After they strode down the halls with the now green lockers and he’d pointed out the science lab, they ended up in what used to be the computer lab. These days, the classrooms had smartboards and were much more high-tech. Kids had computers and laptops at home. Derek didn’t know what the kids at this school could afford, but it was obvious things had been upgraded well.
“Can you imagine if we’d gone to school together?” Cassie asked, looking around the room that was now a normal classroom.
“Maybe I’d have had more time to get you to notice me,” he said with a wink.
“Oh, I’d have noticed you,” she murmured, wrapping her arms around his neck.
“Yeah?” He rubbed his nose against her cold one. “Think you’d have been brave enough to sneak a kiss?”
“I’d regret it if I didn’t because now I know what I’d be missing.” She threaded her hand through his hair and looked into his eyes.
“Damn straight,” he muttered, and covered her lips with his, sliding his tongue into her mouth. She opened eagerly, and the kiss went on for a good long while, long, seductive sweeps of their tongues, meshing of mouths, and more.
His heart pounded hard in his chest as he pulled away. After the last twenty-four hours, Derek knew one thing for sure. He wasn’t falling in love with her. He was already there.
It didn’t matter what her family thought, what had happened in the past between them. All that mattered was her.
“I love you,” he heard himself say, unable to hold the words back now that he’d acknowledged them.
Her eyes opened wide. “You do?”
A smile pulled at his lips. “You don’t believe me?”
She leaned back, her arms around his neck holding her steady. “No, I do. Want to know why?”
He cocked an eyebrow, wanting to hear her say it. “Why?”
“Because I love you too.”
The words wrapped around his heart. Damn, he’d never have believed it. If, back when he’d gone to this school, someone had told him he’d find his other half in the princess across the yard, he’d have died laughing, sure someone was playing a joke on him. But what he felt for her was far from funny.
He kissed her again, locking his lips over hers and losing himself in her sweetness, tongues tangling. He nipped on her lower lip, and she pressed herself against him, jacket against jacket, heat sweeping through his body, his cock at attention.
This wasn’t the best place for his declaration, but it was their place and he owned it. He swept his hand into her hair and kissed her again, hard and with urgency, until they heard a loud banging on the door.
“Come on, kids,” the familiar voice of the janitor called. “Time to go.”
He broke the kiss and laughed. “This could have happened way back when too.”
She grasped his hand and met his gaze. “We’d have been too young to appreciate what we had,” she said, her eyes warm and glazed with a combination of arousal and happiness.
“Point well made,” he said. “We’d better get going or the janitor is going to drag us out.”
She laughed and let him lead her out of the room, through the school, and into the frigid air.
* * *
Derek spent the night with Cassie in his bed. He made love to her slowly, savoring the feel of his cock bare inside her, sure of his feelings. Knowing she felt the same way. He’d never used those words with another woman before, and speaking them to Cassie felt right.
He didn’t sleep much; he was too hyped up. He’d been open with Cassie. He’d been honest. And he finally had faith that they could work through the past on their terms. She wanted the same thing he did. To move on together.
He’d woken her earlier, his tongue between her legs, tasting her, savoring her, bringing her over the edge, not once but twice before he found his way home, coming inside her. Losing himself in her and finding himself all over again.
Derek rose to light streaming through the window in his bedroom. The sun matched his mood. He’d never felt so light or free.
He was about to wake her up when his cell rang. He jumped up to get it before it woke her.
“Hello?”