Page 54 of Dear Mr. Brody

He pulled away, leaving a cold space between us.

“Home with you?” he asked and laughed without humor. His chin was red from my five-o’clock shadow, his lips swollen. A faint purple bruise had started to form low on his neck, and I would have reached out, dusted my thumb across the mark, but the shame in his eyes stopped me. “Where you live with another one of my students...”

“Marcos wouldn’t—”

“It doesn’t matter. Jesus Christ... what did I do?”

Risking ruining everything, I grasped his chin, gently urging him to look at me. It took him a second to yield, but his conflicted gaze eventually found mine.

“You did what you wanted. You didn’t do anything wrong.”

“It’s wrong… if you were anyone else, it wouldn’t be an issue. But we shouldn’t have,Ishouldn’t have—”

“Stop, alright… Fuck, forget about all that shit for two seconds. Tell me how youfeel, how it felt…” I smiled when he bit his lip. His hot breath fanned over the tip of my thumb as I brushed it along the curve of his mouth. “Kissing a man… Kissing me.”

He raised a hand and trailed it across the arch of my cheek, the small touch writing a blazing line of heat down my spine.

“It was…” he took a breath, his eyes closing as his hand settled on my neck. “Nothing has ever felt this right.” His dark lashes slowly parted again, and he watched me for what seemed like an infinite number of minutes, hours, hell if I knew, all I wanted was to kiss him again. “I don’t know what to do.”

Never taking my eyes off his, I brought our lips together. Cautious and slightly timid, he kissed me back. This kiss wasn’t like the last, desperate, and clinging like the storm of indecision might rip us apart. This kiss was a hint of maybe, an exploration of what could be. It wasn’t frantic and hopeless. It wastrust me, as my tongue dove into his mouth, it waslet it happen, as his finger curled through the belt loop in my jeans, it wasI want to show you everything, as I sucked on his bottom lip.

Donovan kissed the corner of my mouth, my cheek, before resting his forehead against my brow. “I need to think.”

“Thinking sounds pretty awful.”

His chuckle resonated inside my chest.

“I can’t believe it was you,” he whispered, cupping my face in his hands. A pink shadow made its way up his neck to his cheeks. “But as much as I want to say I wish it wasn’t, I can’t. I fucking can’t, and it’s killing me.”

“After December, it will be a moot point.”

“We don’t know that. I never planned on dating a student, so I’m not one-hundred percent sure of the policy.”

“You want to date me?” I teased, my smirk growing the deeper he blushed.

“I didn’t say that, Mr. Mills.”

“Fuck, that turns me on.” I pressed our hips together and his hands fell to my waist. His body responded and I grinned, loving the effect I had on him.

“Yeah?” he asked, his smile vulnerable as he leaned in and brushed his lips over mine.

Caught in the moment, it took longer than it should have for us to realize we had an audience.

Someone cleared their throat, and Donovan’s body went rigid.

“I… uh… just need to get by.”

“Oh God… Sorry.” Instead of pushing me away, he pulled me close, hiding my profile against his neck.

“Don’t be…” The woman’s voice held a hint of humor. “I’m sorry to interrupt.”

As she walked past us, he released his death grip on my waist. She got into the car behind Van’s, and I could’ve sworn he’d held his breath until she’d pulled out of the parking lot.

“Not everyone knows you’re my teacher,” I said, and he exhaled a sigh.

“This is why we shouldn’t do this.”

Shouldn’t. Not can’t.

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