The Recruiting Trip (The University of Gatica #1) by Lexy Timms Page A

mutual.
    He pushed the door closed with his foot and pressed his strong hands on the wall behind her as he watched her. Slowly he slid them down and spread his fingers along her ribs and held her.
    It took everything she had not to close her eyes and simply surrender to the feeling. She nearly did when he leaned in again, his breath hot against her skin as he continued to hold her gaze, his lips millimeters from her mouth then drifting to her neck.
    Yet he still didn’t kiss her. He brought his hands lower to her hips and lifted her.
    Instinctively her legs wrapped around him as he carried her to the leather couch and set her down. Her fingers trailed down his toned triceps and curled around his elbows. Just when she felt he was finally going to kiss her, he pulled back and sat on the coffee table. His chest heaved, but he did not say anything.
    Aileen’s body followed him as if connected by a string. She leaned toward him and then hesitated. She sat up, and stared openly at him. She realized he wasn’t going to make the first move. He wanted to, but was making the decision completely hers. As she watched him, she pulled her button up shirt off, only her thin black tank top still on.
    As her breath came out in small gasps, she gave up trying to reason with her brain. Some things did not require thinking. She pushed off the couch and straddled him on the coffee table, pressing her lips hungrily onto his.
    He reached for her, one hand spreading against the small of her back, the other into her hair with curling fingers. She wrapped her arms around his strong shoulders and pulled her tight against him. The thick short hair at the nape of his neck tickled her arm and she had to run her fingers through it.
    His face had just a touch of stubble above and below his lips that brushed and seductively scratched against her skin. The slight roughness excited her, offering a hint of something she wasn’t used to. He was a junior in university, three years older than her! His tongue slipped inside of her mouth and became her undoing. She had believed it was his eyes which captivated her, but that sexy mouth held a power she begged to be possessed by.
    Her body pressed harder against him, unable to get close enough. No one had ever made her feel like this before; excited, terrified, on fire and frozen at the same time. She never wanted the feeling to end.
    “I shouldn’t be here,” he whispered, pulling slightly away before resting his forehead against hers, “but I couldn’t stop myself.”
    With her finger, she lightly traced his kiss-bruised lips. She had done that to him. “I’m glad you’re here.”
    “But I shouldn’t be—”
    She cut his words off by pressing her finger against his mouth. Slowly she brought her head towards his and let her finger trail down his chin, his neck and onto his chest where she let her entire hand spread across his tight, strong muscles. His heart thudded under her hand.
    Her lips brushed lightly against his, again and then again. “You should leave if you don’t want this to go any further.”
    His shocked expression drew laughter from her. He grinned wickedly. “You blow my mind. One minute I think you’re this sweet little thang, then last summer when I watched you race, I figured you for a tiger in a cage just waiting to break out. On the track. I never thought it off the track. You’re unbelievably sexy and incredibly graceful. Like a female lioness… or a cheetah. In your walk, the way you attack the hurdles, in the weight room.” He groaned. “You could be my worst distraction.”
    She had never thought of herself as a sexy. She closed her mouth when she realized it had fallen opened.
    He brushed a lock of her hair away from her face and twirled it between his fingers before gently tucking it behind her ear. “I know you’re pretty set on going to Stanford. I don’t blame you. However, I promise I’ll do my best to show you the ropes here at U of G if you came. Gatica has