Page 74 of Shades of Grey & Gold

My name is handwritten on a sticky note in the top corner.

Words slowly come into focus.

Spring Start.

A spot saved.

One semester.

Six months.

I freeze, heartbeat ricocheting, the want and the need I felt moments ago and awareness colliding like cars in a tunnel. I look back at him. He’s watching my face, not the rest of me. Waiting. Not pushing. Realizing what I’m seeing at the same moment as I am.

“Cal,” I whisper, and the room tips, just a little, as the shape of the gift shifts in my hands.

I don’t move. But I feel the weight of this moment get heavier. The office wasn’t just him listening to me. It was also for this.

“I didn’t mean to bring it up this way,” he starts as he pushes himself up on one elbow to get closer to me. “I just know you only have one more year to finish if you’re going to finish, and I don’t want you to not have the option…”

He’s referring to the seven-year maximum for the law degree. The clock I’ve tried not to hear ticking in the back of my head for years. There’s a seven-year clock from the day you start law school; miss it and you basically have to start over. He’s right, and it isn’t the first time I’ve thought about the impending date.

I glance over at the pamphlet and chew on my bottom lip.

He sits up fully, hands on my hips, the hard bulge between us sliding and making me inwardly groan despite the situation.

He says nothing. He doesn’t try to convince me, doesn’t tell me what his opinion is or what I should do.

He hugs me.

My naked body is pressed against this man’s hard, muscular chest and he wants to hug me. My arms are already around his shoulders and he lifts me slightly, allowing me room to lace my legs around his waist. He reaches up to cradle my head in one of his hands and sighs.

“I’d stay like this forever if you’d let me,” he mumbles it into my neck.

All my muscles relax and I lean into his arms. I’ve never felt so safe. Not just physically, but every part of me. I know for a fact I could tell Cal to drop this topic, and he would never bring it up again. I could tell him I want to be a fly fisherman, and he would be out first thing in the morning buying me waders and a fishing pole.

I run my hands along his wide shoulders and pull back. His eyes look into mine and he smiles.

“You’re fucking beautiful. Every day, you are, but right now… fuck me,” he says it awestruck, running his fingers down my cheek and his smile gets wider. “Right now, you’re like a goddess.”

His eyes don’t even drift down to where my boobs are inches from his chin. Nope. Cal just looks into my eyes, and I can feel him growing harder beneath me.

His smile is contagious and I can’t help a matching one from spreading across my face. “Thank you for this office, Cal.”

“Anytime you need to pull yourself out, it’s yours.”

A loud, obnoxious laugh escapes my lips. “Oh no, not the pulling out again.” I cringe at him.

“If you think I’m ever pulling out, figuratively, you’re delusional—have you seen yourself? I’m not going anywhere.”

And now he looks down, his hands sliding down to my waist, over the curve of my ass that is sitting on his hips with a squeeze. They run back up, his fingers grazing the sides of my breasts on either side as he does and a quiet, deep groan from his chest rolls between us as I rock forward slightly against his length.

He’d be perfectly content if we never spoke about law school ever again,I think as my mind drifts back to the pamphlets beneath us.But I don’t think I would.

“Do you think you’d mind?”

“Hmm?” He hums in question, his eyes drifting closed as his hands settle back on my hips, pressing me into him.

“Having to share your office for six months?”