Page 34 of My Forbidden Professor

“When is the wedding going to be?” he asks, picking up the bags.

“I’ll have to go back to New York in two weeks.” I follow him to the front door, taking one look at the happy interior to sear it into my mind as much as I can before I step over the threshold and pull the door shut behind me. “I promise I’ll be back on the following Monday after the wedding. It won’t stop me working on our dissertation.”

“It’s your father’s wedding. Take all the time you need. The dissertation isn’t going anywhere, so you won’t be letting me down if that’s what is going on in that brilliant head of yours.” Jacob loads our bags into his car and crosses back to me where he winds his arms around me. “I, on the other hand, will miss you like crazy.”

My heart somersaults in my chest, made buoyant by a happy, bubbly feeling I’m not quite used to. I shove down the urge to lock us back inside the house. “I like working on our dissertation. And do you really think I’m brilliant?”

His face smooths and he looks down at me with serious eyes. He traces the line of my jaw and tucks my hair behind my ear. “No thinking involved. I know you’re brilliant. You come alive when we’re working through everything, and to be honest, you’re ahead of me most of the time when it comes to the business we’re building. The thing is...”

My cheeks begin to heat with his compliment because I know he means every word, and I want to hear what else he has to say. “The thing is what?”

He hesitates. “I know you said you might go into your dad’s business after you graduate, but Steph. Your idea is so good, it can work.”

My brow draws tight as I frown. “What are you trying to say?”

“I think the business we’re developing in the dissertation is good enough to be successful. It’s a good solid idea. The market is open. You have the talent. The brain. The drive.”

I stare up at him, shocked and suddenly the world blooms. I’ve assumed that I would work at Blue Sky after my degree. Had thought that way for years, but what if I didn’t?

What if…what if Jacob could be at my side? He’s as excited by this business idea as I am. He underplays it but he’s come up with half the ideas too. It’s not all me.

He’s just as good with the dissertation as I am, and deserves half the credit. He’s selling himself short teaching people instead of doing what he’s so obviously talented at doing. Maybe this was what he’s been waiting for as well as me.

We could be together for far longer than the few more weeks until I get my degree.

“Then do it with me. Build the business with me.”

For one spectacular moment, Jacob’s eyes light and I see endless, exciting possibilities sparkle in their depths before they go flat and the warmth seeps from the air.

“I can’t do that. I can’t walk away from my tenure.” The words are gentle, but they cut deeper than I thought they could.

“Oh, that’s…yeah. Of course. I don’t know what I was thinking.” I step back and wrap my arms about my body. Warmth? Self-protection? Both?

“Steph, it’s not that I don’t want to, but I can’t do anything that will jeopardize my career. I’ve worked too hard for too long. I can’t let that be ruined.” He tries to soften his words with a smile, but it doesn’t reach his eyes. Something rings false with his words, but I can’t pinpoint what it is.

“I understand.” Only, I don’t. I don’t understand at all, and the hollow feeling within me grows in the space where all those brilliant possibilities were. I want to find the source of the ache and push it back inside me because it’s not Jacob’s fault. I was being thoughtless and impulsive.

Building a business together—a life together—is a far cry from a long weekend.

Is that why I’m disappointed? Because I want a life with him? A lifetime? Something that, going by his reaction, will never be.

“Come on. I’d better get you back.”

I slide into the passenger seat of his car, close the door and pull my seatbelt across my chest. The strap digs into me, but the pressure is the only thing keeping me together.

Jacob starts the car and we pull out of the driveway. I don’t have it in me to look at the lake sparkling behind us, knowing I’ll probably never see it again. Jacob offers small talk, as though he can’t find anything big to talk about, and I take it, when all I want to do is tell him to forget anything I said so that he’ll drag me back into his arms and the world will be right again.

Chapter Fifteen

Steph

“I can’t believe I’m actually here,” Adeline whispers. Her gaze doesn’t run over the floor to ceiling windows framing the Empire State Building and the sprawl of Manhattan beyond, but instead is locked on my father standing tall and proud in front of the view.

His attention is riveted on her in return. And why wouldn’t it be? This is their wedding day. She’s stunning. Her blonde hair is swept into a complicated style that only emphasises her beauty. Her perfect figure is accentuated in a lace dress that was made specifically for her by one of New York’s top designers. It’s understated yet classy. Lace covers her chest and artfully around her waist to drape to the floor, and leaves the delicate sweep of her back on display. Diamonds sparkle around her neck, ears and the tiara on top of her head. All of that is superfluous because the beauty that can’t be bought or worn shines within her broad smile and glimmering eyes.

She waves to her mother, seated at a table close to where Dad waits. Lira clasps the hand of the doctor sitting next to her—the one who has helped her walk again. Her face is glowing. She looks happy. Younger. I see where Adeline got her beauty from. Lira is now so different to the woman I met a few months ago, rail thin and sickly from malnutrition.

Lily sits next to the spare seat that is Tristan’s. Her dark hair curls in sophisticated waves about her face but there’s no mistaking the intelligence that emanates from her.

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