told me you preferred everything vanilla, which sounded like torture. I didn’t care. I wanted you any way I could get you.
“By the next day, even as I signed the contract I had drawn up, I knew nothing between us was going to be as cut and dry as a contract. Sweetheart, not only did I know that, I didn’t want us to be, not really. I tried, because you had signed the contract, too, and I wasn’t sure what you wanted.
“Then yesterday, there were we were standing in front of a masterpiece. I’m listening to you rant about what a pig Picasso was and how you think it’s the ugliest thing in the building. I remember I was supposed to have a conference call right around then. I didn’t even give it a second thought because I was standing exactly where I wanted to be, with you. That’s why I told you yesterday, from now on when you go out I will be with you. No one forces me to do anything I don’t want to do. I want to be with you.
“In the limo, when you told me about going out to the theater and the Cubs, I was upset because you had done them without me. I had missed out on your first Cubs game in Wrigley Park. I began to wonder how many other things I’d missed. Then I remembered you were only doing what we agreed to. I don’t want to hold to the agreement anymore.”
I stop talking as she looks at me, her eyes cloudy, I wonder if I’ve said too much. Hell, I have said too much because it takes a while before she says a word. When she does I want to strangle her, “Oh.”
That’s it, I had run my mouth like an idiot, and that’s all she has to say? “Oh.” I mimic her, fighting to keep my tone light. “Did I read you wrong, sweetheart? Was all that I said reassuring or...”
Hell, now I don’t know what to say as I stare down at her hands. They aren’t clenched the way she does when she’s nervous. I blink and her mouth is on mine, her hands in my hair pulling me down to her. Thank fucking god, she had been afraid to say what she was feeling because her kiss is full of longing and need. Feeling needy myself I let the kiss get out of control, until she’s straddling me moaning as she rides me.
Damn it, this is not the place, as the phone on the desk rings reminding me of where we are. Anne moans as my grip on her hips tighten and hold her in place, not allowing her to move. “Please, I need you right now. You can’t tell me everything I’ve wanted to hear since that first morning and not make love to me now.”
The words make love were a slip, it’s obvious in the way she goes still. Hearing her say it has me losing all control. My hand slips up around her throat, holding her in place. “You belong to me.” Liquid silver glows up at me. “Say it damn it, you belong to me.”
“I belong to you.” Her words slur as if she’s drunk off them.
“All of you, belongs to me.” I whisper against her lips, taking in her breath as she exhales. The air all around is us thick, heavy with desire.
“All of me belongs to you.” It’s a vow, this time each word is clear, solemn.
“Never forget that.”
“Never.”
It’s enough, for now. All my tension eases, this time when I pick Anne up, she doesn’t protest. Setting her on her feet in front of me, she sways slightly when I let her go in order to stand. “I promised you a campus visit and I’m keeping it. If I don’t, I won’t be able make love to you in peace.”
Her frown turns into a glowing smile when I talk about making love to her. Soon, very soon, she’ll understand what the words really mean. “I don’t want you resenting me for not keeping my promise.”
Her deep breath is shaky. She only nods as she slips her hand in mine.
The next three and a half hours are torture. Anne doesn’t seem to be doing well enduring them either, at first. She asks questions, then has to ask them again a few times, it’s obvious she’s having a hard time concentrating. I wonder if I’ve cheated her out of the visit I intended her to have, until we get to the women’s health research building.
Her full attention is on every word the professor and student are saying during the tour. I’m surprised, after how she seemed uninterested in the other science and research programs. Anne takes several of the pamphlets, adding them to the ones she had already been given. It’s a good thing Connie had handed her a cloth tote bag with the logo of the university on it, as it’s filling rapidly.
Anne perks up during the history and English tour, asking questions and even taking notes on the handouts they give her. I don’t like the way the history professor is standing too close to her. I’ve been doing my best to hang back, chatting with Connie as she let the individual professors and students discuss the programs.
I’m about to take a step forward when Anne says something I can’t hear and the man smiles weakly before moving away from her. When she looks at me, her smile is one of reassurance. Once again I wonder how she doesn’t know, she could read me from across the room, yet she didn’t see our connection for what it is.
Her initial enthusiasm over the teaching course wanes quickly. Connie steps forward to reassure her there is a difference between teaching at a level below college or university. I hang back, to keep my promise not get involved until she wants me to. Anne doesn’t seem reassured in the slightest and we move on.
As we keep going, nothing interests Anne again until we get to the Weinberg College and she watches a photo shoot in progress. Her eyes are everywhere as she takes in the scene. Her conversation with the professor is animated, yet when she talks with the student her excitement fades.
Yet, she still seems interested in what the student is saying and they talk for long enough to make me antsy at the sight of them together. Especially at the way he’s staring at her breasts more often than he looks her in the eye. When he hands her a card, I’m done.
Anne slides her arm around my waist. “Kenny, this is Grant. Thank you for all the information, I’ll think about it and maybe give you a call.” Her hand goes up to my chest as I tense at her saying she’ll call him. Looking up at me, “I’m ready to go now. I think I’ve got all the information I came here for, and then some.”
Chapter Twelve
The car door closing sounds loud, bursting the hazy bubble I’ve been in for the last few hours. In the thirty seconds it takes Grant to round the car and get in beside me, I’ve come crashing down to earth. Once he’s in the car again, he sees it. His hands gentle, he pulls me into his lap. “Shhh... we’ll be home soon.”
I don’t bother to argue, I lay my head back on his chest. Closing my eyes I let the world fall away. The only thing I know is Grant is holding me tightly, as if he’s never going to let me go. It’s all I want to know. I feel the tension in Grant flow out of him and with it, my own. Somehow, I slip into the blackness of sleep in only minutes.
I’m roused from sleep by Grant’s soft murmurings, none of them I understand. I simply lean on him allowing him to guide me out of the limousine then through to the elevator.
It’s all coming back to me now. My admission about missing him when he wasn’t with me. Grant telling me he didn’t want to go by the agreement anymore, me asking him to make love to me. Grant promising he would be able to make love to me once his promise had been complete. If he didn’t want to go by the agreement anymore, where do we go from here? “Was she prettier than me? Did she suck your cock better than I do?”