Wild Swans - Jessica Spotswood Page 0,47
side, and this time he brushes a hand over my breast and I arch into him. He kisses a trail down my jaw to my ear, to this spot on my neck that feels amazing, down over my bare shoulder. I lean up to give him better access, and he slides my sundress down to my waist so I’m only in my strapless bra. He skims the lines of it, teasing until I’m trembling beneath him. Then he reaches behind me with one hand and unhooks my bra, tossing it aside.
For a nerd, he’s sure as hell got game. Even I can’t unhook my bra one-handed.
I fall back on the bed and he presses against me, skin to skin, and says my name. I look up at him. I have never been half-naked with anyone before and it’s a little scary. But his eyes are admiring. “You’re beautiful,” he says, and I start to object but he interrupts me with another long, slow kiss. Eventually his mouth moves lower, to my breast, and the things he does with his lips and teeth and tongue have me squirming against him. I can feel him pressing against me through his shorts, and my stomach tightens with want.
And then there are footsteps. “Connor? You home?” a voice calls, followed by the sound of the fridge opening.
“Shit.” Connor leaps up. I grab the comforter and pull it over myself. “That’s Josh.” He raises his voice. “I’ll be out in a minute!”
He gets up and yanks on his shirt and then steps out into the hall, pulling the door closed behind him. I scramble to find my bra, which landed on the other side of the bed. I put it back on and wiggle the top of my sundress back up. When I stand and look in the mirror over the dresser, my hair is tangled and my lips are red and my chin is a little sore from Connor’s stubble. But I can’t stop smiling.
Connor comes back a minute later. “Sorry.” He runs a hand over his head, looking embarrassed.
“It’s okay.” But now that I’m dressed and vertical, I’m thinking again. About going home. About facing my mother and the mess she created. “Are we… What are we? I’m sorry, I should probably play this off like it’s no big deal, but—”
Connor leans down and stops my words with a kiss. “Quit apologizing. I want you to be honest with me.”
“Sorry, I—” I stop myself and laugh. Claire’s always scolding me about that too. “Are you seeing anybody else?”
He shakes his head. “Are you?”
“No. Definitely not. But what about working together?” I take a step back, out of the warm circle of his arms.
Connor’s smile fades. “Are you asking me to quit working for the Professor?”
“No, of course not. I know how important that is to you.” I would never ask him to choose. “I don’t want to quit either. I was just thinking that while we’re working, we could keep our relationship more…professional.”
If Granddad knew, he would give me speeches designed to keep me from making my mother’s mistakes. Lecture me on not letting a boy distract me from writing and swimming and school. Would he feel the need to chaperone us constantly, to know where I am at all times? He certainly wouldn’t approve of me being at Connor’s apartment. I don’t think Connor and I would have gone much further if Josh hadn’t come home. I don’t think I’m ready. But I’d like to make up my own mind about that.
Connor grabs my hand and pulls me in for another kiss. When we both come up for air, breathing hard, my hands laced around his neck, he grins. “So, just to clarify, none of that?”
I smile up at him. “Definitely more of that. Just not around my family.”
“I don’t love lying to the Professor. He’s been really good to me,” Connor says.
“It’s not him. My mother… You saw what she’s like. If she finds out about us”—I can’t help smiling at the word, at the fact that there is an us—“she’ll make it into something ugly. She poisons everything she touches.”
Connor takes my hand in his and I grin up at him, at this new effervescence between us that still feels fragile and as gossamer as a butterfly’s wings “Well, if you want to keep it quiet for now, I’m okay with that. We won’t let her poison this,” he promises.
Chapter
Thirteen
An hour later, I walk through the front door with a