Her hands flattened on his chest. “I think we should stop talking and commence with the ass grabbing now.”
One of his hands slid lower but stopped just short of the prize. “You sure? Because it sounds like your confidence in my abilities to squeeze your rump to your satisfaction have faltered.”
She pulled back a little. “You realize the whole Harry Potter thing wasn’t a real comparison, right?”
“Sounded real.”
She wiggled her hips to encourage him. “Maybe you should give it one more go to prove your ass-grabbing skills are superior to Ron Weasley’s.”
To prove her wrong, he slid one palm lower, smoothing it over the gentle curve of her backside to where it rounded out to a perfect handful. He grinned when her pupils dilated and her lips parted with a gentle breath.
“Aren’t there two hands back there?” she urged.
“Pushy, aren’t you?” His other hand joined the first one and glided over her spandex-covered rump. He applied gentle pressure and nudged her even closer, until she could feel the evidence of what she did to him beneath his jeans. She gasped, fanning her breath across his neck and accelerating his heart rate. He bent his knees and dipped his hands lower so the tips of his fingers could feel the groove at the tops of her thighs.
She sighed against him again and fisted her hands in the material of his shirt. He took advantage of her open mouth and stole a kiss, fully intending on the contact being nothing more than a brief spark. His way of reminding her how easily she always melted against him. But she surprised him when her tongue swept out and prodded his lips open.
Her tongue swirled around his, sucking the breath from his lungs with her softness and determination. His hands palmed her ass tighter as he turned them and backed her toward the closest wall. He had no idea where they were or if the wall was there. He remembered seeing a wall close by when he’d walked in the door. Yeah, he was pretty sure it was there. If not, then he’d just toss her to the floor.
She grunted when her back hit the plaster and rattled a picture by her head. Had he pushed her with too much force? His blood was pumping through his veins too hard, seizing all thought and handicapping his ability to notice anything beyond Stella and her hot body wiggling against his. He shoved his knees in between her legs and spread them to accommodate his hips. She took the position a step further and wrapped one of her long, leanly muscled legs around his thigh. One of his hands abandoned her ass and hooked over her leg, tugging it higher.
Damn, she was hot, matching his burning desire with her own. One of them moaned; he wasn’t sure which because the sound pumped through his system.
Then she doused the flame when she tore her mouth from his. “Brandon,” she said with a rough whisper.
He wasn’t finished with her yet, so he dropped kisses along her neck. Satisfaction hummed through him when she tilted her head and gave him optimal access to the sensitive spot beneath her ear.
“Brandon,” she said again in a louder voice.
He only grunted because he didn’t want to take his mouth off her long enough to answer.
“We have to stop,” she told him.
He chuckled against her ear. “That’s funny.”
But instead of getting back to business, she gave his shoulders a shove. “We’re in public.”
“So?” He bent his head to get another taste of her skin, because who the hell cared if everyone could see them? But Stella obviously had other ideas, because she shoved him again.
“We can’t continue with something we won’t be able to finish.”
His mind cleared of hazy lust and was able to focus on her words. Finish. Yeah, he got what she meant. If they weren’t in the middle of her studio, she’d be taking his clothes off instead of pushing him away. While the kiss had been hot as hell, like get-thee-naked-ASAP scorching, he was grateful one of them had their head on straight. Because his sure as hell was never screwed on right when he was around her.
“Brandon.” Her tongue darted out to lick her still-swollen lips. “About what you said at the hospital…”
“You have to go, Stella,” he blurted out. Because nothing like ripping off the Band-Aid.
She tilted her head as though she didn’t understand. “I have to go?” she repeated.
He backed away and removed her hands from his shoulders. “I know what I said about you staying, and I want you to forget that.” His thumbs scraped along her knuckles. “You need to do this. Get that teaching job that you want so badly.”
She shifted against him and his eyes almost rolled back in his head when her hips nudged his. “Brandon, I don’t understand what you mean. You asked me not to go to Chicago, and now you’re telling me to leave?”
The thought of her walking out of his life and never returning made him want to chew glass. But she’d repeatedly told him she’d come back and it was past time he showed her some trust. “I was being selfish. I mean, yeah, I don’t want you to go. But I can’t ask you to do that, because this job means something to you.” He tilted her chin up. “And you mean something to me. So you need to go and do this.” She opened her mouth and he thumbed her lower lip. “You’ll hate yourself if you don’t. And then you’ll hate me and I can’t live in a world that you’re not a part of.”
She averted her gaze, probably her way of hiding the tears she didn’t want him to see. “I could never hate you,” she whispered.
“Well, I don’t feel like testing that theory out.”
“But I thought this was a deal breaker for you,” she reminded him. “I thought you had all kinds of trust issues.”
“I’m working on those,” he told her. “And you’re worth waiting for.”
A single tear rolled down her cheek, which he swiped away with his thumb. “No one’s ever put my wants first before.”
He buried his nose in her hair and inhaled deeply. “I’m not trying to break any records.”
She pursed her lips. “They may not even offer me anything.”
“Stella. They’d be crazy not to.”
She shrugged. “I’m just saying. There’s a chance I’ll be back.”
He flicked his thumb over her cheek. “And I’m just saying. Go for what you’ve always wanted. Get that job and be happy.”
Even if her achieving her dreams meant breaking his heart.
Nineteen