I thought about all the things I should’ve asked him last night, things that had come to me, but I hadn’t bothered about getting the answers at the time. Even though right now I still didn’t care because the hammering behind my head was taking priority, this might be the only chance I actually got to question them.
“Why were you at the club?”
He placed his cup to his mouth and took another long sip before placing it down and exhaled softly. “I was there because of you.”
I felt my heart practically stop in my chest. I grasped the edge of my chair, my nails pressing against the wood. I heard him well, but I wasn’t sure whether I grasped what he actually meant.
“You were there because of me?” I licked my lips and took a deep breath in. “What does that mean?”
He didn’t answer for several seconds, but the way he studied me was almost fierce, as if he were examining my reaction to his words.
“It means exactly what it means.” He leaned forward and put his hands together on top of the table, his forearms parallel with each other. He stared me directly in the eyes. “I overheard you talking about going there, about what time you’d be there, when I was at the coffee shop. So, I followed you, Grace. I can only guess what happens at clubs, and I was correct. I was there because of you, because I wanted to protect you.”
I shook my head gently but didn’t know why I was doing that.
This was genuinely happening?
Professor Baldwin, Seth, had stalked me?
That should’ve horrified me, yet I found myself warming. The sheer concept that he’d gone to those efforts to be close to me, to think he was protecting me, had excitement surging through my veins in an almost perverted manner.
“I don’t think that’s normal,” I mumbled, but the words were foreign to me.
“It’s very normal when it comes to my need for you, my desire, Grace.” I felt my eyes widen and leaned back a little bit, the chair creaking from my shift. I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t know how to react. This had been what I’d fantasized of but never thought I’d have as my reality.
I was in love with Professor Baldwin, yet could I ever honestly admit that?
I didn’t know how to handle his words, his admission.
“And when you were at the coffee shop and overheard me and Alexis… were you there by chance?”
He stared at me for a second before ultimately shaking his head. I felt my heart race.
“I’ve wanted you for a long time, Grace, since the very first moment I saw you step into my class with that clear lip gloss on your red lips, wearing that little sundress, and your hair piled in a messy bun.” The way he spoke was as if he envisioned that very day right now.
“I remember there was perspiration on your temple, and how much I wanted to run my fingers along those beads.”
I felt like I was sweating now, from what he said, how he watched me.
Was this actually happening?
“Yes, Grace. It’s actually happening.”
I hadn’t realized I’d said those words out loud.
He reached out, and I was frozen in place as he moved a strand of hair away from my shoulder, his fingertips lingering on my cheek. “And now that I’ve admitted how I feel, now that you know the truth … I’m not about to let you go.”
She’d been incredibly silent since I told her how I felt in my kitchen, and although I wanted her to talk to me, I also knew pushing her would just drive her further away.
Grace desired me as well. I could see that in the way she stared at me, in the way she bit her lip when she thought I didn’t notice her stares. But maybe I’d misjudged the circumstance and told her this far too fast?
She’d been dissimulated with being at my home, me being at the club. And then I put it in her lap that I wanted her, that I’d pretty much chased her to protect her.
Grace would come to understand that I did it all for her.
I pulled to a stop in front of her modest cottage and put the car in park. I maintained my hands on the steering wheel as I gazed across at her. She was chewing her lip, apprehensive, maybe not knowing what to say, how to react.
“Grace?” I said softly.
