~Elena's POV~

"What do you mean footage?" My hands freeze on my sweater. "There are cameras in your office?"

"In the hallway, pointed at the door. They'll see you going in. Coming out forty minutes later. Hair messed up, your skirt..."

"Fuck." The word slip out of my lips. "Who requested it?"

His phone rings again. He reads, and his expression turns dark. "The ethics committee, someone filed a formal complaint."

We both know who.

I wear my sweater over my head. "What happens now?"

"Now?" He laughs, bitter. "Now I get called in front of the committee. Probably suspended and if they push hard enough maybe I'll get fired."

"For what? We're both adults..."

"I'm your professor, Elena. In their eyes, one person naturally has more power than the other.

It doesn't matter that Friday happened first. Doesn't matter that you initiated it on Tuesday." He walks around worried with his hand through his hair. "This looks really bad."

"So we tell them the truth, we met on Friday and we didn't know..."

"And they'll ask what happened after. In my office." He stops, faces me. "Can you look them in the eye and lie? Say nothing physical happened?"

I think about his fingers inside me, his mouth on mine and the papers we scattered.

"No."

"Then I'm fucked." The hard truth sinks in

My phone rings. Email notification.

*ETHICS COMMITTEE SUMMONS: Your presence is required Monday, 10 AM. Re: Complaint #2847 - Inappropriate conduct with faculty member.*

"They're calling me in too, Monday morning."

"Don't go."

"What?"

"You're the student, you can honestly say you didn't know" He moves closer,clearly in a hurry. "Say you were discussing grades, that I made you uncomfortable but nothing physical happened. Say the complaint is from your ex trying to cause trouble."

"And get you in trouble?"

"Better one of us gets out of this than none of us."

"That's not..."

"Elena." He grabs my shoulders. "I'm forty-three years old and I've been teaching for fifteen years, I knew better. You're twenty-four with your whole career ahead of you, let me take the blame."

I stare at him, at the man who's been inside me twice. Who paid me a thousand euros tonight for breaking his own rules.

"No."

"This isn't up for discussion..."

"I said no." I step back. "I'm not lying to save myself while you lose everything."

"Then we both lose everything."

"Maybe." I grab my bag. "But at least we go down honestly."

I'm at the door when he speaks again.

"There's a third option."

I turn.

"I confess everything and take full responsibility. Say I came after you and I made it impossible for you to refuse. They'll ruin me but you'll walk away clean."

"That's not what happened..."

"It's what I'll say happened."

"Mateo..."

"Go home, Elena." He's already pulling out his phone. "I'll handle this."

I don't go home. I go to three different bars, I drink enough not to think clearly and I end up outside his apartment at midnight because apparently I'm incapable of making smart decisions.

I pull on my sweater, trying to put myself together. The thought of him, of every touch, every look, every dark heat of that room, clings to my skin. Goosebumps rise again.

I hammer on his door.

He opens it shirtless, he looked angry all over. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"You don't get to act like the victim." I push past him and walk inside. "You don't get to decide my future without asking me."

"I'm trying to protect you..."

"I don't need protection. I need..." The words stick. "I need you to stop treating me like some naive student who can't handle consequences."

"You are my student..."

"I'm a woman who wanted you before I knew who you were. Who wants you now even though it's crazily impossible." I'm in his space now, close enough to see his pupils pop out. "And you want me too, stop pretending this is one-sided."

"It doesn't matter what I want."

"Doesn't it?" I reach for his belt. "Then why are you hard right now?"

He catches my wrist. "Elena. Stop."

"Make me."

He turns me around, presses me against the wall. His body is stong behind mine, his mouth at my ear.

"You want honesty? Fine." His hand slides under my shirt, palming my breast roughly. "I've thought about fucking you every single day since Friday. 

In my office, in my classroom. Bent over that stool in my studio." His other hand works my jeans open. "I think about it when I'm supposed to be grading papers. When I'm in faculty meetings, when I touch myself at night."

His fingers slide into my underwear, fingers me soaked.

"So yes, Elena. I want you. And it's going to destroy us both."

I'm about to respond when his phone rings on the coffee table.

The screen lights up. Dean Morrison.

We both freeze.

"It's eleven PM," I whisper. "Why is the dean calling?"

Mateo's hand is still between my legs when he grabs the phone.

"Professor Sandoval." A pause, his face drains of color. "Yes, I understand. When did you..." Another pause. "The studio keys. I can explain..."

He looks at me, and I see the exact moment he realizes we're truly fucked.

"They found the studio."​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

I nod, I realize this isn't just about us anymore. There are consequences, real ones and I might already be caught in them.

~Elena's POV~

"The studio keys were in my desk drawer." Mateo's voice is flat, dead. "Campus security inventoried my office this afternoon."

My back is still against his wall, jeans unbuttoned, his hand print visible on my hip. The dean's voice continues through the phone speaker, sharp and authoritative.

"I need you on campus within the hour, Professor Sandoval. This cannot wait until morning."

"I understand. I'll be there in thirty minutes."

He ends the call. Silence crushes down between us.

"They know about the studio." I'm still trying to process. "They'll connect me to it. The payments..."

"I used cash. There's no paper trail to you." He runs both hands through his hair. "I'll tell them it's for personal projects. Private figure studies unrelated to university work."

"They won't believe that."

"They don't need to believe it. They need to prove it." He's already moving, grabbing a shirt from his closet. "You need to leave. Before anyone sees you here."

"I'm coming with you."

"Absolutely not."

"Mateo..."

"Professor Sandoval." He yanks the shirt on. "From this moment forward, we don't know each other beyond classroom interaction. You were never in my studio. Tonight never happened."

Something hot and sharp twists in my chest. "You're cutting me loose?"

"I'm protecting you."

"By pretending I don't exist?" I button my jeans with shaking hands. "By taking all the blame for something we both chose?"

"Yes."

The single word detonates between us.

"Fuck that." I get in his face. "And fuck you for deciding my future without asking me."

His jaw tightens. "Elena..."

"I'm going to that meeting. I'm telling them everything."

"No, you're not."

"Watch me."

He grabs my wrist, stops me from reaching for my bag. "You walk into that building with me, you lose everything. Your degree, your career, your family's respect. I won't let you do that."

"You don't get to let me do anything." I try to twist free. His grip tightens. "Let go."

"Not until you listen..."

"I said let go."

He doesn't. We are locked together, his hand around my wrist. His eyes are wild, desperate.

"Please." The word breaks out of him. "Please, Elena. Just go home. Let me handle this."

"Why? So you can play martyr? So you can pretend you corrupted some innocent student?" I lean in, voice dropping. "I'm not innocent. I wanted you in that bar. I wanted you in your office. I wanted you an hour ago when I came here."

His breathing changes. Roughens.

"And I want you now," I finish.

"You're not thinking clearly..."

I kiss him.

He resists for maybe two seconds. Then he's kissing me back, hard and angry and desperate. 

His hand releases my wrist to fist in my hair, angling my head back. I bite his bottom lip and he groans into my mouth.

"This is a mistake," he breathes between kisses.

"We're already fucked anyway."

He spins me, presses me against the wall beside his front door. My shirt is gone in seconds. His mouth is on my neck, teeth scraping.

"We shouldn't..."

"Shut up." I'm working his belt open, shoving his pants down. "If they're going to crucify us, at least make it worth it."

He lifts me. I wrap my legs around his waist. No patience. He shoves into me in one brutal thrust and I cry out.

"Too much?"

"More."

He fucks me against the wall with nothing gentle about it. It's angry and raw and exactly what we both need. His fingers dig into my thighs hard enough to bruise. I rake my nails down his back through his shirt.

"Look at me," he demands.

I do. His eyes are black, pupils blown wide.

"I love you." The words punch out of him between thrusts. "I've tried not to. I've tried to keep my distance. But I love you, and tomorrow they're going to destroy me for it."

The confession breaks something open in my chest. I cup his face, kiss him softer than the way we're fucking.

"Then let them destroy us together."

He comes with my name on his lips. I follow seconds after, biting his shoulder to muffle my sounds.

Afterward, we stay pressed together, breathing hard. His forehead rests against mine.

"I have to go," he says quietly.

"I know."

"Alone."

"I know."

He sets me down carefully. We dress in silence, both knowing this changes nothing and everything.

I'm reaching for my bag when a door opens down the hallway.

We both freeze.

Dr. Torres, the distinguished philosophy professor, university board member, Mateo's neighbor, he stands in his doorway in a bathrobe. His expression is carefully neutral, but his eyes are sharp.

"Professor Sandoval." His gaze shifts to me, recognition dawning. "And Miss Vega, I believe? From the quantum physics program?"

My mouth goes dry.

"Quite the heated discussion you were having." Torres steps fully into the hallway. "These walls are thinner than they appear."

Mateo moves slightly in front of me. "Dr. Torres..."

"How much did you hear?" I cut in.

Torres adjusts his glasses. "Enough to understand this is highly inappropriate. Enough to know I have an ethical obligation to report what I've overheard." 

He pauses. "Unless, of course, there's an explanation that doesn't involve a professor engaging in a sexual relationship with his student."​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​