Never . . . until now.
If she hadn’t somehow misinterpreted what he’d told her. What he was still telling her.
“—kept pushing me tostop fucking around and fess up already.” He paused. “That’s a direct quote, incidentally. Anyway, she said you were a confident woman, more than capable of refusing me if you weren’t interested, and you wouldn’t be afraid of me or possible reprisals if you turned me down.”
As a last-ditch measure, Nina viciously pinched herself. It freakinghurt.
Which meant . . .
This was real. This was happening. Hewantedher. The same exact way she wantedhim.
Sheer, unalloyed joy kicked her pulse into a gallop, and she seemed to be hyperventilating just a tiny bit. So much for her vaunted composure, right?
William had stopped talking. He seemed to be waiting for her response, but she was too stunned and bliss-struck to speak. Too close to happy tears.
At the end of her marriage, she couldn’t even have imagined being soseenanddesired. Especially not by a man like William Dern. The mere thought would’ve felt like delusion, like sheer wish fulfillment, rather than any reflection of reality as she understood it.
She’d stopped looking for romance.
But it had—Williamhad—found her anyway.
“Was ... was Claudia right?” He eased back another couple of inches, and cold crept into the gap between them. “Or ... was this a mistake? Nina?”
She lurched forward, plastering herself to him once more. Circling him in her arms and urging him even tighter against her, until they were sharing breath and body heat and the transcendent elation of the moment.
He was trembling. So was she.
And as soon as she managed her first deep breath, she poured it all out. The answer to his questions. Everything she’d been holding back for months, and everything she felt for him.
“Of course I’m not afraid of you.” She planted a kiss right over his big, big heart. “You’re the sweetest, sexiest, most thoughtful man on this freaking planet, William, and I’vewanted you from the moment Claudia and I first walked into that cubicle farm and saw you behind your desk, pushing your glasses up to the bridge of your nose while you read a journal article. You stood to greet us. Shook my hand and smiled at me. And your eyes ...”
She trailed off, marveling at how quickly she’d known who and what he was. Not the specifics, obviously, but the broad strokes of the man. The outline of a portrait that only became more and more beautiful as it filled with color and detail.
“Are extremely nearsighted?” he offered dryly.
She poked him gently in the ribs, a silent remonstrance. “They crinkled at the corners since you smile so often.”
“Since I’m in my midthirties.”
“Hush.” When she laid her hand lightly over his mouth, he kissed her palm, and that brush of damp warmth shivered down her spine. “Your eyes are so dark and so expressive. So incredibly warm and kind, and that’s completely fitting. Because no matter how sad or frustrated you might feel on any given day, you’re unfailingly respectful—not just to me and other professors, but also the administrative staff, maintenance workers, and students.”
His brow creased in a frown, the expression barely visible in the dim light. “And you ... find that sexy?”
The words were slightly muffled by her palm, but understandable.
She uncovered that tempting mouth of his, returning her fingertips to his shoulder blade. Teased him with a hint of her nails through his heat-soaked sweater and listened to his breath catch. Felt his entire body tense and turn even hotter.
She stilled. “May I touch you?”
“I thought you already were, but ... yes. Yes,please.” He shifted against her. Slipped his thigh between hers, the movement hitching her dress upward. “May I touchyou?”
Her legs parted a bit farther, and his thigh slid higher. “Wherever you want.”
“Good.” His big hand clenched on her hip, then slowly, cautiously, glided down to cup her ample ass. “No, not good.Perfect.”
When she pushed into his touch, arching her back, his grip on her ass tightened, and his chest expanded in a deep inhalation. “Nina ...”
Because she still had an important question to answer, she didn’t let him finish.
