Master Class: An Alpha Billionaire Romance (+ Bonus Book 'Silent Daughter 1') by Linnea May

both of us changed into dry clothes, that he stood in front of me with that marvelous bare chest and that he gave me something of his to wear, and that I kept it and occasionally wear it as if we were a couple or something.
    I mean, nothing happened between us. We didn't kiss, we didn't even touch. Did we flirt? I most certainly didn't - but him? I'm not sure.
    "Yo, dreamy head!"
    Celia's voice violently pulls me out of my stream of thoughts. I look up and turn to her bed, where she's still tucked in beneath her massive amount of sheets and pillows. Her bed is so crowded with bedding, I always wondered how she manages to sleep in there at all.
    Her hair is ruffled and her eyes a nothing but narrow slits as she glances over to me.
    "Aren't you late for class?" She asks.
    I glance over to the alarm clock on my night stand and realize that she's right.
    "Crap!" I exclaim, jumping up from my bed.
    Celia chuckles as she rolls back over, turning her back to me and burying her face beneath the bed sheets.
    "What's wrong with you, man," her muffled voices asks from underneath the sheets. "You're lucky that your disturbing morning routine has conditioned me to be awake this early."
    I want to argue that it's close to 10am, which some people wouldn't even consider morning anymore, but I'm in too much of a hurry for that.
    I throw on my scarf and jacket, grab my satchel and storm across the campus. This has never happened to me before. How could I get so lost in thoughts that I actually forgot about class. His class!
    I'm one of the last people to enter the auditorium, and of course, there is no chance for me to take my usual seat in the third row this late. I'm left with a free seat at the far back of the hall. I've never sat this far back before and am surprised at how little everything appears from up here. I have to squint to see what is written on the board at the front.
    Why would anyone want to sit here voluntarily?
    However, a look around at my seatmates provides an answer to that. The guy sitting right next to me isn't even awake, he's lying bent-forward on his desk, curled up in his sweater and snoring noisily. I will have to wake him up when that attendance list makes its way around.
    Others in my proximity are glued to their phones or tablets, some even with laptops, scrolling through online shops or giggling over memes and cat videos. Even the magic and allure of Mr. Portland fails to reach every student sitting way up here.
    When he enters the auditorium and takes his position in front of the board, I see him glancing to the area where I would usually be sitting. He always does this, but I never realized how natural it has become for me. Even though we haven't been in a one-on-one conversation since that thunderstorm, I'd feel disappointed if he started treating me like any other student.
    His face changes when he realizes that I'm not in my usual seat. It gives me great satisfaction to see him furling his eyebrows and looking around, scanning the rows for me.
    A faint hint of relief emerges on his handsome face when his eyes finally lock onto mine, before he tilts his head to the side quizzically.
    I hunch my shoulders and cast him an apologetic smile. Sorry, I was late .
    He turns his attention back to the rest of the class and begins his lecture.
    This feels so natural. The self-evident way in which we make sure that the other one is around feels so right and normal - yet it is anything but that. There's a kind of connection and tension between us, triggered by that day we escaped to his office.
    He dismissed me abruptly and I left, taking not only his sweater with me, but a homework assignment I have yet to turn in.
    He is waiting for me to come back to him. Obviously, he is. But I can't come back until I have an answer, until I have done the homework I was assigned to do.
    I spent too much time pushing him and the ideas he put in my head away.
    But that is going to change going forward.

CHAPTER TEN
JACKSON
    W alking