Professor's Pet
She knocked on the office door as dusk settled outside.
"Professor, I've written a new paper... I'd like you to read it."
The door cracked open, slanting light across half of his cool, composed profile. He should have refused—late night, female student, the desk lamp still burning; every element teetered on forbidden ground. Yet there she stood, her coat slightly open, a sliver of collarbone exposed, bearing a line of ink-black poetry:
**"You are the only reason I would ever cross the line."**
His breath caught.
"This paper," he said, voice rough, "requires an in-person review?"
She stepped forward, and the coat slipped to the floor—a silent surrender. "Didn't you always say—misplaced punctuation ruins everything?"
His gaze fixed on the poem’s end, where the final mark was missing. "Here," he swallowed, throat moving. "It's missing a comma."
"Then you add it."
Before the words faded, he had her pressed against the bookshelf. The kiss fell like a verdict, like absolution, like finally tearing up the fragile pretense of their three-year teacher-student facade. The folder crashed down, pages scattering like snowflakes; her hair tangled with his wristwatch, and his hand trembled as he placed the long-overdue comma at the end of that verse.
Outside, the entire campus sank into silence.
But within this small room, ethics crumbled, and desire ran rampant.
—This story shouldn’t have begun here.
Yet somehow, there was no turning back.