Page 127 of The Professor's Possession (Crystal River Billionaire Brothers)

And so I take a seat next to the girl at the table and wait for Spencer to serve me his self-styled famous pancakes. As we eat, I talk to Daisy, asking her about her school and her friends. I’m trying to keep it light.

But then, randomly at one point, she casts her eyes downward.

“Mommy gets sad a lot,” she says quietly. Spencer can’t hear, standing a few yards away from us cleaning the pans. “I like to be with Daddy more than be with Mommy.”

“Oh, really?”

Daisy turns around in her seat so that she can talk to Spencer. “I want to stay with you, Daddy.”

Spencer looks at his daughter with deep concern in his eyes. His gaze flickers to me. I can tell we’re both sharing the same thoughts. “Mommy is going to get some help,” he explains. “She’s going to get some medicine, and then she’s going to slowly get better.”

“I want to stay with you, Daddy. I don’t want to go back to her. I hate living with her. She’s always so angry. It makes me really, really sad.”

I lean in close. “Daisy, do you want to know what I do when I get sad?” I ask her.

She wipes away tears and looks expectably up at me. “No?”

“When I get sad, I think of all the good things that I like to do and all the people I love and who love me,” I reply. “I picture them all giving me a big hug. It really makes me feel a hundred times better.”

Daisy closes her eyes. I can see she’s thinking the same.

I know that Spencer is watching me.

She finally opens her eyes and bursts into a smile. “It does work, Olivia. I feel better.”

“See? All good.”

“Thank you, Olivia. I thought of daddy and mommy and you and the dog I want to have, and I thought of everyone giving me a big hug. Those things make me happy.”

My heart...

I glance down at the time on my phone. “I really have to go,” I announce. “Are you going to be at college, Spencer?”

The man sighs. “No. I’m going to take the next few days off to sort out... everything. I’ll give you a call when things are less heated.”

I say my goodbye to Daisy, giving her a wet kiss on the cheek. I hear her giggle one last time and it fills me up with joy, and then Spencer’s walking me to the front door.

As I swing open the door, his hand grazes mine. The merest brush of his skin is enough to send me wild. He seizes me and draws me in close.

“You’re the best thing I’ve ever let into my life,” he says softly. “What I said last night was true; the depth of feelings I have for you are like no other. I can’t control myself. I must have you as mine.”

I give him a quick kiss.

“Those are sweet words,” I retort before skipping out of his house teasingly. I can feel his eyes burning into my back as I walk down the sidewalk with the biggest damn smile on my face.

61

OLIVIA

There’s beenno sign of my professor for the next few days after that morning with the pancakes. No sightings of him at college. No messages sent between us. I know he’s sorting out all the issues with his daughter and Quinn’s...episode, but it does feel like he’s completelydisappearedoff the face of the earth.

I get so worked up about him and his disappearance that I finally decide to send him a message.

Hey, Spencer! Hope everything is okay x

A few hours later,he replies. Just three words.

All is fine.

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