that happened—with her head on his shoulder, crying on his shoulder, and she smelled so good and felt so soft, and shit, shit, shit, he was getting hard. Shit. Shit!
He needed to set her back, get some distance, get control of himself. She was Nick Fucking Pagano’s daughter! His job was to protect her, not creep on her.
But at the very first twitch of his muscles as the thought to push her away tried to become an act, Lia coiled her hand into his hoodie and turned her face so her nose brushed his throat. Just that, and he couldn’t let her go. He tightened his hold and let her cry.
When this latest bout of tears subsided she sighed, and Alex turned his head down. He’d meant simply to look her in the eye when he asked her if she felt any better—honest to God, that was all he meant to do. But his lips brushed her cheek when he tipped his head, and she turned to him.
And then his lips were on hers. Hers were soft and sweet, and trembling.
And then she moaned softly and opened her mouth. Her grip on his hoodie became a pull.
And then Alex was absolutely done for.
Even the memory of a heavy shipping hook, and rope cutting into his wrists as he hung from it, couldn’t get purchase. It fluttered up like a red flag but was swept away in a massive gale of need.
He pushed his tongue past Lia Pagano’s lips and leaned forward, pressing her back against the bench as he claimed every inch of her mouth.
~ 7 ~
Lia’s head spun. Alex Di Pietro was kissing her—and God, it felt so good.
His body leaned into hers, pushed hers back so the arm of the bench cut across her shoulder blades. His mouth covered hers completely, his tongue brushed over hers, his stubbly beard scratched her cheeks and chin. Her nose was stuffed from her stupid tears and she could hardly breathe, but she wasn’t sure she’d have been breathing if she could.
All the cares she’d been collapsing under—none of them mattered at all. None of them even existed.
Neither her body nor her mind were hers in this moment.
All she was was kissed. Thoroughly.
He was heavy, solid. He surrounded her. Strong arms held her close. She could have lived out every moment of the whole rest of her life right here, feeling like this—warm and safe, filled with fizzy need. Wanting, and wanted. Hovering over mundane existence in perfect, blissful balance.
One of his hands shifted from her back, came around her side, slid up to cup her face. Her focus on the path of his hand pulled a thin thread of sense into all this sensation, and Lia tried to think.
Did she even like Alex? Like this?
She’d never liked anyone the way she liked Alex right this second.
A soft sound came from somewhere deep inside him, a sighed groan or a groaned sigh, and he clenched her suddenly even more tightly, kissed her even more deeply.
Lia let sense unravel again. All she wanted was this. Forever.
She heard a strange sound from somewhere beyond them and it made a tickle, like it was important, but she didn’t care.
Alex did, however. He jumped up instantly, leaving her gasping and sprawled where he’d put her. By the time her brain kicked all the way back in gear, he had some guy shoved up against the wall, his arm across the guy’s throat.
She came crashing back down into the world.
Oh God. They were outside the registrar’s office. In Page-Robinson Hall. In public! How the hell had she just forgotten that?
A small crowd of about ten or so students stood there, watching Alex but not yet intervening. Had they all been gawking at Lia and Alex making out?
“Delete it. Now,” Alex growled at the guy he had hold of.
Now she realized that the sound she’d heard was the click of a smartphone taking a photo.
“I … can’t … br—” the guy tried, but Alex only pushed harder on his throat.
“Now.”
His face turning deepening shades of red in quick succession, the guy lifted his phone awkwardly around Alex’s hold and swiped around on the screen. Alex watched him, his eyes narrowed with malicious intent.
Finally, he let the guy down and snatched his phone from his hands. He swiped around on the guy’s phone until he was, apparently, satisfied, and then he shoved it, with obvious force, into the guy’s belly.