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“That’s all we can ask.” Zali cupped my face and pressed her lips to mine again. “I love you, Professor Reid.”
“And I you. Both of you.”
I drummed my fingers on the desk, a fast pace that exposed just how twisted up inside I was. Should I, or shouldn’t I? The answer escaped me.
I’d downed too many cups of coffee, and I was jittery from the caffeine overload as well as the incessant buzzing in my brain. Wearing a track in the carpet in my office hadn’t worked, so I’d walked the quad.
But no answers had come.
The knock on my door startled the fuck out of me. Gripping my desk for support, I growled, “Enter.”
I didn’t expect Ezra to push through it, but both relief and fear slammed into me when he did. “What happened?” I rasped, my heart lodged in my throat.
No more threats had been delivered to my door, but that didn’t mean we were out of the woods. Ry had shadowed Zali and Flynn to the university—he’d waited outside the room while I’d delivered class—and I was under strict instructions to have security walk me to my car. The thought that security would be able to stop something from happening was ridiculous. They were there as a deterrent, not a protective detail. But I’d acquiesced, promising Zali I wouldn’t go anywhere by myself.
He closed the door before padding over to me and climbing onto my lap. I grasped his hips and held him close, pressing my face against his throat and just breathing him in for a moment.
“Nothing happened except that I woke up.”
Lifting my head, I furrowed my brow and opened my mouth to ask what he was talking about. He pressed his finger to my lips before replacing it with his own and kissing me ever so softly.
“I hurt you, and for that I’m sorry. I was holding back, trying to keep everyone happy, and I realized that instead of helping, I was hurting everyone. You in particular.”
I nuzzled his stubbled cheek and let my eyes slip closed, falling into the strength of his arms around my shoulders.
“I’m sorry that you laid your heart on the line and I stomped on it,” he whispered.
“What are you saying?” I asked, my heart in my throat. I wasn’t sure if this was a final goodbye or something entirely different, but I’d been chasing my tail, spinning around and dizzying myself up until I didn’t know which way was up. I needed him to spell it out for me.
“I’m saying I love you.” He kissed me, just a brush of his lips against my cheek, but it was one of the most intimate kisses I’d ever experienced. “I’m saying I’m all in. I want this. I want us.” Another kiss, another flutter of his eyelashes against my cheek. “I want you.” He stared into my eyes and gave me a heart-stopping smile. “Zali and Flynn too. Ry as well, but that’s up to him.”
I kissed him then, cupping his face and plunging my tongue into his mouth to caress his. Tasting him and teasing him, I drank him in.
“No more walking away,” I whispered against his lips.
“Never. I choose you. I love you.”
I squeezed him in a bear hug, holding him close. I was home. Finally home. “I love you too.”
We sat like that, my chair creaking every time we pressed closer together. It was like we wanted to climb into each other, to meld, our base elements reforming as a compound, bound together at our core.
Our lips met over and over, and even though we were both hard, we never pushed for more. Holding each other was enough.
“Have you spoken with Zali and Flynn?” I murmured when we’d broken apart for air, our lips kiss swollen.
“Not yet. I needed to see you first.” He pulled back and reached up to play with the same piece of hair Zali had been fingering. “What’s going on?”
“They asked me to go to Monaco with them.”
“When?”
“Tonight.” I swallowed. “Zali’s looking for information. She asked me to trust her. I do, but I’m scared too.” I didn’t need to tell him why I was terrified. He’d seen the fallout, the aftermath of my stint in jail.
He pursed his lips in a tight smile that was more of a grimace. “Does she know?”
I nodded. “She knows everything.”
“Okay.” He ran his hand through his hair and exhaled slowly before nodding. “Right, then.”
