I’m In Love With My Brother’s Best Friend?! – Episode 10
The lecture hall quieted as Cole took his place behind the lectern. At home, Kaitlyn had seen him teasing, worried, furious, and painfully uncertain. In front of the class he became someone else—confident, controlled, and unquestionably in command.
He introduced himself and explained that he would serve as Professor Calloway’s teaching assistant for the semester. A wave of whispers moved through the room as students assessed the famous graduate scholar for themselves. Kaitlyn sank lower in her seat and silently begged him to treat her like every other student. After one morning of awkwardness, anonymity seemed like the last protection available to them.
Cole lifted the attendance sheet. He read several names, but his awareness remained fixed on Kaitlyn. When he finally said “Kaitlyn Sinclair,” it came too soon and with too much familiarity.
She answered softly. Their eyes met, and the quiet morning in the apartment flashed between them: damp hair, a hot drink, fingers brushing. Beneath that memory waited the kiss they were both determined to deny. Both looked away before the class could read what passed across their faces.
Sammy frowned beside Kaitlyn. The names were not being called alphabetically, she observed. Kaitlyn invented a weak excuse about Cole having his own system, while at the front of the room he silently condemned himself for being so obvious.
Trying to transform his mistake into something ordinary, Cole asked Kaitlyn to help distribute the syllabus. Every face turned toward her. She walked to the front with a pulse that seemed loud enough for the nearest row to hear.
When Cole handed her the papers, Kaitlyn whispered a demand to know what he was doing. He maintained a professional smile and asked what she meant, though the tension at the corner of his mouth betrayed him. Their fingers carefully avoided contact this time, an effort more conspicuous to Kaitlyn than another accidental touch would have been. She reminded him that he had never said he was a teaching assistant.
Cole replied that she had never said she was taking the course. Their hushed exchange carried the energy of an argument far too personal for two people who supposedly had just met. Sammy watched from her seat with increasing curiosity.
The classroom door opened before either could say more. Professor Calloway entered with a leather briefcase and welcomed the class to Business Ethics 401. Kaitlyn moved aside, hoping she could return to her seat unnoticed.
Professor Calloway introduced Cole with obvious pride. He informed the students that Mr. Hart remained the only person in the course’s history to earn a perfect score. The announcement produced impressed murmurs and made Kaitlyn smile despite herself. Around her, admiration intensified, and she became abruptly conscious that many women in the room wanted the man she had kissed.
Of course Cole had achieved the impossible. He had always made excellence appear effortless, whether protecting her on a childhood swing or mastering the hardest course at the university. She wondered if resisting her was the first challenge he could not solve by working harder.
Professor Calloway’s attention settled on her before she escaped. He asked her name, then instructed her to face the class. Confused but unwilling to object on her first day, Kaitlyn obeyed.
The professor turned to Cole and asked him to identify what was wrong with Ms. Sinclair. The phrasing startled them both. A classroom exercise should have been simple, yet the question reached directly into the conflict Cole had carried since she entered his apartment. He hesitated, unsure whether this was an exercise, a test, or some elaborate punishment designed by fate.
“Perhaps you need a closer look,” Professor Calloway suggested. He motioned Kaitlyn nearer. A few students laughed, while others leaned forward with interest.
Cole descended from the platform until only a small distance separated them. Kaitlyn raised her eyes to his and felt the rest of the lecture hall disappear. The last time they had stood this close, he had kissed her. Now he was required to study her under thirty curious gazes while behaving as though he knew nothing about the taste of her mouth.
He forced himself to examine her as the exercise required. Instead, he noticed the tiny freckles across her nose, the nervous pressure of her teeth against her lower lip, and the green eyes that had followed him into his thoughts all morning. None of those details answered the professor’s question.
What was wrong with Kaitlyn Sinclair? She was beautiful enough to dismantle his concentration. She trusted him enough to make his restraint feel like cruelty. She was his best friend’s sister, his roommate, his student, and the most dangerous person he had ever wanted.
Professor Calloway repeated the question. The room waited. Kaitlyn saw Cole’s professional mask falter and wondered whether he would expose them with a single careless answer.
“Nothing,” Cole said at last, the word escaping before judgment could intervene. His gaze remained on hers. “She’s absolutely perfect.”
The class reacted with startled laughter and whispers, while Kaitlyn’s breath caught. Sammy’s surprised expression promised questions the moment they returned to their seats. Cole realized too late what he had admitted in front of everyone. Professor Calloway glanced pointedly toward her skirt, revealing the mundane flaw the exercise was meant to address—but thirty students had already heard Cole Hart call Kaitlyn Sinclair perfect, and there was no professional way to take the words back.