Page 107 of Love and the Laws of Motion
The outer office was empty when she came in, aside from the dean’s secretary, sitting behind a desk.She was a slight woman in her fifties with a salt-and-pepper pixie haircut.She looked up as Livie came in.“Can I help you with something?”
Livie shut the door behind her.“Yes, I have an appointment with Dean Haverman at 3:30.Olivia Romano.”
She checked the schedule on her computer monitor.“Here you are.Have a seat, Miss Romano.He had to take an unexpected meeting and it’s running a little late.”
But before Livie could take a seat in one of the chairs the secretary motioned to, the door behind her—the one that presumably led to the dean’s office—opened.
And Nick walked out.
He was looking back over his shoulder at the dean, who was still talking to him.
“Thank you for the information, Mr.DeSantis.We’re going to take steps immediately.”
“Looks like they’re done after all,” the secretary said brightly.“You can go on in, Miss Romano.”
Livie’s mind spun as she tried to understand what was happening.Nick was back?And taking a meeting with the dean of Adams U?What the hell was going on here?
“Nick?What are you doing here?”
He turned back, and his face lit up with a smile.“There you are.”
Then, as she stood there gaping at him in confusion, he closed the distance between them, took her face in his hands, and kissed her.
For a minute, she forgot they didn’t do this anymore.Or maybe it was more accurate to say she didn’t care.Since he’d left, she didn’t let herself think about him.She refused to remember.If she’d started thinking back on their time together, she’d have crumpled up in a ball of misery and grief.She’d ruthlessly shoved every thought of Nick into a mental strongbox and hidden it deep in her brain.
But this kiss brought it all back.That box was dragged back up into the light and the padlock was blown clear off, allowing Nick, and every intoxicating thing about him, to surge back in and drown her.It had only been a week but she’d missed every single thing—the feel of his mouth on hers, his hands on her body.She’d missed the way his hair felt under her fingers, and the rasp of his breathing when he kissed her, and his smell.It had been less than a week since he’d left, but it felt like she’d been missing him for a thousand years.
This was what she’d been desperately trying to outrun.It had caught up to her, and she was left devastated by it, this longing for him.
With a gasp, she pushed him away, but Nick didn’t let her go.His fingertips were massaging the base of her skull through her hair, and sending little zips of pleasure shooting through her body.Stupid body, not even caring that he’d left her and probably would again.
“What are you doing, Nick?”
“I thought that was obvious.I’m kissing you.”
“Why?”
“Because I love you.”
Surely this is when she would wake up.Or she’d snap out of whatever delusional daydream she’d fallen into and find herself sitting in one of those waiting room chairs, alone.
But Nick was still there, still holding her face in his hands, still looking into her eyes with an intensity that made it hard to breathe.
“I don’t understand.”
“I didn’t either, and for that, I’m sorry.I’m so sorry, Livie.As soon as I realized I’d lost you, I also realized I loved you.You know me, I’m a genius, but sometimes I’m really dumb.”
“You love me,” she repeated, the words not feeling any more real from her own lips than they had from his.
“I love you.”His expression was so earnest, so sincere.Somewhere deep inside the concrete and steel bunker she’d hidden it in for safekeeping, her heart cracked wide open.When she tried to breathe, her throat closed up, and she let out a tiny, strangled sound, somewhere between a gasp and a sob.
Nick’s eyes softened as he drew her closer again, kissing her forehead, then her cheek, then the corner of her mouth.“I love you,” he whispered.“I love you so much, Livie.”
Her fingers fisted in his shirt as he kissed her again.This time she let it drag her under, opening her mouth to him when he urged her lips apart, and meeting his tongue with her own.He moaned into her mouth, releasing her face, wrapping his arms around her, and hauling her in close.
She might have happily lived out the rest of her life in that one spot, kissing Nick, if someone clearing their throat nearby hadn’t shocked her back to reality.The dean was still standing in the doorway to his office, the expression on his craggy face somewhere between exasperated and amused.His secretary had her hands clutched to her chest as she stared up at Livie and Nick with hearts in her eyes.
“Why did you come here, Nick?”
