Total pages in book: 35
Estimated words: 34206 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 171(@200wpm)___ 137(@250wpm)___ 114(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 34206 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 171(@200wpm)___ 137(@250wpm)___ 114(@300wpm)
“So, do you think Leanne and Stew are going to make it work?” Jaxson asked, reciting the gossip he’d heard from his students.
Teal looked at him and frowned. “Are you listening to school rumors, teach?”
“It was hard not to overhear. Don’t you think they whisper loudly?”
She burst out laughing, and that smile, damn, it shook him to his core. “Yeah, they do. From their whispering, I have since learned that apparently Leanne is a real hussy. She has slept with the entire basketball team, not to mention a couple of the guys from the wrong side of the tracks. As for Stew, he has screwed all of her friends as well as her enemies.”
“Wow,” Jaxson whispered. “And when I was in high school it was all about getting to prom.”
Teal chuckled. “There is still that as well. Prom is the most important social event of the year.”
“I’ve already been asked to chaperone.”
“Are you going to do it?”
“Hell no. I remember prom. It was a long time ago, but trying to deal with these kids, not happening. Will you be going to prom?”
“Hell no.”
“You don’t want to go to a dance, dress up, have some fun?”
“Not a chance. I’m not going to be the dateless girl on the sidelines. I don’t know anyone well enough to even accept a dance from them. Trust me, it will be no problem not going.”
“You only get one prom.”
“And this one, I will miss.” She shrugged. “Were you the guy who spiked the punch?”
Jaxson snorted. “I was the prom king.”
“Oh, my, you were?”
“Yep. My girlfriend, head cheerleader, was prom queen.”
“And you became a math teacher?”
“Don’t judge. I had brains and brawn. I was the whole package.”
Teal giggled. “Yeah, you are.”
Jaxson watched her.
Her cheeks deepened in color. “Er, forget about what I just said.”
He didn’t want to. How crazy was this?
She played with her food.
Her mother’s voice seemed to have faded in the background.
“You’re a very beautiful woman, Teal,” he said.
She looked up at him. The blush had traveled down her neck and spread a little over her chest. He wanted so badly to run his tongue down, to see how far he could make her blush.
“Your father is an idiot!”
Teal jumped as her mother slammed her cell phone down on the table. “Now my food is cold. Perfect. He’s ruining everything.” Her mother pushed her food aside.
“Mom,” Teal said, nudging her head toward Jaxson.
“Oh, my. I’m so very rude. I do apologize. As you can see, my husband doesn’t seem to care when it comes to our daughter’s education. What do you think about private lessons?” Bethany asked.
Jaxson looked over a blushing Teal. He had no idea what had just happened, but he didn’t want to reject her. Whatever was going on with her, he wished to help resolve it.
“Yes, I would be more than happy to tutor her.”
“Excellent, then that is settled.” Her mother clapped her hands together. “See, something is going right.”
Teal kept stealing glances his way.
Bethany’s cell phone went off again, and again. She eventually put it to silent.
Jaxson wanted to make his excuses to leave, but it wasn’t particularly polite to do so. He couldn’t help but look at Teal, and she wouldn’t quite meet his eyes.
He had no idea what was happening.
When Bethany pulled out the bottle of wine, Jaxson knew it was the right time to make his escape.
Tomorrow may be Saturday, but he wasn’t interested in listening to the rants he knew were coming.
Bethany made Teal see him to the door as she started to pour.
“You know, you don’t have to tutor me if you don’t want.”
“You said so yourself, something has gone wrong, and you don’t want to have to repeat this final year or drop out. We’ll figure out what went wrong together,” Jaxson said.
“I’m sorry for the way she behaved.”
“Don’t worry about it.”
“Tomorrow, ten o’clock, I’ll be waiting for you.”
Teal nodded. “Ten o’clock.”
He stepped out of her house, and the moment he did, he had this overwhelming feeling to pull her in for a hug and never let her go.
What the fuck was that?
The front door closed and he looked back, unable to stop himself from putting his hand on the main door.
He had to get a grip on himself. Teal was a student. Twenty-two years his junior. Untouchable. She was out of bounds. Off-limits.
He moved to his own front door, letting himself inside, and leaned back against the door.
Jaxson knew of teachers who gave in to the pressures of their students. Who fucked them for fun. That wasn’t him. It had never been him. He never screwed around with kids. With teenagers. He’d vowed to never do it.
Teal was so very different. She wasn’t like any other woman he’d ever met. This need inside him had never existed, and he knew without a shadow of a doubt that it was all because of her.