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“You’re disappointed,” he whispered.
“Slightly. But I was prepared. Now, if I knew we’d be walking in together, I might not have been as much.”
The elevator opened, people moved closer and rushed to get on.
They were crowded in so that meant no more conversation.
When they got off on the same floor, her smile was still on her face.
“Are you going to the same office as mine?”
“Yes. And if you don’t stop looking at me like that, someone is going to notice,” he said.
“You know what? I don’t think I really care. Do you?”
“Not in the least.”
She pulled the door open, held it for him; he moved through and toward his destination, her continuing on.
What he would have loved to have done was pull her back right there in the corridor where the walls were too thin and the rules too clear, and remind himself exactly how her mouth fit to his.
He imagined it instead.
His hand at her waist firmly drawing her in until her breath hitched because she felt the intent behind it. His mouth slanted over hers with no apology this time. No testing. No teasing. Just the certainty that she’d meet him halfway.
Like she did on Saturday.
Like he needed someone in his life to do.
Her lips parted for him as they had before. Like she already knew what he wanted to take but that he was smart enough to know they had to wait.
That waiting was going to be better in the long run.
He could almost feel it. The slow drag of his mouth against hers, the way he’d deepen it inch by inch, coaxing instead of demanding. His tongue slipped in, tasting her again, unhurried and possessive, memorizing the soft sounds she made when she forgot to hide them.
Saturday night replayed in sharp, vivid flashes like he’d been having for days.
The way her body had yielded without hesitation. The way she’d pressed closer instead of pulling back, like she’d been waiting for him to stop pretending he didn’t want her just as much.
He never pretended. She knew what he felt.
He just had more control.
The heat of her, the easy fit of them, the awareness humming between them like a live wire.
It was all there then, today and even decades ago.
He just didn’t know what it meant back then when they were kids.
But now he knew.
Now he could let it hold him over until they were ready for that next step.
But if he kept losing himself around her, he was positive the next step was going to come sooner than he might be ready for.
He clenched his jaw as she disappeared down the hall, her smile still lingering like a promise.
As if their time was coming and both of them were going to be more than prepared.
