My stomach roils, and an ache forms in the back of my throat. I can almost taste the sour tang of rejection.
All the emotions I’d held back since arriving at the empty house resurface, and the backs of my eyes sting with the onset of tears.
I couldn’t handle it if Marius canceled our date. It’s too much for one person to handle in the space of seventy-two hours.
“Phee?” Charlotte leans into my side, the long sweep of her honey-blonde hair filling one side of my vision. “Talk to me.”
“It’s nothing,” I whisper back.
Her stare burns the side of my face but I gaze into the computer, my vision blurring. It isn’t until everyone around me starts moving that I realize the lecture has ended.
I close my laptop, stuff it in my bag, and shuffle down the row of seats. Veer descends in front of me carrying his guitar case like a backpack. I can tell by the stiff set of his shoulders that he’s dreading the moment he has to pass the stage to reach the door.
So am I.
Maybe Veer might finally understand what it feels like to give someone your virginity, only for them to act like it never happened. I shove that memory out of my head.
My days of pining over that guy are long gone.
“You there.” Professor Segul’s voice cracks like a whip.
Veer stops, and I bump into his case.
The professor is a dark specter in my peripheral vision. I couldn’t miss his presence even if I turned my head the other way. As if my eyes have a will of their own, I peer at him out of the corner of my eye.
“Yes?” the tall student says through clenched teeth.
“Not you.” Professor Segul flicks his head toward the exit and fixes me with his cold stare.
I flinch. He may as well have thrown a dagger.
“I’m talking to the girl who didn’t pay an ounce of attention and stared into her computer the entire lecture.”
A fist of anxiety reaches through my ribcage and seizes my heart. But I force my features to still.
“Yes, sir?” I keep my tone light, trying not to imply that I hadn’t spent half the weekend sending him pictures of my pussy from every imaginable angle.
“Follow me.” The professor turns on his heel. I can’t even call him Marius in my head anymore because nothing about this man resembles the sexy-as-hell dom who bombarded me with filthy texts and delicious dick pics.
Veer turns, offers me a grimace of sympathy, and heads out of the small lecture theater. It’s more than he’s given me in the past two years, but I have much bigger worries.
Charlotte gives my shoulder a tight squeeze. “You went home last weekend. Did anything happen with your dad?”
I bite down on my bottom lip and finally meet her concerned, green eyes.
“Yeah.” My voice catches. “Tell you later?”
She nods. “Come to my studio for lunch.”
I bow my head, half in a nod, half in an apology. Because I have no idea what to tell her. Charlotte isn’t the best at keeping secrets, and our fathers are associates. If word somehow got to Dad that I’d flashed a professor…
My mind goes blank. I don’t even want to entertain that thought.
When I step out of the lecture theater, Professor Segul stands in the hallway but walks away the moments our gazes touch. I barely know the man but I can already tell he’ll hunt me down if I don’t follow.
I walk on wooden feet, down the hallway, around the corner, and up the stairs to the wing of the main building where all the lecturers hold their office hours.
By the time I reach the top, there’s no sign of Marius, but I already guess he’s occupying Professor Eckhart’s old room.