Against the Rules by A.R. Barley Read Free Book Online

men out there who’d fall for the whole shy, sexy vibe the archivist had given off, but Ian wasn’t one of them. He preferred his men tall, blond and bratty.
    Kelly might fight him kicking and screaming every inch of the way, but when he finally had him pinned down against a bed...fuck, it would be worth it.
    “You were nice to him, right?” Marcy said. “Charlie just got out of a relationship, and you can be...”
    “An asshole?” Professor Sinclair sat down across from him. The tenured professor of economics was a bulky, brutish blowhard. He was a world-class expert on feudal economic systems, but that didn’t help students stay awake in class. His tray was light. He’d eschewed the fried chicken for a plate of greens from the salad bar and a hard-boiled egg.
    “New diet?” Ian asked.
    “My wife has me on this low-carb thing. She wants me to lose ten pounds by beach season.” Sinclair huffed. “Do you see any beaches around here?”
    “I meant rude,” Marcy corrected quickly. “You don’t mean it, but you can come off a little rude.” Her cheeks flushed. Clearly she hadn’t meant to be so blunt. “Students like you anyway. That’s the important part.”
    Ian shrugged. “They like anyone who turns their papers back on time and doesn’t read directly from the text.”
    Sinclair snorted.
    Marcy elbowed the esteemed professor in the side. “So, did you have a good time on Saturday night? Meet someone cute while you were out?”
    Cute
wasn’t exactly how Ian would describe Kelly. He’d choose words more like
devastatingly handsome
. If he were feeling poetic then he might call him Prince Charming, perfect with cheekbones sharp enough to cut glass.
    But definitely not
cute
.
    “I met someone at the club,” he finally said when it became clear the secretary wasn’t going to let him blow off the question.
    “Do you have anything in common?”
    Besides an interest in kinky sex? “Maybe.”
    “Will you see him again?”
    “Definitely.”
    “Good.” With that decided, Marcy started to dig into her lunch. She took a large bite of collard greens and smiled. “I hate to see you alone. You’ve been in town almost two years now. That’s long enough to find a boyfriend—or at least someone to help you get your rocks off. Nights can get awfully cold around here without someone. I don’t want to lose the best tenure candidate our department has just because you want to move back to the city.”
    It was nice to know where her loyalties lay. Ian bit his lip to keep from growling as he ate some chicken. The crust crackled and hot juices clung to his fingertips. It really was the best meal the cafeteria had put out in a while.
    Across the cafeteria a flash of color caught his eye—Jesse Cole in a mango-colored T-shirt, tucked in between his oversized boyfriend and Kelly.
    Ian let out a breath. It had been less than twenty-four hours since he’d seen him, but he’d been thinking about him off and on for most of the day, wondering what he was up to...if he was staying out of trouble...if he was safe.
    Sitting with his friends, Kelly looked good. His shoulders were free of tension. His gaze was sharp. His posture was military in its precision. The bruising from the previous Saturday was gone. There was a salad in front of him, but unlike Sinclair he’d taken the time to add in all sorts of brightly colored vegetables.
    “Kelly O’Connor.” Marcy’s gaze turned in the same direction. “Tragic story.”
    There was a conciliatory nod from everyone in hearing distance. Even Sinclair stopped stabbing at his lettuce.
    “The kid’s a fucking rock,” one of the English professors murmured from farther down the table.
    “After what happened to his mother...I heard President Aldridge tried to make him take the year off,” Marcy said.
    “I heard Aldridge offered him a job,” someone else said.
    “The kid deserves it. Kelly’s a fucking machine. Works in the housing department, does all kinds of