Page 48 of My Forbidden Professor

I raise my hand and rap my knuckles against her door, the hollow thumps echoing like the pounding of my heart.

The emptiness is a cavernous void as my knocks go unanswered. Desperation claws my throat and I rap harder, as if sheer force of will can summon her presence. But the silence stretches on, deafening.

“Hey Professor, looking for Steph...or Stephanie, I guess?”

A wary brunette peers out a few doors down, clearly thrown by my pounding.

“Yeah, have you seen her? It’s important,” I grate out, my raspy voice unrecognizable to my own ears.

She frowns at my rumpled appearance. “Haven’t seen her in days. We assumed she went home for the weekend after...you know.” She trails off awkwardly.

After the internet exploded with those wedding photos, airing her private life for the world. Just picturing her suffering alone makes my chest constrict painfully.

Not just because of the photos. I added to her distress. I should have been on her side.

That’s when I see the envelopes shoved under her door, dated days ago.

“Hey, that’s private…” I snatch the envelopes despite the girl’s protest, but I silence her with a look before stalking off.

Steph would have collected them if she’d come back here.

She’s not here.

She’s gone.

My breath catches hard in my lungs because I let this happen. I stood back and let her leave. After everything, she must truly believe herself to be unforgivably alone.

Fingers shaking, I dig out my cell and dial her number, praying she’ll answer this time. That she’ll let me fix this, but it goes straight to voicemail. I grip my cell hard and listen to her voice.

“Steph...God, I’m so sorry,” I rasp out, voice cracking with unvarnished regret. “I was wrong, so catastrophically wrong about where my priorities should have been. With you. You’re...you’re everything. And I let you down in the worst way.”

I pause, chest heaving with the force of emotion threatening to choke me.

“Just...please, call me back. Give me a chance to make this right, to show you how fucking vital you are to me. I’m begging you, Steph. Don’t shut me out, not yet.”

I hang up but I won’t leave it like this. I fucked up. I need to fix it.

If she’s not here, there’s only one other logical place she could be. Her home back in New York. I pivot sharply on my heel and break into a dead sprint in the direction I’ve just come, leather soles skidding and eating up the pavement.

Lungs straining the frigid air, I barrel toward the parking garage and my car. It’s deserted except for scattered vehicles, my footfalls echoing off concrete. I shove the key in, needing to start driving toward my girl.

“Going somewhere, Professor Black?”

I whip my head up to find Marcus looming in the shadows outside my open door. Fucking hell, the absolute last thing I need to deal with right now. I don’t want to hear his bullshit.

“Not that it’s any of your concern,” I bite out tersely, angling my body to start the engine while pinning him with a look that clearly dismisses any further conversation. “But if you’ll excuse me—”

“I want my money, Black. And I want it tonight,” he says.

“That’s impossible. There’s a process—”

“That’s not my problem.” Marcus cuts me off.

I strangle the wheel in a tight grip. “I’m not doing this any more for you, Marcus. No more money. No more stealing. I’m done.”

Marcus’s bark of laugher is the last thing I expect. “You’ll never be done.”

“What are you talking about?” I snap.

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