Page 96 of Research with Rivals
When had he started doing that? When had he started saying things like that without worrying about the consequences?
“Evelyn, I know this thing between us is new and untested…”
I gave him a flat stare. “We were magically bound to learn about each other’s lives while competing for a position we both wanted.” I tilted my head. “With a meddling god cackling at us the whole time. I think it’s tested.”
He sighed. “Time will test it further, but with your news, there seems to be more pressure on it than you might have wanted.”
I opened and closed my mouth again. That wasn’t how I felt. I didn’t feel pressure to ask him to come with me.
“It’s new, but”—he ran his fingers through his hair—“it doesn’t feel casual to me. It never did. If that’s all you wanted, that’s obviously within your rights. I just think you should know that I love you and would follow you if you want me to.”
My heart skipped a beat, and I was sure he heard it. Had he just said that? He loved me? Wasn’t that what I’d been trying to find the words to tell him?
Time slowed around us, and I knew everything I wanted was within my grasp. My hope hadn’t been in vain. Ambrose wanted to give us a chance. All I had to do was tell him I wanted it too.
I reached up to cup the side of his face with my palm. It was an intimacy I would never tire of. I spoke the following words with all the hope in my heart, still scared of his response even though he’d already told me his answer. “I love you, too, Ambrose, and all I’ve been trying to spit out this entireconversation is a single question. It might not have been what you originally wanted with the position, but will you come to Compass Lake … with me?”
As his chin dipped in assent, I pulled his lips down to mine. Kissing him was all I wanted now. We’d still have plenty to learn about our relationship, and he wasn’t wrong: it would be in a more public position than we probably would have wished. But I was better when he was with me, and I liked to think the same was true for him.
The soft press of our lips against each other turned into a heated exploration, and my temperature rose with each stroke of his tongue. Our fires seemed to reach out to one another, like licking flames searching for more to burn. An inferno of desire cascaded through me. I glanced behind us. The door was closed; Lord Arctos had shut it upon his exit. Intentionally? I decided to believe he owed us this.
“I’ve had a particular fantasy about this library and you for longer than I care to admit.”
Ambrose hummed, urging me to continue as he kissed my neck and slid his hand down my side.
I walked us backward and pushed him into the wall of books. “You and me, against the books in the restricted section.” I paused dramatically. “Without the proper paperwork.”
His laugh was decadent. “The library doesn’t have paperwork for having sex in the restricted section.”
As if he checked.My body warmed at the thought.
He flipped us around so my back was pressed into the shelves, and he dropped to his knees. Every inch he peeled my leggings down had my breath hitching. “Are you sure?—”
He paused his progress, waiting for me to continue. I couldn’t catch my breath to do so. He glanced up, those hazel eyes rimmed in gold. “Do you want to stop?”
I glanced at the door. Knowing Lord Arctos, he’d probably locked it, too. I shook my head. “I don’t want to stop. But if you’re uncomfortable, we don’t have to?—”
He pulled my leggings down farther, exposing me to him. “I’m doing just fine. Haven’t you heard? I’m as reckless as you are. I test blood magic on living subjects now.” He leaned into my center. His nose slid against the curve of my thigh. “Heavenly.”
With his first lick, my knees threatened to buckle. With the second, they shook. He pressed against my stomach, holding me in place against the shelf. With the third pass of his tongue, something in him snapped.
My fingers laced in his hair. I wanted to run them through it in the way he was always doing. My mind echoed his word choice—heavenly. I had no opportunity to speak the word as he feasted on me with a single-minded devotion.
He noted every hitch of my breath and shake of my legs to catalog my likes, my desires, and pursued them rigorously. I was a research project he seemed more than passionate about. He hooked one of my legs around his shoulder and pressed in farther, his fingers sliding in to fill me as my pleasure built. I had no time to think, no time to realize where I was or who might hear. Fire burned through me, and I cried his name with my release.
My breaths were heavy as he stood and kissed me. It was a heady thing to taste myself on his tongue. I licked at him, wanting more and unafraid, for the first time, to reach for it.
“Was there more to the fantasy?” he asked.
I nodded, pulling him close. Our tongues slid together, igniting another flame of desire as I worked to free his length from his trousers. “A lot more.”
He chuckled as I brought us together. He pushed inside me in one heated stroke, my body more than ready for him. Henipped at my ear, and his words were a whisper. “We’ll have to thoroughly investigate each part.”
“I’m sure you’ll have some ideas to add.”
He smiled. “We do tend to bring out the best in each other.”
And then our hearts beat in unison as we drove toward our shared goal. Together.
