Taming His Tutor(47)

“He resented your success.” Abbi bit her lip. What a mess it must have been.

“Hated it. Hated me. And fair enough. I stole his scholarship. And encroached on his home. I don’t blame him.”

“I had no idea.” But then, why would she? She’d been studying like mad, heading off for math Olympiads and teen-coder conventions.

“Brigit and Ted sat me down, said they thought it might be best if I moved into the boarding house for the rest of the school year. They were right, of course—their family was better off if I wasn’t there. And it suited me. I spent every spare second at basketball camp. Every weekend. Every holiday.”

Her heart tore. She ached to help somehow. Which was stupid because Joe didn’t want help. He just wanted easy times and carefree fun.

Well, she reckoned she was coming to grips with that. Maybe she was the one going to take the tone back to sex this time. “You know how you said I could ask anything?”

“Uh-huh.”

“I’d really like to skinny-dip in your pool, that okay?” She swallowed. “I’ve never swum naked.”

He looked down at her with surprise. “I’d really like to watch you.”

She giggled as he led her over to the door that led to the pool and opened it for her. She shimmied out of her dress and bra and, a moment later, dived in. “Oooh,” she squealed as she surfaced. It was cooler than she’d expected.

He laughed. “People don’t like it too warm when they’re swimming laps.”

“You’re not going to come in?” She smiled back up at him, so glad to see him looking more relaxed. She wanted to splash with him.

“No.” He stood at the edge of the pool. “I never learned to swim until I was an adult, and it’s still not really my thing. The shower, on the other hand…”

“Okay,” she murmured. Yeah, she knew how he liked a shower. But his words tugged her heart—what else had he missed out on as a kid? What had happened to him in all that time before he got to her school?

Had it been rejection after rejection? No wonder he’d played so ferociously on the basketball court. Like his whole life was at stake. It pretty much was.

He stood silent, watching her. She didn’t like that distanced look in his eyes. She wanted playful Joe back. “What about the spa?” she suggested. “Would you like to spend some time relaxing in that?”

His signature grin reappeared. “There’s not enough lubrication if you’re right underwater. And for you to take me, you need lubrication.”

Oh my. There was no point in her trying to be suggestive; he’d top her every time. She slithered over to the edge of the pool.

“It’s my turn for a fantasy,” he muttered as he reached down and hauled her out of the water. “I’m going to fuck you on the floor of the gym in front of the mirrors.”

Her nose wrinkled. She really didn’t want to see her bits wobbling. But she hooked her wet and slippery legs around his waist anyway. “That’s not a good fantasy.”

He laughed and hauled her close. “It is from where I stand.”





Chapter Fourteen

“Don’t dominate the conversation.”

Just after midday the next day, Joe pushed his chair away from his desk and looked longingly out the window at the blue sky. Sitting still and doing paperwork wasn’t his thing. He wondered what Abbi was doing. How long had she been sitting at her computer screen already? It was probably time she had a break from it.

He’d gotten through the morning classes and his first business meeting okay, but Abbi was never far from his mind. But now she was almost the only thing on his mind. He wanted to see her.

But if he was going to play this as easy and light as always, he needed to step back. Too much time together would lead to too much intimacy of the wrong kind—the emotional kind. He knew it worked that way for women, and knew he had to avoid it to keep this okay.

Had he really spilled his guts like that? Telling her things he’d never told anyone—crossing that border from physical intimacy into emotional. Which wasn’t smart. She was too damn easy to talk to. So serene. She didn’t judge. And she’d looked so hurt when she’d caught him looking at Brooke—when she’d thought he was checking out another woman. He couldn’t let her go on thinking it. Couldn’t leave her alone. He’d had to speak, to settle her.

Except she was so quiet about her own life it was almost secretive. And damn it, that wasn’t fair.

He’d never talked to anyone about what those years prior to moving in with the Burns family were like, when he’d gone from one group foster home to another. He’d never talked about the heartbreak of the occasional visit from Brooke, where he looked at the pretty sister who’d grown more and more distant as each visit went by. Or the bitterness and disappointment when Ted Burns had sat him down and told him it was best if they put him into the boarding hostel at school instead of staying with them at the one home he’d thought he might finally settle into.