Everything

  Should I just pretend like it never happened? Not address it all? Should I call him out for not telling me he’s a high school student? Or that he’s in a fucking relationship with the future Miss Universe? I mean, obviously he had no way of knowing I’d be his permanent substitute teacher come today, but still, he had to know I assumed he was older. And fucking single.

  In the midst of my internal freak out, the final bell rang and the entire class jumped up and made a beeline for the door, finally dismissed for the day. I glanced up just in time to see the last student walk out, and a whole new barrage of emotions pelted me when I discovered he didn’t stay behind to say anything to me. Not an apology or a let’s-forget-about-what-happened speech or him pleading with me not to tell his girlfriend. Nothing.

  I was still staring at the doorway when Liam’s handsome, smiling face appeared in it. “So how was the first day, Ms. Sloan? Think you might come back tomorrow?”

  Offering a small grin, I nodded. “It was good. I’m not sure any of the students are too thrilled that Ms. Wallace isn’t here to hand out an easy A, but no one cussed me out or threw anything at me, so I’ll consider it a success.” I thought it best not to mention the whole “Oh, and this hot guy I hooked up with this weekend, he’s one of my students now. What a small world, right?”

  He sauntered into the room a few steps then stopped, sticking his hands in his pockets. I couldn’t help but notice the striking differences in his and Everett’s appearances — one was dark, broody, and mysterious, while the other was bright, approachable, and forthcoming — and before he ever opened his mouth, I knew he was going to ask me out.

  “I was curious if you wanted to go grab a drink with me to celebrate surviving day one? There’s a local place a lot of us teachers like to hit up for their happy hour specials, especially on Fridays. Plus, I still owe you for nearly knocking you down yesterday,” he offered, making it seem completely casual. Instinct told me his intentions were anything but.

  Tempting as his offer was — I would’ve loved to drown my newly-arisen problems in a vodka tonic or four — I just couldn’t. Not in the mental state I was in. With my luck, I’d get shit-faced drunk and tell him everything. And I couldn’t take that chance.

  “I can’t this afternoon,” I replied with an apologetic smile. “I’ve got a couple of appointments to look at some apartments, but maybe some other time?”

  “Yeah, sounds good.” His lips curled up at the corners as he ran his hand through his blond hair. “And if you need any help on apartment hunting, I know this area pretty well, so don’t hesitate to ask. I’d love to help you with whatever you need.”

  I pushed up to standing, grabbing my coat, purse, and messenger bag in the process, then headed over to where he was, tipping my head toward the door. Even though my first appointment wasn’t until four-thirty, over an hour away, I needed to get out of that building to help clear the muddled mess that was my mind.

  “Thank you so much for the offer. I truly appreciate how nice you’ve been,” I regarded him honestly as we fell into stride with each other moving out in the hallway. “I’ll let you know how the search goes, and will definitely take you up on that offer for the drink. Maybe this Friday.”

  “Perfect.”

  Liam accompanied me all the way down the stairs and through the school then held open the side door that led to the shared student-teacher parking lot. The wintry wind had settled down somewhat from the day before, but the temperatures still hovered near freezing and the sun hadn’t shone her face in over two days. The cold, bleak gray sky mirrored my mood, despite the good-looking, clearly interested guy walking next to me.

  When we reached my car — a late-model red Volkswagen bug — I thanked him once again and we exchanged a somewhat awkward goodbye that involved him waiting for me to get inside my car. I slid onto the driver’s seat and quickly started the engine, turning the radio to my favorite Adele album. Then, belting out the lyrics to “Rumour Has It,” I pulled out of the lot and onto the busy street.

  If I hadn’t been so distracted with my thoughts about the clusterfuck that had officially become my life, I probably would’ve noticed the pristine baby blue Ford truck parked just a few rows over. And the seething, hulkish figure sitting behind the wheel.

  WHAT IN THE actual fuck?

  I banged my hands over and over on the dashboard until my palms screamed in pain, unable to process the tsunami of frustration and utter pissed-the-fuck-off-ness surging through me. In the matter of ninety minutes, life had sucker punched me not once by having the one chick I’d ever really been interested in end up being my teacher, not twice by putting Jayla of all people in that same class with me, but three times by showing me that Mr. Carroll had already put his plan in action to try and charm the panties off the new teacher he’d told me about. My Belle.

  It was as if the universe had ganged up on me, dangling her right in front of my face, knowing I couldn’t resist, then giving me a tiny taste of the sweetest damn fruit that existed, only to tell me I couldn’t have it. Forbidden. I could only look while someone else touched.

  I guess life really is a cold, heartless bitch.

  Clenching my teeth together, I watched as my homeroom teacher leaned in a little too close to say what I assumed was goodbye, then I snatched the phone off the bench seat next to me and punched out a group text to Billy and our other close friend Scott Stein. I needed to do something to get my mind off everything, and that’s what friends were for. Right?

  Me: Empty’s this afternoon. Meet in 20.

  The three of us had been hanging out at the pub to play darts and pool since we’d turned sixteen and could drive. Unlike most bars, Empty’s was open to people of all ages during the day for both lunch and dinner; it wasn’t until after ten pm that it became a twenty-one-and-up establishment. Though the reason Ashlynn and I were able to stay there late and play on stage was because our parents were with us. Texas law only prohibited the sale of alcohol to minors. Each establishment set its own rules about who they allowed in, and lucky for us, our family owned the place.

  Billy: Yup. Gonna swing by the house first, be there soon.

  I hadn’t finished reading Billy’s text before Scott’s flashed on the screen.

  Scott: 10-4

  Twisting the key in the ignition, the truck roared to life and I white-knuckled the wheel. I had to get the hell away from that school so I could think straight. I knew if I waited there too much longer, I would probably do something I’d regret. Like turn in the direction she just did and try to follow her home.

  My foot slammed down on the accelerator and I peeled out of the parking lot, turning in the opposite direction she had, ignoring every instinct I had to hunt her down and claim her as my own. Throughout the entire twenty-minute drive, I tortured myself by replaying the look on Belle’s face when Jayla had called me “babe” then insisted I sit next to her. She’d obviously thought I was a cheating asshole, but I hadn’t known of any possible way to explain everything to her right then. Not to mention, I was so fucking surprised to see her standing in the front of the classroom I couldn’t think straight. Stunned stupid, nothing made sense. I just couldn’t stop staring at her.

  She was even more beautiful than I remembered. How that was possible, I had no idea. Even mad as shit, refusing to look at me, she was so fucking gorgeous, and I couldn’t help but remember how soft and silky her skin was, how she squirmed under my touch, begged me to put my mouth on her.

  Naturally, Jayla had caught me staring at Belle, though she thought I was just being a typical-teenage guy and ogling some hot teacher. But after class, she’d decided to act like a spoiled-ass bitch and spouted off some shit about never realizing what’s right in front of me. The problem with that was I knew exactly what was in front of me, and I wasn’t fucking interested. It was what had been convenient, and if that made me a dickhead, then whatever. She’d known the game before she asked to play.

  I had bigger shit to deal with, like th
e whole Belle-was-now-my-teacher and Mr.-Carroll-was-trying-to-steal-my-girl hurdles. I’d be damned if Jayla was gonna cause me any more problems; she could find another dude to latch her greedy claws into.

  Pulling up in the gravel parking lot in front of the old-warehouse-turned-bar, I was relieved to see that neither my dad’s car nor bike was there. As much as I loved my old man, I really didn’t feel like talking to him right now. He could read me like a book. I wasn’t sure if it was father’s intuition or what, but he always knew when I was frustrated or agitated with something. And even though he usually offered up advice that was spot-on, I couldn’t tell him about Belle. Not yet. I needed some time to figure out what the fuck I was supposed to do.

  And I needed to talk to her.

  But first, playing some pool and darts with my friends would help chill me out. Then, once I was calm, I’d probably have a jam session on my guitar, where I could sort through my thoughts a bit more rationally. Mom always told us growing up, “Don’t make promises when you’re happy or decisions when you’re mad,” and I usually didn’t give into my impulses. Except when I’m around Belle.

  AN HOUR AND three games of pool later, my mood hadn’t improved at all. Billy and Scott hadn’t shut up about all the parties they’d been to over the holiday break, and though they were careful not to mention Ashlynn’s name, I knew by the stories they were telling and who was involved that she’d been right there in the middle of it all. Several times I had to bite my tongue not to go off on them, but I reminded myself it wasn’t their fault if my sister acted like an idiot. As long as neither of them ever touched her, our friendship would be just fine.

  While the two of them were in the middle of a game and Scott was droning on about some girl he’d supposedly hooked up with, I made a quick bathroom stop then went by the office to say hi to my uncle, but he was on a phone call, so I let him be. Zigzagging through the restaurant portion of the pub to get back to the pool tables, I rejoined my friends just in time to hear Scott ask Billy, “Dude, tell me you got an eyeful of the new Art History teacher today?”

  Immediately, my entire body tensed and the hair on the back of my neck stood up straight. I might not have said anything about the party talk, but there was no way in hell I could keep quiet through this.

  “Nah, man, I never saw her, but I heard from some of the guys she’s hot,” Billy replied, after knocking the five-ball in the corner pocket. He looked up and tipped his chin at me, a sly grin spread across his face. “But I know this assclown here has her for sixth period. What’d you think, Templeton? Was she what everyone made her out to be?”

  I shrugged, feigning disinterest. “Jayla was in the class with me. She railroaded me the second I walked through the door.” There. That wasn’t a lie.

  “Shit, man, Everett wouldn’t know a good piece of ass if it fell right in his lap.” Scott laughed as he watched Billy continue to school him on the pool table. “This Ms. Sloan, she’s the real fucking deal. I had her for second period and, I swear to God, I think I was still hard at lunch thinking about her. She’s so damn tiny I could throw her all around the bedroom, stuffing my cock in every—”

  “Shut the fuck up, Stein!” I growled, cutting him off mid-sentence. “We both know good-and-well there’s not a chance in hell the new teacher is gonna touch your cock with a ten-foot pole. The lame-ass stories you feed us about the stupid girls in our class are already fucked up. How about we stick to those and not let this imagination of yours get out of hand?”

  Billy stopped lining up his shot and stood up straight as Scott moved in front of me, bowing his chest out. A good four inches shorter and at least twenty pounds lighter than me, there was no way Scott was stupid enough to provoke me physically. But he also wasn’t going to let me talk to him like a little bitch without saying something back.

  “What the fuck is your problem today, dude? You’ve had a stick up your ass since we got here. Jayla not make her weekly BJ house call or what?” he taunted, a cocky smirk wrinkling up his face.

  When I didn’t respond to him, he spun around to Billy and picked up right where he’d left off. “So yeah, I’ll be shooting my load tonight with visions of the new teacher’s tight little ass bent over her desk in front of me, just like every other guy who saw her today.” His eyes cut over to me and he scoffed, “Well, every guy except for our friend here with his v-card, who’s either embarrassed at how small his dick is to use it properly or he’s fucking gay. Whichever,” he shrugged, then picked up the pool stick and walked around the table to break for the next game, “it’s his damn loss, not mine. Seeing that sexy little bitch every day, imagining how pretty she’d look kneeling at my feet while she worships my cock, I’ll have enough material in the spank bank to last me until summer.”

  My hands shook with rage as I flew off the handle, charging him like a bull seeing red. In a matter of seconds, I had my hand around his throat and him pinned up against the wall, his feet dangling, not quite reaching the floor.

  Too stunned to react, his eyes bulged out of his head as I got right up in his face, nostrils flaring, and roared, “I told you to shut the fuck up, asshole. Tired of listening to you disrespect women all the damn time. Didn’t your parents teach you any fucking manners? You want some piece of shit talking about your mom like that?” He slowly shook his head as his entire body trembled underneath my hand. “The next time I have to repeat myself to you, it’ll be with my fist meeting your ugly-ass mug. You fucking got me, friend?”

  I released my hold, and as he fell to the ground, I glanced over at a dumbstruck Billy who was staring at us slack-jawed. “Not in the mood for his shit today,” I grumbled, throwing a twenty-dollar bill on the table, which more than covered the two sodas I’d had and the time for pool. “Catch up with you tomorrow.”

  My tunnel vision locked in on the exit, I lumbered with long strides across the concrete floor, then exploded out the door. I hopped in my truck and rocketed out of the parking lot, wishing I had followed Belle instead. I didn’t understand what in the hell was going on with me, or with her for that matter, but until we could sit and hash it all out, I needed to stay away from people. Edgy from uncertainty and the unfamiliar urge to possess her, I was a caged animal, and as Scott had just learned, if anyone got too close, I wouldn’t hesitate to attack.

  With a mumbled excuse about a headache, I spent the rest of the night locked in my room, even eating dinner in there, so I didn’t have to answer my parents’ questions about my day at school or listen to Ashlynn ramble on and on about meaningless shit. Then, the next morning, I woke up an hour earlier than normal and got dressed, leaving my house before sunrise.

  Parked in the back corner of the school parking lot, I waited inside my truck until I saw her red car pull up, and watched as she hopped out and rushed to the building, chin tucked to her chest as she tried to escape the cold, harsh wind. Grabbing my backpack, I followed suit, bolting inside and up to her classroom, hoping I’d get to her before Mr. Carroll did this morning.

  I couldn’t wait any longer. We had to talk.

  And I really needed to taste that sweet little mouth again.

  IT WASN’T QUITE seven in the morning and I was already exhausted. I hadn’t been able to sleep worth a shit, tossing and turning as I worried myself sick over the Everett situation. At five-fifteen, I’d finally given up and pushed through a half-hour run on Lindsey’s treadmill in the garage, but instead of clearing my head and invigorating me, all it did was give me more time to analyze, reanalyze, and then overanalyze the same damn crap I hadn’t stopped thinking about since the previous aft

  ernoon.

  Unlocking the door to my classroom, I stepped inside and flipped the light on then sighed as my gaze immediately honed in on the seat he’d sat in yesterday. My head shook with disappointment at my lack of resolve. The entire drive from Lindsey’s house to the school, I had vowed to myself I wasn’t going to allow him to preoccupy my thoughts all day, and even though I knew that task would be damn
near impossible, I hadn’t even made it five feet inside the room before I was already mulling over what I needed to do.

  The night before, after an apartment hunt that’d come up empty, I’d relaxed in a hot bubble bath with a glass of wine, hoping if I could find my inner calm-cool-and-collected self, I could process the day’s events more sensibly, with the mature, levelheadedness of an adult woman. Keyword: adult.

  I’d reminded myself no less than a gazillion times that afternoon and evening that I was supposed to be the adult in this situation. No matter how old he looked or mature he seemed the night I met him, and regardless that the age of consent in Texas was seventeen, which he had to at least be if he was a senior, I was a twenty-five-year-old woman with a masters degree, while he was a high school student. My high school student. My high school student with a girlfriend.

  So why am I not more disgusted with myself over this? And why am I most upset about the fact I can’t go back up to that bar to see him again? And why can’t I stop thinking about him, even though he’s a lying, cheating asshole?

  The way he held me captive with just his intense gaze. How his hungry kisses ignited a raging inferno inside me. The power that hummed in my veins when I drew his cock between my lips and sucked him deep to the back of my throat. Images of him, of me, of us, swirled in my head, a kaleidoscope of forbidden desire.

  A knock on the door interrupted my wayward thoughts, and as I whirled around, mostly expecting to see the ever-attentive Liam checking on me yet again, I hissed in a sharp breath at the sight of a disgruntled-looking Everett looming in the doorway. Wearing his standard tattered jeans that hung just right off his hips with a navy thermal that clung to his strapping shoulders and chest, he looked like he’d jumped out of the shower and came straight here with his damp, disheveled hair and the dark stubble lining his jaw.