Mr. James: A Forbidden Romance (12 page)

Half an hour later, there was a knock at his office door and he called out that it was open. He was more relieved than he had ever been to see anyone in his life when he saw her. He rushed to her and wrapped his arms around her, holding her close to him for a long moment before letting her go and locking the door behind her.

She looked at him in surprise as he turned the lock and she arced an eyebrow. “So this is a private meeting?”

He shook his head and reached for her again, pulling her up against him and burying his face in her neck, loving the feel of her warm skin and the sweet scent of her perfume. “God, it’s so good to see you. I missed you so much.” He told her breathlessly. “I need you here with me right now. Everything is such a mess!”

She slipped her arms around him and held him tightly, resting her chin on his shoulder as she comforted him. “I’m here, Connor. I’m here. What’s going on?” she asked gently.

He didn’t answer her immediately, but instead stood and held her for a long while. Finally, he loosed his arms around her and leaned back, looking down at her, losing himself in her blue gray eyes.

“It feels like everything that can go wrong is going wrong.” He sighed heavily.

She frowned and took him by the hand, leading him over to the sofa where she sat down with him. “Tell me.”

He sighed and rubbed his hand over his forehead before looking up at her sadly. “I’ve worked so hard to get where I am and I’m about to lose everything.”

Catalina gasped and her eyes grew wide with worry. “What happened?” she asked him in concern.

He took her hands in his. “I was reported for having an affair with you. Your father went and talked to the dean and told him everything, so now I’m on suspension. They’re going to call you into the office to talk with you, and they’ve already called me in. I’m being disciplined.”

She shook her head in disbelief, with sorrow in her gray blue eyes. “Oh no! I’m so sorry, Connor!”

He looked at her questioningly. “Did you tell your father about us? That just seems so strange to me. I can’t understand how anyone knew about us at all. We were out of town to begin with, and we’ve only been together since then in this office. How in the world could he have found out?” He had racked his brain so many times and no answer had made itself clear to him.

Catalina sighed and closed her eyes, covering her face with her hands. “It was my best friend, Reggie. He and I talked about the trip right after we got back, and I made a mistake and told him about you and me. He got really upset and tried to tell me that he liked me. He even tried to kiss me,” she explained, thinking back sadly on everything that had changed so much between them.

Connor looked at her in surprise. “He likes you? Do you like him that way?” he asked as fear crept into his heart. It had never occurred to him that there might be anyone else who wanted Catalina and might be close enough to her to get her.

She sighed and looked at him. “He does like me. Actually, he’s told me that he is in love with me, but I don’t like him that way. I never have, and I was so surprised to find out that he did like me romantically. We’ve been best friends since high school, and I thought that that was all we were, but I guess he’s been keeping his feelings a secret all of this time.

“When I told him about us, thinking that he would be happy for me because I found someone I care so much about, he got really jealous and angry, and we fought about you a couple of times. He told me to stop seeing you and leave you alone and I was rebellious and stubborn and wouldn’t give you up, so since he couldn’t make me do what he wanted me to do, he went to my father and told him everything he knew about us.”

Connor was floored. He had had no idea that Catalina was going through so much drama and heartache away from him. He had guessed that she was just busy focusing on her classes, rather than fighting to get through so much trouble with her best friend and her father.

“Oh my God, Catalina, I’m so sorry. I had no idea that you were going through any of that!” he shook his head and reached his hand up to her cheek to touch it and comfort her. She gazed at him sadly and he finally saw the pain in her eyes.

“My father and I had a big fight about you, and he demanded that I stop seeing you, both romantically, which we already decided to do, and in class. He wants me to give up all of your classes and finish the year with another professor. He told me that I can’t ever see you again!” She spoke in a pained whisper as a tear rolled down her cheek.

Connor felt like his heart was being pulled from his chest. As difficult as it was to be in class and see her so close and yet still so far away, he could not bear to think of going the rest of the year without seeing her at all.  “Oh my God… Catalina, he can’t do that! I… I can’t go the rest of the year without seeing you, unless you feel like that’s the best thing to do.”

He looked at her worriedly as a cold ball of steel formed in his stomach. “Do you think it’s the best thing to do?” he asked, feeling as though the rest of his entire life was somehow suddenly hanging in the balance.

She shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t know what to do! I don’t want to give you up completely, Connor. I’ve already given up intimacy with you, and that’s been one of the most difficult things I’ve ever given up,” he nodded in sincere agreement with her, “but to give up seeing you at all from now on… I just don’t know if I can do it, but I’ve never disobeyed my father when he has made such a strong rule about something.

“I’d be going completely against him if I was to keep seeing you, even in class! I’ve been so broken up about it. I just don’t know what to do!” She wept and he wiped the tears from her cheeks gently.

“I don’t know if you are even going to have to worry about it. It looks like I will most likely lose my job here at the school. I’m already on suspension, so there is a stand-in teacher taking over my classes until the investigative board decides what to do with me.”

His thoughts went to the demands that Deborah Hargrove had made of him, either to marry her or be fired, and though he had not given her any kind of answer, he felt sure that he would rather let his job go than save it and have to be married to her.

“I’m so sorry about your job, Connor. This is your life, here at this school. You’re one of the best teachers here! I can’t believe they’d even consider letting you go! I feel like I caused all of this. You never would have come after me. It was me that started this when I kissed you in the hot tub at the hotel. You never wanted it to begin with!” she told him sorrowfully.

His mind went back to the night in the hot tub and visions of her in her red bikini filled his mind, and his body responded in kind; his stomach and thighs grew tight and warm, and he felt himself beginning to get hard.

“Oh, you weren’t the only one who wanted it, Catalina, I was so attracted to you, so drawn to you. I wanted you just as much as you wanted me, and I was definitely a willing participant in the hot tub, and in our bed in the hotel room,” he told her softly as he leaned near to her.

She had been aching for him so much, that to feel him near her again like he was, was too much for her to resist. “Do you still… want me?” she asked quietly, her eyes locked on his jade green eyes.

“More than anything,” he whispered, closing the space between them and kissing her softly. His mouth moved hungrily over hers as yearning for her saturated him and he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close to him. She slid her arms around his neck and pulled him close, kissing him back as fervently as he kissed her.

He moaned softly and lifted his lips from hers for a moment, looking at her intently. “I’m never going to get enough of you.” He closed his mouth over hers again. She gave in to the dizziness and heady desire that had begun to overwhelm her and she traced her tongue along his, losing herself in the wonder of being in his arms.

“I missed this so much!” she whispered as his mouth moved over her cheek and down her neck. His hands went to her waist and he lifted her, pulling her onto his lap so that she faced him. She slid her knees up close to his hips and leaned down to kiss him deeper.

“Are you sure we should be doing this?” she asked him breathlessly.

He laughed coolly at the irony. “Why not? What are they going to do to us if they find out?” he asked a little sarcastically. “They are already trying to take you away from me,” he said as he pulled her blouse from her body and slipped her bra off,  revealing her breasts which were only bare long enough for him to stare at for a moment before he caressed them and kissed them passionately.

“They are taking my job away from me, they are telling you that you can’t ever see me again, hell, for all we know, this will be the last time that we are ever together again.” He breathed against her skin as his tongue and mouth moved over all of her flesh that he could get to. His hands canvassed her back, holding her to him as they kissed.

Her heart felt like it was breaking inside of her. He was right. Everyone was trying to pull them away from each other, and it seemed like all of them combined against her and Connor would only ensure a defeat for the two of them. Tears rolled down her cheeks and Connor looked up from her breasts and saw them. He shook his head and kissed each one away.

“Don’t cry, baby, please don’t cry. If this is our last time together, I want it to be beautiful. Please don’t cry.” He took her face in his hands. “Kiss me… please kiss me. Just lose yourself in me and we’ll pretend that no one exists right now but you and I,” he told her, and it sounded like the best idea in the world to her.

She kissed him more passionately than she ever had and he groaned and shifted beneath her, pulling her further up onto his groin. He was hard with desire and as his hands reached underneath the hem of her skirt, pushing it up all the way over her hips, he brought her down on top of his erection, rubbing it against her satin panties as he sucked on her nipples and began to rock himself against her.

“Make love with me!” she pleaded with him.

He leaned up and kissed her mouth fervently. “I am going to make love with you until neither one of us can move. The door is locked. No one is coming in, and no one is going to stop us from having this time together,” he promised her as he pulled her clothes from her body and did the same for himself.

Minutes later they were laying together on his sofa, their skin hot and moist, their bodies hungry for one another, and he was nestled in between her thighs, his tongue teasing her and driving her wild with pleasure and happiness as he made her come in his mouth once, and then again before he released her and moved his hips up against hers. He looked down at her as he thrust himself inside of her, staring at her face and knowing that there was no woman on the planet that he wanted or desired more than her.

The feel of her body hot and tight around his erection made him gasp and shut his eyes, and he lowered his mouth to hers, kissing her hungrily as he moved in her, burying himself all the way in her and making her cry out softly with the intensity of the pleasure coursing through her.

She rocked her hips hard against his, and they made love together for a long while, clinging together as they moved from one end of the couch to the other, wrestling in their lovemaking, sharing everything that was on fire within them, until neither one of them could hold back any longer.

They came together, crying out and holding each other fast as he filled her with his orgasm, flooding her, and she sighed in release, her lips touching his gently at long last, before she rested her head on his shoulder and tried to catch her breath.

They laid together on the sofa for a long while, holding and touching each other, savoring every moment together, and as the light outside of the window began to grow faint, he moved in between her legs and made love with her again, more sweetly and lovingly than their wild and passionate encounter earlier.

They held each other tightly as the last of their orgasms spelled out the end of their affair. They wiped tears from each other’s eyes, and slowly disentangled themselves from one another, quietly pulling their clothes back on and kissing each other over and over as she made her way slowly to the door.

They were careful not to touch or kiss once the door was opened, and with a long last look, they whispered goodbye, and she turned and left him, and he closed the door behind her, unable to watch her walk away from him.