"The right thing?" He laughs, but there's no humor in it. "The right thing is marrying a man who puts his hands on you? Who controls you? Who doesn't respect you?"
The words hang in the air between us. I want to deny it, but I can't. Because he's right. Thad did hurt me. Thad does control me. But Romeo—Romeo is dangerous in a different way.
"You need to leave," I say, but my voice is shaking.
"Let me in. Please. Just to talk. That's all."
I should say no. I should close the door in his face. I should protect myself from whatever this is between us.
Instead, I step aside.
He comes in, closing the door behind him, and suddenly the small dorm feels even smaller. His presence eclipses everything else, sucking the breath out of my lungs.
"I can't stop thinking about you," he says quietly. "I can’t bear being away from you. I need you, Savannah.”
My heart thuds in my chest.Yes. Yes, I need you too. "Romeo?—"
"I know this is complicated. I know you're engaged. I know I should stay away from you. But Savannah—" He takes a step closer. "I can't. I physically cannot stay away from you."
My eyes burn. Everything in me is burning. But I can’t… "You have to. We both have to. This is—it's wrong. It's toxic. It's?—"
"It's real." His voice is fierce. "Whatever this is between us, it's real. And you feel it too. I know you do."
"That doesn't make it right,” I stammer.
“Unfortunately…” He moves closer, and I can feel the heat radiating off his body. I have to tilt my head back to look at him. “I don’t care about what’s right, Savannah. I only care about this. About you, and me, and what we’re supposed to be together.”
I can feel myself melting. Giving in. I’m helpless in the wake of something I’ve never experienced before and know I never will again.
"This is the last time," I whisper. "After this, we're done. We have to be done."
"Okay." But I can see in his eyes that he doesn't believe it any more than I do.
He kisses me, and I'm lost.
It’s slower this time, despite the desperate need that I can feel throbbing between us both. He comes closer, then closer still, until I’m backed into my small bedroom. He locks the door behind him and comes closer to me, his hands sliding over my body as he undresses me more slowly than he did before. His hands map my body, taking off each piece of clothing as I stand there next to my desk, trembling.
"You're so beautiful," he murmurs against my collarbone as he strips my sweater over my head. "So fucking beautiful."
Thad has never called me beautiful like this. Like he means it. Like the word is being torn from somewhere deep inside him.
"Romeo—"
"I know. Last time. I heard you." His mouth moves lower, and I arch into him. "But let me have this. Let me have you."
It's not one more time. We both know it's not. But I let myself believe it, because it’s the only way I can let us keep going, if I tell myself we’ll never do it again.
He drops to his knees in front of me and unbuttons my jeans, sliding them and my panties down over my hips. I gasp as he leans forward, kissing just below my navel, then lower and lower still, until his thumbs spread me open and he presses a kiss against my clit.
When his tongue slides over me, I let out a breathless moan, nearly stumbling from the pleasure. Romeo pulls back, standing just long enough to pick me up and do exactly the thing Iimagined, sweeping the papers and notebooks off my desk and sitting me on the edge of it before he drops to his knees again.
This time, when he spreads my legs open and leans in, he devours me. His tongue swirls over my clit, licking, fluttering, making me grip the edge of the desk and cry out. My head falls back, hair sweeping against my spine as I forget to be modest and afraid of this, my legs spreading wide for him.
His tongue feels like nothing I could have ever imagined. He brings me to the edge and over it, groaning as my back arches and I orgasm on his tongue, clenching my teeth to keep from screaming through my pleasure.
Before I’ve finished coming, he pushes two fingers into me and sucks my clit hard, sending me into a second orgasm directly on the end of the first. My back bows so hard I think my spine might snap, and I feel a nail break against the wood of my desk as I buck against his face.
I have no idea how long the orgasm lasts. Only that I’m still trembling when he stands and undoes his jeans, pulling out his thick, hard cock as he thrusts hard between my thighs.
