As I say it, a dark surge of jealousy rises in my chest and rakes talons across the deepest layers of my heart. Her smile fades as she nods and I know she heard it in my voice.
I turn and pull a file off my desk. It isn’t even mine—something the guy who had the shift before me left—but I pretend to be suddenly gripped by it. “You’ll be moving on to smarter graduate assistants, then.”
It’s only after it’s out of my mouth that I realize how cruel it sounded.
“Why would you even say that?” she asks before I can think of how to backpedal. The raw wound in her voice nearly kills me.
I haul a deep breath to settle the riot in my head, then lower the file, bringing my focus back to Blaire. As the chaos inside settles, I find the words that I really meant to say. “Because, this isn’t all there is for you, Blaire. I can feel it. This is all just an insignificant pit stop on your road to something so much bigger.”
She gives a quick look around the empty resource center before taking my hand and towing me past the tables and into the stacks. We’re three rows deep when she turns the corner and stops. “There’s nothing insignificant about you, Caiden.” Color rises to her face, but she doesn’t lower her gaze. “You are everything. I’m in love with you.”
I hang my head and lean back against the stacks for balance as the electric rush that crashes through my body threatens to take me to my knees. She steps closer, pressing her body against mine.
My arms close around her.
We kiss. Then we kiss deeper. In my desperation to climb right into this incredible woman, I find myself lifting her off the ground.
She wraps her legs around my waist, hiking her skirt up to her hips in the process.
I turn us so her back is against the shelves and crush her between the books and my body, needing the full measure of her pressed against every inch of me. She kisses me so desperately I feel my soul rise up and blend with hers.
Her hand slips between us, working my fly. I make room for her, and when she has my cock out, I yank her underwear aside and bury myself inside her wet heat.
She digs her heels into my ass and I thrust against her, over and over, driving myself into her as deeply as humanly possible, trying to root myself there. I smother her cries and moans with my mouth, desperate not to let even that tiny bit of her escape me. I want all of her. She owns me and everything she is, is mine.
But the next second, she’s ripped out of my arms.
My heart thuds to a stop as my eyes snap to where Dr. Duncan clutches her in front of him tightly by both upper arms.
“What in the world…?” he asks, staring, wide-eyed over Blaire’s shoulder at my raging erection.
I pull myself together enough to fasten my jeans as I glance down at Blaire. Her face is ashen and her eyes glisten with moisture in the dim lighting as she smooths down her skirt.
The earth tilts, throwing me off balance. This wasn’t supposed to happen.
“I’m sorry,” I hear myself say, but I’m not sure who I’m apologizing to and for what. Getting caught? The fact I let it go this far in the first place? Or for not standing up and defending it now?
“I want you off the premises, Mr. Brenner,” Dr. Duncan growls. “Now, before I call security.”
He manhandles Blaire around the corner of the stacks toward the elevator.
When the floor has stopped pitching under my feet and I have my bearings, I turn the corner and stagger to the tables. I brace my hands on the back of a chair as the elevator doors slide shut. Just before she vanishes from sight, Blaire catches my gaze, and I see something in her eyes that nearly kills me.
Regret.
Chapter 13
Blaire
“I can’t even…” Professor Duncan trails off and shakes his head. “I don’t have words right now. There is no excuse for Mr. Brenner’s—” His face pulls into a mask of disgust so red I’m afraid he’s about to blow a blood vessel. “—behavior,” he finishes after a second. “He…” He trails off again and lowers his gaze. “I will help you in any way I can. There is a crisis counselor on staff here at Sierra I think you should speak with.”
“I’m fine,” I say, but it’s weak. I’m not fine.
Everything Caiden was worried about just happened.
Guys my age go to jail for doing what we’ve been doing.
What if I’ve brought his every fear to fruition?
When Professor Duncan meets my gaze again, it’s clear he doesn’t believe me.
He takes off his glasses and rubs his eyes. “I feel responsible. I placed my trust in Mr. Brenner…put him in a position to…” He drops back in his chair. “I had no idea he was a pedophile.”
At the word, my heart lurches. “He’s not!”
His eyes lift to mine and go sickeningly sympathetic; it’s the type of sympathy reserved for the mentally challenged or the very young when they’ve done something horribly embarrassing but aren’t capable of understanding they should be embarrassed. “I know this has been traumatic for you, Blaire. I’ll take you home and help you speak with your parents about it.”