Page 20 of The Professor's Possession (Crystal River Billionaire Brothers)

A shudder passes through me. He’s so dark... so handsome.

So freakingenigmatic.

And he somehow knows who I am.

I have to admit, I’m kinda terrified of him.

Is that right? To be terrified of your professor?

I take another bite of my almond croissant and try my utmost not to think about that man and the powerful spell he seems to have cast over me.

9

SPENCER

I walk outof the coffee shop.

Don’t look behind, Spencer. Don’t you dare look behind.

But I do.

And I see the runner girl. She’s sitting at the window, still with that Wuthering Heights book in one hand and a half-eaten almond croissant in the other, and she’s trying her damn hardest not to look at me.

I smirk to myself before I step into the driver’s seat of my parked luxury European car. This vehicle is undeniably unaffordable on a professor’s salary, but I never entered academia for the money, especially not when my family has enough money to buy multiple universities outright. That is one good thing about coming from a long lineage of billionaires: you can choose whatever career you fancy and still get to drive a nice car.

I turn my gaze away from the dream girl in the café window. I spot some kids playing at the playground of Crystal River’s park across the street.

That girl in the window... I didn’t notice her when I walked into the café, but the minute I ordered my coffee and noticed the battered copy of Wuthering Heights in my peripheral vision, I instinctively knew she was in the same room as me.

I am acutely conscious of the fact that I absolutely should not have gone over to her, yet an irresistible compulsion drove me to approach and engage with my dream girl. Even prior to reaching her table, I could discern her sweet vanilla scent. Her cheeks, flushed with a delicate rosy hue, reacted viscerally to my gaze. Her brown eyes exhibited a subtle evasion of mine. Noteworthy were the sneakers adorning her feet and the purposeful casualness of her oversized hoodie.

She’s just like she is in my dreams...

Every single movement she committed when she was looking at me carried an understated, sensual grace, imposing an indelible imprint on my senses. I simplyhadto go over to her.

She looked cute enough to devour.

She exhibited a profound sense of embarrassment upon encountering me. She was blushing. It's very evident that I have occupied her thoughts since that class, which ignited a surge of gratification that coursed through my veins as I towered over her at the table, reminiscent of that previous encounter on the drenched sidewalk. Yep, she really was blushing. She remembers me as the man who helped her that night in the rain. The mere notion of that memory arouses an insatiable hunger within me for her.

The thrill of the chase makes my blood burn.

Focus, Spencer.

I am not here to find a girl. Even impossible ones. There are far more important things afoot. Important reasons for why I came back home that don’t involve some dream girl...

If Olivia Weldon gets involved with me, then my past will only come to hurt her. That’s for certain. I am not capable, nor do I need, to have a girl in my life. And that isfinal. I swore to myself that I wouldn’t hurt another partner of mine.

But I can’t wipe her face from my mind.

She was reading that old copy of Wuthering Heights. That’s one of my favorites. Not exactly a book most people, especially her age, would be found reading in a coffee shop in a small American town.

It really is like she has been curated from my dreams.

Do I pursue her? Do I dare go after her?

Is that what the universe wants for me?

I sound like a madman.

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