He looked up at her, his face unreadable. “Who was that?”
“What?” She wasn’t sure who he was referring to.
“Who was that you were with at the bar?” he asked again.
She felt the tension rolling off of him, and she didn’t like his tone. It was too accusatory considering he’d been there with someone himself.
“You should talk,” she scoffed. “Who was that woman you were with?”
“You didn’t answer my question,” he said. “Who. Was. That?” The words were spoken deliberately as if he were fighting to keep his calm.
“It was no one, Luke. I was out with friends.”
“He looked more than friendly to me.”
“Yeah? Well it didn’t look like you were just having a friendly bite to eat with that blonde bimbo.”
“Careful. She’s a colleague.”
“Careful? You show up on a date, and you’re pissed at me because I was having fun with some friends? Brendan is just a friend.”
He flinched at Brendan’s name. Shit. He didn’t need to know his name, just like she had no desire to know the name of the girl he was with. She knew why Luke was upset. She felt the same way.
“Look, he’s a friend of Brett’s,” Embry said. “I just met him.”
“Really? You looked pretty cozy. You were practically in his lap.”
“What do you want me to say? I’m sorry I flirted with someone else?”
He stared daggers at her but refused to respond.
Embry threw her hands up. “Fine! I’m sorry. I’m sorry I tried to have fun for one night. I’m sorry I wanted to feel like a normal person instead of the girl sneaking around with her professor she has feelings for.”
He let out a breath, some of the tension falling from his shoulders. “You ran out of here so fast today. Why?”
She was thrown by the change in subject. “Seriously? Are you completely oblivious to how you affect me?”
His anger seemed to recede further as he stared at her with an unreadable expression.
“Do you need me to explain to you how hard it is for me to be around you? How I can’t think straight when you’re near me? How I can’t breathe when you get too close? That despite how hard it is, I find myself rationalizing all of this,”—she waved her hand around wildly—”just to find another excuse to be near you?”
Luke’s face fell. He stood from his desk and stalked toward her. He cupped her cheeks, and her hands flew up to his forearms, trying to steady herself.
“I didn’t know,” he said, his voice filled with sincerity.
“Didn’t know what?”
“How I affected you,” he said quietly.
“How can you even say that?”
He just shook his head, looking down. His proximity was distracting. Having him so close, his hands on her, was a heady feeling, but she refused to let it sidetrack her.
“Luke,” she said, wanting an explanation.
He met her eyes. “I’m going along with this because it’s what you want. I didn’t give you a choice to begin with, so I’m giving you one now. You say we can’t be together, and I’m trying to respect that. But then you play these games—”
“Games? You think this is a game to me? I’m not playing a game. I’m trying to stay away from you, and it’s impossible. I’m not playing a game,” she said again, barely a whisper. She saw the battle raging in his eyes.
“You want to stay away from me, Embry? It’s not impossible.” He dragged his hands down her body, coming to rest on her hips. “Tell me to stop.” He held her eyes for a minute before snaking his thumbs under the hem of her shirt, brushing gently across her bare skin and leaving a trail of heat. “Tell me you can’t work with me.” He gripped her hips and pulled her to him as he leaned in, nuzzling her neck. “Tell me not to touch you.”
Chills broke out across her skin.
He pulled back, flicking his eyes to hers once more before gently ghosting his lips against hers. “Tell me not to kiss you.”
She was rendered speechless as he ran his hands back up her body, tangled them in her hair, and settled his mouth fully on hers. She was putty in his hands, and her body responded without another thought. “I can’t. I can’t tell you to stop.”
He pulled her lip between his teeth and sucked gently, causing a tightening in her core. “Tell me why.” He released her lip to kiss down her neck, his hands finding their way under her sweater.
She could tell him to stop—should tell him to stop—but his lips were everywhere and she couldn’t think straight. She was forced to say the first thing that came to her muddled mind. The truth. “I don’t want you to.”
His eyes shot to hers and she gave a small nod, answering the question in his eyes. Luke growled as he found her mouth again. All thought left her mind, and she let her body take over. Digging her hands into his hair, she climbed his body, wrapping her legs around his waist as he walked her backward. Sweeping the files from his desk, he set her down, never breaking the kiss.
She pulled back to stare into those baby blues she’d missed so much. So many thoughts ran through her mind as she lost herself in his eyes. A nagging voice told her to slow down, but she pushed it back. She’d deal with the consequences later. She pulled him down, and he swept his tongue into her mouth again, demanding and unapologetic. Cupping her neck, he gently lowered her back onto the desk. He lifted her leg to his hip as he leaned over her, every hard inch of him pressed against her.
“Luke,” she whispered.
He rocked against her, creating a delicious friction that made her arch up off the desk. “Hmmm?” he mumbled as he trailed his tongue up her neck and nipped her ear lobe.
“I—” She was cut off by obnoxious dance music coming from her phone. Morgan. “Ignore it.” She worked the buttons on his shirt while the phone continued ringing in the background. He brought his mouth back to hers as she pushed past the buttons and ran her hands over the hard contours of his chest.
The techno beat pumped from her phone again, and Luke pulled away. “Morgan?” he asked, adjusting himself discreetly.
“Yeah, sorry. She’s probably checking to make sure I got home safe.”
He held his hand out and pulled her up from the desk. “Answer it.”
Embry sat up, smoothed out her clothes, and hopped off the desk in search of her phone. By the time she’d pulled it out of her bag, it had stopped ringing. She sent Morgan a quick text letting her know she had forgotten a book and was on her way home. When she looked up from her phone, she saw Luke staring out the window. She wished she knew what he was thinking. They’d pretty much destroyed all of their carefully drawn lines, and it could’ve gone a lot further had Morgan and her impeccable timing not interrupted. But she couldn’t bring herself to regret it.
She walked up to him and gave him a light nudge with her elbow. “Hey.”
He looked at her with a fondness in his eyes that she never got tired of seeing, but something under the surface worried her. “Hey, yourself,” he replied, managing a half smile.
The window looked out over the sprawling campus. In the middle of the grounds was a manmade lake with a fountain at the center. It was set aglow with multi-color lights and Embry was mesmerized as the falling water cast iridescent reflections across the glassy surface of the water.
“Beautiful,” Luke said.
She nodded and glanced up at him, but he wasn’t looking out at the fountain. His eyes were locked on her. She smiled shyly, not knowing what to say, and instead leaned into his side. He brought his arm around her, and they stood staring out the window in comfortable silence.
The loud ringing of Embry’s phone interrupted them once again.