Page 94 of His to Teach
The confusion doesn’t leave her face. “You requested it? Why?”
“You want the official reason, or the real one?” Apparently, Harper is too bewildered to respond, so I continue. “I told my dean that I need the time to research and rework the central question of the project. I explained that I was having some personal issues that would make it difficult for me to take on that work while teaching.”
“Personal issues?”
I watch her carefully. “Telling him I was too destroyed over a woman to leave my house sounded a bit like an overshare.”
Harper’s mouth pops open in shock and I can’t help but grin. “They weren’t really happy about it,” I continue. “But I told themit wasn’t a request. If they didn’t grant the leave, I’d have to quit.”
She shakes her head, unblinking, confusion clear in her eyes. “I don’t understand.”
“I can’t work here and still get what I want. So I took care of it.”
“You took care of it.” Her tone is flat, making it hard for me to tell what she’s thinking. “By quitting?”
“No. They decided they would prefer to lose me for a while and keep me on staff, rather than lose me for good.”
“How long?”
I shrug. “Until you finish your program.”
I can see the moment it all sinks in for her, the realization that I did this for her. For us.
“That’s two years,” she whispers.
“I can afford to forgo a paycheck for two years. Besides, it will give me lots of time to research my book.” I offer her a grin. “I’m going to need it, now that I won’t have a team of interns doing the grunt work.”
“Nate…” she trails off, her mouth opening and closing a few times, like she can’t figure out what to say. So I do what I do best—I take the lead.
“Listen to me, Harper Cain,” I tell her, leaning in close. Close enough to smell the familiar vanilla and rose fragrance that clings to her skin and hair. God, I’ve missed the way she smells. It’s such a relief, being this close, that I can’t speak for a moment. I swallow a few times, trying to gather myself.
My voice is strong when I continue. “I need you in my life. But even more than that, I need you to be happy. And I don’t think you would be happy if you don’t finish your program. So I needed to figure out a way for you to do that. This seemed like my best option.”
“You quit…for me?”
“Took a leave of absence,” I correct gently, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. “An unpaid leave of absence, but still. I’ll have a job waiting once you have your master’s degree.”
“And you did that for me.”
She seems stuck on this point, and I feel a rush of regret that I ever allowed her to believe that I wouldn’t do something like this for her. That I wouldn’t do so much more—wouldn’t do anything within my power to take care of her.
I place my hands on her cheeks, cradling her precious face in my palms, relishing the feel of her soft skin, the way her breathing picks up a little at the contact. “Harper, I’m in love with you. I want to be with you. I want you to be happy. That’s really all there is to it.”
“What about…what you said that morning?—”
I place a finger over her mouth. I don’t want to think about that morning, not when I’m so close to finally making it right, to winning her back.Please, God, let me get her back.
“I was stupid that morning. Stupid and scared. Scared I was going to hurt you, that I wasn’t strong enough to take care of you. That I wasn’t what you needed.”
“And now?”
I stare into her warm brown eyes, gathering every bit of confidence and self-assuredness that I possess. “Now I know that there’s no one else who can care for you the way I do. No one else who understands you the same way. No one else who can give you what I can give you.”
“And what’s that?” she whispers, breathless. “What can you give me that no one else can?”
I can tell from the way her eyes keep darting down to my mouth, so close now, that she’s as affected by this moment as I am. And God, does it make me want her. I want to take her right here on my desk, against the door, directly in front of the window where anyone could see. I want to claim her for theentire world to know. To turn her into a whimpering, needy little thing who can only be satisfied by me. Her lover. Her protector. Her dominant.
“I can give you everything,” I say simply. “I can give you every single thing you need.” If her body’s response to me isn’t enough to prove that, my own actions this morning tell me everything I need to know. I would sacrifice for this woman, would give up anything I have just to make things right for her.
