Nocticadia: A Dark Academia Gothic Romance

“And because I’m a selfish prick who has to live with the fact that I cannot have you to myself, I’m going to ruin you so that any boy who comes after me will leave you deeply unsatisfied, and you’ll be left fucking your own fingers, desperate to remember the time you had your professor’s face between your legs.”

“Please, Devryck. I want this.” Flares of mortification arrived in rapid fire, when I realized I’d just called him by his first name.

Clearly, he’d caught it, too, as he slowly lowered his hands and turned toward me. “Say that again.”

“I want th–”

“Not that.”

“Please … Devryck.”

“Yeah,” he whispered, still shifting on the bed. “Tha’s it.” The slight slur of his words told me he was still deep in sleep. “T’ch’me, Lilia.”

I froze. Heated tingles scattered over the back of my neck.

He was dreaming of me?

He turned his head away, and his stomach twitched, his hips grinding out a sensuous wave of unconscious pleasure. “J’slike that.”

“They give you a hard time?”

I bit my cheek to keep the repulsion from showing on my face, as Angelo came to mind. “One. He’s the only one who really scares me.”

“What’s his name?”

I stared down at two adorable boys with dark hair and copper eyes, one with a more prominent dimple on the left, the other more prominent on the right. “You’re identical,” I said, running my finger over the one I knew was Professor Bramwell, based only on his dimple.

“It’s called manifestation. And it actually works.”

“Yeah? What have you manifested?”

I quirked a brow. “Working in your lab.”

He groaned again, in disapproval. “Blackmail is hardly manifestation.”

“I like when you say my name.”

“Perhaps I manifested that kiss.”

We were rained in together. Alone. In the dungeon of the building.

I was going to be sleeping over with Professor Bramwell. Doctor Death.

Curious eyes seemed riveted on my lips, and he ran his thumb over their surface. Before I could gauge his next move, he leaned forward and pressed his lips to mine.