Page 28 of Finley

Christ, how does she do that? Make me feel like a guilty kid in five seconds flat?“No.”

“No?”

He then gave her some of her own medicine by pinning her with his besttough lawyerface. “Is there something youthinkI want to tell you?”

She patted his chest. “I think there is, but that’s okay. Just remember how good I was when you first told me you were gay. You canalwaystalk to me, okay?”

“Okay…” he said, pushing aside the niggling thought that she knew more than she was letting on. There was no way. None.

“My Finn, you always have been a stubborn nut to crack.”

“Takes one to know one.”

“Well, this nut needs to run to the grocery store, so you better put some clothes on. Professor Hayes is waiting for you in the kitchen.”

As she walked back down the hall, he asked, “Did he say what he wanted?”

When she glanced back at him, she smiled. “Yep. You.”

This time, he knew the expression on his face had to match the jolt of shock that had his heart thumping, because she grinned and then winked.

“Better not keep him waiting, son.” Then she disappeared out the front door.

So, he wants me, does he? Huh.Then maybe it was time to give his professor exactly what he was waiting for.

BRANTLEY HAD HARDLY slepta wink after Daniel had left him the night before, and after speaking with Jordan about it at length, he’d plotted.

Well, he’d drunk copious amounts of wine and then devised a way that would guarantee that Daniel wouldn’t vanish the following morning—by showing up on his doorstep.

Seemed brilliant just a few minutes ago, but when Daniel had wandered out in his boxers and a white T-shirt, Brantley had been thankful Camille was standing on the other side of the kitchen counter. BecauseDaniel first thing out of bed and unkempt was too damn sexy for his own good.

Brantley was supposed to be thinking about how to get back into Daniel’s good graces, but when the man was standing there half-dressed,hell, it was all he could do not to chase him down the hall to his bedroom.

When the front door shut and the house plunged into silence, he knew Camille had left to go to Saturday morning shopping. He wondered briefly if Katrina was in the house also, but he wasn’t about to go and look. He was going to sit and wait for Daniel to come back out there, and then they would discuss, like the mature adults they were, what was happening between them.

He was dead set on that plan until Daniel strolled back into the kitchen dressed in long white linen pants and a forest-green polo shirt. He’d obviously mussed his hair with a product to make it stick out in a way that looked professionally styled, and for the first time Brantley noticed a strap of leather Daniel had fastened around his left wrist.That was sexy. So goddamn sexy.

“Do you make it a habit to visit your students’ homes, professor?”

He tracked Daniel across the kitchen as he went to the fridge, and then pointed out, “Ex-student.”

Daniel tilted his head toward him. “I was talking about my sister.” And then he opened the fridge and reached inside.

When he straightened and unscrewed the lid of the orange juice to take a sip, Brantley was mesmerized until Daniel lowered the container and ran the back of his hand over his mouth. Anything he had planned to talk about left his mind then, and instead, he went straight after the one thing he wanted most.

“Come and stay with me. One day, one week—I don’t care. Just say you’ll come and stay.”

Daniel placed the juice back in the fridge before bracing his hands on the counter. “All right. On one condition.”

Brantley was positive he would agree to just about anything, but he didn’t. He at leasttriedto keep some semblance of cool, and asked, “What’s that?”

“We both understand it’s for two weeks only. And no one’s going to be sleeping in the fucking spare room.”

The gravelly tone in which that statement was delivered in had been designed to tease and tantalize, because just that quickly, Brantley was aroused.

“Agreed?” Daniel asked.

“Just so we’re clear?—”