Chapter 3
Aaron decided to ask Connor to stay after class. As he walked along toward his morning class the next day (he was teaching five classes, including three History courses), he felt a hand on his arm. “Hey, Aaron!” a light voice said merrily. “Hold up! I’ve been looking for you!”
He stopped with a smile to greet his old friend Victoria Madder, who was also a fledgling professor. They’d been ‘friends with benefits’ for several years now, hooking up occasionally when they weren’t dating anyone else. Her red smile was faintly lascivious as she spoke in a low voice: “Aaron, I’d love it if you came to my apartment tonight. We could make some popcorn, watch a movie, fuck…”
Normally he would have agreed to this program readily, since he wasn’t dating anyone right now. But the moment she said anything his mind flashed to an image of Connor’s face. But he wasn’t dating his student, so sleeping with Victoria wouldn’t be cheating on him. And maybe this would help with his sexual frustrations. “I don’t know,” he began uncertainly, not sure what to do.
She grinned. “Maybe this will help you figure it out,” she purred, just before she kissed him right then and there.
Aaron’s mouth had been open to speak, so her tongue easily entered it. She was aggressive, taking him by storm. This was her normal mode of behavior, and usually he’d be thoroughly enjoying it. But this time it was different. He wasn’t really returning the kiss at all, and where his body would have been stirring pleasantly during a kiss like this from a pretty girl like Victoria, now it was stubbornly uninterested. Worse, he felt vaguely guilty, like he was doing something wrong. He had the urge to push her away.
But she broke it off before he could, smiling into his eyes. “That was just a taste, lover,” she told him. “You’ll get more where that came from if you come over to my place tonight.”
He cleared his throat a bit. “I’m sorry, Vicky, but I can’t,” he replied ruefully. And he really couldn’t. If he went over to her apartment and couldn’t even get it up, she’d want to know why. And that was a question he couldn’t answer just yet. “I’m swamped with papers that have to be graded this week. I have to buckle down tonight whether I like it or not.”
She grimaced. “Geez, that sucks. Real life isn’t all that fun, is it? College was easier, in spite of all the studying we did.”
“Yeah, it can be hard,” Aaron agreed. “Look, I’m really sorry. Do you want to eat lunch with me today? Best I can offer.”
“Sure, why not? I’ll meet you in the cafeteria at noon. Bye, Aaron!” she cried, wiggling her fingers at him before she hurried off briskly to her next class.
“Bye,” he called after her. Then he shook himself a bit and turned to start toward his first morning class.
But he was brought up short by what he saw behind him – a lone figure standing still in the bustling crowd of students moving around campus. A pair of startling grey eyes flecked with gold and green were staring at him with a wounded, devastated look in them. Aaron felt his stomach lurch, his guts clenching. “Connor,” he said, and the boy flinched when he heard Aaron’s voice. He whirled around and ran off, making the professor call after him. But Connor didn’t look back, not once.
Aaron got through his morning class, feeling decidedly morose and distracted. He kept thinking about what Connor had seen earlier between him and Victoria. He shouldn’t be feeling guilty – he and Connor weren’t together. But he was. The expression in those startling eyes kept coming back to haunt him. Connor had looked like someone had stabbed him in the gut. The expression of betrayal in those amazing eyes made Aaron feel rather sick just to think about it. No matter how many times he told himself that he hadn’t done anything wrong, he couldn’t get his brain to actually believe that.
He trailed off to get some work done in his office after class. Sitting in his chair, he stared blindly at the screen of his laptop. What should he do? Apologize? For what, exactly? He hadn’t made any promises at all to Connor. Nor could he make any now, despite the dreams he’d been having and his non-existent response to Victoria’s kiss. He just wasn’t ready to make a decision about Connor. But he’d have to say something, to try to make it right if he could. Otherwise he’d be haunted by the look on Connor’s face.
He was quiet at lunch. Victoria chattered away at him while he played with his food. Finally she stopped and gave him an exasperated look. “Aaron, what the heck is wrong with you today? Are you even on planet Earth right now?”
He blinked, coming back to himself. “Oh, sorry,” he said apologetically. “I’ve just got something on my mind.”
“What? Is it something good?” she asked.
He sighed. “Not exactly,” he replied glumly.
Her brows lifted slightly. “Want to talk about it?”
Aaron shook his head. “No, I really, really don’t,” he said.
Victoria frowned. “Okkaayy,” she replied. “But if you ever need a sympathetic ear…”
He conjured up a smile. “Thanks, Vicky. I’ll keep that in mind. Thanks for being a friend.”
Her face softened. “Sure thing, Aaron. You know I’m always here for you. Except…” she consulted her watch, “Not right now. I have to bolt. Call me if you need to talk,” she departed in her usual rush, leaving him sitting at the table staring at his half-eaten turkey sandwich.
Aaron entered World History 101 almost hesitantly. His eyes tracked over the students in the tiers, looking for Connor’s familiar figure. At first he thought that the younger man hadn’t come to class, and his stomach clenched inside of him. But then he saw the head of inky black curls, bent over an open textbook. He sighed in relief, setting his bag on the desk at the front of the classroom.
“Good afternoon, everybody,” he said. “Would you all turn in your essays now?”
The students began to come down off the tiers to put their essays on the growing pile on the desktop. Aaron watched them, although mostly he was waiting for Connor to come down so that he could try to talk to the boy. Finally Connor came up to the desk, but he refused to meet Aaron’s eyes. He set his essay down and turned away, his shoulders rigid.
Aaron started to reach out to touch his arm, but finally pulled his hand back. He watched as Connor walked back to his seat without turning around or looking back at Aaron. He sat down and bent over his book once more. The older man sighed and pulled himself together. He still had a class to teach, after all; he’d try to talk to Connor afterward if he could.
He began his lecture, occasionally writing on the board. His eyes darted up to where Connor sat every five minutes or so, but the boy didn’t once look up at him. He seemed to be taking notes, but Aaron could see that his mouth was tight and his brows were lowered. The professor wished desperately that the class was over –and then it was, and he wished that it weren’t. As the students began to file out of the room, he took a deep breath and moved to intercept Connor before the younger man could flee the class room.
“Connor, please wait,” he said, touching the student’s arm. “I need to talk to you about something.”
Connor stopped, but still refused to look at him. “What is it, Professor Birkhalt?” he asked, his voice cold and formal. “I have to get to my next class.”
Aaron winced, but knew that he deserved that. He waited until the last of the other students had left, then said: “Connor, I know you saw me and my friend Victoria kissing this morning. I won’t lie to you – she and I have had sex before this once in awhile. We don’t date, we’re just friends who meet each others’ needs sometimes. She invited me over to her apartment tonight…”
Connor stiffened. “That’s good,” he growled. “I wouldn’t want you to go without, PROFESSOR.”
“Connor!” he shook the arm he still held a little. “Stop it! First of all, even if I wanted to sleep with Vicky it's none of your business. We’re not together,” he reminded the younger man sharply.
The blazing grey eyes whipped around to glare into his. “You’re right,” Connor hissed. “We’re not. And we never will be, I guess. Now let go of me, I’m going to my next class!”
Aaron felt a mixture of anger and the need to comfort the obviously badly hurt young man well up inside of him. Instead of letting go of Connor’s arm, he grabbed the other one. Then he pulled his student closer, as Connor began to struggle against his hold. Aaron knew he shouldn’t be doing this, but he’d been goaded beyond reason. And those pink lips, open as Connor panted, were just too damn tempting. So he closed his own mouth over them, and Connor stiffened as he found himself being kissed by his soul mate. Then the younger man went rather limp in his hold, moaning as he tried to crowd himself closer to Aaron.
Aaron stopped gripping Connor’s arms and put his own around that slim body instead. God, those pink lips were sweet! Their bodies seemed to fit together perfectly, like two matching puzzle pieces. And now, unlike this morning, his penis was as hard as it could get. It was pressing against Connor’s belly as their tongues began to mate. Jesus, he wanted to push his student to the floor and have sex with him right here on the classroom floor. Never mind that he’d never been with a man. They’d figure it out, right? Somehow…
But cold reality rushed through him when a stray thought went through his head. This classroom would be filling up with students in less than twenty minutes. They could not walk in on the two of them making out – or doing something even worse. So he forced himself to pull away, but it was so hard…so very, very hard! He looked into Connor’s dazed eyes. “I-I’m sorry, Connor,” he husked. “We can’t do this right now. People will be coming in here at any moment.”
The younger man blinked, coming back to earth a little. “Oh,” he said. “Ummm…”
Aaron sighed. “Come with me to my office,” he told Connor. “I think we need to talk.”
****
Aaron led Connor into his office and indicated that the student should shut the door behind them. “Please sit down,” he said courteously, pointing at the chair sitting in front of his small desk. “So we can talk.”
Connor silently slipped into the chair, looking at him across the desktop as Aaron took his own chair. The professor sighed, rubbing at his face with one hand. “First of all,” he began, “I’m really sorry that I kissed you just now, Connor…”
“I’m not sorry you did it!” the student burst out angrily. “At all!”
Aaron held up a pacifying hand. “That’s not what I meant,” he protested as Connor glared at him. “I’m not sorry about kissing you, I’m sorry that I did so rather than talking to you about why you were upset. I’m afraid I just got angry and acted without thinking.”
“Oh,” Connor looked at him warily. “What did you want to tell me?” he asked, his body stiffening as he waited for rejection.
Aaron smiled crookedly. “It’s about Victoria. First of all, she initiated that kiss, not me. Second, when she asked me to come over to her place tonight, I turned her down,” he added.
Connor’s beautiful eyes it up with excitement and relief. “You did?!” he exclaimed.
Aaron sighed. “Yes,” he replied. “I did. Because…when she kissed me, I didn’t feel anything at all. No desire, nothing. Unlike when I kissed you in the classroom a few minutes ago…” he went on ruefully, “When I felt plenty. And I’ve slept with Vicky before this. I just don’t understand my lack of reaction to her.”
Connor shook his head. “You met me,” he told Aaron. That’s the difference. Now you want me and nobody else.”
Aaron looked rather alarmed. “Are you serious?” he demanded in disbelief.
The younger man looked rather triumphant, not quite hiding a smirk. “Yes. I’ve never wanted anyone but you Aaron. Ever. It’s part of the whole deal of being soul mates. Why would we ever want or need anyone else but the one we were destined to be with? The person that completes us, makes us whole?”
That made sense, although it also made Aaron feel even more uneasy – and rather depressed, as well. Now he wouldn’t be able to find any relief from those steamy dreams until he could finally accept Connor. He sighed. “Connor, I have to tell you something,” he began gravely.
“What is it?” Connor’s expressive eyes studied his face intently.
“I’ve been…having these dreams, lately. Dreams about you,” he added. “And all of them have been pretty explicit. By that I mean porn movie explicit.”
The younger man stared at him, then grinned. “Oh,” he said in understanding. “THOSE kind of dreams. Yeah, I have those all the time.”
Aaron blinked. “You do? How do you deal with them?” he asked.
Connor snorted. “How else? I jerk off a lot,” he said rather glumly.
Aaron winced. He’d hoped that his student could provide him with some ideas about how to live with these steamy dreams, but apparently Connor always did what he was doing already. “Okay,” he said, accepting the inevitable. “I’d also like to ask you about this past life you said that you remember us living. The one where you said that I was burned as a witch. What can you tell me about it?”
“Lots,” Connor replied promptly. “I get dreams about that life all the time. I was this lord guy, although I wasn’t very rich or powerful. You were my wife. We lived in Germany – or the place that would be Germany later on, I guess,” he went on. “We both worked hard for our people, and you grew herbs and used them to help sick people. You were really pretty…”
Aaron wanted to laugh at this statement, although he was enthralled by the rest of the story. “You had these long blonde braids, and when you let your hair down it nearly swept the floor. We had a bunch of kids together, although two of them died when they were young. You were really sad when that happened – you had the biggest heart – and when other people lost children you’d always go and console them. We were really happy. But then somebody got jealous, I guess, and they turned you into the Church as a witch because of the herbs you worked with. I tried to get them to release you, but nobody would listen. You had this horrible trial, and they condemned you over all of this stupid stuff."
"They even had all these witnesses who said that they’d seen you doing evil things like having sex with a demon at the crossroads at midnight…what the heck they were doing out at midnight when they had to get up at dawn to work…it was all bullshit. They shaved of all your beautiful hair, and said they were going to burn you in the town square. I couldn’t do anything. When I went to see you, you told me that I shouldn’t protest too much because we had daughters who might end up with the same fate if I did. You would do anything to save them. Then you told me that you loved me, and that you always would. You kissed me and said that we’d meet again, maybe in Heaven. You were so sure of this fact that it helped me a little. Then they dragged you away and burned you, and I’ll never forget watching as you died…”
He was trembling little, tears in his eyes. Aaron reached across his desktop and firmly gripped Connor’s hand with his own. “It’s all right, Connor,” he said gently. “It’s over. I’m here.”
“Yes,” the boy gasped, clutching at his hand as though it were a lifeline. “Aaron…Aaron, I love you.”
He twitched when real Connor echoed what dream-Connor had said to him. It wasn’t that he didn’t believe Connor; this was all just a little much to take in and accept right now. The younger man saw his movement and sniffed. “I’m sorry,” he husked. “I shouldn’t have said that.”
“No, it's okay,” he replied. “I’m just…still not quite used to all this, Connor.”
“I know. And I said I’d wait until you were ready. I meant that. I won’t say it again until you can say it back, I promise.”
“Thank you,” Aaron said quietly. “I appreciate your patience, Connor.”
The student smiled wryly. “I’ve waited centuries to see you again,” he said simply. “What's a little more time compared to that?”
****
Aaron sent Connor away at last, and the younger man left his office looking reassured and happier. Aaron didn’t try to kiss him again – much as he would have liked to. Kissing Connor was a bad idea right now. It would inevitably lead to other things, things he wasn’t yet ready for. He sat back in his chair and rubbed at his forehead, feeling a headache developing. It had been a tense, miserable morning. He was discovering that anything that upset Connor Herlihy also greatly upset him as well. From now on, he’d have to work to make sure that he didn’t do anything that upset Connor.
Go to Next Chapter
Aaron decided to ask Connor to stay after class. As he walked along toward his morning class the next day (he was teaching five classes, including three History courses), he felt a hand on his arm. “Hey, Aaron!” a light voice said merrily. “Hold up! I’ve been looking for you!”
He stopped with a smile to greet his old friend Victoria Madder, who was also a fledgling professor. They’d been ‘friends with benefits’ for several years now, hooking up occasionally when they weren’t dating anyone else. Her red smile was faintly lascivious as she spoke in a low voice: “Aaron, I’d love it if you came to my apartment tonight. We could make some popcorn, watch a movie, fuck…”
Normally he would have agreed to this program readily, since he wasn’t dating anyone right now. But the moment she said anything his mind flashed to an image of Connor’s face. But he wasn’t dating his student, so sleeping with Victoria wouldn’t be cheating on him. And maybe this would help with his sexual frustrations. “I don’t know,” he began uncertainly, not sure what to do.
She grinned. “Maybe this will help you figure it out,” she purred, just before she kissed him right then and there.
Aaron’s mouth had been open to speak, so her tongue easily entered it. She was aggressive, taking him by storm. This was her normal mode of behavior, and usually he’d be thoroughly enjoying it. But this time it was different. He wasn’t really returning the kiss at all, and where his body would have been stirring pleasantly during a kiss like this from a pretty girl like Victoria, now it was stubbornly uninterested. Worse, he felt vaguely guilty, like he was doing something wrong. He had the urge to push her away.
But she broke it off before he could, smiling into his eyes. “That was just a taste, lover,” she told him. “You’ll get more where that came from if you come over to my place tonight.”
He cleared his throat a bit. “I’m sorry, Vicky, but I can’t,” he replied ruefully. And he really couldn’t. If he went over to her apartment and couldn’t even get it up, she’d want to know why. And that was a question he couldn’t answer just yet. “I’m swamped with papers that have to be graded this week. I have to buckle down tonight whether I like it or not.”
She grimaced. “Geez, that sucks. Real life isn’t all that fun, is it? College was easier, in spite of all the studying we did.”
“Yeah, it can be hard,” Aaron agreed. “Look, I’m really sorry. Do you want to eat lunch with me today? Best I can offer.”
“Sure, why not? I’ll meet you in the cafeteria at noon. Bye, Aaron!” she cried, wiggling her fingers at him before she hurried off briskly to her next class.
“Bye,” he called after her. Then he shook himself a bit and turned to start toward his first morning class.
But he was brought up short by what he saw behind him – a lone figure standing still in the bustling crowd of students moving around campus. A pair of startling grey eyes flecked with gold and green were staring at him with a wounded, devastated look in them. Aaron felt his stomach lurch, his guts clenching. “Connor,” he said, and the boy flinched when he heard Aaron’s voice. He whirled around and ran off, making the professor call after him. But Connor didn’t look back, not once.
Aaron got through his morning class, feeling decidedly morose and distracted. He kept thinking about what Connor had seen earlier between him and Victoria. He shouldn’t be feeling guilty – he and Connor weren’t together. But he was. The expression in those startling eyes kept coming back to haunt him. Connor had looked like someone had stabbed him in the gut. The expression of betrayal in those amazing eyes made Aaron feel rather sick just to think about it. No matter how many times he told himself that he hadn’t done anything wrong, he couldn’t get his brain to actually believe that.
He trailed off to get some work done in his office after class. Sitting in his chair, he stared blindly at the screen of his laptop. What should he do? Apologize? For what, exactly? He hadn’t made any promises at all to Connor. Nor could he make any now, despite the dreams he’d been having and his non-existent response to Victoria’s kiss. He just wasn’t ready to make a decision about Connor. But he’d have to say something, to try to make it right if he could. Otherwise he’d be haunted by the look on Connor’s face.
He was quiet at lunch. Victoria chattered away at him while he played with his food. Finally she stopped and gave him an exasperated look. “Aaron, what the heck is wrong with you today? Are you even on planet Earth right now?”
He blinked, coming back to himself. “Oh, sorry,” he said apologetically. “I’ve just got something on my mind.”
“What? Is it something good?” she asked.
He sighed. “Not exactly,” he replied glumly.
Her brows lifted slightly. “Want to talk about it?”
Aaron shook his head. “No, I really, really don’t,” he said.
Victoria frowned. “Okkaayy,” she replied. “But if you ever need a sympathetic ear…”
He conjured up a smile. “Thanks, Vicky. I’ll keep that in mind. Thanks for being a friend.”
Her face softened. “Sure thing, Aaron. You know I’m always here for you. Except…” she consulted her watch, “Not right now. I have to bolt. Call me if you need to talk,” she departed in her usual rush, leaving him sitting at the table staring at his half-eaten turkey sandwich.
Aaron entered World History 101 almost hesitantly. His eyes tracked over the students in the tiers, looking for Connor’s familiar figure. At first he thought that the younger man hadn’t come to class, and his stomach clenched inside of him. But then he saw the head of inky black curls, bent over an open textbook. He sighed in relief, setting his bag on the desk at the front of the classroom.
“Good afternoon, everybody,” he said. “Would you all turn in your essays now?”
The students began to come down off the tiers to put their essays on the growing pile on the desktop. Aaron watched them, although mostly he was waiting for Connor to come down so that he could try to talk to the boy. Finally Connor came up to the desk, but he refused to meet Aaron’s eyes. He set his essay down and turned away, his shoulders rigid.
Aaron started to reach out to touch his arm, but finally pulled his hand back. He watched as Connor walked back to his seat without turning around or looking back at Aaron. He sat down and bent over his book once more. The older man sighed and pulled himself together. He still had a class to teach, after all; he’d try to talk to Connor afterward if he could.
He began his lecture, occasionally writing on the board. His eyes darted up to where Connor sat every five minutes or so, but the boy didn’t once look up at him. He seemed to be taking notes, but Aaron could see that his mouth was tight and his brows were lowered. The professor wished desperately that the class was over –and then it was, and he wished that it weren’t. As the students began to file out of the room, he took a deep breath and moved to intercept Connor before the younger man could flee the class room.
“Connor, please wait,” he said, touching the student’s arm. “I need to talk to you about something.”
Connor stopped, but still refused to look at him. “What is it, Professor Birkhalt?” he asked, his voice cold and formal. “I have to get to my next class.”
Aaron winced, but knew that he deserved that. He waited until the last of the other students had left, then said: “Connor, I know you saw me and my friend Victoria kissing this morning. I won’t lie to you – she and I have had sex before this once in awhile. We don’t date, we’re just friends who meet each others’ needs sometimes. She invited me over to her apartment tonight…”
Connor stiffened. “That’s good,” he growled. “I wouldn’t want you to go without, PROFESSOR.”
“Connor!” he shook the arm he still held a little. “Stop it! First of all, even if I wanted to sleep with Vicky it's none of your business. We’re not together,” he reminded the younger man sharply.
The blazing grey eyes whipped around to glare into his. “You’re right,” Connor hissed. “We’re not. And we never will be, I guess. Now let go of me, I’m going to my next class!”
Aaron felt a mixture of anger and the need to comfort the obviously badly hurt young man well up inside of him. Instead of letting go of Connor’s arm, he grabbed the other one. Then he pulled his student closer, as Connor began to struggle against his hold. Aaron knew he shouldn’t be doing this, but he’d been goaded beyond reason. And those pink lips, open as Connor panted, were just too damn tempting. So he closed his own mouth over them, and Connor stiffened as he found himself being kissed by his soul mate. Then the younger man went rather limp in his hold, moaning as he tried to crowd himself closer to Aaron.
Aaron stopped gripping Connor’s arms and put his own around that slim body instead. God, those pink lips were sweet! Their bodies seemed to fit together perfectly, like two matching puzzle pieces. And now, unlike this morning, his penis was as hard as it could get. It was pressing against Connor’s belly as their tongues began to mate. Jesus, he wanted to push his student to the floor and have sex with him right here on the classroom floor. Never mind that he’d never been with a man. They’d figure it out, right? Somehow…
But cold reality rushed through him when a stray thought went through his head. This classroom would be filling up with students in less than twenty minutes. They could not walk in on the two of them making out – or doing something even worse. So he forced himself to pull away, but it was so hard…so very, very hard! He looked into Connor’s dazed eyes. “I-I’m sorry, Connor,” he husked. “We can’t do this right now. People will be coming in here at any moment.”
The younger man blinked, coming back to earth a little. “Oh,” he said. “Ummm…”
Aaron sighed. “Come with me to my office,” he told Connor. “I think we need to talk.”
****
Aaron led Connor into his office and indicated that the student should shut the door behind them. “Please sit down,” he said courteously, pointing at the chair sitting in front of his small desk. “So we can talk.”
Connor silently slipped into the chair, looking at him across the desktop as Aaron took his own chair. The professor sighed, rubbing at his face with one hand. “First of all,” he began, “I’m really sorry that I kissed you just now, Connor…”
“I’m not sorry you did it!” the student burst out angrily. “At all!”
Aaron held up a pacifying hand. “That’s not what I meant,” he protested as Connor glared at him. “I’m not sorry about kissing you, I’m sorry that I did so rather than talking to you about why you were upset. I’m afraid I just got angry and acted without thinking.”
“Oh,” Connor looked at him warily. “What did you want to tell me?” he asked, his body stiffening as he waited for rejection.
Aaron smiled crookedly. “It’s about Victoria. First of all, she initiated that kiss, not me. Second, when she asked me to come over to her place tonight, I turned her down,” he added.
Connor’s beautiful eyes it up with excitement and relief. “You did?!” he exclaimed.
Aaron sighed. “Yes,” he replied. “I did. Because…when she kissed me, I didn’t feel anything at all. No desire, nothing. Unlike when I kissed you in the classroom a few minutes ago…” he went on ruefully, “When I felt plenty. And I’ve slept with Vicky before this. I just don’t understand my lack of reaction to her.”
Connor shook his head. “You met me,” he told Aaron. That’s the difference. Now you want me and nobody else.”
Aaron looked rather alarmed. “Are you serious?” he demanded in disbelief.
The younger man looked rather triumphant, not quite hiding a smirk. “Yes. I’ve never wanted anyone but you Aaron. Ever. It’s part of the whole deal of being soul mates. Why would we ever want or need anyone else but the one we were destined to be with? The person that completes us, makes us whole?”
That made sense, although it also made Aaron feel even more uneasy – and rather depressed, as well. Now he wouldn’t be able to find any relief from those steamy dreams until he could finally accept Connor. He sighed. “Connor, I have to tell you something,” he began gravely.
“What is it?” Connor’s expressive eyes studied his face intently.
“I’ve been…having these dreams, lately. Dreams about you,” he added. “And all of them have been pretty explicit. By that I mean porn movie explicit.”
The younger man stared at him, then grinned. “Oh,” he said in understanding. “THOSE kind of dreams. Yeah, I have those all the time.”
Aaron blinked. “You do? How do you deal with them?” he asked.
Connor snorted. “How else? I jerk off a lot,” he said rather glumly.
Aaron winced. He’d hoped that his student could provide him with some ideas about how to live with these steamy dreams, but apparently Connor always did what he was doing already. “Okay,” he said, accepting the inevitable. “I’d also like to ask you about this past life you said that you remember us living. The one where you said that I was burned as a witch. What can you tell me about it?”
“Lots,” Connor replied promptly. “I get dreams about that life all the time. I was this lord guy, although I wasn’t very rich or powerful. You were my wife. We lived in Germany – or the place that would be Germany later on, I guess,” he went on. “We both worked hard for our people, and you grew herbs and used them to help sick people. You were really pretty…”
Aaron wanted to laugh at this statement, although he was enthralled by the rest of the story. “You had these long blonde braids, and when you let your hair down it nearly swept the floor. We had a bunch of kids together, although two of them died when they were young. You were really sad when that happened – you had the biggest heart – and when other people lost children you’d always go and console them. We were really happy. But then somebody got jealous, I guess, and they turned you into the Church as a witch because of the herbs you worked with. I tried to get them to release you, but nobody would listen. You had this horrible trial, and they condemned you over all of this stupid stuff."
"They even had all these witnesses who said that they’d seen you doing evil things like having sex with a demon at the crossroads at midnight…what the heck they were doing out at midnight when they had to get up at dawn to work…it was all bullshit. They shaved of all your beautiful hair, and said they were going to burn you in the town square. I couldn’t do anything. When I went to see you, you told me that I shouldn’t protest too much because we had daughters who might end up with the same fate if I did. You would do anything to save them. Then you told me that you loved me, and that you always would. You kissed me and said that we’d meet again, maybe in Heaven. You were so sure of this fact that it helped me a little. Then they dragged you away and burned you, and I’ll never forget watching as you died…”
He was trembling little, tears in his eyes. Aaron reached across his desktop and firmly gripped Connor’s hand with his own. “It’s all right, Connor,” he said gently. “It’s over. I’m here.”
“Yes,” the boy gasped, clutching at his hand as though it were a lifeline. “Aaron…Aaron, I love you.”
He twitched when real Connor echoed what dream-Connor had said to him. It wasn’t that he didn’t believe Connor; this was all just a little much to take in and accept right now. The younger man saw his movement and sniffed. “I’m sorry,” he husked. “I shouldn’t have said that.”
“No, it's okay,” he replied. “I’m just…still not quite used to all this, Connor.”
“I know. And I said I’d wait until you were ready. I meant that. I won’t say it again until you can say it back, I promise.”
“Thank you,” Aaron said quietly. “I appreciate your patience, Connor.”
The student smiled wryly. “I’ve waited centuries to see you again,” he said simply. “What's a little more time compared to that?”
****
Aaron sent Connor away at last, and the younger man left his office looking reassured and happier. Aaron didn’t try to kiss him again – much as he would have liked to. Kissing Connor was a bad idea right now. It would inevitably lead to other things, things he wasn’t yet ready for. He sat back in his chair and rubbed at his forehead, feeling a headache developing. It had been a tense, miserable morning. He was discovering that anything that upset Connor Herlihy also greatly upset him as well. From now on, he’d have to work to make sure that he didn’t do anything that upset Connor.
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