Impossible To Resist (BWWM Romance Book 1)(93)

Connor looked at her in surprise. “He likes you? Do you like him that way?” he asked as fear crept into his heart. It had never occurred to him that there might be anyone else who wanted Catalina and might be close enough to her to get her.

She sighed and looked at him. “He does like me. Actually, he’s told me that he is in love with me, but I don’t like him that way. I never have, and I was so surprised to find out that he did like me romantically. We’ve been best friends since high school, and I thought that that was all we were, but I guess he’s been keeping his feelings a secret all of this time.

“When I told him about us, thinking that he would be happy for me because I found someone I care so much about, he got really jealous and angry, and we fought about you a couple of times. He told me to stop seeing you and leave you alone and I was rebellious and stubborn and wouldn’t give you up, so since he couldn’t make me do what he wanted me to do, he went to my father and told him everything he knew about us.”

Connor was floored. He had had no idea that Catalina was going through so much drama and heartache away from him. He had guessed that she was just busy focusing on her classes, rather than fighting to get through so much trouble with her best friend and her father.

“Oh my God, Catalina, I’m so sorry. I had no idea that you were going through any of that!” he shook his head and reached his hand up to her cheek to touch it and comfort her. She gazed at him sadly and he finally saw the pain in her eyes.

“My father and I had a big fight about you, and he demanded that I stop seeing you, both romantically, which we already decided to do, and in class. He wants me to give up all of your classes and finish the year with another professor. He told me that I can’t ever see you again!” She spoke in a pained whisper as a tear rolled down her cheek.

Connor felt like his heart was being pulled from his chest. As difficult as it was to be in class and see her so close and yet still so far away, he could not bear to think of going the rest of the year without seeing her at all. “Oh my God… Catalina, he can’t do that! I… I can’t go the rest of the year without seeing you, unless you feel like that’s the best thing to do.”

He looked at her worriedly as a cold ball of steel formed in his stomach. “Do you think it’s the best thing to do?” he asked, feeling as though the rest of his entire life was somehow suddenly hanging in the balance.

She shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t know what to do! I don’t want to give you up completely, Connor. I’ve already given up intimacy with you, and that’s been one of the most difficult things I’ve ever given up,” he nodded in sincere agreement with her, “but to give up seeing you at all from now on… I just don’t know if I can do it, but I’ve never disobeyed my father when he has made such a strong rule about something.

“I’d be going completely against him if I was to keep seeing you, even in class! I’ve been so broken up about it. I just don’t know what to do!” She wept and he wiped the tears from her cheeks gently.

“I don’t know if you are even going to have to worry about it. It looks like I will most likely lose my job here at the school. I’m already on suspension, so there is a standin teacher taking over my classes until the investigative board decides what to do with me.”

His thoughts went to the demands that Deborah Hargrove had made of him, either to marry her or be fired, and though he had not given her any kind of answer, he felt sure that he would rather let his job go than save it and have to be married to her.

“I’m so sorry about your job, Connor. This is your life, here at this school. You’re one of the best teachers here! I can’t believe they’d even consider letting you go! I feel like I caused all of this. You never would have come after me. It was me that started this when I kissed you in the hot tub at the hotel. You never wanted it to begin with!” she told him sorrowfully.

His mind went back to the night in the hot tub and visions of her in her red bikini filled his mind, and his body responded in kind; his stomach and thighs grew tight and warm, and he felt himself beginning to get hard.

“Oh, you weren’t the only one who wanted it, Catalina, I was so attracted to you, so drawn to you. I wanted you just as much as you wanted me, and I was definitely a willing participant in the hot tub, and in our bed in the hotel room,” he told her softly as he leaned near to her.

She had been aching for him so much, that to feel him near her again like he was, was too much for her to resist. “Do you still… want me?” she asked quietly, her eyes locked on his jade green eyes.

“More than anything,” he whispered, closing the space between them and kissing her softly. His mouth moved hungrily over hers as yearning for her saturated him and he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close to him. She slid her arms around his neck and pulled him close, kissing him back as fervently as he kissed her.

He moaned softly and lifted his lips from hers for a moment, looking at her intently. “I’m never going to get enough of you.” He closed his mouth over hers again. She gave in to the dizziness and heady desire that had begun to overwhelm her and she traced her tongue along his, losing herself in the wonder of being in his arms.

“I missed this so much!” she whispered as his mouth moved over her cheek and down her neck. His hands went to her waist and he lifted her, pulling her onto his lap so that she faced him. She slid her knees up close to his hips and leaned down to kiss him deeper.