Page 99 of Power Play

“You’re thinking too loud.”

“I hate when you say that.”

“You hate when I’m right.”

He set everything on the kitchen table, then turned and caught me still standing near the door with the coffee pressed against my chest. His gaze moved over my face more carefully, and I wondered whether I had missed some trace of the panic despite checking three times.

“You good?”

The question brushed too close to everything I had hidden. I walked toward him before my expression had time to betray me.

“Professor Brown made me defend my paper in front of the class today.”

Ryan’s eyebrows lifted. “That why you look like you fought somebody?”

“I don’t look like I fought somebody.”

“You look pissed.”

“That’s different.”

His smile appeared. “What happened?”

“He asked why I chose a feminist framework when the assignment allowed broader social criticism, and apparently ‘because I wanted to’ wasn’t enough.”

“It should’ve been.”

“That’s what I said.”

Ryan paused, his attention sharpening. “You said that to Brown?”

“I gave him a considerably more academic version.”

His grin widened. “What happened after that?”

“He kept pushing.”

“And you did what?”

“I defended it.”

“Did you change the argument?”

“No.”

“Did you apologize?”

I narrowed my eyes. “I didn’t apologize.”

“Did you tell him he made you nervous and then rewrite the whole thing tonight?”

“I’m beginning to regret telling you.”

Ryan laughed and caught my wrist when I tried to walk past him. His hand slid down until our fingers threaded together.

“What did he say?”

My irritation weakened beneath the look on his face. “He said I was finally more interested in defending my argument than finding out whether he approved of it.”