Chapter 6

The air in the private viewing room was thick, heavy with the scent of old velvet, polished wood, and the faint, metallic tang of the projector bulbs warming up. Above us, the massive dome ceiling was a canvas of projected constellations, swirling galaxies that stretched into infinity, but my world had narrowed down to the space beneath me and the weight of his body pressing me into the plush, dark carpet. We had escaped the main lecture hall, slipping away during the pause between presentations, and here we were, hidden in the shadows of the back exhibit, surrounded by models of planets and hanging mobiles of the solar system. He stood over me, a silhouette against the starlight, his shirt unbuttoned just enough to show the hollow of his throat. He had stripped off his jacket and tossed it onto a nearby display table, leaving him in just his slacks and a crisp white shirt. His eyes were dark, hungry, fixed on my mouth where I had been biting my lip to stifle the gasps that had been escaping me for the last ten minutes. He didn’t speak much, just watched, letting his gaze trace the line of my neck,