“Is that you?” Dr. Gilchrist said behind her.

Panic bubbled in Alice’s chest as she slowly turned to face him, feeling like a cornered animal.

“I thought it was you. You really are back.” Gilchrist’s mouth curved into a predatory half-smile. “Look at you.”

Ugly, unclean feelings skittered over Alice’s skin as his gaze trailed down her body. Everything about him repulsed her. His too-long-for-his-age hair and his trying-too-hard-to-be-cool clothes. His arrogant, smirky smile. His smell.

The too-familiar cologne burned in her sinuses, and Alice shifted away from him, remembering the way the scent had clung to her clothes and lingered in her nose after their meetings in his office. Her gorge rose and she swallowed, struggling to keep her eyes on him.

Don’t look away. Don’t give him the satisfaction of knowing you’re scared of him.

“Dr. Gilchrist.” At least being in the library gave her an excuse to speak in a whisper. She wasn’t sure she could have managed much more.

His eyebrows lifted slightly. “I used to be Neil. What’s the matter? Aren’t we friends anymore?”

She didn’t respond, conscious of all the students around them. The guy at the next carrel had earbuds in, but the tapping of his pen against the desk reminded her of his proximity and made her feel marginally safer.

“You disappeared on me,” Gilchrist said. “I was worried.”

She bet he was. Alice looked down at her phone, refusing to give him the satisfaction of her full attention. “I took some time off for personal reasons.”

“I hope everything’s okay?”

Her lips pressed into a thin smile. “Perfectly fine.”

“I’m glad. It’s good to see you back at it.” She said nothing, and they gazed at one another for a pregnant moment before he continued. “Apparently I’m not on your committee anymore?”

“That’s right.”

“Can I ask why?”

She looked up at him with her blandest, most innocent expression. “Didn’t Dr. Frazier talk to you?”

“I’d like to hear it from you.”

“I’ve decided to go a different way.”

A pair of passing students waved at Gilchrist on their way to one of the group study rooms and he gave them an acknowledging nod. “I’ll be right there.” Turning back to Alice, his eyes narrowed slightly, which gave him an even more weaselly appearance than usual. “What about the network analysis? You don’t need help with it anymore?”

She lifted her chin in a display of confidence she didn’t quite feel. “Dr. Frazier and I decided it wasn’t necessary after all. I’m doing a multilevel analysis instead.”

“Really?” The patronizing smugness of his tone set her teeth on edge. “Are you sure that’s in your best interest?”

“I guess we’ll see.” She didn’t tell him she’d decided to leave academia and therefore it didn’t matter how many articles she could get out of her dissertation, because it was none of his business. She didn’t want him thinking her decision had anything to do with him. For that matter, she didn’t want him thinking about her at all.

“Well. Regina knows best, I suppose. Good luck. I imagine I’ll see you around.”

She certainly hoped not.

He subjected her to one last appraising stare, followed by a smirky nod, before he headed to the study room. Alice watched him go, waiting until he’d disappeared inside before gathering her things and fleeing the library.

Her hands were shaking and her lungs heaving as she got into her car. She clenched the steering wheel as she tried to calm down. Her eyes darted to the rearview mirror to make sure he hadn’t followed her, even though she knew it was unlikely. He had a study room full of students waiting for him, and no legitimate reason to chase after Alice. They were done, professionally. She never needed to interact with him again.

She was free.

He couldn’t force her to do anything anymore. She’d faced him and walked away under her own power. Taken back some of the control he’d used against her.

Alice took a few more slow, deep breaths, making sure she was calm enough to drive before starting the car. By the time she got home her heart had stopped pounding so hard, but the sour feeling in the pit of her stomach still persisted.

Taco greeted her at the door, wagging his tail as he trotted at her heel. She found Griffin in the kitchen, in the midst of making dinner. A pan bubbled on the stove behind him, fresh produce and spices covered the counters, and delicious smells filled the house.

After the unpleasantness in the library, walking into such a homey, comforting scene felt like waking from a nightmare to realize you were snug and safe in your own bed.

Griffin had changed from the T-shirt and shorts he’d been wearing this morning into a pair of expensive-looking dark-washed jeans and a light blue button-down. Alice remembered, for the first time since Gilchrist had spoken her name, that Griffin had called tonight a date.

When he looked up from the vegetables he was chopping and smiled at her, she felt her eyes sting at the intense rush of feelings. He was so gorgeous and sweet, and he’d gone to all this trouble for her. What had she ever done to deserve this? How was this her life?

She tried to return his smile, but her lip trembled, betraying her.

Griffin froze. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.” She tried to make it sound convincing, but based on the deepening creases in his forehead, she didn’t seem to have pulled it off.

He set the knife down and wiped his hands on a dishtowel before moving toward her with a concerned frown. “Are you still pissed at me?”

“No! I promise. It’s not—” She shook her head. “It doesn’t have anything to do with you.”

“It has to do with me if you’re upset.” He jammed his hands into his back pockets like he didn’t know what else to do with them. “What happened?”

“I’m fine.” She didn’t want to talk about it because it felt like that would be bringing Gilchrist home with her. Letting him infect even more of her life. She didn’t want one stupid encounter with him ruining the whole night.

“You look spooked, like you’ve seen a UFO or something.”

She blew a breath between her teeth. “I would be thrilled to see a UFO. A UFO would be awesome.”

“Something bad did happen.”

She sighed. Griffin obviously wasn’t going to let it go until she told him. “I saw him. When I was on campus.”

“Him?” She could see the moment he realized who she meant, because his expression went hard. “You mean that professor who—”

“Yeah.”

He took a step toward her, reaching out to give her arm a tentative touch. “Did he see you?”

She nodded. “I was in the library, and he came up behind me.”

Griffin’s eyes widened. “Did he touch you?”

“No.” Thank god. She felt sick even thinking about the possibility. “We were in the middle of the library, surrounded by other people. He just talked to me.”

She was lucky, really, that the encounter had happened in such a public place, somewhere they’d be overheard and observed. Someplace with witnesses. If she’d run into him in an empty hallway, or a stairwell, it might have been different.

Strong arms enveloped her as Griffin pulled her into a protective embrace. Alice felt her whole body sigh with relief as she wrapped her arms around his waist, enjoying the closeness. Taco danced around them, butting his nose against their ankles as he tried to get between them. She shuffled closer, boxing the jealous dog out, and felt Griffin’s arms tighten around her.

“Are you okay?” His hand stroked up her back, coming to rest in her hair.

She nodded against his chest. “Yeah.”

And she was, she realized. Surprisingly so. Gilchrist didn’t have any power over her anymore. He couldn’t pressure her to meet with him in private, or force her to jump through hoops in order to finish her dissertation, or prevent her from getting her degree. He was nothing to her anymore. Just an annoyance that could be sidestepped. In a few short months, she’d be free of the university altogether, and she’d never have to see his repulsive face again.

Griffin’s arms fell away from her, and Alice let go of him, missing the comfort of his touch even as she tried to put an appropriate amount of distance between them again. He didn’t let her get far though. His hands grasped her shoulders as his eyes, bluer and softer than she’d ever seen them, searched her face.

She tried to smile for him. “I really am okay, I think.”

“Are you?”

“It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. And now that I’ve faced him and lived to tell the tale, I feel better, actually. Stronger.”

“Good.” Griffin’s hands stroked down her arms, raising goose bumps on the surface of her skin. “What can I do?”

This, Alice thought. Keep doing what you’re doing right now and never stop.

“Nothing,” she told him. “I just want to forget about it and have a nice, relaxing night at home with you.”

His eyes twinkled as his face split into a heart-melting smile. “I can do that.”

Griffin watched Alice take her first bite with a trepidation he usually reserved for watching his own acting in dailies. When her face lit up in an approving smile, he nearly fainted with relief.

“This is amazing!” she said. “How did you manage to make chicken taste so good?”

A lot of butter. More than he liked to think about. He didn’t mention that part though. “Pound it thin, bread it with parmesan cheese, and serve it with a lemon artichoke sauce.”

“It’s incredible.” Alice cut another bite and placed it on her tongue. “Oh my god. I don’t think I’ve ever tasted anything this good outside of a restaurant.”

Griffin reached for his wineglass to hide how pleased he was. They were eating in the dining room, which he wasn’t sure he’d ever actually used for entertaining since he bought the house. He’d certainly never gone to this much effort to cook dinner for a woman before. He’d even dug out placemats and cloth napkins, and bought fresh flowers to decorate the table. Candles had briefly been considered, then discarded as too clichéd and weighted with intention. He didn’t want Alice to feel any pressure; he just wanted to make her like him.

It was kind of shameful how woefully underdeveloped his wooing skills were. Griffin wasn’t used to trying this hard with women. He didn’t usually need to. The women he usually chose to sleep with were the ones who were eager and looking for a short-term hookup just like he was. He didn’t need to woo them. They understood just as well as he did that it didn’t mean anything.

This was completely different, because this meant something. It frightened him a little, how much Alice had come to mean to him. He couldn’t afford to screw this up. Better to go too slow than too fast. Better to only have a small part of her than push too far and lose everything.

He figured he’d start with dinner. Cooking was the best way he knew to show someone he cared about them. A way to prove how much he valued her presence in his life. They’d have dinner tonight, talk, maybe watch some TV, and hopefully it would smooth over any lingering awkwardness from this morning.

Then maybe he’d have a better sense of whether she seemed interested in taking things to the next level. He was willing to wait. Forever, if need be. If it turned out she only looked at him as a friend, well, he could find a way to live with that. As long as she was in his life, he could live with anything.

At least Alice seemed to be enjoying the dinner he’d made. That was a good start.

She touched her napkin to her lips before taking a sip of wine. “You’ve got a whole month off until you start your next shoot, right?”

“Something like that.” Troublemakers 5 started principal photography in LA at the end of August. “But I’ve got rehearsals and wardrobe fittings and stunt training in the meantime.”

“Still, all that stuff will be a cakewalk compared to your usual schedule. When’s the last time you even had time off between projects?”

“Three years ago.” It would have been the hiatus before he was cast in Troublemakers 4. It felt like a million years ago. Like another life.

“Whatever will you do with yourself?” She forked another bite of chicken into her mouth, and her eyes fluttered briefly closed in ecstasy.

“Maybe I’ll spend all my time cooking for you.” If she was going to get that look on her face every time, he would gladly act as her personal chef. He wondered what else he could do to inspire that particular expression, and felt his pulse quicken as his mind supplied a variety of appealing ideas.

The space between Alice’s freckles took on a rosy glow. “I’m serious.”

“So am I.”

Her eyes seemed to sparkle as she broke into an unrestrained grin. “Have I mentioned how happy I am that you’re back?”

Griffin’s heart nearly leapt out of his chest to do a lambada with the salt shaker right there on the table. “Have I mentioned how happy I am to be back?” he said, matching her grin with one of his own.

It felt like a barometric shift was taking place. Like something unfamiliar and new was unfolding between them. Something both terrifying and wonderful.

He couldn’t wait to see what came next.