Impossible To Resist (BWWM Romance Book 1)(79)

“I take it you didn’t get hit?” he asked coolly, looking her over for signs of damage.

She shook her head. “No, I didn’t get hit, but Connor did get hit. He jumped right in between me and the huge guy and he saved me again, taking the punch that would have flattened my face, and it messed him up enough that the paramedics had to stitch him up and give him pain pills and bandage his eye.”

Reggie raised both brows and nodded slightly in approval. “That’s good. He was looking out for you. Looking after my girl,” he said, rubbing his fingers over the back of her hand again. She frowned slightly, but decided that she was going to tell him the entire story.

“So we went back to the hotel and I told him he ought to get into the hot tub so he could feel better and he said yes, so we went out there together and while we were sitting in it, I was trying to help him with an ice pack on his forehead where he was cut, but then I guess I got too close to him and wanted to kiss him, so I did.” She paused and looked at Reggie’s face, trying to gauge how he would react to that news before she told him anything else.

Reggie’s jaw clenched and he stared hard at her. “You kissed him.”

She nodded solemnly. “I kissed him,” she admitted.

Reggie shook his head slowly. “I can’t believe you did that. What in the hell were you thinking?”

She sighed and looked down at her hand in his for a moment and then she looked back up at him. “I wasn’t thinking. I was feeling.”

“What did he do?” Reggie asked, looking like he wasn’t entirely sure that he wanted to know.

She bit her lip and smiled as the wonderful heated memories came rushing back to her. “He kissed me back. A lot. Reggie, it was SO good… we made out in the hot tub and it was unbelievable. I wanted him so much, but then he kind of stopped all of a sudden; he just pushed me away from him and told me that we had to stay teacher and student and that we couldn’t have anything like that happening between us.”

Reggie looked thoroughly disgusted. He looked away and shook his head again. “Well at least he stopped you. You can’t do that! You’re going to get hurt one of these days doing things like that, and you can’t get hurt, Catalina, there are other people who care about you! I care about you, and I couldn’t stand to see you get hurt! You have no business doing something like that!”

She ignored him and continued, thinking back to how it all began with them. “Well, so then we agreed to keep it teacher – student, and we went back to bed.” She was interrupted again.

“What do you mean, you went back to bed?” he asked incredulously. “You two had your own beds in this room you shared, didn’t you?” he leaned toward her with serious staring eyes.

She shook her head. “No. Originally we had our own rooms, like I said, but then we wound up having to share his room, and since it was just going to be him in there in the first place, there was just one bed,” she answered nervously.

He grew irate, but she could see that he was holding it in. “You shared a bed with your college professor? Do you have any idea how many rules and laws you are breaking? I can’t believe that you did that!” he snapped angrily, and she felt herself flare up defensively.

“Well, Reggie, we had no choice! The hotel made us take one room and that was the only option. Trust me, Connor called the front desk the moment that he saw that we were going to be there with one bed and he argued with them and asked them to change it, but they just couldn’t, so we made do with what we had!

“Don’t you get all high and mighty with me like we had a choice and just decided to have it like that. Besides, we were just fine. You’ll hear all about it, now just listen, please! There’s so much to tell you!” Her voice softened and she tilted her head, her blue gray eyes pleading with him for his patience as she told him everything.

He sighed and looked down at his feet and then nodded. “Alright. I’m sorry. Go ahead.”

She gave him a smile and moved to pull her hand from his, but he held on to it tighter, and she left her hand there. “So then it was the last day and we went to the event and there was more security than I have ever seen anywhere, but we finally had a day when nothing happened, just the debates, and it was good.

“It was easier getting photos that day because I could move around without worrying about people going nuts, but my best photos came from the first two days, showing people who were all up in arms about everything. I got some great shots of the chaos around that place.”

She shook her head, thinking of it. “Well, the last day they let everyone go early and we all left in the afternoon. It was snowing badly when we left; I couldn’t believe we had gotten hit with a second storm. The first one wasn’t anything compared to the second one. We went back to the hotel and we got ready for the banquet that we were invited to, so we got dressed in our formal wear…. Reggie, he was in a tux. I swear he looked like James Bond; he was so handsome!”

Catalina grinned thinking about it and Reggie turned his face away from her, narrowing his eyes and looking downward. He said nothing and she sighed with a blissful smile thinking about it, and then went on.

“So we ate the most incredible meal I’ve ever had in my life. It was so good! We drank champagne, and then we danced; there was a live orchestra there. The politicians all spoke, but they didn’t take up too much time and we were kind of wrapped up in the fun side of the banquet, so I didn’t pay too much attention to what they said.