Taming His Tutor(40)

He knew he’d hurt a couple of high school lovers, but breaking hearts was never his goal. It had taken him a while to adjust to the emotional arc of it. Now he knew how to keep it easy, when to pull back. He needed to pull back now.

“All those girls at school…” She trailed off. Her blue eyes flashed something fierce.

Joe sat up and leaned over her, to see right into her pretty face. “You’re not jealous, are you?” He shouldn’t be pleased. But he was. She’d wanted him back then?

No way.

She’d been doing math at a level three years above her own. She also had the knack of explaining things. And community service had been part of one of those geek-awards programs she’d been doing. He’d been her community service.

“When you tutored me in math, you actually looked at me.” He brushed her hair back from her face, enjoying the silky feel of the long strands. “You looked up from your book and stared right at me. And then I really saw you and you were so…hot.” More than hot, she’d been sweet. He’d wanted her to look like that always at him—with that intensity. “But after our sessions ended, you never looked at me again. I tried a couple of times, to catch your eye.”

“No you didn’t.” A confused expression crossed her face.

Oh God, she really had no idea. “A shy girl sometimes has to be careful she doesn’t make a guy think she’s not interested.”

“You were never interested.” Her jaw dropped.

His gut twisted at the same time desire rampaged through him. He almost shivered. “You have any idea how mesmerizing your eyes are? How luminous your skin is?”

He smiled ruefully as her skin washed over in a red glow. Damn, he’d miss it if she ever stopped blushing. But he breathed out, trying to ease the tightening in his chest. Trying to shake off that disappointed tension—that he could have been with her back then?

But reality slammed back into him. It never would have worked. He’d have hurt her.

“It’s a good thing you were shy,” he said, trying to convince himself as much as tease her. “You wouldn’t have liked being one of my posse.”

She rolled her eyes. “Your pussy posse.”

“I never called them that.” He laughed even as he winced. “What was it you were jealous of?”

“Don’t you mean who?” Abbi bristled. “You don’t get it, do you? You may have had it tough for much of your life, but when it came to getting it, you were on easy street.”

He couldn’t exactly argue with that.

“I hated Elle Manning,” she blurted.

Elle who? It took him a second to remember who Abbi meant. Then he placed her—total party girl who liked to work her way around the team. “How come?”

“How come?” She looked at him like he was a prize idiot. “Elle didn’t have to wear braces. She didn’t need to hide in oversize sweaters and a scarf. She had pert boobs and a perfect teen body.”

And oh yeah, Abbi was jealous.

Joe was too tickled. “You wanted to be like her?” Crazy woman, Abbi was so much more than gorgeous.

She hesitated. “I once overheard her talking about giving you a blow job.”

“Did you?” Now that annoyed him. “I can’t stand people who kiss and tell.”

“She said very complimentary things.”

“Don’t pacify me. I don’t care what she said.” The look on Abbi’s face made him forget the annoyance. Forget Elle. He leaned a little over her. “I want to know how it made you feel.” God did he want to know.

Blue eyes flashed up at him. “I wanted it to be me.”

Fuck yeah. He wanted that too. So damn much. He rolled onto his back and thrust off the sheet covering him. “Take me then.”





Chapter Twelve

“Keep secrets.”

Abbi stilled, risked a glance down, and saw Joe had fully recovered his energy from that last round of “make Abbi scream.”

Joe’s brows flashed up. “Don’t tell me you’ve never given a guy a blow job.”

That wasn’t the issue.

“Abbi.” He reached out and ran his hands down her hair, his amusement audible. “I do believe I have an extra item to cover in today’s lesson.”

“I’m not good at it. I don’t know if I can be good at it.” Certainly not as good as Elle Manning had no doubt been.

She heard his muffled curse. “There’s not a lot to it.”

She arched her brows and gave his cock a pointed look, pleased when she heard his appreciative chuckle. Okay, good, at the very least they might be able to laugh their way through this. If she really fluffed it, he’d give her pointers, right? That was why they were doing this in the first place.