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The reflection in the mirror was the one I used to see—icy indifference. Cool, calculated calm.
The old Whitney was back, and not because I wanted her to be. I needed to fix this somehow, even if it meant bending to whatever demands Christian made of me to protect Rhys.
If it came to that, I thought to myself. I tucked my hair behind my ears and walked out of the bathroom and toward the lecture hall.
I was a few minutes early. I walked inside, smiling kindly at my fellow classmates before finding a seat toward the back center like usual.
I ignored my racing heart and the flush that prickled my cheeks as I waited for the inevitable arrival of Rhys—No, Professor. Professor Ellis.
“Rhys,” I whispered in a near silent breath. No one heard, and no one would ever hear me say his name again. I’d left him behind in Sleepy Hollow.
The man that walked into the lecture hall five minutes later wasn’t the same man I’d spent several days with last week.
Ruffled and looking slightly out of sorts, Professor Ellis tossed his briefcase on the table next to the podium and immediately jumped into his lecture without a word in greeting.
Dark circles lined his eyes, and his shoulders were rigid as he did everything but look at me. He didn’t look up from his laptop at all, not for the first half of the hour-long lecture.
Something inside me started to break as I watched him struggle through the lecture. He looked like he wanted to be anywhere but here. I felt a rush of shame, fighting the urge to gather my things and run for the door, but I felt frozen in place as his eyes swept over the room and landed on mine.
Chapter 24
Rhys
I HELD HER GAZE FOR as long as I could without breaking my thoughts away from my lecture. Her eyes flickered in the light of the projector.
I hated this. I hated having to see her and not being able to do anything about it. I could tell she was just as uncomfortable as I was as she blinked and looked away, her expression darkening as she fought to keep her eyes on her laptop instead of the presentation.
She didn’t need to be here. She knew all of the material by heart. In fact, she likely knew more than I did about my own research and theories.
I gritted my teeth and pushed forward, reeling, trying to stay focused while also debating how to get my hands on her again and make this right between us.
There had to be a way. There had to be something we could do.
But the more I thought about it, the more I came back to my original conclusion that keeping her at a distance was the best for both of us.
I felt like I was being drawn like a magnet, fighting an unearthly force anytime she was in my presence, like I had no control of myself.
I didn’t want to hurt her further, so when I finally drew the lecture to a close and shut my laptop, I waited until she made her way down the steps to stop her and pull her aside.
“Whitney,” I said in a low voice.
“Professor Ellis,” she replied without a shred of emotion.
A trio of students passed us, walking to the door. I bit down on the inside of my cheek and watched them leave, then continued, “You don’t need to be here.”
“Of course, I do,” she whispered, shifting the weight of her bag on her shoulder. “Your final is in three weeks—”
“You can take it earlier. I can have it set up for tomorrow with a proctor.”
She stiffened, her eyes fixed on a spot just over my shoulder. She licked her lips but refused to look me in the eyes. “Why?”
“Why?” I leaned down, keeping my eyes on the open door leading into the lecture hall. “Because your presence here is making it difficult to do my job, and I know for a fact you don’t want to be here either.” I didn’t mean the words to be as harsh as they were, but I couldn’t stop them from sounding cold and distant. The leash I had on my emotions was as tight as it could get, but I was quickly losing my grip.
“I’m sorry my presence is so inconvenient to you.”
“Don’t,” I warned, looking her in the eyes. She was looking right at me now, her cheeks burning red. “I hate seeing you like this. Hurting. I didn’t ever want you to feel this way. I’m giving you a way out of this.”
“Fine,” she whispered sharply, squaring her shoulders. “I’ll take your exam tomorrow and you’ll never see me again—”
