Page 76 of Love, Academically
“Oh, yeah,” Lila hoicked up her skirt rather ungracefully.
Rhys carefully unbuckled one shoe, slipped it off her foot and motioned for her to lift the other.
“Lila,” he said, eyes focused on his task.
“Hmm?” she didn’t trust her words. The tips of his ears were pink.
“You were perfect tonight,” he said, depositing the other shoe by the first and standing in front of her. “Absolutely perfect.”
A soft smile tilted her lips. She reached for his hands, andlinked their fingers together. His lips parted and she lifted her face towards his, pulling him gently closer.
“Lila,” he whispered when his mouth was scarcely a breath from hers. “You are so beautiful.”
She thought of all the times when he was going to say how she looked earlier, he couldn’t get his words out.
He thought she was beautiful.
Pushing up on her toes, she kissed him.
It wasn’t soft and chaste like before. No, she pressed her body against his and his arms went around her tightly. Her hands found their way into his hair and he staggered slightly, pushing her back against the table. A pile of books toppled somewhere, but she didn’t care. He opened his mouth and it was wet and hot and she couldn’t get enough. He hitched her up onto the table, running his hand from her ankle, pushing up the skirt of her dress as he gripped the soft underside of her thigh, the same thigh that had magically wrapped its way around his hip.
She could feel him hard and straining and she ground against him, trying to get some friction where she needed it most. Because she was needy and desperate. The evening had been one of tantalising looks and touches and now she was being thoroughly seduced.
Rhys’s tongue was in her mouth, caressing and taking and her nipples pushed against the fabric of her dress.
She reached for his trousers and undid the button quickly. Slipping her hand inside, she gripped him outside his boxers and he groaned into her mouth. She ran her hand up and down his length. The noise he made in the back of his throat had her smiling against his lips. She had her fingers under the waistband of his pants when he grasped her wrist, stilling her.
He eased her hand out of his trousers and took a small step back, adjusting his hardness in his pants.
“Are you okay?”
“I, I don’t,” he started, gulping a breath. “I don’t want—”
Holy fuck.
She scrambled her skirt down. She’d read this completely, utterly, devastatingly wrong.
“Oh, right. Yeah,” she said, pushing her hair back from her face with both hands and shuffling off the edge of the table. “Yeah, no, of course.”
She was just saying words now, words that didn’t make any sense.
“I just think—” he started.
“Yep, yes. I get it,” she said, blowing out a hard breath.
She was hot and tingly all over andnotin a good way. In the absolutely mortified, ‘wish she could change into a squirrel like Mad Madam Mim inSword in the Stoneand disappear up a tree forever’ kind of way.
“No, not that I don’t—”
“Please Rhys, stop talking,” she said, not meeting his eyes. “You’re making it worse.”
“Lila, can I just—”
“You should probably go.”
Lila walked carefully over to the front door (it wouldnotdo to trip now) and held it open.
“Lila,” he tried again. How was he not getting the idea here?
