Page 240 of The Professor's Wife

“Why are you in such a hurry?”

I was breathless by the time we reached the large foyer. His warm hand suddenly gripped mine as he tugged me alongside him.

His face had gone flat, but there was a surprising amount of emotion in him when he said, “In case you change your mind.”

He stopped us in front of the elevator and pressed the button.

The elevator arrived almost immediately, before I had time to recover whatever sense I had abandoned in the restaurant.

The doors opened, and he stepped inside. He released my hand when he crossed the threshold. Then he turned to face me and held it out again, waiting.

Butterflies took flight inside my stomach.

He was letting me decide.

I took his hand before fear could catch up with me.

He pulled me in.

CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN

We got off on the third floor. He led me to room 333 and tapped a card over the door reader. The light blinked green, and a moment later we were inside his hotel room.

Immediately, I was greeted by the scent of his cologne once more. The smell triggered something inside me. A wave of nostalgia that intensified when I looked at him.

He detached from my hand to remove his case and bag. He plopped them down on a nearby chair and then turned back to me. I watched him closely as he took a few steps back. He stopped when his back hit the wall and then shoved his hands into his pockets.

I didn’t move from my place, but I did spin my body around to look at him. I should have felt jittery and nervous, and I was those things, but mostly, I felt deep longing when I looked at him.

“Why are you over there?” I asked lightly.

“I want to look at you,” he answered straightaway. “In my room. Without an audience.”

“How many women have you looked at in your room, without an audience?” I wondered.

“Zero.”

I studied him, catching only honesty in his gaze. I didn’t have a reason to doubt him. The man had been brutally honest with me from the get-go.

“I’m lucky then.”

He let out a short laugh, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “You’re a fool if you think that you’re the lucky one standing in this room.”

“You can’t honestly be referring to yourself.”

“Call me crazy, but I feel like I get struck by lightning every time you look at me.”

I took a step closer to him, and when he stilled at the move, I paused. “That’s funny because you weren’t very nice to me at first.”

He flexed his jaw. “I saw you with your husband.”

“That angered you?”

“Among other things.”

Not even the mention of Oliver dampened my mood. “Did you want to push me away?”

“I wanted to ruin it for myself, Daze, because how could someone likemehave you?”