Page 25 of Kings
“Sterling, I…” She cringed. “I mean, Mr. Bryant—”
“That’s not necessary,” he sighed, meeting her gaze with one more intense than she was prepared for. “There’s no use pretending like nothing happened.”
“I thought that was what you wanted,” she admitted, looking down at her hands.
When she finally looked up, she realized the cause of his silence was horror. “I don’t want any of this, Ella,” he said, moving closer. She grew stiff, torn between the instinct to walk toward him and the instinct to run while she still had the chance. His gaze traveled over her, full of unmistakable desire. “I wantyou.”
“Then why?” she asked hoarsely. “I know we can’t be together publicly, but…”
“Because it’s not fair to you,” he murmured, his tone full of sobriety, as if he was rehearsing something he’d already told himself time and time again. “I can’t give you what you deserve, Ella. Someone to be by your side in all things.”
“It’s better than not having you at all,” she said before she could stop herself, standing from the chair. She knew she sounded like a desperate child, but she didn’t care. It might be the only time she got to say the words out loud, and if she lost the chance, she’d never forgive herself.
“You think that now,” he said quietly, shaking his head. “You’re young. You don’t understand.”
“I do,” she pressed, reaching for his hand. “I know what I feel when I’m with you. And when I’m not…” She laced her fingers in his, forcing him to look at her. “I’d never want to do anything to risk your career, but there has to be something other than pretending like you don’t exist.”
She could see the war going on behind his eyes. “I want to, Ella,” he finally said, his voice strained with the first hint of doubt she’d ever heard in it. “More than you could possibly know.”
“Then why shouldn’t we have these moments?” she asked, looking up at him. “I don’t care how short they are, or how rare. It’s better than—”
Before she could finish her thought, he took her into his arms and kissed her hard enough that she lost it along with everything else in her head. She draped her arms around his neck as he deepened the kiss, and her tongue parted to allow his entrance. He tasted as amazing as she remembered, and judging from the eagerness with which his hands explored her curves over her uniform, he felt the same way.
“Ella,” he muttered against her lips, as if she had some kind of spell over him. When her hands traveled down his muscular torso to his belt, his body stiffened, but he didn’t push them away.
Her hands trembled as she unfastened his belt and slipped her hand into his slacks, her fingers brushing over his erection. He grabbed her arms, his grip tighter than she’d expected, but it only made her gasp.
She thought he had changed his mind, but instead, he spun her around and pushed her shoulders down gently so she was bent over the desk. Ella gasped as he flipped her skirt up and pulled her panties down to her knees. She gripped the other end of his desk, bracing herself for the touch she’d craved for weeks.
When she felt his stiff cock positioned at her entrance, already slick with precum as it teased her wet pussy, she gasped in anticipation. “Sterling,” she breathed.
His hands settled on her hips, his fingers biting into her soft flesh as he drove into her with less care than the first time, as if he needed it as badly as she did. The thought was more than arousing and she could hardly think straight as he began to thrust into her. They’d made love at every tempo, gentle and sensuous, but she needed it this way. Rough. Raw. Desperate. It was how she felt, and for the first time in so long, she didn’t feel like she was alone in it.
“Damn, you’re tight,” he said, his voice like burning coals.
His words unraveled what was left of her composure and it was all she could do not to let his name spill from her lips as freely as it wanted to. He felt as amazing as she remembered. Every thrust brought her closer to a climax she’d been on the edge of from the moment he said her name, and when he finally came, she was on her second orgasm, hastened by the feel of him pulsing his seed into her.
She gasped, her fingers tightening around the edge of his desk before the tension gradually subsided. He pulled out all too soon, and her legs didn’t feel like they were working quite right as she turned around to face him.
His face was glazed with the same look of lust as hers, and he looked even more impossibly out of her reach, despite the intimacy they’d just shared.
“I should have used protection,” he muttered, raking a hand through the long hair that had come unloosed at some point. “That’s the last thing you need right now.”
And just like that, she went from feeling like she was on top of the world to sinking to the bottom of the ocean floor. She’d been so close to telling him, or at least she wanted to believe she had. Now, it had never felt more impossible.
“It’s fine,” she said quietly, trying to collect herself so she could make it through the rest of the day with some semblance of productivity. “I’m on suppressants.”
He reached out to caress her cheek and leaned down to place a kiss on her forehead. “Good girl.”
Lying didn’t feel right, not with him, but the look of relief in his gaze sealed her belief that it was the right decision. There was no reason to turn his world upside down when he might not even be the father.
Chapter 16
Ella
At the end of the day, Ella finally returned to her dorm room ready to just collapse. She’d gotten through her classes without having to run out, so she took that as a victory. When she opened her door to find nearly everything other than the furniture stripped, she realized she had to stop being so optimistic.
What began as shock soon turned into rage. This had to be Marissa. She was the only one with the balls to do something so petty twice, and this time, Ella planned on kicking her ass before they had the chance to be interrupted. She was already in a shitty mood after that morning, and she had no qualms about taking it out on someone who’d earned all that and then some.
