Page 224 of The Professor's Wife

CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE

The ride was only a couple minutes long, and Oliver hadn’t spoken. When we got to the house, I was prepared for rapid-fire questions, but he didn’t say a word.

I would rather have his viciousness now than remain on guard for who knew how long.

Just another thing to be waiting around on him for.

I did everything by the book. I was attentive to him when we got inside. I helped him out of his clothes and smiled every time he looked at me. I placed his glass of water on the nightstand beside his reading glasses and Marcus Aurelius’sMeditations.

I quickly checked the page he was on, my eyes skimming the lines he’d underlined.

One passage had been marked three times.

“A spider is proud when it has caught a fly, and another when he has caught a poor hare, and another when he has taken a little fish in a net, and another when he has taken wild boars, and another when he has taken bears, and another when he has taken Sarmatians.”

I closed the book.

Aurelius was a good read, but never in the hands of Oliver. When he was feeling magnanimous, he picked up that book and smiled like a Cheshire cat.

At the center of me, I knew why.

Lucy.

I swallowed and resumed my duties. I cleaned up his dirty clothes and jumped in for a quick shower when he was finished.

His quiet demeanor continued.

Even after I finished showering and changed into his favorite nightgown, he wandered the hallway outside the bedroom door, moving up and down repeatedly.

I took a deep breath and stuck my head out of the room. “Won’t you join me, Professor?”

He paused mid-step and stared at me.

His mask was slipping as he watched me. The emptiness in his gaze grew heavier with every passing second.

“What did you talk about with that boy?”

Expecting this, I rolled my eyes. “Hardly anything. He was a talker, Oliver. The trick was getting him to shut up.”

He didn’t react to my joke. “I’ve never seen someone look at you like that.”

“Like what?”

“With such greed.”

Greed?

I wanted to laugh at the absurdity. Tristan had appeared enchanted by me, not greedy. The reminder tugged at my heartstrings.

I schooled my expression. I had to rebound quickly.

“I didn’t even notice he was looking at me in any particular way. What does it mean when someone stares at another person with greed, Oliver?”

“It means they think you’re theirs already.”

I let out a disgusted scoff. “I’m married to a professor, and he sings at restaurants.”

Oliver frowned. “I should have mentioned what I do.”