Page 53 of American Love Story

Oh shit, what was even happening in my chest right now. I breathed through my nose until I found words. Patrice Denis was going to ruin me. “I didn’t know you had such a possessive side, Dr. Denis.”

He dipped his chin, and his expression turned just a tiny bit bashful, but he answered with a flustered laugh. “I didn’t either.”

“Brad and I go way back. His parents were a power couple at Cornell, and my parents loved to have the local academia luminaries at their dinner parties.”

Patrice twisted his mouth to the side at that. “I don’t like the way he talked to you.”

I lifted a shoulder, aware of what he meant, the dismissive way in which Brad had talked about my job. “For my parents, and some of their friends, my entire career choice is mystifying.” I made air quotes as I said the next part. “Apparently, spending five years working on some of the toughest cases in the region is my cute way of getting people to ‘take me seriously.’ Even my mom, who at least tries to be supportive, just can’t see why I would do this instead of work for the winery.”

His face became thunderous then. “Well that’s just bullshit. Don’t they read the news and see the cases you’re dealing with?”

He shook his head and there was a fluttering happening in my chest that I’d never particularly felt before. “That shit’s not happening again on my watch.” He looked so serious, and he sat there with his mouth closed, running his tongue over his teeth,as he came up with whatever he wanted to say. But after a few breaths, he relaxed his shoulders and let go of my hand to grab a drink of his beer. He’d said his piece. Something I was learning about Patrice was that he never said more than he had to, but whatever did come out his mouth was good as gold.

What he said, how incensed he was on my behalf, it made me want things that I knew very well I should not ask for. But I was still me. “Are you going to be my defender, Dr. Denis?” I was trying for humor, but even I could hear the yearning in my voice.

Patrice’s eyes took me in. Inch by inch, they moved over me with such intensity that I could swear my clothes were at risk of igniting. “I’m going to tell you what I see, if other people in your life can’t or won’t.”

There was danger for me here, I knew that. This was not territory I could tread into without serious risk to injury, but I never was one to heed trouble. “And what exactly do you see?”

“Someone worth me getting my shit together for.” It came out in a grumble, like he wasn’t even sure how he’d gotten there himself.

I laughed then and leaned over, deciding to kiss him after all. I pressed a quick kiss to his mouth, which he returned without hesitation. When I pulled back, I smiled at his serious expression. “You sound so agonized about it.”

He lifted a shoulder and looked at me, and I felt scared for a minute that what he would say next would hurt me. That we would blow off this moment and make it something less than what it had meant to me.

“I can be conflicted and still know I am where I’m supposed to be. I’m trying to learn how to make that work.”

They weren’t exactly lines fromRomeo and Juliet, but they didn’t have to be, because I knew that Patrice Denis was braving unchartered territory, and he was doing it for me.

chapter fifteen

patrice

The knock on the door came a second before the holler from the hallway.

“Are you ready, Professor?”

I just laughed, because for a guy who looked like he’d be right at home at the Cornell Club, Easton Archer could holler. I grimaced at the racket he was making then remembered he owned the fucking building, so we were probably okay.

“I’m coming.” I could barely keep the humor out of my voice, because that was my permanent state these days.

I walked around happy as hell, smiling at people and asking about their dogs and shit. It was like fucking with Easton Archer had turned me into a…happy person. I opened the door, digesting that new development with a grin on my face, knowing what my current state of nothing but sweats on would have on Easton.

He didn’t even say hello; he just got a look at my chest and jumped me.

I stumbled backward, laughing my ass off as he did his best to get this tongue down my throat.

“This is not right.” Those eyes looked up at me like I was everything he’d ever wished for.

I exhaled and nuzzled his neck. “Your eyes make me think of the semester I spent in Edinburgh. Whiskey and moss.”

He groaned as he backed me up against the nearest wall. “Why do you hate me? Here I am trying to be suave. Trying towooyou, so that you don’t think I’m just after your dick, and you start telling me my eyes are like all Scottish and drugging?”

I couldn’t help it; I busted up and tightened my arms around his waist. “You trying to woo me, Counselor?”

He ran his hands over my bare shoulders and the possessiveness there made me grin again. When he answered, his voice was strong. “Yes, and we’re going someplace we can’t run into anyone. Last time I thought you were going to rip Brad’s head off.” He tried to make it humorous, but I seriously wanted to pop that fucker on the mouth. It really pissed me off that Easton was so used to people talking to him like Brad did. I could only imagine the type of shit he dealt with from his father for him to be practically unbothered by a prick like Brad talking down to him. I vowed right then and there that I would never be one more person in Easton’s life who didn’t let him know what he was worth.

Easton’s tongue clicking brought me back and his face was a mix of serious and horny. “You feeling some type of way, Professor?”