I gasped against his lips.

He captured the sound of surprise, crushing me to him, his fingers digging into my back and hip. Like the first time we’d kissed, I tasted hunger and annihilated restraint. But unlike before, the kiss wasn’t frenzied. It was tender, gentle even, and at complete odds with how he held me.

Pressing his forehead to mine, he separated our mouths just long enough to say, “I never wanted to hurt you.” He kissed me again, his tongue tasting my bottom lip. “I don’t want to hurt you.”

I grabbed fistfuls of his sweater and demanded between kisses, “Then tell me what you want.”

“I want to know you,” he said, holding my gaze and pressing me against the door with his imposing body.

A profound wave of relief crashed over me, then lifted me up, buoying my courage. “Anything else?” I grinned, clearly drunk with elation and relief.

He hesitated, his eyes growing hooded and lowering to my mouth. “Too many things, and I don’t wish to frighten you.” I shook my head, a denial on my lips, but he stopped my words with a quick kiss, saying, “You have been a subject of much fascination, for many months. Since February. When I watched you leave in those leather pants, withholding your middle name, and I knew you were running away.”

“But I’m not—”

“And when you showed up in my classroom as someone else,” his eyes moved to my hair and the attentions of his fingers followed; I felt him remove the pins from my bun, “someone more, but still the same, so mysterious, still running away.”

I made a sound of frustration in the back of my throat, drawing his eyes back to mine. “I was not expecting you to be my professor. I think my freak-out was understandable and justifiable.”

The side of his mouth curved upward. “And the fascination grew—with every test you turned in, every quiz, every paper relaying your thoughts. I read yours first. I searched for your name and read them immediately.”

My hair fell from its incompetent twist and Luca pushed his fingers into the curls, bending to claim my lips with more maddeningly soft kisses.

“Every glance, every sight of you . . .”

“Luca,” I breathed, my hands sliding to his sides; needing to feel him, I slipped my fingers under the hem of his sweater, and his skin jumped beneath my touch.

He hissed, sucking in a breath through his teeth, and his eyes grew dark. Luca dipped his head to my neck, kissing the sensitive skin just under my ear, whispering darkly, “I can’t have you run away when I admit how much I’ve thought about this moment, how badly I want to touch you,” kiss, bite, lick, “and taste you.”

His large hands slid to my chest, lifting my shirt and bra as he cupped my breasts, drawing his thumbs back and forth. I trembled, overheated with sensation and longing, and reached for his belt with shaking hands.

Blind desire.

That’s what I felt.

Sightless and consuming.

My movements were clumsy, fueled by urgency and desperate want. Just as I’d unbuckled him, Luca seized my wrists with one hand and held them hostage above my head.

“I’m not interested in your regrets,” his voice was rough and impatient. “If you—if we—”

“I won’t be running away,” I shook my head quickly and said between excited breaths, “I can’t. I can barely walk in these shoes, have you seen the size of the heels?”

Amusement and appreciation flared behind his eyes, brightening them. “I adore this about you.” Luca reached under my skirt and cupped me through my panties.

I gasped, then asked with forced lightness, “Oh? Really? You think you’ll like this area of my body?”

“I do,” he said, looking wolfish. “But I meant your words, how you speak. This is why you are Natasha to me.”

As he said this, his lips lowered to the bared skin of my chest. Branding me, he bit and licked a cherishing path, causing me to buck instinctively, even as he moaned his appreciation.

The back of my head hit the door. Hard. I barely noticed, instead arching my back, offering more of myself.

But Luca lifted his head, tilting his chin backward to evade me as I chased his mouth, and pinned me with the hunger in his gaze. Saying nothing, he scrutinized me, as though greedy for my response. Each of my labored breaths flattened my exposed breasts to his chest.

“And this is why you’re Andrei,” I panted, allowing my frustration to bleed into the words, “you can take me, you can have your Natasha. But you hesitate.”

Luca’s eyes narrowed as he trailed his hand upwards from where he cupped me, his palm pressing against my lower belly, and then slipped his hand into the waistband of my underwear, sliding his middle finger against my sensitive center.

A light tremor passed through him, his eyes flickering, half blinking, and he ground his teeth. I whimpered, my hips tilting, offering more of myself, even as my knees were in danger of buckling.

Maybe he sensed my weakness, or maybe he had his own agenda, but in the next moment he released my wrists, lifted my thighs, and picked me up. He turned, carrying me, and again conquered my mouth.

Luca placed my bottom on his desk, the slide of his tongue attentive, drawing my bottom lip between his teeth. His kisses turned rich and succulent, deliberate and relishing, as though he were consciously forcing himself to be mindful.

While distracting me with the sensuality of his lips and tongue, he divested me of my shirt and bra. His strong fingers hooked into my panties and he tugged, encouraging me to lift my backside, guiding them down my legs as he caressed light circles on the back of my knees and calves, sending jolts of deliciousness racing to my center.

But he made no move to remove my skirt, preferring instead to lift it, bunching the fabric around my waist.

Separating his mouth from mine, he trailed his gaze over my bare skin, his eyes now hooded, a dark indigo.

It was then, in that moment, as he devoured my body with his eyes, that I experienced the first hint of self-consciousness. And with self-consciousness came the sobriety of doubt.

Oh my God, oh my God, what the hell are we doing? We’re in his office!

Abruptly, his eyes cut back to mine, as though he sensed the shift in me. Maybe he did sense it. Maybe my breathing gave me away, or the sudden fear causing my heart to stutter and then gallop.

I swallowed, barely resisting the urge to cover myself with my hands. “Luca?”

He shook his head, cupping my face and bringing my lips to his. Our mouths mated and again I melted, giving myself over to this new wave of yearning, heedless to anything that hovered beyond the periphery of right now.

Luca stepped between my thighs, widening them, and grabbed my backside. He brought me to the edge of the desk, my legs dangling.

I reached for his zipper, my knuckles pressing against the hard length of him, sending sensation ripe with anticipation singing through my veins.

But then he caught my wrists and he lifted his head.

And then he knelt on the floor.

And then his hands were on my knees.

And then he leaned forward.

And then he kissed me. And licked me. And moaned.

All the air left my lungs with a whoosh. I couldn’t catch my breath. My hands on the desk found no purchase. Uncontainable sounds—of arousal and surprise—tumbled from my lips. I was so confused by what was happening. Elated and confused, and maybe a little scared.

My alarm only served to heighten the sensations caused by the skillfulness of his lips and teeth and tongue. Again his kisses grew rich and succulent.

Mindless words spilled out of me as I threaded my fingers into his hair. Maybe I begged, perhaps I pleaded. It didn’t matter. Nothing mattered except this feeling.

My thoughtless words of praise served only to encourage and invigorate him, and when he slipped two long fingers into me, I fell back on his desk, and pushed the base of my palms into my eyes. My mind and body splintered into a thousand perfect pieces of anguished bliss as I came with embarrassing swiftness.

I hadn’t quite recovered when he removed his mouth from my body. I couldn’t yet move in any meaningful way and I was still chasing my breath.

But I did peek at him from between my fingers.

I watched as he kissed the inside of my thigh, closed my legs, and placed another gentle kiss on my belly. He stood, his hands sliding from my knees to my hips. I saw him lick his lips, like he was tasting me there, and had to fight a shock of new arousal. His attention was on my skirt as he reached for the hem and covered me.

His eyes flickered over my form once, still hot and covetous, and then he turned away, giving me his back.

I removed my hands from my face, propping myself up on one elbow and covering my breasts with an arm. I watched his shoulders rise and fall. His head moved to the right and to the left, as though he was searching for something. Then he bent and retrieved the object.

Or rather, objects. He’d picked up my bra and shirt.

His gaze returned to my body and he set my clothes on the desk next to me. He paused, taking an expansive breath as his eyes again trailed over my form. As though just making up his mind about something, he bent, pushing my arms from my chest and lavishing my breasts with hungry, biting kisses.

“Luca—”

“I could do this all day.” He murmured against my skin, his fingertips sliding beneath the hem of my skirt and up my thigh once more.

Unable to speak, I grabbed handfuls of his shirt and tugged, wanting it off. Wanting his bare skin against mine.

And that’s when he stopped, shifting his body such that his face was buried under my jaw. He gathered another expansive breath, held it, wrapping his arms around me, and exhaled my name against my neck, sending pinpricks of shivering sensation racing along my bare skin.

“Let’s eat,” he said, sounding regretful, pulling away.

“You just ate!” I blurted before I could catch the joke, digging my nails into the fabric covering his biceps to keep him in place.

A rumbly chuckle met my ears and I shivered again. I’d never heard him laugh before. He had an amazing laugh.

Lifting himself, he gazed down at me, his palms on either side of my head, braced against his desk.

“I want to know you, Anna,” he whispered, placing his hand on my bare shoulder. He traced the soft skin of my collarbone and neck as his eyes moved between mine. “Let me know you.”