Impossible To Resist (BWWM Romance Book 1)(81)
He gasped, his eyes glazed with the heat of his first kiss with her, as he wavered unsteadily from the unexpected push she gave him. He panted and stood there, looking unsure what to do for a long moment.
She shook her head. “How could you do that to me? How could you do that to us? Reggie, damn it, I don’t want you like that! I’ve never wanted you like that!” Her words were like a slap in the face for him and they seemed to wake him from his stunned trance.
“You just haven’t given us a chance!” he insisted. “I’m so much better for you than he is! You and me, we’re best friends! We’re perfect for each other! How can you not see that? How can you be so blind?” he pleaded with her, reaching his hand out to her, his desperate eyes locked on her.
She shook her head and backed away from him a few steps. “No, Reggie, we are not perfect for each other because I don’t want you like that! I have never wanted you like that and now you’re ruining our friendship! You’re betraying me, and you’re betraying us! How could you be so selfish? How could you do that to me and to us?!” She shook her head angrily at him as tears stung her eyes. She felt as though she had just lost her best friend.
Reggie took a couple of steps toward her, reaching for her, and she backed away from him. “Cat, I love you!” he declared boldly. “Can’t you see that? Can’t you understand how we should be together? I’ve always been there for you and I always will be! It’s you and me!
“It should be you and me! That useless professor of yours doesn’t love you, and he isn’t going to be there for you like I will be! He’s just using you for sex! You don’t mean anything to him, and you mean everything in the world to me! Why can’t you see that!” he demanded.
She shook her head, her eyes of fire locked on him. “You know nothing at all about him, and you don’t know half as much about me as you like to think that you do, or you never would have said or done any of this! I can’t believe you betrayed us like this!” she cried out as the realization of the betrayal of her best friend set in and she felt her heart beginning to break.
He pursed his lips and gave his head a shake. “You’re choosing him over me. I can’t believe that,” he told her as he backed away a few steps at a time. “You’re choosing that creep over me.”
He turned around then and took off at a jog over the campus grounds, leaving her standing beside their bench under the great oak tree, as unbidden tears spilled over her eyelashes and streamed down her cheeks. She knew he was not gone completely from her, but their bond had suffered a hard blow, and it was tearing her up.
Chapter6
Catalina spent the rest of that day working on photographs from the trip; doing minor editing work and getting a good look at everything she had shot. It was good work and she was proud of what she had done.
She did her best to remain focused on her work and to not let her mind go to either Reggie or Connor, as each of them was a considerable distraction for her for so many reasons. She didn’t hear from either of them, and while that made her wish that at least one of them would reach out to her, it was also a bit of a relief because it gave her the time and peace she needed to get her work done.
After a few long hours of editing, she was finished, and she pulled the thumb drive from her computer and slipped it into her purse. She turned to leave her room and stole a quick glance in the mirror. Her hair was curled around her face, her makeup looked good and there was no sign of the torrent of tears that she had cried over her fight with Reggie.
Her blue gray eyes slid over the reflection of her lines and curves. She was wearing a burgundy colored sweater dress that buttoned up the front and hugged her body closely. It was flattering on her and showed off her shape while keeping her skin covered.
Catalina left her house and headed to the campus. She was going to see Connor to give him the final edit of the photographs that she had taken, and she was doubly nervous and excited to see him. Her heart picked up pace when she reached the campus parking lot. She hadn’t seen or communicated with him at all since they had returned from their trip, and everything in her was yearning for him.
Everything in her felt like it was pulling her with an increasing force toward him, and anxious though she was to see him, she was also nervous about what it would be like with him as they tried to reconnect in a platonic way.
She wondered if he would like the photographs she had taken, and whether or not they would do well in the media that was to be printed about the event in several publications that were waiting for her photographs.
She reached his office and knocked delicately on the frosted glass in the old oak frame on the door. She heard him call out for her to come in and her heart began to pound as she reached for the doorknob and turned it. She pushed the door open and stepped inside and as he looked up at her, the lines on his face formed from deep concentration, the tired somber look in his jade green eyes, and the line of his mouth all transformed at once.
His eyes lit up when he saw her, a smile grew wide over his face, and it looked as if just the sight of her had refreshed him completely. He gasped and laughed a little, standing up from his chair behind his desk and dropping his pen on the desktop. He reached her in just a few strides, closing the door behind her as he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into a warm embrace.
Catalina’s whole heart and body were flooded with joy and happiness at seeing him, and she grinned blissfully as she felt the familiar heat and strength of his body against hers. She nuzzled his neck with her nose and lips, kissing him there softly in a greeting as she slid her arms around his chest and held him close to her.