Present day
“Your ass is mine tonight.”
“Uh-huh. Hey, pass me my brush, would you?”
Miles huffed but did as I requested, watching as I dragged the brush through my dark brown hair. He was wearing his gym shorts and a white band T-shirt that wrapped snug around his huge chest.
I loved the way I felt tiny next to him, even if I wasn’t tiny at all. Something about it made chills spark over my skin and caused my heart to swell with anticipation.
His wavy brown hair was damp, and I watched him rake a tattoo covered hand through it as I applied a nude gloss to my lips.
“Stop it,” I said, tucking my gloss away and smacking my lips together while inspecting the rest of my face.
“Stop what?” His chest met my back, thick arms banding around my middle as I tried to leave the bathroom.
“I’m going to be late,” I whined as he pushed my hair aside for his lips to glide over the sensitive skin below my earlobe.
“Live a little, babe.”
I rolled my eyes. “I’m trying but living requires working in order to pay for living. Necessities and all.”
He chuckled, tilting my chin up to stare into my eyes. “Fuck work. We could live off the grid, or hey, I have a chunk of savings left. Let’s take a year off and travel. Live like nomads.”
“Tempting.”
“Yeah?” His voice lowered as his lips did, hovering over mine. “The only necessities we’d have to worry about would be the primal need to fuck.” His lips pressed into mine. “All day.” Another kiss. “Every.” And one last lingering one. “Day.”
Seconds later, he’d put a condom on, and I was against the wall. My dress was around my waist, one of my shoes kicked to the tiled floor as he pushed my panties aside and invaded. One glorious inch at a time.
“Oh god,” I hissed through my teeth.
Miles’s hands clenched around my thighs, fingertips bruising. “That’s it, baby. Take my cock.”
His breath fanned hot over my mouth as he slammed into me. Slow at first, then unrestrained when he heard those telltale cries whimper past my lips.
“I’m …”
“Fuck yes, you are.”
I let go, my head rolling into the wall as his teeth dragged from my chin down my neck, stopping at my pulse. “I want another one before I explode.”
“No,” I croaked, unable to control my voice or my breathing as waves of bliss assaulted me. “No more.” I’d be a gooey mess all day.
He grumbled what sounded like, “Fine,” then sank deep, grinding as he worked himself in and out of me. “God damn, nothing has ever felt this good.”
I smiled, stars blinking into my blurry vision. Mesmerized, I watched his Adam’s apple bob as he grew closer. I still pinched myself at times, amazed by the fact this rugged, warm, giant man wanted me. That I could make him curse like a drunken sailor when he came, latching onto me for dear life.
His forehead fell against the wall next to my head, and I listened as his rough breathing started to slow.
“I love you, Jem.” His head dropped to kiss the skin between my shoulder and neck. “So fucking much.”
He lowered me to the ground, and I frowned as he stepped back while I put my shoe back on. “Then why are we still using condoms?” I fluffed my hair as he knotted the condom and tossed it into the small trash can beside the vanity. “You know I’m on the pill now.”
He tensed, then lifted his hands to run them through his tousled hair before meeting my eyes with stormy ones. A smile was quick to make them gleam.
Annoyed at the ease he could rid my worries with just a fucking look, I righted my panties before inspecting my reflection in the mirror.
Without touching, he edged in behind me. I could feel him studying me and cursed my liquefied limbs for being too relaxed to walk away.
“I’ve never gone bareback before,” he finally said.
“Never?” I asked, lifting my eyes to meet his in the mirror.
His hands settled on my hips, then righted my dress. “Never ever.”
Knowing that pensive look, I dropped my eyes to the sink, giving him time to conjure his thoughts into words.
“In high school, there was this wild party in senior year.” He laughed, shaking his head. “I was so drunk, and I banged this chick.” Noticing my scowl, he squeezed my hips. “I didn’t remember much of that night or any of the nights I spent drinking in my youth. But a couple of months later, said chick tells me she’s pregnant and the baby’s mine.”
My mouth fell open, and I turned to stare up at him. The questions sailing through my mind evident in my eyes.
He brushed a finger over the bridge of my nose. “I wasn’t her baby’s daddy; some other prick was. But I believed it for a month and even went to a damn ultrasound with her. Until one of her friends eventually told me the truth.”
“Shit, Miles.”
He shrugged. “Guess the guy who knocked her up was more of a screw-up than I was.”
“You’re not a screw-up.”
His lips twisted. “Jem, I mow lawns for a living.”
I laughed with disbelief. “But it’s your own business, and look around …” I swung an arm around the bathroom. “It’s enabled you to buy your own beautiful house.”
Nodding, he grabbed my hand, placing a kiss on it. “Our house. Anyway, when I confronted her about it, she said she was sorry, and that she remembered I’d worn a condom.” He chuckled. “No matter how plastered I was, I always remembered the condom, which was why I was shocked as shit when I thought I’d knocked someone up.”
“Condoms break.”
“They do.” He shrugged. “But I guess I’m a lucky bastard because that’s never happened to me.”
“I love you,” I said after a long minute had passed. “But I really need to go.”
After placing a kiss on my forehead, he released me, and I left the bathroom to grab my bag and keys.
I was almost out the front door when he called out, “Babe?”
I spun around, and he smiled as he leaned against the wall at the other end of the hallway. “I want that. With you. I just need time to … wrap my head around it for a bit.”
I laughed, waving at him before shutting the door on his grinning face.
Lilyglade Prep looked like an old museum.
Maybe it was. I hadn’t ever bothered to research much of its history.
The long structure stood on almost two acres, ivy crawling over the discolored sandstone exterior and trailing beneath the arched windows. The lawns and rose gardens manicured to perfection, curtesy of Miles, who worked there two mornings a week.
I parked in the far end of the lot reserved for teachers and quickly flipped my visor down to check my appearance, hoping I didn’t look nearly as disheveled as I felt.
After smoothing some hair back, I grabbed my bag and climbed out of my Corolla.
The teachers’ lounge was empty, and I tucked my bag away, grabbing the planner I’d prepped for this week before hightailing it down the hall and up the first flight of marble stairs to the second floor.
I had fifteen minutes before class began and used it to sharpen pencils, make copies of today’s spelling test, and straighten tables and chairs. We had cleaners that came in twice a week, but the parents still held us accountable for anything they could.
Not today, I thought as I returned to the teachers’ lounge to make a cup of tea as the second bell rang, signaling the children to start making their way to their classrooms.
We managed to make it to lunch before any altercations happened, and Jerimiah, a boy with a smile that’d warm the coldest hearts, was the culprit once again.
“What happened?” I asked Lou Lou.
She sniffed, spine straight and shoulders back as she stared at Jerimiah with clear distaste. “He’s a bully; that’s what happened.”
Lou Lou wasn’t overly chatty and often only played with Rosie. But when she opened up, she just about blew me over with her vocabulary, and that trace of importance to her innocent eyes. I wasn’t sure if she was just spoiled like many of the other kids at this school, or if she wasn’t like them at all.
The latter tugged at me.
“She said my hair smells like wet dog,” Jerimiah sputtered, pointing an accusing finger at Lou Lou.
I lowered to their eye level, my gaze drifting from the calm and collected six-year-old girl to the flushed faced, fidgeting, and close to tears boy. “Lou Lou, why would you say that?”
She looked taken aback for a second before saying, “Because it does.”
I tried to contain my snort by pinching my lips together. If I had a dollar for all the times I’d wanted to laugh at the wrong moments since starting this job, I would’ve had enough money to buy myself a better ride.
“Okay.” I stood when they just stared at me. “If there’s nothing else to add, we’ll have to leave a red circle on your behavior card for saying mean things, Lou Lou.”
Her eyes bulged. “What?” She shook her head, her ringlets dancing. “But he’s always saying stuff to me. Why can’t I defend myself?”
Jerimiah frowned and got busy staring at the table next to his. “Jerimiah.”
He looked back at me, shrugging. “I didn’t do nothing, not this time.”
“You didn’t do anything,” I corrected. With a sigh, I told them to return to their seats to finish up their math worksheets.
When the dismissal bell rang, I did my best to stop them from stampeding out the door, but ended up jamming my back into the frame, making me wince.
“Are you okay, Miss Clayton?” Lou Lou had stopped outside the door, her rosy cheeks pinching as she studied me.
“Fine,” I told her. “You should hurry along. You don’t want to miss your bus.”
“I don’t catch the bus,” she said. “My dad meets me out front, but I forgot my behavior card.”
I winced again for different reasons. There was something to be said about being put in your place by a six-year-old. “Right, I’ll grab it.”
She took it from me a minute later and deposited it into her bag as I watched and pondered what to say. “Lou Lou, I’m sorry. You know we have zero tolerance—”
A gentle yet deep baritone interrupted. “Lou Lou.”
In the time I’d been teaching at Lilyglade, I’d never once met her dad. As a few others had done, he’d turned down the opportunity for a parent-teacher conference before Christmas. I hadn’t thought anything of it given how bright Lou Lou was.
Yet now, staring at the suited man who was slow to approach as he removed a feathered fedora from his head, I was glad for different reasons.
Talk about walking intimidation.
He towered over six feet. Lean, long limbs moved as though he had the grace of a leopard beneath the luxurious fabric that enveloped them. Hair so dark, it made you look directly to his cobalt eyes in hopes of a reprieve. A reprieve that stole the breath from your lungs and forced it back down your windpipe with savage intensity, for they were the coldest blue I’d ever encountered.
“Ready? You didn’t come out with the rest of your class.”
“I forgot something,” Lou Lou mumbled, which made both her dad and me frown as she was not one to mumble.
Cold eyes shot to me. “I see.”
My smile wobbled with nerves as I reached over and offered my hand. “You must be Lou Lou’s dad. I’m Miss Clayton, her teacher.”
“I know,” he said, eyes steadfast on mine, unblinking, before he dropped them to my hand.
When it trembled, I cleared my throat and pulled my hand back. “Okay, well, have a nice afternoon.”
Slightly shaken and slightly embarrassed, I didn’t wait for them to walk away before I retreated into my classroom.