The next few days Reid distracted himself from thinking about Luke by packing, marking and shouting. He did anything to stop himself from thinking about the note Luke left him with his number on it. It was beside his bed in Katie's spare room. Every night he would pick up his phone and dial the first three numbers before cancelling the call and falling back on his bed like a dead weight.

'Alright, Luke, tell me what's the problem?' Holden asked Luke as they sat in their hotel room. Luke had been taken with his father on a trip to buy a new horse. His birthday was in a month or so, and he wanted a new horse since his last one had retired a while ago.

He was going to be 18. He thought back on the previous year. He had barely ticked anything off his 17th year to-do-list. He hadn't had sex, he didn't have a boyfriend and he hadn't… well actually he had done that one. He had fallen in love. He had fallen for Reid, unrequitedly, beautifully and, naturally, it was unreciprocated.

'Nothing, dad, I'm just tired after the drive down.'

'Listen, if it's about me and your mum, you know that we both love you, right? That'll never change.' Holden said putting a hand on Luke's shoulder.

'I know, dad.'

'Then what is it? School?' Luke froze.

'Um. No. I'm just tired. I think I'll stay here for the day while you go out looking. Call me if you find any good horses and we'll go back tomorrow and see.'

'You do look pale. Ok. I'll see you later.' Holden patted Luke on the back and left the room.

Luke jumped up from the bed and rummaged through his suitcase to get out his phone.

No new messages

His heart sunk. He felt wrung out and hurt over the fight they had a couple of days previously. He had seen anger in Reid's eyes and something else he couldn't describe. But why couldn't he call Luke, Luke? Why did he persist with 'Mr Snyder', which reminded him of his father?

It infuriated Luke that he had fallen so deeply for his professor. It infuriated him further when he checked his mobile and he still had no new messages.

It was late and, as every night for the past five nights, Reid was sitting up in his bed resting against the headboard and holding his phone. Today he had progressed to four digits. He stopped. What would he say?

'Hey, Luke, it's your pervy teacher here!' or 'Mr Snyder, I haven't been able to stop thinking about you for the past couple of months and I'm completely infatuated with you.'? He sighed, and dialled the complete number and pressed the green phone button.

Miles away, Luke was sitting in the same position except his phone was on resting on his stomach. His dad had gone out for the night to meet up with some old friends and Luke had faked a headache and stayed in the hotel room.

Suddenly his phone sprung to life. He picked it up. The dimly lit screen showed an unfamiliar number. Hesitantly, he pressed 'accept'.

'Hello?' He asked slowly.

'Hello, Mr Snyder it's Dr Oliver.' Luke's heart was pounding and he was surprised his phone hadn't slipped from his hand in surprise.

'Hi.' Luke said tentatively, hugging the phone to his shoulder.

'It was dangerous that you left me your number. Anyone could have seen it.'

'No they couldn't, it was in an envelope, remember?'

'Still. Look, about the other day, it was wrong of me to shout at you. It's hard when you meet someone and you… connect. We could eat pizza, do work and talk for hours if it weren't for you needing to get home. But there's a line. It's a thin line but a line nonetheless. However much you think you could be friends or…' He trailed off, 'But the line is still there. It's relationships like ours when you should feel safe, able to say anything without feeling stupid even if it is stupid. We need that trust to be able to continue our tutoring. I can't teach you if you don't trust me. So, I'm sorry that I overreacted. That's the last apology you'll ever hear coming from me.'

'I trust you.' Reid could hear Luke's smile form around those words and felt his own growing as well.

'Good. So where the hell are you?'

Reid was glad that he'd drawn a line. He wanted boundaries to make sure that he wouldn't slip. He needed to feel that he had made the situation plain and clear for Luke to understand. They spoke on the phone about Luke's trip, the school work and various other things for almost two hours.

'I should probably let you get some sleep. Night, Luke.'

'Night, Dr Oliver.'

It took Luke ten minutes before he realised that Reid had finally called him Luke. He grinned and fell back into his bed.

'Why do you look so chirpy?' Katie asked as Reid walked out of his room into the kitchen area to get a cup of coffee.

'No reason. I just got some sleep that's all and it's the weekend.'

'Huh. Well, I got a phone call from Holden this morning,' Reid looked at her quizzically, 'Luke's dad.' She explained.

'Ah.' Reid said as he searched the kitchen for a cup.

'Luke should be back in school by Monday, in time for your lesson.' Katie said looking at Reid for his reaction.

'Hmm.' He hummed, still opening all of the cupboards looking for a cup.

Katie sighed and reached behind her head and pulled out one for him.'

'Thanks.' He smiled.

'Oh my god, what is up with you?' She shouted.

'What?' He asked over his coffee cup.

'You're smiling! What happened?'

'Nothing!'

Katie shook her head but let it go. She would find out somehow. Why on earth was Reid smiling like that?

It was Monday morning and Luke was happy to be home. The new horse was being delivered once it had gone through all of the thorough medical tests to make sure it was healthy. He was excited about being back at school and seeing his friends. And Dr Oliver.

His Biology lesson was uneventful except for when Reid leant down and whispered in Luke's ear,

'Good to have you back.' Luke had shivered and Reid smiled as walked around the rest of the classroom observing their notes.

After school Luke went straight to the toilets and checked his hair and made sure he didn't have any food stuck in his teeth. He patted down his shirt and walked out of the bathrooms to find his books for the lesson.

Reid was sitting at his desk reading through some papers when Luke knocked on his door and entered.

'Hey, Dr Oliver.'

'Hi, Luke. Let's get started.'

'No food I'm afraid.' Luke said as he sat down. Reid tried to look disappointed and Luke laughed.

'So today's topic I asked you to look over while you were away. Any thoughts?'

The tutoring session was filled with laughing and snarky come-backs. Reid had walked around his desk to sit next to Luke which never failed to make Luke's heart flutter, even if he had done the same thing for the past couple of months.

They both stood at the end of the lesson continuing their conversation on favourite movies, a topic which neither of them could remember transferring to from Biology.

Luke's phone buzzed and he brought it out in front of him.

'It's my dad,' He clicked a couple of buttons and broke out into a huge grin, 'You know that horse I was telling you about?'

'Yeah, the chestnut one, right?' Reid nodded.

'I've got him! He passed all of his tests.' Luke put his phone in his pocket and reached forward to circle his arms around Reid's neck and pulled him into a hug.

'That's great, Luke.' Reid said into Luke's hair.

They pulled back slightly and Reid looked at Luke, whose eyes were immediately filled with lust, darkening his chocolate-shaded irises. Reid felt trapped, both of Luke's arms were still securely wrapped around his neck and his arms were on Luke's hips. This was the most compromising position he'd been in yet.

Without Reid's permission his body moved forwards pushing Luke into the wall behind him. He crushed his lips into the younger man's mouth, which opened to allow a moan to escape. Reid turned his head and licked along Luke's lips before pushing his tongue into his mouth and sucking on Luke's until he elicited further beautiful noises.

They continued to kiss furiously and Reid stuck a thigh between Luke's open legs creating friction for Luke. They rubbed up against each other and Reid began to suck on Luke's neck whilst listening to Luke's gasps next to his ear, as if he was drowning in Reid.

And then Reid was pulling away and Luke was grasping at his shirt trying to bring back that warmth he had felt only moments previously.

'We mustn't, Luke.' Reid breathed.

They were both breathing harshly and then Luke heard a door open and shut and he opened his eyes to see Reid's empty office. He felt like crying.

Reid practically ran to his car not caring that he left all of his work in his office. He couldn't go back now. He was still ridiculously hard and his hair was mussed and untidy after Luke's hands had grasped and raked his fingers through his hair.

He unlocked his car and got in. His head hit the wheel with a thump and he felt like shouting at someone, anyone. He was definitely going to lose his job now. It was only a matter of time before Luke told someone. He was probably on the phone with his mother, Reid's boss, right now. He reversed the car and left the car park, speeding home.

He had lost everything over the most intense kiss he'd ever experienced.

'Double shit.'