Page 12 of Bewitched By the Mountain Man
The hallway fills with students and faculty, everyone moving toward the exits in that half-annoyed, half-compliant shuffle that comes with campus evacuations. False alarm, probably. They happen all the time in these old buildings.
I head for the stairwell, taking the steps two at a time. Just get outside, wait for the all-clear, go home, and…
Someone crashes into me on the landing.
I catch her automatically, hands going to her waist to steady her, and my entire body goes stiff.
Tessa.
She's soaked, her sweater clinging to her, hair plastered to her face. She must've been caught in the downpour before the alarm even went off. And now she's here, in my arms, looking up at me with those wide eyes that haunt my fucking dreams.
"Professor Cain," she breathes, stepping back quickly. Too quickly. Like I burned her.
"Ms. O'Reilly. We should keep moving."
"Right."
She moves past me down the stairs, and I follow, keeping distance between us, trying not to notice the way her jeans hug her hips, and the way those hips felt in my hands.
She reaches the door first and pushes.
Nothing happens.
She pushes again, harder. "It's stuck."
"Let me." I move closer, trying the handle myself. It doesn't budge. Old building, shitty maintenance.
I try the door above us. Locked. Security protocol during evacuations.
Perfect.
"We're trapped," Tessa says quietly.
"I’m sure maintenance will get to us."
I pull out my phone. No signal in the stairwell. "They're probably sweeping floor by floor."
The space suddenly feels very small. We're on a landing between floors, concrete walls on three sides, barely enough room for two people. And one of those people is her.
She's shivering, arms wrapped around herself. Her sweater's thin and soaked through.
I shrug off my coat and hold it out. "Here."
"I'm fine."
"You're freezing. Take it."
She hesitates, then takes the coat, wrapping it around her shoulders. It swallows her. Something primal twists in my gut at seeing her in my clothes.
Stop. Stop thinking like that.
We stand in silence. The alarm's still blaring somewhere distant, muffled by concrete and steel. And Tessa's right there, close enough to touch, looking anywhere but at me.
"So," she says finally. "This is awkward."
Despite everything, I almost laugh. "That's one word for it."
I move to the opposite wall, putting as much distance between us as possible. Which isn't much.
