I dragged in a breath and lifted my head.
“Henry, you yelled at a student for me. One whose uncle is the fucking dean.”
He tugged at my hand. “You’re too far away.”
“You walked into that same dean’s office and pushed until my funding was fixed. Okay,fine,it was justified, but that problem doesn’t exist for students who aren’t living off scrambled eggs and whatever’s in the freezer section.”
“Archi—”
“And now we’re—what?” I shook our joined hands. “Standing out here doing this when it is very clearly not allowed for a professor to be entangled with his TA. Do you want to get fired?”
“I don’t particularly care.”
I blinked. “That isnota normal answer.”
“You think I’m choosing this?”
“I’m… sorry?”
“It’s been a week, and I sit in my office wondering if you’ve had water today. If you’ve eaten enough. If you’re going to push yourself until you drop because no one told you to stop. Jackson is lucky all I did was speak.”
“Henry—”
“Rabbit.” Henry’s hand moved to the back of my neck,squeezinglike he knew exactly how much pressure to use without tipping me over.
“You’re overwhelmed.”
I swallowed. “I’m fine.”
“No. You’re holding it together. That’s not the same thing.”
…okay.
Rude.
I huffed a breath, looking anywhere but directly at him. “You’re making this worse.”
“I’m trying not to.”
That pulled my attention back.
“I’m very aware of what I want to do right now,” he said. “But I’m also aware that you’re not in a place to handle me doing it.”
“You don’t seem like the kind of person who holds back.”
“I don’t,” he said. “For you, I will.”
My stomach flipped so hard I had to look away again.
His hand slid from my neck to my jaw, slower this time, like he was giving me time to stop him.
I didn’t.
Of courseI didn’t.
“When you decide you’re ready for me to kiss you,” he murmured, “you tell me.”
His thumb brushed once along my cheek.
