She stopped abruptly and faced me. That’s when I realized... Oh, shit.
My skin rippled with buzzing energy. I refused to react. I’d promised her I wouldn’t try anything untoward. But I’d never said she couldn’t. And obviously, she wanted to.
She lifted her hand, and I held my breath. But then her fingertips barely grazed my cheek, and air hissed from my lungs, unable to stay in. It sawed through my teeth until my nostrils flared.
She didn’t say a word; I didn’t either. Turning her hand over, she brushed her knuckles up my jaw and over my short sideburns. When they combed through my hair, I closed my eyes and bowed my head so she could reach me easier.
“Aspen.” Her name cracked on my lips. My body was so wired I just knew I’d see electric sparks igniting over my flesh if I opened my lashes.
“Aren’t you going to touch me back?” Her voice was husky; she was just as turned on as I was.
“You asking me to? Because I promised I wouldn’t.”
Her breath heated my lips. Fuck, she was right there. “Noel,” she whispered. I opened my eyes just as she added, “Touch me.”
Her mouth met mine, and I felt it zap through the entire length of my dick.
As I hardened in my jeans, her lips parted and a warm, moist tongue darted cautiously forward.
Gasping, I clutched her face and tipped her jaw until she was following my lead, clutching my arms and straining onto her toes to press against me. She tasted of cotton candy and cola. Thrusting my hips against her softness, I tried to alleviate some of the insistent throbbing. But she was so warm and pliable right now, nothing except release was going to bring me down from my high.
“God, you know how to kiss.” She was driving my mouth crazy with her shy, curious exploration.
She pulled away to pant against my throat. “I do?” Since she didn’t sound as if she believed me, I thought I’d just show her.
“What do you think?” I returned my mouth to hers and took things a little deeper. She seemed eager to go where I took her, her hands smoothed up over my chest, along my arms, into my hair...
“Jesus.” I broke off to catch my breath. My shallow gasps stirred her hair. She shivered and cuddled into me, so I wrapped my arms around her. We held each other as the music from the Ferris wheel poured over us and a cool breeze from the setting sun brushed past. The scent of popcorn and hot dogs made it almost surreal, but we were really here, really doing this, a college football player and his literature professor fraternizing.
I rested my mouth against her temple and soaked her in.
“I’m in this if you are, Aspen. I know we have a lot to lose. But I fully believe we have more to gain if we start something. So, it’s up to you completely. You have to make the final decision.”
CHAPTER TWENTY
“Angry people are not always wise.” - Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
But...
“Even a fool learns something once it hits him.” - Homer, Iliad
ASPEN
I hadn’t seen, talked to, or heard from Noel in three days, not since he’d driven me home from the carnival, walked me to my door, and kissed me senseless on my front porch. I guess he’d been serious when he’d told me the next step was completely and totally up to me, which freaked the crap out of me.
The smartest thing to do was stay away. I knew that and my head was on board. But my body just didn’t understand, and I don’t think my heart had caught the memo either. I was restless all day Sunday and Monday. I kept checking my phone to see if I’d missed a call. I kept glancing out my living room window to see if anyone was walking up my front walk. At work, I perked to attention in my office every time I heard footsteps in the hall. But no Noel, or any student or professor for that matter, stopped at my door.
Today, though...today I’d see him. In class. I was so on edge relaxing was impossible.
All my classes took place in Morella Hall except one, a beginning literature course I taught remotely through telenet to a local community college. I had to cross the street and walk half a block to the campus library, which had the closest video broadcasting system to the English department on campus.
As soon as I was finished with that, I had ten minutes to return to Morella to lecture for Noel’s Modern American Lit class.
Keyed up to see him, I hurried from the library, nearly galloping in my heels. I knew I couldn’t tell him I wanted to start a relationship, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t having some serious withdrawals. I needed a Noel fix...soon.
So when I spotted him as I was nearing Morella where he leaned a shoulder against the building with his back to me and his cell phone pressed to his ear, everything inside me soared.
I started his way so he would see me pass...until I heard what he was saying.