He'd grown up with a love for learning because of his childhood nanny, something that was only fostered more in the school he attended where good grades and acing tests gained awards and accolades. He wanted to teach, but not just that; he wanted to emulate the teachers he’d found to be engrossing and that excelled at their jobs. The very idea had appalled his parents, but he couldn't force himself into a career in which he couldn't be happy. Tenure was the highest form of achievement he could attain at his chosen profession, and he was hell-bent on getting there. To finally hear I’m proud of you coming from his father would be the best thing he could hope for. He just knew that if he worked hard enough and earned enough recognition within the University of Maryland that he could finally make that happen.

He had to keep his nose down and away from Reagan. There was no other way around it. The problem with that was that he couldn't even spend five minutes without thinking about her. His mind drifted back to her time and again, and he didn't even know why. He’d had plenty of encounters with women. He liked to wine and dine them and show off a little. It never hurt that he could claim to be a senator's son. That worked every time, like a charm. Women couldn't resist the idea of going home with someone that might have a bit of clout. They loved to imagine they would marry him and get to partake in the wealth that came with being a South Carolina Clark. He made a point of telling them he wasn't interested in marriage, but something about that made them think he was playing hard to get and it turned them on even more.

He'd had rich women, well-connected women, tall and slender, and at least his own age. There’d been a cougar or two, but none had been eighteen-year-old college students. None had been short with such amazing tits and a plump ass he loved to grab and spank. Still, he knew there had to be more about Reagan than her body that was calling to him. He couldn't figure out what that might be, and he was determined to not dwell on it.

He’d tried making friends. Being an Aquarius, it was in his nature to be sociable and to go out with groups of friends. He liked to drink and talk about politics, as long as they didn't center around his father’s career, and he liked to have intellectual conversations that centered around his interests in literature and fine art. That was the reason for going with José to the pizzeria, to enjoy some time outside of his apartment and try to make a friend in the other professor. José wasn't interested in the same things as Hudson, but it was a start, and a person to talk to other than himself. If only he could talk to him about what was truly bothering him.

His break was over and he had to teach his next class. At least Reagan wasn't in that one. He could try to focus on what he was supposed to for a little while, he could give a good lecture about the book that class was reading, and he could pretend to be the person he was before he left the University of South Carolina. Here in Maryland, he was someone he didn't recognize. He did a good job with the last few classes of the day and skipped going back to his office, simply picking his bag up from the lecture hall and leaving. As he walked out into the hall and further to the parking lot, he didn't even notice the other female students. He wasn't suddenly some sex-crazed lunatic that couldn't control himself; the only one living rent-free in his head was Reagan. He was not in his right mind the second he was in her presence, that was all there was to it.

He wasn't sure how he was going to make it for the rest of the term. God forbid if she ended up in his next semester’s class as well. The likelihood was high, as most students had to take his first- and second-semester Literature and Composition to meet their prerequisite. He should find another woman to date to push thoughts of Reagan out of his head, but he knew that wasn't the answer, either. He was determined not to let any woman get in his head and in the way of his future dreams, and trying another one night stand would only complicate the issue further. He was aiming for celibacy for the rest of the year at least so that he could focus and make a good impression.

When he arrived back to his apartment that afternoon, he pulled out the rest of the papers he had to grade and opened a soda while he sat at his kitchen island. The apartment he’d rented sight unseen was nice. He’d viewed it virtually online and spoken to the property manager about what he was looking for over the phone months before he actually had to move. It was furnished, and everything was in a modern and sleek style that he preferred. The kitchen was part of the living room, as apartment kitchens so often were, but he didn't mind. He wasn't planning on doing any entertaining anyway, though he might ask José over at least once in the spirit of friendship. He really ought to think about making more friends than just the one, but his mind would drift back to the idea that friends would cloud his mind and dedication much the way a woman could. He’d curbed much of his drinking, not that he was an alcoholic before, but he’d enjoyed a few beers after work previously. He wanted to be completely focused and dedicated on work and nothing else. He was even thinking of trying to befriend the dean, but he didn't want to come across as a brown-noser.

He was lonely, and that was the worst for someone like him. He needed companionship of some nature, and cutting himself off from the world for the notion that it would make him better at his job was starting to wear on him already. He'd been at UM for six weeks and he was going stir crazy. He shifted through the papers in front of him and found Reagan's, her precise handwriting standing out to him. As usual, she’d done an excellent job at understanding what was asked of her and of explaining the main theme and the undertones of the piece of literature on which the test was focused. He could tell she’d gotten high grades in high school and wondered not for the first time what her major was. He graded her paper quickly and stuck it in the bottom of the pile, pushing her out of his thoughts with a finality he didn't really feel.