Page 67 of My Forbidden Professor

He took them when she was sleeping. At her most vulnerable.

I snap the phone closed, bile rising in my throat, and level Daniel with a look of pure loathing. “You’re a sick prick, you know that?”

His mouth stretches into a smile and he laughs. He laughs! “Maybe so. But I’m a smart sick prick who’s about to be a very rich man.”

“And the photo of me and Steph?”

He blinks slowly. “Check the end of the folder.”

I scroll down to see the one shot of us he’s taken. It takes me a long deep inhale to quash my rage.

“How do I know you haven’t made copies or backups of these? I don’t want this coming back to haunt me after today,” I counter, reclaiming my composure.

A sly grin spreads across his face. “Now why would I risk having evidence like that floating around? No, these are the only copies. I’ve never trusted the cloud. I want the leverage right here in my hand whenever I need it. But now with twenty million about to hit my account, I won’t need sad little mementos anymore.”

I eye him for a moment before giving a curt nod and pocketing the phone. Moving to the laptop, I quickly pull up the transfer app and enter the account details Daniel gives me. My finger hovers over the send button.

“Wait,” Daniel interjects. “Make sure this transfer is layered and encrypted six ways to Sunday. I don’t want any whiff of a trail leading back to me like that idiot Sotheby.”

I turn and feel my lips twist into a semblance of a grin. “What’s the matter, Daniel? Don’t you trust your dear old professor?”

His eyes narrow to slits. “This had better go off without a hitch. If I sniff the Feds on my tail because of your screw ups, you’ll be sorry.”

“I could say the same,” I reply evenly. “I’m sorry I ever had the misfortune of having you as a student in the first place.”

He watches as I click send. The transfer bar begins to fill until it becomes solid. He has no idea the transfer is embedded with code that will tie him in with Marcus’s embezzlement. An unpleasant chuckle rumbles from him as he backs toward the door. “Nice doing business with you, Professor.”

Not nice doing business with you too, asshole.

The second the door closes behind him, I lock the door and pull my cell out of my top pocket. “Did you get all that?” I ask.

“Every delicious second,” Steph replies, satisfaction clear in her tone. “God, I love you.”

Relief washes over me in a warm wave. “It’s over, Steph. He’s out of our lives for good.”

She lets out an amused huff. “Well, he may be out of ours, but Dad has a few more cards to play with Daniel when it comes to Blue Sky.”

I can’t help but smile at the implications, already looking forward to watching David putting Daniel in his place. I’ve had my revenge and now David is due his. For now, though, I’m content just basking in the first true sense of peace and closure I’ve felt in years.

“And…I’ve heard back from Midwestern administration. I’m free to finish my last weeks of my degree online. You’re officially not my professor as of today.”

“That means…” No more hiding, no more fear. Just us, the way it’s meant to be.

“I do need to finish my dissertation, and as author to author, I’d like to officially request your presence here in New York. Tomorrow. And stay for as long as it takes to finish.”

My heart skips a beat at the prospect of having her back in my arms again so soon.

A thickness enters her tone. “We’re finally going to be able to go out in public together. No sneaking around, no lies about who we are...”

The breath catches in my throat as the implications of her words spark a delicious flare of heat low in my belly. We’ve never been able to be an actual couple before, never been truly free.

But now, finally, we can be.

“I’ll put in my notice. Finish off the rest of the semester for my students online,” I murmur, unable to keep the growing hunger from my voice.

Steph’s soft laughter dances across the line, stoking the flames even higher.

“I’ll be counting the hours until I see you, Professor. This is just the beginning.”

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