All he could do was stand there and watch me walk away with Dustin, his eyes full of frustration and panic.
We reached a quiet corridor. Dustin stopped and turned to face me.
"You passed."
Joy surged through me before I could contain it. "Thank you, Professor Vance!"
"Don't thank me. You earned it." He paused, his tone still level. "That's not why I asked you here."
I blinked.
"My family won't stop pushing me to marry. I need a wife on paper—someone to put in front of the elders and get them off my back."
He held my gaze, direct and unapologetic. "I know you just got out of a relationship. A ring on your finger would keep certain people from bothering you again."
My mind went blank. I couldn't believe what I was hearing.
Dustin Vance—the name the entire research world treated like myth—was asking me to marry him?
