Page 89 of The Other Side of Green

When she started to push her body against mine and my hard-on was digging into her hip with embarrassing perseverance I pulled back again. “Keep pouting like that and we will never get anywhere.”

“You’ve just turned up and told me all my dreams have come true, and now you want me to behave?”

My heart pounded in my chest. That she felt the same as me, that we could give this a go, that nothing no longer stood in our way… it seemed too much. Too much of all the things I’d never been allowed before.

All the lies, the games, the deals, they all burned behind me, bitter embers of my former life. My life had been built on lies. I always knew it stood on foundations of hate and violence, but now the lies shook the very earth the foundations were laid on.

“Everything I know is a lie, Lyra. Everything.”

Her gentle fingers slid up my face, cradling it as she stared at me with ferocious determination. “I don’t know what’s happened, Jack, but I’m not a lie.”

I nodded, my throat too tight to answer.

“Just tell me you’re mine, that’s all I need right now.”

Lyra clambered across my lap, long legs straddling my waist. “Jack Cross. I will always be yours.”

Pulling her down, I sealed her lips with mine, covering them, taking all her breath, the warmth of her tongue, the clink of her teeth. She shivered as she moved against me, rubbing against the parts that ached for her. For a chuckle, I caught her hands and pinned them to her hips, holding her still.

“Want to get out of here?”

“Can we?”

I nodded to the door. “Well technically I’m not back on campus until tomorrow morning.”

“You’re back?”

Laughing, I shook my head. “Where on earth else would I be?”

“I dunno.” She shrugged. “But you’re back?”

“Yes.”

“Jack, why didn’t you tell me about your PhD? I always assumed it was the Collins family who got you your job with Greene.”

“Well, you know what they say, Lyra. When you assume, you take the ass out of you and me.”

“No one says that apart from old people.”

My smile faded. “I have no idea how this is going to work. But if you want to be here, then I will be here.”

“Jack! This is your future. They want you to do a PhD so you can be a professor. This has nothing to do with me.”

“Lyra Bird, everything about me is to do with you.” I rolled her over, pressing myself hard into her body, kissing her lips one last time before I pulled away, tugging her up from the bed with clasped fingers.

“Jack.” She dropped her gaze. “They want me to be a star. There’s talk of television shows, galas, all sorts. The university want to use me as an example of how anyone from any background can do anything.”

Her forehead crinkled with a deep scoring frown and I lifted her chin with my finger. “Lyra, you are a star.”

“I’m not. You know how my music works. I don’t even like the violin half the time.”

“I’ve said this before. It likes you, and maybe that’s all that matters.”

“Maybe.” She didn’t look convinced and I tugged on a curl.

“Come on, let’s get out of here. We need to talk.”

“That sound ominous.”