“Now you have it in black and white.” She was shaking all over, tears streaking her cheeks. When had she walked around his desk to stand beside his chair? Her heart was threatening to choke her. Taking a breath, she straightened and smoothed her damp palms on her skirt. Dignity, right. He probably thought she was an insane stalker now.

“If I humiliated you, I’m sorry, but I was a walking pile of humiliation over you for two years until I met Todd, and he managed to pick me up somewhat before slamming me right back down. That will never happen to me again. I told Todd he couldn’t hurt me anymore, and now I’m telling you that if you want me, get off your ass, because I love you, Evan, more than anything”—she paused to sob, those words wrenching her soul—“but I refuse to live like this anymore.”

He cleared his throat and lifted his gaze to hers. “I have so much to say to all that it’ll take the rest of the day to get it out.” He glanced down at her journal entry, at the words that had flown from her hands the night she’d watched him with the girl at the frat party. She’d wanted to be that girl so desperately she might have sold her soul for it that night. “But since we’re a little strapped for time, consider this me…getting off my ass.”

He stood, and she had no time to brace herself before he jerked her to him and scalded her lips with his own. She shook, went limp and groaned helplessly against the onslaught, disbelief fogging her senses along with a desire so strong she could scarcely contain it.

He was real and solid and hot in her arms, burning her even through all their layers of clothing. Layers she couldn’t wait to strip through. She clenched his shirt in her fists, feeling his back muscles tense beneath her fingers, feeling his thigh surge hard between hers until her skirt rode up her legs, higher and higher until he must have felt he heat of her pu**y through his pants. The edge of his desk bit into the flesh of her ass as he planted her against it.

“I need to lock my door,” he murmured, his lips scarcely leaving hers as he spoke.

“I did it when I came in.”

“So certain of your powers of persuasion?”

“Something like that.”

Breathing labored, Evan grasped the lapels of her jacket and stripped it down her arms. When she moved to help him remove it completely, he held it just at her forearms, trapping both limbs useless behind her back. He pulled away to look at her and when she lunged forward to claim his mouth, he eluded her, holding her still.

“Please,” she whispered.

“You said you loved me.”

“I do, I love you.” It rolled so naturally off her tongue now, as if she had been saying it all along. It didn’t even matter if he said it back. “I swear to you, if it had been you who got hurt, I couldn’t have even waited for a flight. I’d have swum the ocean to get to you.”

“Remember when you asked me what makes me hurt?”

She nodded. “Of course.”

“You know the party when I first introduced you to Todd?”

“Yes.”

“I have a confession, too. I was waiting for you to show up there because I’d made up my mind that I’d messed around long enough and I wanted to be with you. I knew, even back then, that you and me would be forever. As a twenty-two-year-old that scared the hell out of me, until I realized the thought of you not being there after graduation scared me far more.”

Her trembling intensified. He was going on. “I only made the mistake of introducing you to my best friend before I could take you away to tell you this. And I saw you guys stare at one another a little too long, and then you talked all night and finally left together… I decided maybe it was a sign we really weren’t meant to be. It was the only consolation I could find.”

“Evan…”

He shushed her with a finger to her lips. “Let me say this. The one thing I’m thankful for is that being with him kept you in my life all these years. But I can’t forgive myself for not giving us a chance sooner. I was always in one meaningless relationship or another and none of them were worth hurting you like that.”

“It’s okay. If it ends with us here, like this, it’s all okay.”

“Nothing is ending here.” He kissed her, as she’d been dying for him to do. Emotionally, she was numb, in shock, but her physical need for him hadn’t suffered. It eclipsed all other thought.

The finger he’d pressed to her lips had trailed down over her chin, following the hollow of her throat to the V-neck of her teal blouse. She panted, wanting to thrust her breast into his hand, but his fingers busied themselves deftly working her buttons. She wiggled her hips closer to him, needing more contact. He tasted so heavenly she couldn’t get enough of his lips, of the teasing way his tongue swirled with hers.

Cool air caressed her br**sts when he freed her shoulders of her blouse and her bra straps, and it was unbelievable to her that she was actually bare-chested in the workplace. Dear God, she’d never been so wanton. A mere month ago, the very thought would have mortified her. But Evan’s lips slipped over her nipple and there was no room for anything except raw sensation. Still trapped and helpless, she ached to touch him, to clench his silken hair in her fingers. He licked and sucked until she was as wet between her legs as the flesh he kissed, her hips undulating to his rhythm.

His hand trailed up her thigh, under her skirt, to grasp her panties and give them a sharp tug. She moaned and shifted to help him pull them all the way down, feeling them slip off over first one high heel and then the other. His fingertips brushed over her clit and she melted in agony as he rubbed. “Mmm. God, I can’t wait to get you home,” he murmured.

She giggled. “I thought you wanted to do it here?”

“Oh, we will. But to have you naked in my bed…at home. It’ll just seem more real. More…permanent.”

Permanent. Had a single word ever sounded more beautiful to her?

He pulled her away from the desk then and wrenched her jacket off, his movements now nearly uncontrolled. Arms finally free, she clutched at him in relief. With both hands, he pushed her skirt so far up her legs she was naked from the waist down.

“I’ve wanted to do that all morning,” he said, before lifting her and setting her precariously on the edge again, spreading her legs to accommodate his hips. She was so eager to feel him wedge into her she was dripping, panting, her pulse frantic. But he dropped to his knees.

How could she have ever lived the rest of her life without this? She cried out when his tongue speared her, lapping at the cream she wept just for him, just from his nearness, his touch. He groaned and her face burned but she was beyond embarrassment. God knew he’d seen every bare inch of her in every position imaginable over the past few days. She’d gone through too many emotions today, and now that it was over she wanted him to f**k her until she was numb. But he wouldn’t lick her in a rhythm that would bring her any relief, and she was caught at the precipice of ecstasy, writhing against him.

She murmured in frustration when his mouth abandoned her. He stood, one hand wrenching at his pants as the other anchored her around the waist. “Kelsey,” he whispered against her ear, and moments later she felt the broad head of his c**k nudge her opening. Her heart dropped as he pushed into her in that overpowering way of his, holding her tight.