“Were you supposed to be out there?” Keith hated asking it, but he need to know.
“No. I’m not assigned outside during this week.”
“Did you have adequate staff out there?”
“Yes. It wasn’t their fault. It was my supervisor’s fault.”
“Okay, then, we talk about it all later. Let me get the order place.” He smoothed one wayward curl back, his fingertip tracing over her cheek, her soft, warm skin branding his fingertips. His cock throbbed and he knew he was in trouble, big trouble.
He'd been lonely for too long; he’d been alone with only his hand for pleasure for way too long. And she was beautiful and as much his type as…
No. Think of Jim. Think of Lisa. Think of…Miranda.
A shaft of pain and longing tore through him. Longing for the future, longing for the past. Longing for…everything, including Miranda.
Jesus Christ, he couldn’t open this door with a girl—woman—twenty years younger, with his best friend’s only child. This was a pure disaster waiting to happen.
He was so fucked. The door was open and now…now he couldn’t close it.
Keith placed the order and tugged a kitchen chair over, sitting backward on it. That’d block her view of him, though it was an armor than he knew was nearly transparent. She would eventually see he was turned on, would see that he was ready and aroused for her. What the hell was he thinking? This was his best friend’s kid. Okay, she was closer to thirty than teenhood, but he’d watched her grow up. There was no way he could be attracted to her…but he was. His cock was hardening as he sat looking at her. This was not good. At all.
“How are things?” Keith asked, desperate for some distraction from his carnal thoughts. “You seeing anyone?”
“Seeing anyone?” Jan asked, her nose wrinkling up adorably. “You mean as in dating?”
“Yeah.” At least if he had a name of a guy she was dating, he’d be able to put her out of his mind.
“I’m not seeing anyone,” she told him, shaking her head. “Do you really think…”
“Think what?” he asked.
“Think that... I don’t…Guys don’t seem to be interested in a chubby teacher.”
“Curvy,” he responded, letting her comment sink in. She was a hell of a woman; any man should feel lucky to have her.
“Fat,” she said in reply, wrinkling her nose. “There’s curvy and then there’s me.”
He wondered if she was insulting herself, but from her ironic smile, she seemed to be accepting.
“I don’t like that word.”
“I’m sorry,” she said, a blush coloring her cheeks. “It is what it is, you know? I can’t deny that I’m bigger than average. And most guys my age—”
“Most guys your age are idiots.” It was as much the truth as her weight was. “If they can’t see how beautiful you are—”
“Okay, pep talk over,” she said with a laugh. A part of him that he barely controlled wanted to kiss her silly, to show her that a real man had so much to offer her.
A real man, who would worship her curves rather than deriding them. And maybe, just maybe, he was that man for her.
Jan looked at Keith, trying to figure him out. He was her dad’s best friend, sure, but there was something different today, something that she wanted to figure out. Something that made her look at him as a man—okay, one old enough to be her father, but a man. A very handsome man who had been compassionate to a scared little boy. That aroused every protective need in her, the nurturing she used at school making her a prime candidate to be attracted to a caregiver.
“Food will be here soon. You eat.”
He gave her a very level gaze, and she tried not to hide her wince. Her weight was a sore subject, both for her and as she related to people.
“Okay, I will,” she promised.
“Jan, you’re beautiful just as you are. Don’t worry about anything but relaxing a bit. That had to be terrifying for you.”
“It was,” she whispered, finally allowing her emotion to come to the fore. She sniffled a few times, and sucked in a breath. “Keith, there is a lot of trouble brewing. I don’t know how to stop it.”
“Tell me everything.”
She did, not sparing any details about her boss. There was no way they were coming back from this as an intact company, and she needed someone to lean on.
“Jesus Christ,” Keith whispered when she was done. “He’s going to get arrested, you know.”
She nodded. “And he’ll blame us. Me.”
“Why you?”
“I didn’t um…succumb? To his sexual advances, I mean. It caused me a lot of stress and I don’t think…” She trailed off, and she wasn’t quite sure how to say this.