I slept like a baby. And the skin just glows now.
It’s okay, I can handle anyone with a big ego.
After breakfast, I quickly got dressed: a wool pantsuit the color of milk chocolate and a turtleneck the color of cream that looked austere and were practical and warm enough to get to the main building in the incessant rain.
Throwing on my favorite dark cherry coat, I grabbed my purse and umbrella and walked outside from my small cottage near the east wall of campus. Standing on a magnetic platform hidden under a canopy, I flew to work. An investigation is an investigation, but no one has canceled ordinary educational cases, especially for the dean.
Chapter 4
To be honest, the wait was infuriating.
From the beginning of the day, I managed to review and correct some of the documents for the upcoming inter-semester certification, hold a short but intense meeting with the heads of the graduation and pre-graduation groups, finish my presentation on crop production for the first year, and even fly to an experimental greenhouse to check the first results of using a new nutrient solution for agmarates. There, looking at the dark green of the curly bushes, I forgot the folder with the papers, so I had to go all the way from the university and back again. And all this under the rain that shrouded the entire town in a gray shroud.
I waited and waited again. The first to be interviewed today were all the teachers of my faculty. Apparently, they decided to leave the dean for dessert.
So, I didn’t even have time to take a bite of my little afternoon dessert, a chocolate cupcake the size of a ping-pong ball: just as I was putting it to my mouth, there was a knock at the door, and the assistant investigator came in to say that Captain Wolfrock was waiting for me in Vice-Rector Roginis’s office in ten minutes, and left. I shook the sugar powder off my fingers, looked regretfully at the cake, got up and walked over to the mirror. Satisfied with what I had seen – in the reflection I seemed quite confident and business-like serious – I went out, closed my office, and slowly made my way to the fourth floor.
Walking down the main gallery, I turned into a long gut corridor that led to the service staircase, narrow and old, and therefore ignored by many. I just didn’t like to make an extra detour to the central front door.
I walked this way so often that I didn’t expect a trick, and in the first seconds I didn’t even think to scream. Then it was too late: a strong hand clamped over my mouth, while the other dragged me into the darkness of the dusty curtained niche.
A moment later, I found myself in a tiny utility room, with my back against a large, warm body. The arms around me were definitely masculine.
As soon as I came to my senses, I jerked, trying to break free from the strange embrace, but it only tightened more. I shook my head, trying to open my mouth and bite the palm that wouldn’t even allow me to breathe normally.
The hot breath and the light touch of his lips close to my ear made me throb harder.
«Wait! I’m not going to rape you, Zulina. Just don’t scream, okay? It’s just me,» Erchin’s voice struck me so suddenly that I froze.
«Here we go. Just stand still and don’t say anything. Shh…» He lowered his hands, releasing me.
I immediately turned to face him, not hiding my indignation. But it didn’t matter in the darkness: we could only dimly see each other’s silhouettes.
«What the hell?!» I hissed, trying to move away at the same time, but I couldn’t because the room was too small. «What do you do, Professor Mavinus? What kind of joke is this?»
«Wait. Listen,» he put a finger to my lips, strangely finding them in the gloom, «I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you, I just didn’t have time to think of anything.»
Struggling to resist the untimely urge to lick the palm pressed against me – now, knowing that it was him, I could not drive away the swarm of uninvited thoughts, especially when he was so close, almost pressing me with his body against the wall – I said again through clenched teeth, but with less irritation:
«What happened that couldn’t wait? What can’t be discussed in my office? Just ask in the hallway? By the way,» I suddenly remembered, «I need to go to the investigator, and you’re detaining me.»
«Yes, yes, that’s why,» Erchin removed his hand from my face and moved, obviously trying to give us some space, but the attempt was not very successful: it was easier to breathe, but our thighs were now almost rubbing against each other, "I needed time to talk before your interrogation…»
«Not really interrogation. Just conversation…»
«Oh, you shall believe me!» He snorted in exasperation. «The captain doesn’t waste time talking. Okay, it’s not about your interrogation, in the grand scheme of things.»
«So, what’s the deal?»
«It’s about me,» Mavinus sighed. «About Azuin, to be exact. More precisely, in their suspicions… against me…»
«Suspicions?!» I gasped. «Do they suspect you too?»
«Too?»
«Well, Adiree said she was hinted to, too…»
«Hah, they hinted! No more hints! They’ve already searched my office…»
«Like most of us,» I interjected.
«And now they’re on their way to my house to turn it upside down,» he growled in displeasure, moved again, touching my chest, which sent hundreds of hot lights through my body. «I have nothing to do with it. Why the hell are they going to get into my life?!»
«Ahem,» I shook my head, focusing on the topic of the strange conversation, «it’s just their job. They’re checking everyone, why are you so excited? You know,» I finally protested, «this trick of yours,» I waved my hand, circling the space around us, «it’s not in your favor. Why do you have this kind of behavior if you have nothing to do with it?»
«Do you think I…»
«No, I don’t think so. Why do you need such a headache as the snake Azuin? Only a crazy person will voluntarily make contact with it. But why did you drag me here?!»
«It was necessary that no one saw me talking to you before the interrogation. They may draw the wrong conclusions…»
«And so they’ll draw the right one, of course! Squeezing into dark, dusty corners is exactly the right conclusion that the dean and his teacher need, yes.»
Erchin shifted from foot to foot, wheezing strangely.
«No, of cause. Sorry… It was awkward. But you’ve already gone there, and… I did it faster than I thought…»
«Men… Pff…»
«I just…
