She held her breath when my hand came to rest on her cheek, and I leaned in, closing whatever space was left between us. I didn’t kiss her, though. Not yet. I wasn’t trying to tease her, but I’d wanted this moment for weeks. Now that it was here, I didn’t want it to be over too quickly.
I hovered my lips just outside of hers, letting her feel their warmth and the threat of my kiss. If she took a breath, we’d share the same air, but she didn’t seem to be breathing.
A tremble worked its way up her body, making her shoulders shake. Fuck, I loved it. She’d confirmed I—and I alone—was the cause of it during our last scene together.
You, she’d whispered.
I didn’t tremble on the outside like she did, but inside? She made me feel the same way. Unsteady. Nervous. Excited.
The moment suspended, and everything else ceased to exist.
It was just me and her.
“Colin.”
My whispered name came from her in a mix of desperation and frustration. She didn’t want to wait any longer.
I went in gentle, brushing my lips against hers to test the waters. One soft kiss to get an invitation for more, and she gave it to me when she let out the tiniest of sighs.
This time, I went all in.
I cupped her cheek, brushing my thumb over her cheekbone as I sealed my mouth over hers. Her soft lips gave way as I slipped my tongue into her mouth, sliding against hers. This kiss was lush and thorough.
It made satisfaction pour through my body.
We’d been lying on our sides facing each other, but I moved in, urging her to roll onto her back so I could deepen the kiss. I rose onto my arm and eased my knee between her legs, pressing my body to hers while my mouth moved against her mouth, my tongue tangled with hers.
There weren’t cameras around to capture what we were doing. There was no script or promise of money, no one in our ear telling us what to do. Mads let me kiss her because she wanted me to. This chemistry between us? It wasn’t just explosive.
It was real.
Her hand threaded through my hair, clutching a fistful, and in response, I shifted my knee. I used the top of my thigh to press against the center of her legs and was rewarded with a quiet, pleasurable moan. The sound of it shot straight to my dick. Could she feel how fucking hard she made me? How badly I wanted her?
I grasped her hip, pinning her to the mattress for a second, only for my hand to start sliding up, carrying the bottom of her tank top up with it. Things began to spiral, and so when she flattened her palm in the center of my chest, it took me a long moment to read the signal.
She was pushing me back.
I broke the kiss and stared down, worry tensing my muscles. “What’s wrong?”
Her gaze darted away, and again she swallowed so hard, it was audible. “It’s late, and my final’s in the morning, and I . . .”
She came to my room to try to get some sleep.
Not to have deep conversation, or share a mind-blowing kiss, or let it lead to anything more.
The idiot voice inside my brain said I could help her fall asleep faster if I gave her an orgasm, but I was smart enough not to listen to it. Instead, I slowly withdrew and shifted back to my side of the bed. Every inch of me wanted to keep kissing her, though, and sleep was the farthest thing from my mind.
“Right,” I said.
I settled next to her, maybe encroaching on her side a little, but I couldn’t help it. I wanted to be near in case she changed her mind, or to have an excuse to accidentally brush against her if we got too close. To remind her I was there, right beside her.
She stared up at the ceiling, and I imagined the same thought running through my head was running through hers. What happens now?
“Okay, well . . .” she whispered. “Goodnight.”
She abruptly rolled away and slid across the sheets, scooting into the corner and as far away from me as she could get.
What the hell?
I didn’t like how she’d run away from me after everything we’d just shared. I hadn’t done anything to make her feel unsafe. Why was she acting like she was afraid of me?
For a long beat, I simply stared at her while the slow, sleepy music from my phone filled the awkward space between us.
Really?
The springs in the mattress made a quiet squeak as I rolled away from her, and my voice was gruff. “Yeah. Goodnight.”
I sat on the bench outside the science building, watching the door. I’d finished my final ten minutes ago, but Elijah was still in there, and I wanted to catch him before he left. It meant I couldn’t look at my phone or I might miss him, and that left me with nothing to do but think about last night.