“Someone worth me getting my shit together for.” It came out in grumble, like he wasn’t even sure how he’d gotten there himself.

I laughed then and leaned over, deciding to kiss him after all. When I pulled back I smiled at his serious expression. “You sound so agonized about it.”

He lifted a shoulder and looked at me, and I felt scared for a minute that what he would say next would hurt me. That he would blow off this moment and make it something less than what it had meant to me.

“I can be conflicted and still know I am where I’m supposed to be. I’m trying to learn how to make that work.”

They weren’t exactly lines from Romeo and Juliet, but they didn’t have to be, because I knew that Patrice Denis was braving unchartered territory, and he was doing it for me.

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Fifteen

Patrice

The knock on the door came a second before the holler from the hallway.

“Are you ready, professor?”

I just laughed, because for a guy who looked like he’d be right at home at the Cornell Club, Easton Archer could holler. I grimaced at the racket he was making then remembered he owned the fucking building, so we were probably okay.

“I’m coming.” I could barely keep the humor out my voice, because that was my permanent state these days.

I walked around happy as hell, smiling at people and asking about their dogs and shit. It was like fucking with Easton Archer had turned me into a...happy person. I opened the door, digesting that new development with a grin on my face, knowing what my current state of nothing but sweats on would have on Easton.

He didn’t even say hello, he just got a look at my chest and jumped me.

I stumbled backward, laughing my ass off as he did his best to get this tongue down my throat.

“This is not right.” Those eyes looked up at me like I was everything he’d ever wished for.

I exhaled and nuzzled his neck. “Your eyes make me think of the semester I spent in Edinburgh. Whiskey and moss.”

He groaned as he backed me up against the nearest wall. “Why do you hate me? Here I am trying to be suave. Trying to woo you, so that you don’t think I’m just after your dick, and you start telling me my eyes are like all Scottish and drugging?”

I couldn’t help it, I busted up and tightened my arms around his waist. “You trying to woo me, counselor?”

He ran his hands over my bare shoulders and the possessiveness there made me grin again. When he answered his voice was strong.