Page 130 of When Hearts Collide
“No!” My feet hurtle forward, wanting to go to him, but he halts me with a chilling glare.
“Please leave us, Ms. Callahan,” the dean repeats his command. “I’ll be in touch.”
My hands fist around my sides and I step toward the door. Pausing before opening it, I look back, finding the dean facing the window and Ryland’s impassioned gaze on mine.
“I love you,” I mouth, my eyes pleading with him to not give up on us. Despite everything, to keep fighting. My heart is in my hands, wishing he’ll take it and keep it safe.
His nostrils flare and a muscle pulses in his jaw.
He looks away, leaving my heart a bloody mess on the floor.
Chapter 48
I scroll my phone, my fingers pausing on a photo of Ryland staring into the camera, his lips twitching into a smile as I pressed a kiss onto his cheek.
It was after one of our scenes at Noire and Ryland had just placed a special order for omelets and pancakes in a restaurant downstairs because I told him that was what I was craving, even though it was in the middle of the night. I leaped into his arms like a koala hugging a tree, one hand holding a cell phone.
“Say cheese,” I whispered after going in for my sneak attack.
He chuckled, his arms automatically wrapping around my waist. “What’s gotten into you?”
I took my photo and pulled back, smiling at him. “You’re my snowy owl, you know? The powerful bird rarely seen but a sight to behold. I’m the lucky hunter who found one in the wild and I’m keeping him. Forever!” I peppered more kisses over his face.
“Is that right? A hunter, you say? What type of hunter kisses his prey instead of killing it?”
He hoisted me up and stared at me with so much love in his eyes, I could get drunk on his gaze.
“The smart kind, Ryland. A hunter who kills will have a meal or two, but I know better.”
Leaning in, I kissed the corner of his lips, followed by a quick lick, relishing the way his breath hitched.
“My method is no less lethal. Death by a thousand kisses. That way, I have your heart and you’ll never, ever leave me. My soul will always be full.”
He slanted his head and sealed his lips with mine, his tongue swiping at the seam. “That sounds like one hell of a way to go,” he rasped.
Curling my arms around his neck, I deepened our kiss, my hips moving over the outline of his hard cock pressing against his stomach.
“Again.” I moaned.
“Are you sore?”
I shook my head, and he groaned in approval.
“Who’s the best hunter, Ryland?” I whispered as he grunted between our fevered kisses, his feet already moving toward the master bedroom once more.
“Always you, little lark. Always you.”
Tears cloud my vision as I trace his face in the photo. We were so happy then.
So happy.
My fingers fiddle with the jeweled key pendant around my neck. He hasn’t asked for it back.
But he also hasn’t contacted me since that day two weeks ago. All my calls, texts, and emails have gone unanswered. He has been placed on immediate administrative leave and disappeared without a trace. Another adjunct professor, a Professor Smith, is taking over the class and JEAP committee for the rest of the year.
The silver lining in this mess is, my classmates have been supportive, staunch defenders of me and Ryland to whoever approaches them. Even Pete Crosby had tried to comfort me earlier in class, and the damn bastard doesn’t even like me.
The media have been reporting nonstop on the alleged illicit affair between the Prince of the USA and his much younger student. Sources come out of the woodwork, from classmates who have defended us, saying they have never seen Professor Ryland being anything other than professional to random Joes making up stories for a quick buck. Then, there’s the news of Fleur Twilight’s IPO being temporarily delayed for unknown reasons.
