His arms banded even tighter around me as he said, “Thank you,” in such a broken voice that I had to bite my lip to keep any more tears from spilling. “Thank you for coming.”
He pressed his lips to the side of my head, just above my ear, and I rested my cheek on his shoulder. We sat there for I don’t know how long, but it was long enough for me to grow warm and realize how hard yet completely comfortable he felt under me.
And speaking of hard—and under me—something had grown noticeably stiffer against my bottom. Realizing how inappropriately I was sitting on his lap, I started to move off him, but his hand snaked out and caught me high on the thigh.
“Don’t go.”
I fell still. Unable to help myself, I kissed his temple. “How can I help you? Tell me what to do.”
He drew in a breath, smelling my neck and brushing his nose lightly along my pulse. Then his hand moved slowly up my thigh until he was gripping my hip. I grew moist and tensed, hoping he didn’t find out.
“Make it go away,” he whispered against my throat. “Make me forget.”
With a shiver, I shook my head, not understanding, or maybe I was too hopeful to really think I understood. “How?”
I’m pretty sure it wasn’t his nose that touched me next, right under my ear. It felt too wet and soft, like tongue, followed by the crisp nip of teeth. I gasped, and my head fell back as my fingers bit into his shoulders, unable to control the crackling surge of heat between my legs.
As his thumb stroked my hip, burning through my clothes, scorching my skin, and shifting dangerously too close to where I was throbbing and wet, he pulled back to look me in the eye. “I almost had my mouth on you that night,” he slurred. His gaze fell to my lips. “Except I wasn’t free. And now that I am...I still want to kiss you. I’ve wanted to kiss you so many times. So many nights. I’d dream about you and wake up aching. Then I’d touch myself, wishing it was your hand, not my own. I’d walk through the library almost every day, just to see if you were there.”
I drew in a sharp breath, unable to believe what I was hearing. After weeks of crushing on him, wishing I was his, and knowing I could never be, weeks of knowing he loved someone else, after helping him pick out a ring for her, it didn’t seem real that I was hearing what I was hearing.
He leaned in as if to kiss me, but he stopped only inches away. “I want you, Zoey. I tried to stop it. I even bought Cora a fucking ring in an attempt to convince myself I didn’t want you. But in the end, she turned out to be a cheating whore…and I still want you.”
I whimpered. “Oh God.” Was arousal always this intense? It was the first time I’d ever been so turned on, and I was nearly crippled by the lust. My skin sizzled with warmth. My breasts went tight and achy, and the heavy clenching deep in my womb made me press my thighs together. Quinn’s erection under my bottom grew hotter.
I was more aware of him then I’d been of another human being on earth. Quinn’s presence was so large, so there, it just took control. The heat from his body scorched me as his breath tickled my cheek when he leaned in another inch. I gulped, unable to control my erratic panting, and tried to focus on his neck.
Why I chose his neck, I have no idea. But right then, even the freckle on his pulse looked too damn sexy to calm me. I wanted to sink my teeth in it and taste him. I think I even swayed toward it.
“Did you know,” he murmured, causing my nerves to wrench in eager, delicious contact with the sound of his voice and the wash of his warm, moist breath on me, “that when you’re sexually aroused your heart starts pumping fast to circulate the blood to all organs that’re preparing to fuck? So you start breathing harder to support the oxygen rushing through your lungs.”
I squeezed my eyes shut and bowed my head, trying desperately to slow my breathing, but instead I ended up jerking in a loud, shuddering gasp that made it overly obvious just how out of control my lungs were.
He cupped the side of my neck just under my earlobe, his fingers skimming around to the sensitive part of my nape while his thumb just barely grazed my lower jaw. The tip of his nose brushed the rim of my ear.
“Are you listening to me, Zoey? Do you hear me breathing just as hard as you are?”
A relieved sob tore from my throat and my eyes flashed open when I realized he was breathing as hard as I was. I lifted my face and met his gaze. His eyes were glassy and bloodshot, but the expression was just as uncertain and hopeful as I knew mine was.
He took my hands and laced our fingers together. More pressure tightened around my chest. I couldn’t believe this was happening. Quinn was touching me, and I was letting him. We both wanted what was coming next, and we both knew it. It was so crazy, yet amazing, a complete dream come true. I didn’t even care how wrong it was.