Treat Me (One Night with Sole Regret #8)(46)

Jacob massaged the back of his neck.

"You don't have anything to be nervous about. If you're not ready to take the real test at the end of the class, you can sign up to take the class again. You can take it as many times as you want. It's not for a grade or anything, it's just to help you do your best on the test. I know you're smart enough to do this, Jacob."



       
         
       
        

He snorted. "Oh yeah," he said. "I'm a real genius."

He was too hard on himself. She leaned over and kissed him on the arm. "You're smart enough," she repeated. "I know you are. You can trust my judgement. I'm a professional educator, remember?"

"You aren't the first professional educator I've duped with sex," he said.

Amanda's jaw dropped. "What?"

He shrugged. "Let's just say Mrs. Cranston wasn't helping me improve my essays when she kept me after school." He laughed and rubbed at the center of his forehead.

"That's terrible," Amanda said. "Please tell me you reported her and got her fired. Hell, got her arrested."

"For what?"

"For molesting you."

"I honestly didn't mind," he said. "I was a lot better at making her moan than making heads or tails out of those boring-ass books she made us read."

"She was your teacher, Jacob. Jesus, how old were you?" Not that it mattered. Even if he'd been a consenting adult of eighteen, a teacher was in a position of authority, one that should never be abused. Exchanging sexual favors for passing grades? It was positively disgusting.

"Uh, fourteen, I think."

"Fourteen?" Amanda clutched her stomach to stave off the nausea. "I don't even know what to say."

His jaw hardened. "I'm sorry if what I did disgusts you. Failure was not an option."

"You don't disgust me, baby. She fucking disgusts me!"

"Are we there yet?" Julie asked groggily from the back seat.

"Not much longer," Jacob told her, smiling at her in the rearview mirror. "About twenty more minutes."

"Okay," she mumbled before drifting back to sleep with her stuffed monkey snuggled tightly in her arms.

"Did you report that teacher?" Amanda said, still feeling sick over what he'd told her.

"It isn't that big a deal, Amanda. Just drop it."

"It is a big deal," she insisted. "Would you think it was a big deal if some teacher coerced a fourteen-year-old Julie into offering sexual favors in exchange for better grades?"

Jacob's face went ashen. "I'd kill the fucking son of a bitch."

"So now do you get why I'm so upset about this?"

"It's different," he said. "Julie's a girl."

"But it isn't different," Amanda said, shaking her head. "And I'm so sorry it happened to you."

"I've always had a thing for teachers," he said, reaching for her hand, capturing it in his and drawing it to his lips. 

Amanda frowned and turned to him. "Please don't tell me that your attraction to me has anything to do with what that sick bitch did to you as a kid."

"But I wasn't a kid," he said with a chuckle. "I landed on the other side of puberty like a champ."

"Perhaps you were physically mature, but psychologically, you were a kid, Jacob."

"Did you know me then?" he asked and dropped her hand.

"My students are all between the ages of fourteen and sixteen. Trust me, they're kids. They don't think they are, but their decision-making processes are far from mature. Would you still sleep with a teacher for a better grade?"

"Depends on how hot she is," he said with a soft chuckle.

Amanda's nostrils flared.

"That was a joke," he said, patting her knee. "I don't understand why you're so pissed. It happened over a decade ago. No one got hurt. No one got caught. I was okay with it then and I'm still okay with it. Mrs. Cranston was definitely okay with it."

"She gives teachers a bad name." Amanda crossed her arms over her chest and tried to glare a hole into the dashboard.

"Oh," Jacob said, the hand on her knee beginning to explore her bare skin in a most distracting fashion. "So this is really about you."

"Of course it isn't about me."

Well, maybe it was about her. Nothing grated on her nerves more than a person of authority using their power to do wrong. Teachers, cops, CEOs-in her mind, they had the moral obligation to do the right thing. And requiring a student to exchange sexual favors for a better grade was outlandishly wrong. "Was she the only one?" Amanda asked, wishing she could see his eyes behind his sunglasses.