Page 27 of The Professor's Wife

He let out a soft chuckle. “This is fucking brutal.”

Tears streamed from the corners of my eyes as I sucked in breaths, trying to calm myself.

I felt mortified and guilty.

“I’m sorry, Tristan.”

“You’re not the one who nearly came in his pants.”

I twisted around to look at him. “I’m not laughing at you. I promise.”

He rubbed his face, groaning again.

My laughter faded.

“I’m laughing because I’ve never gotten this reaction out of anyone before,” I admitted softly.

There was a strange emotion beneath the words. A vulnerability I couldn’t hide. He must have heard it because his eyes found mine and held on to every word.

“To be fair, I’ve only been with two other people, and the first hardly counts. But even without sex, no one has ever looked at me the way you do.” I licked my lips, thinking. “Maybe it’s lust. Maybe it’s the excitement of being swept into this one-night-stand situation. I don’t know. I’ve never done this before.”

He stayed quiet.

“The point is, I find it impossible to believe. And yet…I’m flattered that someone like you, with options and charm, has this terribly difficult problem around someone like me.”

He took a moment, staring at me with the most awed expression.

Then he said, “You’re a dream.”

He said it simply, as if those three words answered everything.

There was so much conviction in them that I believed him.

It troubled me that I didn’t want to. That accepting it might force all the years before this to mean something. That I had willingly remained a shadow, insignificant in the real world.

Tristan made me feel bold.

Bold enough to move closer and whisper, “Imagine you’re dreaming, then. Tell me what you want me to do.”

His chest slowed.

It was his turn to look flustered.

He searched my face before admitting quietly, “Very indecent things.”

“Indecent?” I echoed, suppressing a smile. “You don’t have to be gentlemanly with me, Tristan. I know that isn’t a word you commonly use.”

“I’d strip that dress off you with my teeth and taste you again until you’re screaming my name.”

I moved closer until our noses nearly touched.

He tried to close the remaining distance, but I pulled back just enough to say, “Not what you’d do tome. Although I like the sound of it.”

“Can I?”

“Later. I want to know what you’d like me to do to you.”

He closed his eyes and groaned. “Honest to God, you’re going to make me come in my fucking pants if you keep talking like that.”