Read Now
On His Terms
by Scarlett VaughnTwenty-two-year-old Leah needs one thing to get into her dream law school: a glowing letter of recommendation from her academic advisor. Forty-seven-year-old Professor Richard Hale has written hundreds of them. But when Leah arrives at his home office to discuss her application, he makes it clear that his most enthusiastic endorsements come with conditions. Private conditions. Some letters are written on his terms. All of them.
Length: 26 min
15 min
Chapter 1
PROLOGUE
I'm twenty-two years old, a senior at Whitmore University, and I'm about to do something I can't take back.
Professor Richard Hale's house sits at the end of a quiet cul-de-sac, three miles from campus. It's a craftsman-style home with a wraparound porch and a separate entrance to his home office—the one he uses for "private consultations" with his advisees.
I've heard rumors about those consultations. Whispers in the library about students who came to him desperate, who walked away with the kind of recommendation letters that open every door. Letters so glowing, so detailed, so personal that admissions committees couldn't say no.
No one ever talks about what they had to do to earn them.
But I know. Some part of me has always known.
And here I am anyway, walking up his driveway at 8 PM on a Thursday evening, my law school applications incomplete and my future hanging by a thread.
I need that letter. And Professor Hale is going to give it to me.
On his terms.
...
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.