Hot For Teacher(57)

“No,” he whispered, running his thumb across his bottom lip. “I didn’t expect to see you again.”

“I’ve missed you.” The words fell off my lips before I could stop them.

“Stay after class,” he whispered and walked back to the door, opening it. I walked toward him and stopped, wanting to say so much more. “We’ll talk more, later,” he said quietly to me.

He always could read my mind, I thought to myself. “Okay,” I agreed before walking back to my seat. Amber raised an eyebrow as I sat down. “I’m staying after class,” I tell her.

“Are you going to share with me why?”

“No.”

Her mouth dropped open. “But what about our celebration?”

“Can we do it another day?”

“Fine.” She frowned.

“Whenever you two are ready to join us, we’re going over the homework assignments,” Connor called out.

Amber and I both blushed as the students turned to gawk at us. A small smile formed on Connor’s lips before he turned to write on the chalkboard.



***



The students left class for the day and Amber said her goodbyes. I pretended to be busy, shoveling papers and notebooks in my bag and checking my phone, not focusing on anything else. Once all the students were out of the classroom, Connor closed the door, turning the lock. He stalked toward me then paused. I looked down, my heart drumming loudly. This was it. We were finally alone.

"I can't believe you're here,” he said softly. I glanced up and met his eyes, filled with longing. "I'd assumed you guys had left too." He leaned back, resting against a desk.

"We didn’t. We braved the raft of the gossips, the look downs, the shunning of the community,” I whispered.

"My mom's heart couldn’t deal with what was going to happen,” he explained sadly. "I didn't want to leave …" He grabbed my face gently, his thumb rubbing lightly on my freckles near my nose. "You've grown into your freckles. And your hair, you let it grow. You're beautiful, Vida."

I closed my eyes, tears brimming my lids, my world reversing as I travelled back in time. He had always reminded me to love my freckles and my fire red hair, to embrace them, to adore them. He told me they were part of my beauty.

I hated them.

He sighed and moved his hand away. "We shouldn't do this."

My eyes flew open and I blinked. "What are we doing?"

"I don't know." He turned away. "You should go.”

I slowly stood, dazed from being near him, dazed from his touch. I grabbed my bag. “I'll see you tomorrow.” My head dropped as I took a step to walk around him.

He grabbed my arm, pressing me against him. "This doesn’t leave the classroom," he murmured before grabbing my face and pressing his lips to mine. He kissed me tenderly, gently, delicately taking his time as if this were my first kiss.

This was wrong. It was wrong when I was eight, and it was wrong now. But I wanted this … our kiss.

His tongue darted out, gently playing with mine, gently easing me to forget about anything else but our kiss. This was magical.

Let it be wrong.

He moved until I was pressed against the desk, then lifted me up so I could sit. When he moved between my legs, I wrapped them around him, my ankles locking. I felt our kiss would never end.

I didn’t want it to ever end.

This was how I'd dreamed it would be if he were to kiss me like an adult. And right now, our kiss was all adult, filled with passion.

I kissed him harder and he moaned, my hands grabbing his waist. His gentleness seeped away from us as he took full control … demanding and deepening our kiss.

A knock startled us and Connor stopped everything immediately, slightly pushing me away. My mouth dropped open. This was bad. Our lips were red and swollen, his hair tousled, my wavy red hair messy.

This was really bad.

Whoever was behind the door would know what had just happened between Connor and me.

I grabbed my bag again, ready to bolt.

"I don't want you to leave like this."

The knock comes again. I jumped.

We both stared at the door. "If I stay, they’ll know. I should go."

He whispered quickly, “Please, Vida, message me later."

"Okay." I walked toward the door and unlocked it, keeping my gaze to the ground as I pushed it open.

"What were you doing in there?" a squeaky voice asked.

Shit.

I glanced up to see long, raven hair and cold, dark eyes.

Emma.

The one person who shouldn’t be here. Her mom had single-handedly exposed my dad's indiscretions to our small town, which led to Connor and his mom leaving.

“Nothing." I moved around her and walked away before she could ask anything else. Being vague would stir up rumors in Emma’s head, but I kept walking. Maybe, just maybe, she wouldn’t start any rumors this time around.