Surrender My Love(13)
She turned her hand over, missing the feel of his against it. “He was upset. At first he clammed up, and I tried to talk about it, to reassure him that this sort of thing happens a lot. I gave him the spiel about misplaced feelings and told him that I care for him as a student but in the way that was appropriate for a teacher.”
“Oh boy.” Cole shook his head. “I bet that pissed him off even more.”
“Yeah, it did.” She crossed her arms, a barrier between her and the truth she had to reveal. “When I left that afternoon Andy told me that he hated me and that he never wanted to see me again. He said I’d pay for treating him that way. I honestly thought it would blow over.” Tears welled in her eyes again, and she swiped angrily at them. “About an hour after I arrived at school the next morning, the principal called me down to her office.”
Cole leaned forward and wiped a tear from her cheek with the pad of his thumb. “And what happened?”
“Several weeks of hell,” she said flatly. “Andy said I touched him inappropriately, and it was his word against mine. At first my principal told me to stop tutoring him, obviously, and she gave me a letter stating the accusation. Everything moved really fast after that. I was put on administrative leave while the investigation took place. I think at first I was numb, in a state of disbelief. But the investigation was so invasive, there was no escaping it. They reviewed my employment files, which of course had no other complaints or accusations, but then they talked to other students, teachers, parents. I was so ashamed to have even been accused of such a horrible thing.” Every word brought a painful reminder of the shame and embarrassment she’d gone through. “And my boyfriend of almost two years worried about what his affiliation with me would do to his career, because he was also a teacher, so we broke up.”
Cole’s hands fisted. “I assume he knew you were innocent?”
“Yes, of course he did. I thought he knew me better than anyone, but what I realized was that we barely knew each other at all. It wasn’t that he thought I was guilty. He was worried that parents would lose faith in him because of our connection. It was a nightmare.” She paused, trying to remember how to breathe without allowing her heart rate to skyrocket, something she’d had to master to avoid passing out from anxiety during those first awful days. “I had a lot of supporters. All of my other students and my peers rallied around me.”
“Family?” Cole inched closer, when she expected him to put space between them. He placed his hand over hers again.
She shook her head.
“They didn’t support you?” He moved closer again, his inner thigh brushing her outer thigh.
“I never knew my mother. My father raised me, but he died of a stroke when I was twenty-five.” She lifted one shoulder in a halfhearted shrug.
“Aw, Leese. I’m sorry that you’ve had to go through this alone and that you lost your father.”
His tone was so sincere, it made her sad for herself, too, and the endearment Leese made her heart squeeze.
“I had Tegan and my friends, and that really helped. It took the investigators only a few weeks to see that there was no foundation for the charges, but by then the damage had been done. And those weeks? They were torturous. Every minute felt like a lifetime. I could feel everything I’d ever worked for—all the relationships I’d formed, the reputation I’d built with students and peers—being squeezed from my life like a wrung-out sponge. Even if people in town weren’t looking at me with concern or mistrust, I felt like they were. That kind of stress does awful things to your confidence.”
“I can only imagine. So you came here with hopes that no one would know? You gave up your career?” He brought her hand to his lips and pressed a kiss to her knuckles. “That took a lot of courage.”
“I think it would have taken a lot more courage to stay where I was. They offered me a job at another school, in Baltimore instead of Towson. I haven’t made any final decisions. And don’t call me courageous just yet. I am so frightened that someone might have read about it online or heard about it, that instead of going by my given name, Annalise, I go by Leesa, which is also new to me.”
His eyes warmed. “Annalise. That’s beautiful, and I still think you’re courageous. To go through something like that for a day, much less longer? Of course your confidence has wavered. You’d have to be inhuman for it not to. I’d imagine your entire life was scrutinized.”
It was all she could do to nod, as memories of the interrogations flew through her mind.
“In case you’re wondering, I was honest with your parents. I couldn’t mislead an employer, so I told them about what happened in Towson, and they were gracious enough to hire me anyway.”
“Lee—Annalise, you were found not guilty of anything.”
“I think you should call me Leesa. Just in case. And yes, I wasn’t guilty, but that doesn’t mean that anyone has to believe in my innocence. I truly appreciate your parents’ willingness to take a chance on me, and after what happened with Chris, I understand if you want to put distance between us, too. If anyone found out—”
“I’d set them straight.”
A lump formed in her throat with his response. How could he be so understanding? So confident in her innocence?
“But—”
He took her cheeks in his warm hands and gazed deeply into her eyes.
“Unless there’s something more damning that you’re not telling me, I can see no reason to put distance between us, when what I really want is to get closer to you.”
“Cole,” she whispered with disbelief.
“Annalise, did you do something inappropriate to that boy?”
She couldn’t form the answer, not when he was so close that she could smell the coffee on his breath, see his pupils dilating, feel his heat warming her hotter than the sun ever could. Not when the vehemence in his tone told her that he believed her, trusted her. Instead, she shook her head.
He smiled again, leaning in so close his breath brushed over her mouth.
“Then may I please kiss you the way I’ve wanted to since last night?”
She nearly crumpled into his arms, unable to deny herself his touch any longer. “Ye—”
Before the word left her lips, his mouth captured hers. Passion radiated through her with every stroke of his tongue, awakening a burning desire inside her like she’d never experienced before. He slid one hand beneath her hair and cupped the back of her head, angling her mouth and deepening the kiss. She never dreamed that his touch would feel so gentle and powerful at the same time. He leaned in to her, and in the next second his strong arms had scooped her onto his lap, never breaking their connection. One hand slid hot and confidently along her thigh, and the other remained on the nape of her neck. A groan stole from his lungs, and she swallowed it down, feeling it vibrate through her as her hands discovered the thickness of his hair, the strength of his muscular back. Hypnotized by the most luxurious kiss she’d ever experienced, she was powerless to pull away, even as the nagging voice in her head tried to convince her to.
His touch, this kiss, was divine ecstasy, and she felt like she was exactly where she was supposed to be.
Which was crazy.
Insane.
Amazing.
“Annalise,” he said against her lips, bringing her mind back to the present.
She became aware of his rigid length beneath her butt, his chest moving with heavy breaths, his strong, capable hands roaming along her back, and her tight nipples tingling beneath her shirt.
“Mm,” was all she could manage, desperately wanting those delicious lips of his back on hers.
“Thank you for trusting me enough to share that part of your life with me.”
The realization of how much she’d shared suddenly struck her, and he must have felt her body tense up, because he pressed a tender kiss to her lips and said, “It doesn’t change anything. I just want you to know that what your ex did? It was wrong. No man should ever put himself before the woman he loves.” He touched his forehead to hers. “He didn’t know how to love you, and I’m sorry that he hurt you.”
She closed her eyes against the familiarity of his words and felt a hot tear slip down her cheek.
“Leese?”
“My father used to tell me never to settle for a man who put himself before me. I thought that he was wrong, that men had to put themselves before the women they loved in order to maintain their careers. But when Chris told me that he wanted to end our relationship, I remember thinking about how my father had been right and feeling guilty for feeling that way.”
Cole kissed away her tears. “There’s no room for guilt when you care about someone. It sounds to me like your father was a wise man, and I’m sorry I never got to meet him.”
They sat like that for a long while, with the waves crashing against the shore and their lives silently intertwining in the sweet summer breeze. Leesa wasn’t fully aware of when the change occurred, but sometime between their kiss on the deck, making plans for the evening, and when Cole kissed her goodbye at her car, their date had become a given rather than a possibility.
Chapter Seven