“This is real, Petal. As much as it’s going to pain me, I’m going to move for a moment. Please stay here.”
She begrudgingly lets her hand free from the nape of my neck and with a subtle groan, I back off her body. Being away from her for less than fifteen seconds is like the chill from a solar eclipse.
I can feel her eyes boring into my back, and slightly lower. Every hair on my neck stands on immediate end. I quietly slide open a cedar box in my top dresser drawer to find the velvet covered one on the inside. I palm it before closing the door to face her.
“Petal, would you sit up for a moment, please?”
“Of course.” She pushes herself up and leans back against my headboard, holding the sheet up over her chest. “Are you all right?”
“I am. I am wonderful, actually.” I hold the velvet box in my hand and sit down beside her and her eyes go wide when she sees it.
“Tristan…”
“No,” I smile and shake my head, “it’s not what you think.”
I can see her physically deflate as her tense muscles relax instantly. “Okay, I’m sorry,” she giggles. “Please continue.”
“Hold out your hand for me, please.” Her left hand holds the silver satin to her chest as her right hand extends to me. The small box creaks as I open it. The black velvet gives way to a champagne-colored interior. Carefully propped where they’ve been tucked away for nearly three years are a pair of two carat diamond earrings in a round cut, encased in platinum settings. “Petal, these belonged to Raissa. I bought them for her on the day of her college graduation. I told her that wherever she may go, I wanted her to remember the beauty of excellence, the sparkle I knew her to possess, and that I will always be with her no matter the distance whether space and time.
“I’m still learning that. I’m getting better at it. They’ve been kept in the dark too long, just like my heart. Petal, will you accept them and wear them with pride? I want you to know the same things that they represented for her. This is a way for me to bring my two loves together. She would want you to have them. She only ever wanted my total happiness. I’ve found that in you. Consider this her approval of you, of us.” I watch her stare at the earrings and her bottom lip begins to tremble. “Please don’t cry.” I reach out and swipe a tear that falls from her cheek with my thumb.
“I can’t help it,” she sniffs and tucks the sheet under her arm, so she can use her hand to gently touch the diamonds. “These are beautiful. Tristan… I don’t know if I can accept them.”
“You can.” I place my hand on hers. “You can because you have earned the space in my heart and you deserve to have them. She would agree with me.”
Nora slides her hair over her right shoulder before officially taking the box from my hand. She places them one by one gently in her ears. She feels the backs before she looks up at me, laying her hand in her lap, leaning forward to place a soft kiss on my lips. “I know where I’d like to wear them first. I’d like to try going back to the club. I want to wear them with the dress you first saw me in. I want to dance not only for you, but with you.”
I lean in to kiss her again then I slide my knuckle down her cheek. “I would love nothing more.”
We fall back into the sheets, pulling them over our head to hide us from the world, wrapping up in each other, and with a softness we’ve not shared yet, we make love slowly, beautifully, until our bodies give out and sleep takes over.
Chapter 24
Tristan
I left Nora dozing in my bed to settle some business. While some much-needed coffee and breakfast was cooking, I opted to send the email I promised Adrianna I would send to reach out to Dean Harris for an audience before him. As I was plating a tray for our meal in bed, I heard the unmistakable pinging noise from my email inbox. As it turns out, he has time for me today, just after the lunch hour. This is not how I’d prefer to spend my Friday afternoon, but it needs to be done.
Nora and I head to campus together. As I send her off to her class, I ask her to meet me in my office after. Either way, she needs to hear the news, whatever that might be, directly from me. I know she would have rather come along, but this is something that needs to be done one-on-one.
Warren Harris and I go back a long way. Too long some would say. He knows every bit of my reputation from before I even came to Hyde. I know he will throw a massive number of questions at me as well as question my every motive. No matter what, I cannot allow him to push my buttons or come to any other conclusion than the truth. Nora and I are a couple in all senses of the word. I would and will leave the university if acceptance isn’t in the cards.
Warren’s door is open a crack and his assistant is nowhere to be seen. After rolling out a bit of tension in my neck and straightening my lapels, I knock on his door.
“Come in, Tristan.”
I push my way inside to the call of my name. “Good afternoon, Warren. Would you like the door open or closed?”
“Closed would be best, don’t you think?” he states as he rises from behind his desk.
I latch the heavy wooden door before walking across the room to offer my hand. “It’s been a long while, hasn’t it?”
“Indeed. I’ve heard some positive things from the department. Won’t you have a seat?”
“I will. Thank you.” I hate the bow to the emperor feeling I have in his office. He likes it that way and, much to my disgust, if that’s how the game needs to be played, so be it.
“I’ve also been hearing a few things circling the internet and, in turn, across the rumor mill on campus.”
I carefully fold my hands in my lap as I speak. “Rumor mills are shit mills as far as I’m concerned. If you want the truth, ask the parties involved.”
“All right then. I will. What are you doing? You have to be a brazen fool to be dating a student.”
I need to count to five before answering him because all I can see at the moment is a rainbow of red. “First, we both know I’m no fool. Second, Miss Morgan, Nora, is not simply a student. I am not mucking about with an eighteen-year-old coed. Nora is a highly intelligent, well-traveled, stunning woman, who is fulfilling her academic wishes at a later age than traditionally done. Her opinions, as well as her dissections, are spot-on. She could be a master’s candidate and excel in my estimation.”
“Is that her professor, supervisor, or her lover speaking?”
My hands leave their gentle cradles with each other to become gently vibrating fists on the arms of the chair I'm sitting in. “Cut the shit, Warren. I’m not going to discuss what goes on behind our closed doors. That’s beneath you and demeaning to myself and Nora. We both know there is no policy on the books that prohibits my personal relationship with her. I’m giving you a courtesy, so I would appreciate it if you’d refrain from speaking of or thinking that Nora’s privacy is up for debate. I can assure you it’s not.”
“Those are some very strong words, Tristan. While there is no written rule, there is however, a significant number of unwritten ones. This borders on the bad side of all of them.”
“Are you willing to lose me and the portions of the program I’ve built since coming here?”