Red Hot Reunion - Bella Andre Page 0,9

and let it fill her until the dried-up stick of a woman from just minutes ago was nearly erased.

And then the lake on the edge of campus stood before them, a full moon revealed on its clear, still surface.

Fear hit her like a jackhammer, right at the place in her skull that had been on the verge of detonation in the ballroom. Who was she kidding? She wasn’t a woman who ran with the wolves, for God’s sake. Soft visions of fairy-tale endings fled and she felt more vulnerable than ever before.

As if he could sense her sudden panic, Jason said, “It’s now or never, Emma.”

His words were neither an invitation nor a condemnation, and a picture of the rest of her life assaulted her. It wasn’t pretty. It wasn’t interesting.

If she didn’t take this “now” there would only be “never” for the rest of her life.

Turning to face him, holding his hazel gaze with her own she spoke the word that would seal her fate.

“Now.”

What the hell am I doing?

Jason knew he should leave. Right now. Five minutes ago, even. He was supposed to make a little small talk, put the past firmly in the past, then forget Emma and get on with his life.

But with Emma’s lips mere inches from his, with her br**sts close enough for him to lean into, Jason was hard-pressed to think of anything but touching her. Kissing her.

Making love to her.

A ruthless voice inside him—a voice that Emma had unleashed with her betrayal in college, a voice that had never been silenced since—quickly reminded Jason that love had nothing to do with it.

And so he admitted to himself that from the moment he’d seen her across the crowded room, he’d wanted to own her, to possess her with everything he had. His hands. His mouth. His teeth. His cock.

Especially his cock.

But just as he had known that coming to the reunion was not one of his better ideas, he knew that taking Emma to the lake, taking everything she had kept from him in college was a bad idea. He’d heard that she was newly divorced and, therefore, vulnerable. And yet, all the wisdom in the world didn’t matter tonight.

Because the look in her eyes from the moment he’d entered the room told him she was going to serve herself up to him on a platter tonight. She wanted him and he was desperate to see if fireworks shot off when he touched her.

If dy***ite exploded.

If the inferno still raged.

Which meant the last thing he needed to do was come on too strong. He knew Emma better than anyone else, knew it wouldn’t take much for her to run from him back to the safety of her boring, perfect little life. And then he would have lost his chance.

To take all that she’d withheld from him in college.

And then, hopefully, to forget all about her. Something he should have done ten years ago.

Standing on the edge of the lake where they’d shared so much, Emma had made her choice. “Now,” she’d said, but still he waited. He waited for her to make the first move that would seal her fate.

And he would keep waiting, even if it killed him. Because when all was said and done, he didn’t want to give Emma any cause to blame him for ripping apart her perfect little world.

He wanted her to know thatshe had destroyed her life all by herself.

Four

Emma stood as still as a statue, waiting for Jason to do something. Anything. Why wasn’t he kissing her?

Touching her?

A small tick at the corner of his jaw—the same one that she used to kiss away before a big test—was the only indication that he was the least bit on edge. The seconds ticked away and Emma held her breath.

Waiting, still waiting. And then Jason began to move away from her—it couldn’t have been more than a millimeter—but loss hammered her across the chest

She suddenly understood.Now wasn’t good enough unless she made it happen. She reached for him and then she was in his arms, held so tightly that she finally knew what safety felt like.

She was sick of waiting. Now or never was what he had said and he was right. It was time to leap into the unknown.

“Now,” she breathed again as she pressed her mouth to his. A shudder ran through her as his heart beat against her lips. And then he was slipping his tongue inside her mouth and Emma felt as if she