Chapter 1

1

In the four years he’d known Dr. Levi McCrea, Andrew had never once been to his home. Not for lack of trying. Oh, no, Andrew would have cut off his left nut to get an invitation into the inner sanctum. But not even McCrea’s grad assistant had that privilege. Andrew knew that for a fact. It had taken a night plying him with beer and talking his friend Charlotte into sleeping with the jerk for Andrew to find out that particular road was a dead end.

He knew the address, though. He’d hoarded it since his sophomore year at Berkeley. Dr. McCrea would probably shit if he knew Andrew had had it that long. In spite of how much he loved to wind the professor up in class, he’d never had quite enough nerve to try a visit around his house.

Until now.

Tomorrow was graduation. After tomorrow, Andrew Parish would be a graduate from UC-Berkeley with High Honors in Political Science, and Levi McCrea would just be one of the professors that had helped him excel. Nobody could say it was inappropriate for Andrew to seek him out beyond the university’s campus. Especially the good Dr. McCrea. He might try other arguments, but they were going to have to be damn good ones to stop Andrew now.

He stood on the doorstep of the modest bungalow and took a deep breath. He’d taken extra care with his appearance tonight, though in all honesty, he always took extra care when he knew he was going to see Levi. He wore low-riding jeans that highlighted his long legs and lean hips. His white shirt was open at the collar, the sleeves rolled up nearly to his elbow, exposing his tanned skin. A cut that morning had gotten rid of most of the blond tips in his hair, but enough remained to still give him the surfer look McCrea had razzed him about all year. When he’d checked the mirror before leaving, Andrew thought he looked good enough to pick up any guy he wanted.

Too bad the one that drove him craziest refused to acknowledge the chemistry between them. That was Andrew’s goal for the night. He hadn’t spent the last four years taking every course Levi taught, picking every possible fight in class with him that he could find, to have him deny the spark they had now.

The door opened before Andrew had the chance to ring the bell. Levi stood on the other side of the screen, a cup in one hand, a book in the other. His salt-and-pepper hair stood on end, as though he had spent most of the night running his fingers through it, and his hazel eyes were more brown than green in the fading June light. He always wore a tie and a jacket in class, but now he had on brown shorts and a blue Bruins T-shirt.

“The party isn’t here tonight, Mr. Parish.”

Andrew gave him a lazy smile. “That might be a matter of opinion.” Tilting his head, he deliberately swept his gaze downward, over the broad chest, along the flat stomach, lingering a few extra seconds on his hips before crawling back up again. The man might be close to forty, but he was more delicious than most men twenty years his junior. Every time Andrew saw him, he had to stifle the natural instinct to drop to his knees and dive for Levi’s cock. “I’m not interrupting anything, am I?”

“Just eating dinner and watching Nick at Nite. If I don’t invite you in, are you going to linger on my porch and disturb the peace?”

“Now would I do something like that?” They both knew he would. Andrew had once instigated a strike on campus over budget cuts that had resulted in more than one poli-sci major getting arrested. He’d only escaped the same fate when Levi had stepped in and defended him. Yet another reason Andrew was convinced there was something more there than Levi let on. “You don’t have to feed me if you let me in. Well. Not dinner anyway.”

Levi pushed the screen door open, allowing Andrew to enter. “I’m not going to feed you anything, but you can watch Cheerswith me, if you want. I would ask you how you found my address, but I don’t think I want to know.”

He held back his triumphant smile as he followed Levi into the cool house. One obstacle gone. The rest would be easy.

The décor was bachelor chic with a side of absentminded professor. Books lined two of the four walls of the room Levi led him into, with a third dominated by a massive entertainment center. Widescreen television, DVD player, stereo, rows upon rows of CDs, with Bose speakers strategically placed in the various corners.