“Doesn’t change anything, does it? You’re still my professor, and I’m still your student.”
He rolls his shoulders back and angles his chin a little higher, burrowing his gaze into me so he can take me in with measure. Watching him makes my skin tingle and my pulse race as I wait for his answer.
His eyes darken with desire and molten heat. “Maybe tonight I don’t want that. Maybe I don’t want to be the college professor tonight. Maybe I just want to be James Marchesi, and I want you to be Paige St. Claire. Maybe… I just want to spend my night with you.”
My heart pauses for a beat, and my lungs burn. “Me?”
His heated gaze continues to drink me in. “Yes. Maybe it could be a… game. Do you want to play?”
Play?
I imagined something like this happening so many times after we kissed, I lost count. But… taking the professional relationship of teacher and student out of the equation is a dangerous game for me to play even for one night. I already have a taste of kissing him, and I already have a taste of what it feels like to be hurt by him.
Do I want to venture down that road again with everything that’s going on in my life?
Do I want to go down this road knowing where it could lead?
The sexual desire in his eyes is enough to tell me what he thinks.
If I play, no matter what we do, I’ll want more. When I first met him, I felt a connection I’d never felt with anyone before.
It ripples through me now, stronger, begging me to accept and take this break, this escape from life no matter the consequences.
A thrill races through me, surpassing the reins of control. It makes me push aside my fears.
What if I never have a moment like this again? What if I never meet anyone like him again who makes me feel the way he does?
“Yes,” I answer.
“Then take off your mask.”
Taking off my mask means I’m with the person I’ve chosen to spend the night with and I’m revealing myself to them.
When I do, he hands me a drink.