“I don’t care,” John says. “Fuck him.”

  “Yeah. Fuck him.”

  He laughs and looks around. “And I’m sorry.”

  “I know.” I nod. “I should have listened to—”

  “No, I mean, there are a lot of cameras on us.”

  Blood rushes to my cheeks as I scan the stadium. “Oh, god…”

  “Yeah, I’m pretty sure every college football fan in the country knows about us now.”

  I cover my face. “Shit.”

  He reaches for my hands and grins. “Don’t do that, Darling,” he says. “Don’t ever do that.”

  My heart throbs. I can’t stop smiling. “Johnny…”

  “Yeah?”

  “Go kick some ass for me.”

  He retrieves his helmet. “But that wouldn’t be fair.”

  “I got my job back. You should get your championship, too.”

  “Did you really?” he asks with a smirk.

  I study his sinister eyes. “What did you do?”

  He shrugs his thick shoulders as he slides his helmet on. “Oh, I didn’t do anything,” he says. “But I may have heard about a professor receiving an anonymous email… with photos…”

  “What did you do?”

  John flashes a wink at me and jogs off to rejoin the team for the field goal kick.

  “Wow…”

  I look over my shoulder to find Daisy lingering behind me. “What?”

  She crosses her arms. “And here I thought this game was going to be boring.”

  CHAPTER 33

  JOHN

  May

  Bittersweet. That’s the word.

  Bitter because I spent four amazing years on this campus. I’m sad to leave it. Four years of playing football. Four years of being Delta Xi. Four years of feeling like a damn king of Chicago North. I have to leave it all behind in favor of starting the next phase of my life. Who knows how the hell that will turn out.

  Sweet because… well, you know.

  Rose.

  I step into the quad and there she is, waiting for me exactly where she said she’d be after the graduation ceremony. My heart thumps just looking at her, and it pumps even faster when I see the cute baby in her arms.

  Alyssa stands beside her, each of them showering her daughter with some much-deserved attention while they wait for their men to show up.

  Rose looks up, finally noticing me, and she smiles. “Hey.”

  For a moment, it’s like the world stops turning, and the nervous jitters I’ve felt all week about today just melt away as I look at her.

  My Rose.

  Alyssa stares at me, her eyes trailing the cords dangling down my black robe. “You graduated… with honors?” she asks.

  “Hell yeah,” I say. “I’m honorable as fuck.”

  Her head tilts. Alyssa Pierce. Always trying to figure me out.

  Finally, she shakes her head and turns her attention toward her husband as he walks up behind me.

  “Congratulations, Junior,” she says, kissing his cheek.

  “Thank you,” he says, sliding his cap off his head.

  Rose takes a quick step toward him and extends the baby. “I believe this is yours.”

  He grins and expertly takes his daughter in his hands. “Yes, she is…” he coos, raising her up high in the air as she giggles.

  “Are you guys going to the party at Ty and Grant’s?” Alyssa asks us.

  Rose nods. “We wouldn’t miss it.”

  “Good. It’s probably the last time we’ll all see each other for a while since everybody but me has graduated…”

  Junior nudges her arm. “You only have one semester left, Ally.”

  “I know, but still…”

  “I’ll still be here,” Rose says. “I have about a year left on my graduate degree.”

  “Good.” Alyssa nods. “We can keep each other company while they toss a ball back and forth and have panties thrown at them.”

  Junior and I smile.

  It hasn’t quite sunk in yet. Pulling ahead in that final game. Securing a spot in the championship. Winning the championship. I’m terrified every single day that I’ll wake up and be back at square one. All the hard work, all the ups and downs.

  It all paid off on Draft Day.

  I look at Junior, and I can tell he’s thinking the same thing.

  “Uh-oh.” Rose laughs. “You know you’re not supposed to feed the egos, Alyssa.”

  “Eh.” Alyssa shrugs. “He’s nothing without us and he knows it.”

  Junior kisses his daughter’s head.

  Alyssa tosses a diaper bag over her shoulder. “Anyway, we’ll meet you two at the party. Grant demanded we stop for ice on the way.”

  “See you there,” I say.

  Junior and Alyssa walk through the quad. I pause, expecting to feel that envious stab in my gut like always, but it never surfaces. For the first time, I feel nothing.

  “John.”

  I’m complete.

  I look at Rose. “Yes?”

  She wraps her arms around my waist. “I’m so proud of you,” she says, popping up on her toes to kiss me.

  I embrace her against me. “I bet you never expected to date a real pro football player, did you?”

  “Oh, it’s always been a fantasy. I won’t lie.”

  “Oh, yeah? What other fantasies did you have?”

  Rose pulls away, smiling. “We can talk about those later. We should get going.”

  She takes a quick step toward the parking lot, but I stop her.

  “Wait…” I pull the black robe over my head and cradle it in one arm, happy to finally take it off. “Not yet.”

  Her face tilts. “What?”

  “Come with me.”

  I grab her hand before she can say another word and lead her with me toward Prism Hall.

  CHAPTER 34

  ROSE

  “John, where are you taking me?”

  “It’s a surprise.”

  “John…”

  He squeezes my hand a little tighter. “Patience, Darling.”

  “The last time you said the words it’s a surprise, I found myself on a beach in a sex van.”

  “Well, when you put it that way, it’s a little creepy.”

  I laugh as John holds the door open for me. The halls are completely deserted. Not a sign of student life as the spring semester has already met its end. Everyone down to the janitorial staff is on vacation, leaving the place oddly quiet.

  John doesn’t drop my hand until we reach the lecture hall. He spins around and walks backward down the stairs toward the front.

  “So, you remember this place?” he asks.

  I chuckle. “Of course I do.”

  “For a whole semester, you taught General Chemistry in this room.”

  “I did.”

  “And…” he continues, tossing his robes over his seat back in the front row, “for thirteen weeks, I sat in this chair and I watched you teach.”

  I study his face, trying to predict his point. “You did.”

  “That’s almost forty hours, Rose.”

  “Uh-huh.”

  He takes my hand again and walks me to the teacher’s desk. “I spent forty hours in this room, doing everything in my power to resist the temptation to bend you over this desk.”

  I raise a brow. “Well, when you put it that way, I’m surprised you even passed the class.”

  He leans in. “Oh, it was hard. In more ways than one.”

  I chuckle as his lips graze mine. “So, why exactly are we here now?”

  “Simply put...” He crushes his lips on mine. “I’m not leaving this school until I fuck your brains out on this desk.”

  I kiss him back, and his hands crawl down my body toward my skirt. “Oh, really?”

  “Come on, Rose,” he whispers in my ear. “Don’t tell me you never thought about it just once.”

  “Maybe,” I say, biting my lip as he kisses beneath my ear.

  “There I was,” he says, raising my skirt. “Sitting in the front row, watching you, listening to you. You wanted me to stand up and walk over here, didn’t you?”

  He reaches between my thighs and I breathe deep.

  “You wanted me to fill that sweet tight pussy—”

  “Somebody could walk in here, you know,” I say.

  “Then I better fuck you fast, Ms. Hawthorne.”

  I reach for his belt, overwhelmed with pulsing desire as he hooks his fingers into my panties beneath my skirt.

  It’s been months since we’ve stood in this room together. I’ve almost forgotten what that urge felt like. Walking this hall, watching him there, staring at me, feeling the wetness pooling in my panties as I thought about us later in the TA office. Or the library study room. Or in my bed.

  That forbidden rush has long since left our relationship, but I feel it taking me over again.

  And I like it.

  I sigh with pleasure as I push his zipper down. “Did you bring a calculator?” I ask.

  He chuckles against my lips. “Back pocket.”

  I reach around him and slide my fingers into his pants pocket, feeling for the… square velvet box hidden inside?

  I freeze.

  John stands tall and takes the box from my trembling fingers. “Rose…”

  “John…”

  “I love you,” he says, staring into me with unblinking eyes. “I didn’t know it but I loved you the moment I first saw you in this room.”

  I gasp as he opens the box and the diamond ring shines inside. “Oh, my…”

  “I made some mistakes,” he says. “But I’m happy I did because they made me realize who I really was, and who I needed to be for you. I needed to be more. I’m going to spend the rest of my life making sure you get everything you deserve.”

  “Man, you word so good,” I say, my pulse racing.

  He takes the ring from the box. “And I lied to you before.”

  “About what?”

  “I didn’t spend all forty hours thinking about this.” He gestures to the desk. “I spent some of them imagining you walking toward me in a white dress.”

  I smile as he slides the ring onto my finger.

  “Rose Darling Hawthorne, will you marry me?”

  The diamond glistens between us. It drifts in and out of focus for me as tears build between my eyelashes.

  “Rose?”

  I look at him, swallowing the happy lump down my throat. “Yes,” I answer. “Yes, I will marry you, John.”

  He cups my face and kisses me. I throw my arms around him, never wanting to let him go again, and he returns the tight embrace.

  “I love you,” he says, kissing me again.

  “I love you, too,” I whisper, passions building inside as my hands crawl down his body. “Okay, we are really going to need a calculator now.”

  He takes a condom from his other back pocket before fishing beneath my skirt again to pull my panties down to my ankles.

  I laugh, losing myself in total ecstasy. He’s just as floored as I am, kissing and touching me as I spread my knees wider for him.

  “Johnny,” I moan, feeling his cock press against me.

  His lips curl and I sense the pleasure on his breath as he lays his hands on my hips and thrusts deep.

  He fucks me slowly, taking his time, and I’m practically mewling on him by the time he’s all the way in. My toes curl. My spine twitches. My body delights in his and I wrap my legs around his waist to keep him deep inside.

  I lie down on the desk and John takes me harder, pounding and grinding me until I want to scream. He cups my breasts and holds my waist, fingers gliding down my curves. Every piece of me he touches catches fire.

  “Ms. Hawthorne,” he whispers, grinning at me.

  I laugh. “I loved it when you called me that.”

  “I know.” His eyes flick around the lecture hall. “I suppose it’d be Mrs. Kirby now.”

  My back arches. “Say it again.”

  He leans forward. “Mrs. Kirby.”

  “Oh, take me now,” I tease.

  “Turn around.”

  I sit up and he takes a quick kiss from me before I spin around and bend over. He’s back in me in seconds, fucking me from behind as he whispers in my ear.

  “I’ve wanted this for so long, Rose…”

  I moan, unable to speak.

  “Your body, your mind.” He digs his teeth into the flesh of my neck, biting down as his primal urges overwhelm him. “Be my wife.”

  “Yes.”

  “My everything.”

  I tumble toward climax as he tilts my face back to kiss me.

  “I love you, Rose.”

  I come hard, biting my tongue to keep my screams from echoing throughout the whole damn building.

  John thrusts into me one more time and stops, gripping my body as he lets himself go. I feel him surging inside of me, groaning softly into my ear.

  “I love you, John,” I say against his lips.

  He laughs, his hands still roaming my body.

  The door at the back of the lecture hall swings open. “Hey! Who’s down there?”

  “Shit!” John whispers.

  I slip off the desk, bending to grab my panties off the floor while John rushes to zip up his pants.

  “Hey! You two!”

  John snatches his robe off the chair and takes my hand as we rush to the side exit.

  “Oh, god,” I say. “I can’t believe we did that!”

  We sprint down the hall hand-in-hand until we make it outside, but we keep running through the quad even after we know there’s no one chasing us.

  John looks back at me and winks. “It was worth it.”

  I laugh harder than I ever have in my entire life.

  You’re damn right it was worth it.

  All of it.

  EPILOGUE

  ROSE

  Four Years Later

  “You will be expected to know the difference between cations and anions. Many of you mixed those up on the last quiz, so make sure you get that straight for the exam on Monday.”

  My students stare at me from their seats scattered around the lecture hall, their eyes occasionally dipping to look at my body. Little did I know how much that semester as a TA would train me for this. John Kirby, sitting there, staring at me, paying more attention to my pencil skirts than the lectures themselves.

  Unfortunately, this is going to keep happening more and more as my belly swells. I’m only twenty weeks pregnant, but you’d think I was already a giant mutant by the way they’re looking at me right now.

  My hand gravitates to the little pooch protruding out. It’s a strategic move, equally designed to swing their attention back to what I’m saying, but also a sweet comfort for me. I’m carrying life inside of me.

  Correction: Lives.

  “Also, schedule enough time to read over chapters one through five again. Pay really close attention to the practice problems at the end of each chapter — you just might see one or two literally copied and pasted onto the exam.”

  The back door swings open, drawing the attentions of a few students. The whispers and elbow nudges begin immediately and before I know it, the entire lecture hall turns in their chairs to look back at him.

  I guess it’s not every day a professional football player just waltzes into a university chemistry class.

  Then again, this is Chicago North University.

  John sits down in an empty seat in the back row, purposefully smirking at me as the spotlight above his head grows brighter and brighter.

  “Okay, guys, let’s break early for today,” I say, speaking louder to combat the growing swoons of my students. “I’ll see you all on Monday. Please bring your own calculators and scrap paper for the exam!”

  The class lets out a few celebratory hoots as they stand up. I take a moment to sit down and rest my feet.

  John waits in the back with his hand raised, purposefully flashing his new championship ring while accepting the various handshakes and high-fives as the students pass by. He’s so adored around here. I get the feeling some students enrolled in my class just on the off-chance he might show up.

  Once it’s just the two of us, he stands up. I furrow my brow, glaring at him as he marches toward me.

  “You were supposed to meet me in my office,” I say.

  “But this was way more fun.”

  I deepen my glare.

  “Oh, come on, Darling.” He laughs. “You just dismissed them early on a Friday. If you weren’t their favorite professor already, you are now.”

  I slide a hand over my belly again without thinking. “Maybe you’re right.”

  He extends his hand to help me stand up. “Now, come on. I want to get another look at Alexander and Benjamin in there.”

  “Oh, I’m sorry,” I tease. “I can’t hear you over the obvious heartbeats of Dana and Ramona.”

  He shakes his head. “Nope. Sorry. They’re boys.”

  “I’m pretty sure they’re girls, John.”

  “Why?”

  “I feel girls.”

  “That’s not science.”

  “Women’s intuition and motherly instinct transcend science.”

  He scoffs. “No, they don’t.”

  “Okay, then. What makes you so certain they’re boys? Hm?”

  “Hey, I planted them with my seed,” he says. “Those are my boys growing in your womb garden.”

  I wince. “Stop calling it that.”

  He laughs and throws my bag over his shoulder. “Let’s go.”

  “Make yourself comfortable, Rose,” Dr. Jones says. She offers a kind nod to John as we step into the ultrasound room. “I’ll be right back and then we’ll get started.”

  “Thank you,” I say, sliding into the chair and putting my feet up. I let out a long sigh, relishing in the moment to relax a little. Only twenty weeks in and I’m already exhausted all the time. I can’t imagine what it’ll be like when my girls are finally here.

  Yes, John. We are having girls.

  I raise my shirt to expose my belly as John sits down by my right side with a permanent smile etched onto his face.