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  I bumped my hips up between her thighs and ground against her hard. The way she gasped and arched into me, throwing her head back and pulling taut in my arms as she bit her bottom lip, was so fucking hot I almost came in my jeans.

  Sinking my teeth into the base of her neck, I thrust against that warmth I wanted to burrow into. Her fingers in my hair tried to yank me bald. The resulting pain was so damn hot I growled and caught her knee, spreading her just a little wider.

  Before I knew quite what I was doing, my palm skated up bare skin until my hand was under her skirt. Damn, I loved this skirt. And with no pantyhose in my way, I found my way inside the barrier of her panties as soon as I encountered moist cotton.

  She was wet. So wet. For me.

  “Noel,” she moaned, writhing against me, grabbing fistfuls of my shirt and yanking me closer.

  I thrust a finger into her and we both let out a sound of shocked abandonment. “Oh, fuck. Oh, fuck,” I breathed. She was so... “Fuck.” I nudged another finger in and, damn, it was so sweet. So fucking sweet.

  Aspen knocked the crown of her head back against the wall and closed her eyes tight. Her lips parted as these quick, shallow pants exploded from her, each breath heaving out her pleasure. She was so beautiful as I kissed her neck. Fingers pumping hard and fast, I nearly came every time I went deep.

  When my lips caressed the shell of her ear, I asked, “Do you feel that? Do you feel what we do together? This isn’t normal, Aspen. We are a force of fucking nature. How can we keep fighting this? How...God. I want to be inside you so bad right now.”

  “Uhn...” That seemed to be her tipping point. She shuddered and the muscles hugging my fingers contracted. Crying out, she came so hard and fast it shocked the shit out of me. I kissed her to muffle the sound, my digits penetrating until they were soaked and cramping. She kissed me back, and kept kissing me until I was breathless and dizzy.

  As soon as her body began to quiet, I slipped my hand free and grappled for the top button of my jeans. Mindless with lust, I didn’t think the next step through. I just knew I had to be inside her as soon as possible or I was coming in my damn jeans.

  When she scurried to help me, fumbling for my zipper and completely on board with my idea, I let her take care of that part so I could cradle her ass in both hands and secure her a little higher against the wall. Her legs spread open, allowing me all the access I needed, and with her skirt rucked up to her waist I could see how the crotch of her panties was still pushed aside from my fingers.

  The dark curls between her legs were wet and glistening. My mouth watered as I caught a glimpse, and my dick pulsed in her hand when she tugged me out of my pants.

  I needed this so bad. I needed her.

  Holding me at the base, she guided me to her entrance. Our cheeks brushed as we both stared down, watching our bodies join.

  “Do it,” she whispered, sounding as eager as I felt.

  I shoved forward, impaling her.

  She was so wet. And warm. And oh, my fucking God. The tightest thing to ever take my penis. When she keened out a high sound as if she was in pain, I jerked my head up to watch her bite her lip and close her eyes. I wondered if maybe it hurt, because, Christ, she was so snug I probably felt like I could split her apart.

  Somewhere in my head, I knew I should stop for some reason, pull out, go slower...something. There were multiple reasons to end this and think things through. But I couldn’t concentrate on a single one because fuck, she was so... I pushed in a little deeper, groaning at the way she gripped and squeezed even tauter around me.

  “It’s okay,” I told her, instead of asking if she was really okay. Why didn’t I ask? I had no clue. Then I kissed her hair and stroked the side of her neck as I held her by the ass with one arm and pulled out just enough to ease back in. “You can take it, baby.”

  Actually, I wasn’t so sure she could. This was...this was...intense. But I made myself believe it, because, damn, stopping was not an option.

  When I pumped her again, she made another sound, which I couldn’t quite tell whether it was pain or pleasure. I was trying to go as slow as possible, even though I had to keep moving because I couldn’t just not move.

  “Noel,” she whimpered, clutching my head and turning her face in toward my neck. Her breath on my throat made me swell inside her.

  “What’s wrong, baby? Hurt?”

  “No. God, no.” She moaned and shivered. “It feels so good. I just...I need...I need...” The way she tightened around me and wiggled, her body demanding more, had me groaning and moving a little faster. “Yes,” she breathed, her sigh a gasp of thanksgiving. “Faster. Harder.” And then she bit me. She freaking bit me, right on the jugular.

  From that point on, I was a goner.

  I fucked her against the wall, raw and primal, without tenderness or mercy. Every thrust I delivered was fraught with a savage thirst for more. We attacked each other, touching and kissing, biting and licking. I cupped her breast in my hand, and sank my teeth in the swell of her breast, right through her blouse because I couldn’t take the time to remove her clothes. I needed it all, right then.

  Just as urgent as I was, Aspen caged my hips between her thighs and wrapped her legs around me until the pointy ends of her high heels stabbed me in the ass every time I pulled out.

  When she came a second time, I was right there with her, flooding her with everything I had. It felt so good and right as I buried myself as deep as I could go. I almost passed out as soon as I was done. Sagging into her, I buried my nose in her hair and let the wall support us both while it took me a moment to recoup even an iota of my strength.

  I hadn’t expected it to be quite that powerful.

  “Jesus,” I breathed, taking another few seconds just to get my wind back. Zapped of energy, I snuggled against her, not sure if I was trying to give comfort or take it. I just knew I loved sharing this moment with her, loved nestling into her warmth and inhaling her scent.

  She was quiet and compliant, and so soft in my arms, I think I could’ve held her just like that for the rest of my life. I whispered her name because I needed to hear it aloud. Then I cradled her face with a hand that wasn’t quite steady.

  I wanted to tell her...so much. But there weren’t words to express what she’d just done to me, what we’d just done together. It couldn’t even compare to what I’d always imagined.

  Tilting her head in toward me, Aspen kissed my palm, so I pressed my mouth to her throat. When she threaded her fingers through the hair at the back of my neck, I lifted my face.

  “You okay?”

  Now I ask.

  If my mind wasn’t scrambled to hell and back, I might’ve smacked myself in the head and apologized for my stupidity, but Aspen only laughed. The sound shot through me, making my exhausted dick pulse with one last aftershock inside her.

  Her glazed eyes widened, but then she rubbed her nose against mine and made a satisfied hum deep in her throat. “I am so absolutely okay, I think I could live with being this okay for the rest of my life.” Her voice was husky and sexed up. It ignited yet another aftershock from me.

  We both grinned those goofy happy grins and kissed slowly, lazily, as if we had all the time in the world. Something loosened in my chest. All the pressures, and worries, and desperations in my life just sort of floated away. For the first time in too long to remember, I didn’t care about anything but this moment. Aspen had taken it all away.

  Wanting to thank her for the bliss, I slipped my tongue between her lips and stroked the roof of her mouth. She was everything. Everything I needed. And the way she clung to me and caressed me made me feel cherished and needed in return. We were perfect for each other.

  She sighed my name, and I knew. I’d do whatever was humanly possible for this woman.

  It didn’t immediately compute when something wet and warm dripped down the inside of my leg. I was too busy floating in our shared high, amazed she seemed to be as punch drunk on our aftermath as I was. But wh
atever that shit was just kept running. I blinked a few times before I realized...

  I’d just ridden her bareback.

  And...here came fucking reality, walloping me with a full bitch smack of what-the-fuck-did-you-just-do right in the face.

  “Shit.” I yanked my hips back, pulling out of her.

  She gasped from the sudden separation. Her eyes were still dewy with passion, glazed over and soft, her expression full of elation and utter relaxation. Then she looked at me. Brows knitting with confusion, she cupped my cheek with one soft hand. “What’s wrong?”

  Jesus. Where to start?

  ***

  ~ASPEN~

  Noel flinched when I touched him. It killed a part of me. After what we’d just done, what we’d shared. I’d never felt anything like that with anyone before, as if we were no longer two separate people, but one binding whole.

  Torn in half by his small rejection, I began to withdraw my hand. But he caught my fingers and squeezed them hard. His eyes went frantic, darting around my face as if he was scared...for me. “Are you okay?” he asked, and his breathing was no longer steady but coming in short bursts.

  I nodded, confused. He’d just asked me that. “Of...of course. Why? What’s wrong?”

  I’d been floating, absolutely high off life. Nothing could top the sensations alive and abounding inside me. Noel had been right; we were a force of nature together. Because that had been...that had be better than every amazing word in the entire dictionary. I couldn’t even describe—

  But he still looked scared out of his mind. It made no sense. How could he be scared? There was nothing to fear. Life was wonderful.

  The fear eased from his eyes as he blinked and then he blew out a breath as if forcibly reining his emotions under control. When he leaned in and tenderly cuddled me, my muscles relaxed. “I swear to you, Aspen, I wasn’t lying when I said I never forget. I don’t. I mean, I never have before. But this was...wow. Shit. It wasn’t like anything I’ve ever done before. And you have to admit it was totally unplanned. And we weren’t exactly thinking rationally, and... If I’d been in the right frame of mind to remember, then...Jesus, we probably wouldn’t have done anything in the first place.”

  I pulled away and looked up at him with a crinkle in my eyebrows. But what the heck was he talking about? He cringed in apology. “I’m clean. You don’t have to worry about that. They make sure of that frequently while you’re on the football team.”

  I nodded. “Okay,” I said, still not catching on until he added, “Are you, by chance, on the pill?”

  The pill?

  The meaning finally took root, and every muscle in my body tightened. For a moment, I felt like a complete idiot. I didn’t have a lot of experience in this, but still...I’d read enough and watched movies, and...I totally should’ve realized what he was talking about from the beginning. I had a PhD, for crying out loud.

  What was it with smart girls turning stupid whenever a hot guy smiled at them?

  Stunned that I’d just put myself in this situation, and it was really happening...to me...I started to pull away, needing space to deal with...everything. But Noel tightened his arms around me.

  No longer steady and comforting, his voice shook slightly as he whispered, “Aspen?”

  He stroked my hair with those sigh-worthy hands of his just as something thumped against the door of the supply closet we were in.

  I yelped, and the people on the other side laughed amongst themselves, their muffled voices filling our tiny space and jerking me back to the present with a malicious vengeance, before they moved off again, obviously not realizing we were inside.

  “Oh, my God,” I whispered, absolutely horrified. My mouth fell open. I tried to deny what had just happened, but I couldn’t. My skirt was still hiked up to my navel and something wet was slipping down the inside of my thighs.

  “Don’t freak out,” Noel commanded in a soft, warning voice. He reached for my arm.

  I squeaked out a sound and shoved him away, then gaped at him in utter horror. But...don’t freak out? Was he insane?

  “We just...”

  He blew out a long breath and nodded. “Yeah. I know.”

  “At school,” I hissed, completely losing my cool. “Omigod, omigod, omigod.” Flapping my hands, I walked in a circle because there was nowhere else to go in this cramped closet, and I certainly couldn’t leave and risk anyone seeing me in my just-had-the-best-sex-of-my-life look. Realizing how rearranged my clothes still were, I beat them back into order, shoving my skirt down over my legs and jerking it around until the zipper was back where it belonged. My blouse was a disaster, there was no way to get the wrinkles out, but I desperately tried to iron it into submission with my hands.

  “I can’t believe I just had sex with a student. I’m going to be fired before I even make it back to my office. Oh, shit. Damn. My parents are going to find out, and probably everyone else.” Eyes widening, I looked up at him. “Oh, hell. You’re Noel Gamble. This is definitely going to make the news. It’ll be even bigger than the coach with the volleyball player. Oh...my God. I’m going to be a scandal. How can I be a scandal? I’ve never even gotten a parking ticket. I drive the freaking speed limit and use my blinker to change lanes. And this one time, the telephone company refunded me too much money on my cell phone bill, but I caught the error and gave it back. I. Gave. It. Back. I always do the right thing. I never... Oh, my God. This is the worst thing I’ve ever done. I can’t even—”

  “Breathe,” Noel ordered, catching my shoulders and pressing my back against the wall. “Just calm down, okay.”

  I drew in a heaving breath, realizing I hadn’t breathed since I’d started my panic attack. I looked up into Noel’s eyes, seeking reassurance. He appeared calm enough for both of us, so I took comfort in that...for like a microsecond. But then it all hit me again.

  “Your coach,” I gasped. “Oh, my God, Noel. Your coach said he’d kick any player off the team who was caught—”

  “Then we just won’t get caught,” Noel spoke over me, determination lighting his gaze as he gritted his teeth.

  “But—”

  He kissed me silent. Rough and quick, but it effectively shut me up. Gripping my face in his hands, he forced me to look at him. “What we did was amazing,” he said as if willing me to believe that as fiercely as he did with his stare alone. “It was just between you and me, and it was no one else’s fucking business. I know you won’t show me any favoritism in class, and I sure as hell won’t ask for any. I’ll work my ass off to earn whatever grade I get. We can keep the two separate; that’s all that matters. And we’re two consenting adults who—”

  “Who just did it in closet like a pair of irresponsible teenagers without any protection. Oh, my God. I’m supposed to be some kind of role model for all the young girls on campus. What kind of message would this send? Damn it, Noel, you know this is wrong. This can never happen again, not that it matters. We’re going to get caught as soon we open this door, and it’s all going to be over, anyway.”

  He shook his head insistently. In that moment, I wasn’t sure if I’d ever met a more stubborn person in my life. “Look, okay, the condom thing was, yeah, a mistake. I’ll admit that one. Neither of us were thinking. Things happened. But it did happen, and we can’t undo it. So we’ll just...we’ll deal with those consequences if there are any. And we’re not going to get caught in here either. We’ll wait until everything settles down between classes. We can slip out after—”

  “But I have another class to teach.” Oh, God. Just saying that aloud made this that much more real. And awful.

  I’d just had hard and dirty sex, on campus, with one of my students, and I had another class to teach in...shit, twenty minutes.

  My hands began to shake. I was one of those women now. It didn’t seem real.

  Noel choked out a sound of pain and his expression crumbled as he reached for my face. “Jesus, don’t cry.” When he wiped wetness off my cheek, I realized I alr
eady was.

  A sob worked up my throat, and I shuddered with fear.

  “No.” He hauled me against him, my forehead bumping hard against his clavicle. “I’m sorry.” His fingers sank into my hair and rubbed my scalp. “I lost my mind and before I knew it, I was inside you. I’m so sorry, Aspen. I’ll make this right. I swear it.”

  I let his words calm me. I even rested my cheek on his chest until he seemed satisfied I was okay. Then I let him crack open the door and check the hall. He took my hand and led me from the stuffy supply closet that now smelled like us. But as soon as we were out, I shook my fingers away from his.

  He glanced back at me as if he wanted to argue about it. I knew he wanted me to follow him so we could go somewhere else together. But this had to stop here. And he must’ve seen something in my face, known I wasn’t going anywhere with him, because he clenched his jaw but silently nodded his acceptance.

  So, he took off one way down the hall, and I went the other, telling myself this could never happen again. No matter how amazing it had been, no matter how much I loved being with him, no matter how great I felt just looking at him, this could never...happen...again.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  "I want to know everything about you, so I tell you everything about myself.” - Amy Hempel

  ~NOEL~

  I gave her twenty-four hours. I knew Aspen. She needed time and space to wrap her head around what had happened. It killed me to give it to her, but I allowed it. But only for one day. I knew there was no way I’d be able to enter her class on Thursday and watch her teach without imploding, so on Wednesday afternoon, beyond grateful I didn’t have to work that night because I’d reorganized the schedules at work, I hiked to her place as soon as I thought she’d be home for the day.

  She answered her door, cracking the entrance open and peering out at me with her large, adorable owl eyes. As her mouth fell open, I stepped forward. She had to scurry backward and pull the door open wider to let me in, but she did, without any kind of fight. The shock might’ve prevented her from trying to bar my way.