Page 287 of The Professor's Wife

“That sounds horrible,” I whispered.

“Yeah.”

“And hopeful.”

His mouth twitched faintly. “Maybe.”

My throat tightened. I hardly made a sound as I whispered, “I don’t know how to get out of this nightmare.”

His expression softened. After everything he’d just said, after the looks he gave me in the last hour, I couldn’t rememberthe anger that sometimes seeped out of him. Couldn’t imagine him rageful and violent and bitter.

He was broken. Like me. And lonely. Like I was.

His chest moved with air, but he didn’t look like he had taken a full breath in.

When he spoke, his voice was soft and familiar.

“You leave, Daze. With me.”

“Leave?”

“Now. While you still can.”

My head spun as I looked away. I’d already started that. I had already made an oath that this was my chance, yet my being trembled.

It couldn’t be that easy.

He would find me.

He would kill me.

Adrenaline poured through me until I couldn’t stop shaking.

Then Tristan touched me.

His warm hand wrapped gently around my chin, almost too gently, like he was afraid I would vanish beneath his fingers. He turned me toward him and made my blurry eyes lock onto his.

“Either you run with me,” he whispered, “or you walk back into that nightmare and let him keep destroying you.”

Tears slid down my cheeks. Anguished, I whispered back, “I can’t go back there. Oh, God. I can’t go back there. I can’t.”

He tugged at my arm, and suddenly I was in his lap, cradled in his large arms.

He held me tightly.

He was shaking too.

“Come with me,” he said gruffly. “Please, Daze. I want you. I just want you.”

I nodded, holding him tightly as he rocked me back and forth like a child.

I didn’t stop nodding. Didn’t stop crying.

“Come with me.”

“Yes,” I whispered. “I’ll go.”

His arms tightened around me so fiercely I almost couldn’t breathe.