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Office Hours
by Scarlett VaughnTwenty-three-year-old graduate student Emma has always been the perfect student—until Professor Ryan Cole makes her want to break every rule. He's her thesis advisor. He's married. He's twice her age. When she stays late for office hours one night, they both discover that some lessons can't be learned from books.
Length: 14 min
12 min
Chapter 1
The Beginning
I'm twenty-three years old, a first-year graduate student in economics, and I'm in love with my thesis advisor.
Professor Ryan Cole. Forty-six. Married. Brilliant. And completely, devastatingly off-limits.
I tell myself it's just admiration. Intellectual attraction. The kind of crush students get on charismatic professors—harmless, temporary, something I'll laugh about years from now.
But I know I'm lying.
Because when he looks at me during our weekly meetings, when his hand brushes mine as he hands back my papers, when he says my name in that low, careful voice—I don't feel like a student.
I feel like prey.
And the worst part? I want to be caught.
It started innocently enough.
I'd applied to the graduate program specifically to work with Professor Cole. His research on behavioral economics and decision-making under uncertainty was groundbreaking. His book on risk assessment had won awards. He was a legend in the field.
I didn't expect him to be gorgeous.
The first day of his seminar, I walked into the classroom and there he was—tall, lean, with salt-and-pepper hair that was more salt than pepper, sharp blue eyes behind wire-rimmed glasses, and a presence that commanded the room without effort.
He wore a wedding ring. I noticed that immediately. Told myself it didn't matter. That I was here for academics, not romance.
Then he started teaching, and I was lost.
"Ms. Hart, could you stay after class for a moment?"
My stomach flipped at his words. It was only the second week of the semester. Had I already done something wrong?
The other students filed out, and suddenly it was just the two of us in the empty classroom. He leaned against his desk, arms crossed, studying me.
"Your application essay," he said. "The one about risk aversion in financial markets. I wanted to discuss it with you."
"Oh. Okay." I clutched my notebook, hyperaware of how tall he was, how the late afternoon sun streaming through the windows made his eyes impossibly blue.
"It was exceptional. The kind of thinking I rarely see in graduate students." He pulled off his glasses, cleaning them absently. "I'd like you to consider working with me on my current research project. It would mean extra hours, late nights, but it would be invaluable experience."
"I—yes. Absolutely. Thank you, Professor Cole."
"Ryan." He smiled slightly. "When it's just us working, you can call me Ryan."
That should have been my first warning sign.
Our weekly meetings started that month. Every Thursday at 7 PM, after his last class, I'd come to his office and we'd discuss my thesis proposal, his research, economic theory.
But somewhere along the way, it stopped being just academic.
I started noticing things. The way his voice would roughen slightly when he said my name. The way his gaze would linger on my lips when I was ta...
About the Author
Scarlett Vaughn
Dr. Scarlett Vaughn has spent over two decades as a psychology professor specializing in human sexuality, teaching courses on desire, taboo, and the forbidden. Her academic research into what draws people to transgressive fantasies led her to write the stories her students whispered about but rarely saw represented with depth and nuance. Writing from her Boston brownstone near the university, Scarlett explores the psychological complexity of forbidden attraction—age gaps, authority dynamics, and step-family scenarios—always with an emphasis on consent, emotional truth, and the healing power of accepting your desires without shame.