Page 17 of The Professor's Wife

He went quiet. His gaze moved over my face, as though he were trying to determine how much honesty I could bear.

“I could tell you I’m a good man,” he said. “You might even believe me.”

“But?”

“But I’m impulsive. I don’t always think about what comes afterward.” His eyes lowered briefly to my mouth. “Sometimes I want something badly enough that afterward stops mattering.”

My pulse moved everywhere at once. “And you think I’m one of those things?”

His gaze returned to mine. “I know you are.”

The certainty in his voice unsettled me more than hesitation would have.

“You don’t know me,” I whispered.

“No.”

“You might not like what’s beneath the surface.”

A quiet laugh left him, but there was no mockery in it. He stepped closer, his expression darkening with something I couldn’t quite read.

“If you’re wicked, I’ll meet you there,” he said. “If you’re sweet, I’ll be sweeter.”

My breathing picked up. “And if I’m neither?”

“Then give me whatever you are, Daze.” His voice dropped. “I can handle it.”

For a second, something shifted in his face. A strange stillness. As though the words had come from somewhere deeper than he intended.

Then it was gone.

I searched his eyes, but he only watched me with that same unwavering focus.

“Just let me have the chance to find out,” he said.

My heart clashed with my mind. They had been at war since I left the tiny nook in my home, leaving me perpetually balanced on the edge of a frightening fall.

There was no going back.

There was only this.

Just me. Just Tristan. Existing together in this beautiful town while the world of rules and order fell away.

I wasn’t inviting him into my life. I had no life to offer him.

But I could invite him into this night.

“Your van is in the parking lot,” I said.

“It is.”

“My room is closer.”

The words left my mouth before I could second-guess them.

I watched his face change—surprise first, followed by something hotter. His gaze searched mine, making certain he had understood.

There it was.