Page 71 of The Truth Between

“Thank you,” I managed to say. The money was significant, and I wasn’t sure how to wrap my head around it. I could pay off my college debt entirely and still have money left over, but I would deal with that later. At this moment, all I could think about was Soren’s presence, right here, right now, in my room.

Soren’s hand landed back in his pocket as he stared at me as if he hadn’t seen me in a million years. “I wanted to give this to you in person,” he said. “It was too important not to.”

As he turned to leave, I froze. There was something in his posture, a finality in his movements, that suggested this might be more than just a delivery of a check. It struck me that this could be a farewell, and that thought frightened me enough to act.

“Wait,” I found myself saying, the word escaping my lips before I could fully grasp the implications. He stopped with his hand on the doorknob. “Are you leaving?”

“What do you mean by that?” he asked.

“Will this be the last time I see you?”

Before he responded, he turned around so that he was facing me. “Is that what you want? Do you want me to leave?”

I stared at him, wondering exactly how to voice the words that I wanted to say. After several seconds of silence, my voice made my intentions known. “No, I don’t want you to leave.”

“You don’t know how long I’ve been waiting for you to say something like that.” Soren ate up the distance between us and pulled me into his arms. “Staying away from you and giving you the space you wanted was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done.”

It had grown difficult for me too, once I was able to start processing everything that had happened to me. I wanted nothing more than to talk things through with him, but I was scared that I wasn’t ready to have the conversation.

This time, things felt different.

“We have a lot to discuss,” I said when I noticed that Soren’s lips were drifting down toward mine.

“I know, but there is only one thing that matters right now.”

I raised an eyebrow at his comment. “What’s that?”

“That I tell you how much I’m in love with you.”

His words snatched my breath away temporarily before a grin appeared on my face. “You know what?”

“What’s that?”

“I love you too.”

It felt so good to finally have the words out there in the world, and Soren seemed to appreciate them too. A smirk appeared on his face before he ran a finger across my jawline until it ended up underneath my chin, pushing my face up.

Before I knew it, my eyes were closed, and Soren was kissing me as if our lives depended on it. There was a lot that needed to be worked out between us, but as things stood right now, I was happier than I’d been in months, right here in his arms.

44

IRIS

Itucked a piece of my hair behind my ear as I listened to Soren speak.

I’ve been captivated by his lecture since the first word flew out of his mouth. It didn’t hurt that his wit, charm, and good looks made him impossible to ignore or stop me from squirming in my seat.

I could sense that Professor Soren Grant was about to wrap up his lecture on media economics. I could see other students nodding along to the words he was saying as he held their attention for the last hour and a half. As he concluded, his eyes scanned the crowd, eventually locking with mine. In that brief moment, a silent understanding passed between us, as a smile drifted to my lips. He returned it and all felt right in the world.

I sat back as Soren’s gaze lingered for a second longer than usual before he broke the contact. I couldn’t help but wish that we were alone and that he was commanding me to get on my knees before him until I was unzipping his slacks to take his dick in his mouth.

I squeezed my thighs shut in order to dull the ache that was quickly forming. We still needed to keep our relationship quiet while I was a student here and fantasizing about him in public wasn’t the way to do that.

As the audience began to applaud, signaling the end of the lecture, I found myself sucking in a deep breath as I reflected on the journey that brought us here. I was happy for the first time in what felt like forever and excited about the future versus trying to dig up the past. All aspects of my life seemed to be going the way I wanted them to and I couldn’t wait to see what lay ahead.

The crowd started to disperse, and several people walked down toward the stage to talk to Soren. I remained seated for a couple of minutes, allowing the huge crowd to clear out before I decided to make a move.

That is until an idea formed in my mind.

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