Page 94 of The Secret

“We’ve missed you, too.” He held my gaze until I had to bite down on my lip to stop myself from glowing pink.

“It’s nearly nap time for her.”

“Yes I know, I was about to take her in.”

“I can do it.”

“We’ll both do it.” He stood up, lifting her from the lounger as he did. “Come on you two, nap time.”

“Lunch time in thirty,” called Jamie as we passed.

“We’ll be back, just putting Bell down for a nap.”

Or we would have put her down for a nap if Diane hadn’t been in the kitchen as we walked through, but the pull of the grandmother was too strong and she relieved Murray of his daughter to do it herself.

His strong hand gripped my wrist as I turned to head back to the pool. “Come with me. We now have a free thirty minutes before lunch.”

Just as I had last night, I let him guide me down a corridor I’d not ventured along yet and lead me into a room at the end, my mouth dropping open as I took it in. “Holy fuck!”

“Bollocks, this was the wrong room to bring you into for some attention.” He laughed loudly.

I stepped to the middle, barely registering the click of the lock, and turned round, staring at the stacks and stacks of books lining the double height walls, a ladder propped on the rails to reach the upper shelves. Walking closer, I spied an entire collection of Charles Dickens first editions, lightly brushing my fingers along their spines, too scared to properly touch them.

I turned to find Murray staring at me with both amusement and delight. “This room, it’s incredible.”

“It certainly is. I’d have brought you in here sooner if I’d known it was here.”

“Would you?”

“Columbia, of course I would.” He stepped closer to take a better look, “This is your Disneyland.”

I grinned. “You’re right about that.”

He reached over, dragging the ladder along its tracks to us.

“See what’s on the top shelf.” His innocent tone contradicted the fire burning in his eyes and the sly amusement shaping his lip. “Read them out to me.”

“Okay.” I narrowed my eyes at him, slipping my sandals off and climbed up the first five rungs of the ladder to take a look. “There are some copies of Dante’s Inferno.”

“And what else?” Shivers ran across my body at the feel of his breath on my legs. I tried to read the next section, desperately wanting to concentrate on what I was looking at, but it was impossible, especially when his hand began sliding up my leg. If he went any higher, he’d be greeted with my soaking wet panties, something I was certain was his goal.

I tried to say his name, but that was also impossible, coming out as a moaning whisper and the very immediate need to stay standing while I was six feet up a ladder became my priority.

I stepped down a rung, then another, until he stopped me.

“Turn around.”

We were eye to eye, my breath catching at the intensity in his, the heat shooting out of them scorching my skin. He straddled my legs on either side of the ladder, getting so close to me I needed to grip onto his shoulders before my balance went.

Cupping my calves, he ran his palms up the backs of my legs. “This dress is much more to my liking, and now I get to do what I couldn’t last night because of those fucking pants.”

The throbbing in my clit travelled the length of my body until I was shaking so ferociously he winced from my nails digging into his shoulders as I tried to hold on.

“Did anyone ever make you come in the Columbia library?” His head tilted inquisitively, but I didn’t miss his eye twitch. “Actually don’t answer that. I don’t want to know about you and any other guys. Ever.”

He leaned forward, inhaling the last remainder of the breath he’d already stolen from me. His lips touched mine so softly I wasn’t sure they were even there, until I felt the soft edge of his tongue probing me, asking me to open up for him. I willingly complied, wanting to give this Harvard boy everything I had and more.

My tongue swept against his as he took my mouth as his own with a delicious rumble at the base of his throat. His hard body pressed into me until I knew my back would be indented with the rungs of the ladder, and I let him, needing to be marked by him.

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