Page 33 of Lunar Crest University

His jaw clenches as he looks at me, his gaze teetering on a glare, before he pushes up from the couch. “I don’t know. I’ll think about it.”

“You will?” I fight back a smile.

“Yes. I’llthinkabout it.”

The smile spreads on my cheeks at his response, and I can’t contain the laugh that bursts from my lips as he grabs the nearest throw pillow and chucks it at me. Waving his hand in the air aimlessly, he shakes his head as he walks into the kitchen, saying something about making some popcorn and switching the TV over to a horror movie.

We’re going to be okay.

Chapter Fourteen

LUCA

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 13TH, 2023

The way my name left Finley’s plump lips haunted me for two days straight. It replayed like a broken record in my mind, over and over andoveragain, amplifying every time I peeked over during class to where she sat. Like a punishment and a gift all at once.

We hadn’t spoken a single word to each other since I’d pressed her up against my classroom door and made her fall apart in the palm of my hand. Who has time for words when I’m wholly consumed by the memory of what her moans sounded like in my ear? Her hips rolling into me? Her porcelain cheeks flushing the deepest red I’ve ever seen? It’s maddening how beautiful she looks after she comes—dusted pink skin dancing just beneath her green eyes, the most stunning contrast of colors I’d ever witnessed. I wanted to take a photo of her in that moment and hang it on my wall so I could look at it any time I wanted.

It’s the worst thing that could’ve happened to me.

I’m scared to speak to her again, scared that the only thing capable of leaving my mouth is the inappropriate thoughts that consume my brain permanently. We can’t go any further. We’ve already gone too far.

But we can’t go back, either.

Finley is scared too. We’d look at each other in passing, fleeting glances in the middle of the hallway. But I knew she was scared for different reasons—I’d basically told her to fuck off without actually saying it. Now, it was all a tense game of who would make the first move to speak, one I’d almost lost more times than I could count, wanting to tug her back, shove her against the door again—relive my bittersweet memories. The way my hands itched to touch her again was like an addict needing his next fix.

The need was dangerous—if it was this bad after touching her through her fucking clothes, I couldn’t imagine what I would feel like if I had taken it further.

I hadn’t even fucking kissed her. I had her in my hands, and I didn’t even taste her.

And I never could.

When I got home that night, I fucked my hand in the shower, thinking of what she would taste like. I should’ve felt guilty, and maybe I did, but it only made me come faster. The fact that I shouldn’t be doing it turned me on more.

Glancing up over the rim of my glasses, my eyes fall on her for the hundredth time, observing her as she focuses on the piece of paper on her desk—writing about whichShakespearesonnet is her favorite. I’d instructed each student to do so. Her eyes would blink every so often, her thick eyebrows batting against her cheeks as her lips purse in thought.

Beautiful.Ethereal.

And I’ll be trapped in England with her in just over a week.

“Alright.” I sigh, pushing up from the desk. “Five minutes left. I want a two-page, typed response paper on my desk Monday morning about the messages inShakespeare’ssonnets. Which one resonates with you the most? Why?”

The corner of my lips twitch at the few groans in response to my words. Rounding the corner of my desk, I lean back against the wood, crossing my arms over my chest as I lick my lips.

“Remind me,” I continue. “What are some of the themes we see in these sonnets?”

“Beauty.”

Genevieve Pierce speaks in a saccharine tone from the front row, shooting me one of her eager smiles as she brushes her hair behind her ears. She’s usually the first student to answer. Always eager to please—a littletooeager. Glares from Finley’s curly-headed friend usually follow.

“Jealousy,” Levi quips.

Right on schedule.

“Love.”

It’s the first time I’ve heard her soft voice in two fucking days. It ripples through me like I haven’t heard it in months. It reverberates through my body in overwhelming flutters, swarming so harshly, I feel as though they’ll burst through my chest. I have to swallow thickly to keep from choking on them.

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