Impossible To Resist (BWWM Romance Book 1)(82)
“God, it’s so good to see you,” he whispered in her ear as he held her close. The sight of her had lifted him completely out of the slump he had felt that he was in since he returned to the school. He’d done his best to focus on his classes, his students, his backlog of work that was waiting for him upon his return, and all of it seemed to suffocate him as he tried to keep her off his mind, and failed miserably at it.
He breathed in the scent of her hair and skin and for a moment, for one long sweet moment, he lost himself in her, wishing that he could kiss her and taste her, wishing even more than that, he wished he could feel her body up against his, but the rules of engagement between them had changed, and he had to remind himself that he was her professor and she was his student. There could be nothing between them but scholastic interactions of academia. He took a deep breath and sighed, partly in relief at having had a chance to hold her in his arms, and partly because he didn’t want to let her go at all.
She didn’t pull away from him first, she let him hold her until he sighed and stepped back from her, looking down into her eyes with a smile.
“What brings you here today?” he asked, looking downward for a moment and then smiling back up at her. “Not that I’m not thrilled to see you…”
She laughed a little and opened her purse to pull out the flash drive she’d brought for him. She held it up in her hand and tipped it toward him. “Work. I’d love to say that I came to see you because I miss you like crazy, and I do miss you, but I’m here because of work,” she told him with a smile.
He nodded and reached up, his fingers sliding over hers as he took the flash drive from her. He let his hand move slowly, enjoying the feel of his skin against hers, even in such a slight way.
She drew her breath in a little at his tender touch and then dropped her hand away from his, and looked away from him. He knew that they had to relegate themselves to the change in their bond; the change of letting go of the powerful intimacy they had shared. He took a deep breath and as he was turning away from her, he let his eyes drift over her body, taking in the delicately covered curves and lines, and every part of her that his eyes touched made him long for her with a burning ache that he was forced to deny.
Connor took a deep breath and walked over to the laptop that he had been working on earlier that day. It was sitting on the coffee table in front of the wide old leather sofa at the other side of his office. Sitting before it, he slid the flash drive into the portal on the laptop and he tried not to notice as Catalina walked slowly toward him. He tried not to see the way her legs moved beneath the soft material of her sweater dress with each step she took on her way to the sofa. His groin tightened and his blood warmed as it began to course through him faster.
She sat beside him and a slight wave of air passed by him, carrying the scent of her perfume on it, right into his nose, and the scent rendered him breathless for a moment as he tried to maintain his focus on the images that were loading on his monitor.
Catalina knew that she should not have sat so close to him, but she could not resist the draw that she felt for him; the magnetic pull, as though he was the air that she needed to breathe and perhaps the touch of his skin against hers might be the only thing that was really keeping her alive. She longed for him with every fiber of her being, and though she knew they could not be together, it was some form of comfort and pleasure to her to be able to sit so close to him.
She was close enough that the heat from his body warmed the side of hers, and the smell of the soap on his skin reminded her of the taste of his skin when she had kissed it so many times in their living dream.
She struggled to make herself focus on the work before them, rather than on the muscles in his arms that she could see because he had rolled his shirt sleeves up, or his strong and gentle hands that moved over the keyboard of the laptop; hands that had touched every part of her and made her come completely undone before they had rebuilt her back together again.
He moved through her images swiftly, each one flashing before him for barely more than an instant as he discarded some of them and pulled some of them out of her file, transferring them to a file of images they would keep. She was amazed at how quickly he worked, and she hoped that someday she too would be able to sift through so many images so quickly.
Inside of half an hour, he had gone through everything she had shot, and he had enough images pulled that the story of the whole weekend, her best of the best shots, was complete and they were done. The whole project was done, short of sending the chosen images in to the publications that would be using them.
Reaching his hand over to the flash drive slowly, he pulled it from the computer and set it on the table for her. He didn’t want it to be done. He didn’t want any of it to be done. He knew that there was no other reason for her to stay in his office, but he was racking his brain trying to come up with any excuse he could to keep her there for as long as he was able.
He finally turned to face her and saw that she had been watching him. Their eyes connected and he felt his heart rage against his body, feeling as if it was trying to escape, it pounded so hard.
Connor almost looked away from her, but he had no real willpower to do it. He simply let his eyes connect with hers and remain there.
“I miss you so much,” she whispered, raising her hand and touching his cheek. She let the tips of her nails slide through the short hairs of his beard, and with hesitation for only a brief moment, she leaned closer to him.