Lover (Court University 4)

Oh, he dared all right, laughing the whole time as he hugged me to his chest and spun me around like he was a carny and I was the Tilt-A-Whirl.

He directed this ride while I laugh-screamed my lungs out, cursing all kinds of things at him, but that didn’t make him stop. Truth be told, I didn’t want him to stop, and I think he picked up on that. He spun me until I was thoroughly dizzy. I think he was too because the moment he put me down, we both fell to the ground.

We both tumbled into the street like a couple of idiots, the cold, dirty street, but for some reason I didn’t care. For some reason, he didn’t care. We just laughed, me crying at this point, and it took me a second to realize I fell on top of him. That he still had his arms around me.

That he hugged me.

That he had me there, right against his chest as the laughter disappeared and our breaths clouded the air. We hadn’t seen a car our entire run, one of those residential areas with little traffic.

“You saw a T-rex,” he said, his lips full and flush just like his cheeks. His hat had fallen off, his curls rogue and tousled. “Tell the truth, Jersey girl.”

He shouldn’t call me that. I wasn’t his Jersey girl. Really, I was still his professor. He hadn’t gotten out of my class yet.

I shouldn’t be on top of him. I shouldn’t be running with him. This whole exchange was completely inappropriate and had been for a while.

Try telling my body that, my heart racing on top of his. His chest, mighty and solid, labored rapidly with heavy breath beneath me. His hand cradled my hip, his fingers moving to hover over my ass, but it didn’t stay there long before I shifted.

Cold pavement touched my knees, my gloved hands on the ground, and Ramses lay there a second before shifting his head in my direction. He started to say something before his Apple watch pinged, and he raised his wrist.

“Damn,” he cursed, and I frowned.

“What?”

“One of my colleagues needs a client file for a meeting in the morning. I forgot to send it before I left the office. The whole thing’s on my hard drive.”

“Should we head back then?” We were going to anyway.

We probably should anyway.

Our gazes collided again and I saw that there. We should probably wrap things up today. It’d gotten weird and I think we both let it. Honestly, this was the first time something like this had happened. Ramses had never been any other way than completely respectful with me. He’d made good on his promise of friendship.

What had happened just now had been natural. Him grabbing me, him touching me, and me letting him. I suppose it wouldn’t be weird if we had been just friends.

He really needs to get out of your class.

He said he had his reasons. I was just waiting for him to give me the transfer slip, but it was on me for not pushing him about it.

“I don’t want to,” he said, making me find his eyes. He still lay there, but then shook his head. “I mean, we don’t have to rush. I have another copy of it on my laptop at home. If you don’t mind jogging over… I can send it off real quick, and we can get back to where we were.”

Should we? Get back to where we were?

I faced the pavement, and he did too. Getting up, he lounged next to me on his hip. His place wasn’t far. I mean, I hadn’t been to his home here in Queenstown Village, but we often jogged through this neighborhood, and he always mentioned he lived a block or two away. We’d just never jogged that route.

I didn’t know why really, but maybe I did. Maybe that was just a little too much, and he knew that, us being friends or not. It didn’t matter if we were actually going inside.

Just too much.

Just like this moment, and I should tell him no, say no.

“It won’t take but a moment,” he husked beside me, and my lips instantly closed.

“Okay.”

Okay, famous last words as he got up, then helped me up. He grabbed his hat, and with little movement, I realized how cold I was. Usually, I stayed pretty warm during our runs because we were constantly moving.

Maybe it’s a good idea to go inside for a moment.

That, in the end, was what I used as justification. How I justified the decision to go to my student’s house. I said going inside and getting warmed up wouldn’t be a bad idea, all the while something screamed in my