Professor Astor (Off-Limits)

Ley grins when I lead her to my truck, her brows rising. “Overcompensating?” she asks, and I bite back a smile.

“I’m going to have to tell the friend I borrowed this car from that you said that. He’ll get a kick out of it.” I can just imagine the dry look on Silas’s face. I’m not even sure he realizes he owns this car. It certainly isn’t really his style, and it stood out among his collection of supercars. “You know, Ley, this car is excellent for kidnapping.”

She smiles when I open the door and turn toward her, my hands wrapping around her waist to lift her in. Just that one brief touch has my heart rate accelerating. Her waist is so fucking tiny, I can nearly wrap my hands around her fully. “Let’s put it to the test, shall we? Your kidnapping truck versus my psychotic best friend.”

Her hands linger on my shoulders, our gazes locking. I can see myself losing myself in those brown eyes. This woman is alluring without even trying to be.

I reluctantly pull away and find myself smiling as I walk around the truck to join her. She affects me in ways I forgot were possible, and I don’t even know her real name.

Part of me prefers it that way. When I drive her home tonight, that has to be the end of whatever this is between us. Alice and I have been separated for months, but I haven’t even tried seeing anyone else. This is new to me, and the last thing I want is to get attached again. The twins don’t even know Alice and I are getting a divorce. I can’t put them through any further complications.

I’ve tried to keep myself from thinking about their reaction, but it’s always in the back of my mind. Alice and I have always been a united front, and I worry about how they’ll react to our separation. I’m already second-guessing uprooting their lives, but with everything they’re about to go through, we’ll need my family. They’ll be able to provide the stability the kids are losing.

“Hey, none of that tonight,” Ley murmurs, her hand brushing over my leg. I grab her hand and place it on my thigh, eliciting a sweet smile from her. “How about you and I spend a night evading responsibility, living in a world of make believe instead?”

The edges of my lips turn up into a reluctant smile. “Very well. If you could be anyone, who would you be?”

She tilts her head, and I keep stealing glances at her, wondering what’s going through her mind. There’s something about her I can’t resist. She’s innocence and allure, wrapped up in a strange sense of comfort I’ve never experienced before. I don’t believe in instant connections and all of that bullocks, but if it exists, this is probably what it’d feel like.

“I think I’m going to choose to be a spoiled stay at home mom and trophy wife tonight. The type that isn’t overworked by her kids and instead has staff for literally everything.”

I burst out laughing and shake my head. “You’d get bored, baby. You aren’t the type.” That’s exactly what Alice is like, and somehow I can’t see Ley living that kind of life. “You’re made for adventure and passion. You have fire in your eyes, Ley. You’re meant to chase your every ambition, smashing goals like it’s nothing.”

I can feel her gaze on me, but I keep my eyes on the road. There’s something about this conversation that feels intimate, though on the surface it’s anything but.

“Sometimes it’s the simple things in life that we need most. When it comes down to it, all I want is happiness. Perhaps it’s cliché to want a husband who’s obsessed with me and kids to raise…” her voice trails off, and she shakes her head. “Never mind. Who would you be if you could be anyone? Who do you want to be tonight, Thor?”

I smile, my heart overflowing with something I haven’t felt in years. Giddiness? Excitement? A combination of both, perhaps. “Tonight I just want to be the man that gets to love you. Tell me, Ley. How many kids do we have? How long have we been married? How did we meet?”

She smirks, her index finger drawing circles on my jeans. I can feel her warmth straight through the fabric, and it’s absurd how much that brief touch affects me.

“We met in college, and we’ve been married for… um, three years? We’ve got two kids.”

I nod, strangely enjoying the thought of that. You’d think that the thought of marriage would repulse me after all Alice and I have been through, but somehow I find myself wanting to play along with Ley.

“How about a boy and a girl?” I ask, my thoughts turning to my own kids. For one crazy moment, I wonder if Ley would ever want to be with a man who has two kids of his own. I haven’t given much thought to what my future without Alice will look like, and not once did I consider that I might one day remarry, but Ley has got me wondering.

She nods. “That would be amazing!”

I grin at her and try to resist pushing for more, failing the moment the words leave my lips. “How would you feel about twins?”

She snaps her fingers and grins. “Perfect! Yes, Thor. We’ve got twins. I like it.”

I chuckle at her enthusiasm. Everyone always thinks it’s nice to have twins, but mine are menaces.

“All right, wife. Then I suppose we’re running from our kids tonight, eager for some quality time.”

I grab her hand and entwine our fingers, keeping our joined hands in my lap. I can’t recall the last time I was this nervous merely holding a woman’s hand. Her hands are small and soft against mine, and I can’t help but wonder what the rest of her body feels like.

“We sure are,” she murmurs, her voice soft. “My handsome astrologist husband insisted on showing me the stars tonight.”

I grin at her and raise our joined hands to my lips, pressing a soft kiss to the back of her hand. “You think I’m handsome, huh?”

Ley bites down on her lip and looks away, a smile on her face. “You’re alright,” she mutters, and I chuckle.

“And you’re gorgeous beyond words. I’m a lucky man. Can’t believe I made you my wife.”

She laughs, and I struggle to keep my eyes on the road. She’s so fucking beautiful. I’ve never felt this spark with anyone, but fucking hell… what I’m feeling for her can’t be called anything else.

“It’s the accent for me,” she says, her voice soft. “You’re handsome as hell, but that accent? I can’t resist it.”

I smirk and shift in my seat, my shoulders straightening as I keep my eyes on the road. Perk of living in London for over twenty years. My accent is no longer truly American, but it also isn’t really a strong British accent either. It’s something right in between.

“Should I call you love?” I ask. Ley sighs happily, and I chuckle. “We don’t really use the word love as much as most people here assume we do, you know?”

Ley shakes her head. “I don’t care. I insist on being called love for the remainder of our marriage.”

She gives me an indulgent smile, and my fucking heart… I swear to God, it skips a damn beat. I’ll call her whatever the hell she wants me to call her if she’ll smile at me like that.

“Whatever you want, love.”

Ley leans back in her seat, relaxed and seemingly as happy as I am. “We’re here,” I tell her, parking in the middle of a wide field, part of private lands owned by my family. I’m glad it hasn’t changed a bit. This is where Amara and I spent our school holidays playing around. If I look closely, I can see the treehouse Grandpa had us built in the distance. This place used to be our sanctuary, and it’s one of the few places I’ve never shared with Alice.

I jump out of the truck and rush around to open Ley’s door. She grabs my hand with a sweet smile on her face. “Thank you,” she murmurs, her hands on my shoulders as I lift her into my arms, holding onto her longer than necessary before I put her down.

She looks around, her eyes widening when she notices the clear skies. “Wow.”

I grin and look up, the two of us leaning against the truck. “There isn’t as much light pollution here. It still isn’t the same as being outside of the city, but it’s a little better than being downtown.”

She nods and turns to me. Her eyes are a multitude of brown shades, and I could spend hours losing myself in them.

“Ley, I have to tell you something. I… I may have misled you.”