Page 74 of Bachelor

A soft knock on my door diverted my attention back to reality and I straightened up. “Come in,” I said gruffly, taking off my glasses and running my hand over my face. It was nearly eight in the evening, and I’d been sure I was the only person left in Hollis Hall. Apparently not.

The door opened and Whitney slipped inside, her hair loose and tumbling over her shoulders as she closed the door behind her, her fingers deftly turning the lock. It locked with a click, and I watched as she moved toward my desk, her mouth stretching into a smile that I hadn’t seen for a long, long time.

“What is it?” I asked as she rounded my desk and leaned against it. I pushed my chair out of the way to step closer to her, but she handed me a glossy folder.

“There’s nothing in the bylaws that can stop us from being together. Publicly.”

“But there is. It explicitly says students and professors are not permitted to enter into romantic relationships of any kind.”

“Students and professors in thesame departmentare not allowed to enter into relationships with each other. And the bylaws clearly state that it pertains to the undergraduate programs, Rhys. There’s nothing in the bylaws about graduate students dating professors, even in shared departments.”

“You’re sure?”

“I’m positive.” Her eyes shone like emeralds in the dusty overhead light as she smiled up at me. “I read through it all. There is nothing we could get in trouble for. Absolutely nothing. This is the loophole we’ve been trying to find, Rhys. If anyone even tried to bring a complaint against us, we’d be in the clear. I’m a graduate student, and I’m not in your department anymore. Even last semester when I was your student, we didn’t do anything wrong. We’ve been fine this entire time.”

I broke from her gaze and looked down at the folder. I opened it, flipping through the pages. I’d looked through the bylaws multiple times and had always come to the same conclusion—that we were wrong. That we would be in trouble for this.

She sighed and I looked back down at her. With a shrug, she continued. “There is a chance they could change the bylaws, hold a vote to add a clause pertaining to our situation, but that would take months of meetings and votes and then implantation.” She waved a hand, chuckling. “I’ve seen those meetings of the university board members and they’re more worried about funding than anything else. We’re fine. We’ve always been fine.”

I wasn’t sure what to say. I wasn’t used to this sudden weightless feeling. The only time I felt like this was when I was with her, privately, able to steal kisses and tell her how much I missed her. Bill’s bookshop had been our only safe space for weeks now, and those moments were brief and fleeting, days and sometimes weeks passing between them.

The folder slid from my fingers. I reached for her and pulled her into my chest. She wrapped her arms around my waist and buried her face in my shirt, both of us laughing softly, both of us in shock.

All this time we’d been reading that same section of the bylaws without looking between the lines. What a waste of time. What a waste of precious time.

She tilted her head up so she was looking at me. “We’re fine.”

“We’re fine.”

The words still felt hollow as Cassandra’s warning floated back into my mind, but Whitney rose on her toes and pressed a kiss to my lips, causing the thought to dissolve entirely. I held her tighter, deepening the kiss. Her tongue slid over my lower lip, teasing me, before she gently bit down.

“Whitney,” I breathed, having to fight to keep my mind on the conversation at hand and not on the image of ripping her clothes off and bending her over my desk. “We need to talk about this.”

“Later,” she purred, and the sound of her voice against my neck had me melting into her touch.

But I pulled away, resting my hands on her shoulders. “Tell me about having lunch with your dad. You said it went fine.”

“Itdidgo fine.” She tried to lean into me while I had her at arm’s length. “We talked for a while. He was the one who told me about the bylaws.”

“He knows about us?”

“He knows about the rumors on campus. Christian did a great job spreading it like wildfire through the social circles back home. I didn’t say anything. I don’t know why, but I just didn’t.”

I knew why. I knew it was because her parents would riot if they found out she was dating someone like me. Someone with no money, who worked outside in the sand and dirt looking for bones. Who spent their time in a cluttered, dusty office surrounded by books instead of stacks of cash.

She must have seen my thoughts behind my eyes because she reached up and touched my cheek. “Stop,” she whispered, her voice soothing and calm. “Everything’s fine. You’re overthinking it.”

“I don’t think I am,” I said, deciding not to air my thoughts about the secondary issue starting to cloud over our situation here on campus.

Could they take her away from me? Would she bend if they gave her an ultimatum?

I couldn’t let her choose between me and her family.

“Come to New York City with us for Spring Break,” she said softly, her voice a low, seductive whisper.

“Bill mentioned it already. I’m thinking about it.”

“What is there to think about? We’d get to be alone together, Rhys. We’d be able to go out on dates and be a real couple for what feels like the first time. Those two days in Sleepy Hollow weren’t enough for me.”

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