Page 28 of The Professor's Wife

I laughed weakly. “I could put you in my mouth.”

“Holy fuck.” He scrubbed both hands over his face. “Stop, Daze. I’m on a hair trigger.”

I stopped, biting my lip to keep from grinning. “It’s only fair that I return the favor.”

“Fair?” he echoed, scoffing softly. “You letting me do that—letting me taste you—we could stop right now, and I would never forget what you let me do. You don’t need to do a fucking thing to me.”

My smile faded.

The moment grew serious. The humor drained from both of us as he watched me, searching for my understanding.

I couldn’t make sense of him. Couldn’t make sense of what he thought I had given him. As though I were some treasure he had gone on a lifelong quest to find.

I was nothing, I wanted to say.

I was insignificant.

I was refuse.

A woman with an expiration date.

Outside this room, my life was over.

But this fucking man—

His stare pierced through the void inside me. My blood pumped hot and fast. The numbness I had depended upon for so long evaporated so quickly that I almost questioned whether I had grieved anything before this moment.

It would come crashing down.

I knew that.

When this ended, when he went his way and I went mine, I would feel everything again.

I didn’t want that hanging over me.

I wanted it to be only him and me.

“Kiss me,” I whispered. “And really mean it, Tristan. Make me forget everything.”

I had barely finished speaking when his mouth returned to mine.

This time the passion burned differently. It burned like fire but ached like a bruise I couldn’t stop pressing.

When he stripped the rest of my dress away, I was feverish to have him. To put him inside me. To make me forget everything.

But I also wanted to cry.

I didn’t know why, but I held him tightly. Wrapped my arms around him like he might disappear and leave me bereft.

Like a ship without its captain.

Like a lighthouse with nothing to guide.

He seemed to feel it, too, because his hold became just as tight.

He moved away only once to reach for his wallet. He pulled out three condoms, placed two on the nightstand, and tore the first open.

Then he was back.