Fine. Be that way. I’m going to have to pull out all the stops to earn this position, anyway. This just makes me feel better in regard to getting approval to include my eleventh graders on the field trip Hadleigh and Sawyer are organizing to see a matinee of Hamilton at a theater in Boston. It’s a tiny bit of a stretch, but I’d approached Jake and told him I want to introduce some different forms of writing, like scripts for plays and musicals. He’d liked that idea—you know, in the name of fresh ideas for his department. He even said he’d like to bring one of his classes along as well, so now there’s a whole crew of us going. He’d helped me push approval through quickly to get us funding. Hopefully, this will show Jake that I can take the initiative to make things happen, too.
Chapter 10
Piper
When I get home, I toss my school bag and purse onto the couch before heading for the bottle of wine I hadn’t finished last night. Full glass in one hand, I deposit the bottle on the coffee table, then head to my bedroom to peel off my work clothes and get into something more comfortable. For every article of clothing I remove, I take another sip of my merlot. Before I know it, I’ve downed the entire glass.
Wandering back out to the living room, I pour myself some more—fuck it, it’s Valentine’s Day, right?—then flop down on the other end of the couch. It doesn’t take me more than thirty seconds to realize the chocolate bar Zoey left on my desk at the end of the day is floating around in my purse somewhere, so I lean over and drag the purse into my lap. Dark chocolate goes great with merlot, right? I sift through the contents, finding the bar all the way at the bottom like a delicious buried treasure. I settle back into the couch cushions, kick my feet up and, for the first time in five days, open the Tryst app, chewing nervously on my lip as I do. I feel badly about leaving Prof.M. hanging, but I don’t know what to say to him. I like him a lot, but I’m a little afraid I’m in over my head.
I place a square of decadent chocolate in my mouth and take another sip of wine. I’ll have to remember to thank Zoey. I hadn’t realized when she said she had chocolate, she’d meant the really good kind.
Focusing on my phone now, my brows raise as I realize Prof.M. had indeed given me time to think—right up until this afternoon, in fact. He’d left several messages right in a row about an hour ago.
Prof.M. to Sherlock4Love: Hey.
Prof.M. to Sherlock4Love: I kind of miss you.
Prof.M. to Sherlock4Love: Is that pathetic?
My heart takes off at a gallop because yes, I’ve missed him, too. I press one hand to my chest, right over the mad thumping. I have a little aww moment, then nibble on my lip, wondering what I should say. Mulling over some options, I eat another square of chocolate and have some more wine—only this time it’s more than a sip. I practically chug the entire glass, not sure how to respond to him. Do I want to answer? I mean, this could be the point where I ghost him, but that’s about the bitchiest thing to do to someone who has really been nothing but kind to me. With a sigh, I tap out a quick response and send it, then squeeze my eyes shut, hoping maybe he’s too busy to message me back right now.
Sherlock4Love to Prof.M.: It’s a little strange, but not pathetic. I miss you, too.
Prof.M. to Sherlock4Love: I just want to hold you in my arms, like I’ve imagined in my head so many times. Kiss you. Maybe more. ;)
Sherlock4Love to Prof.M.: Well, don’t get all shy now. That’s not what you said you wanted to do to me before …
Prof.M. to Sherlock4Love: Fine. I’ll own up to what I want—if you do.
I’ve typed out something naughty and sent it, just as his response pops up.
Prof.M. to Sherlock4Love: I want to bury my cock inside of you.
Sherlock4Love to Prof.M.: I’d like to know your name so I know what to scream when you’re making me come.
Oh, shit. I’ve gone and done it now. Damn that merlot. I eye my glass, which is sitting empty again. Yep. Definitely need more now. I pour the remaining wine and take a big gulp.
Prof.M. to Sherlock4Love: That’s my girl.
The smile that hits my face is instantaneous and ridiculously giddy. Okay, time to put the brakes on.
Sherlock4Love to Prof.M.: :) Gotta run. I’ve got some work to do.
Of course, I don’t really have to go anywhere. I just need to not go any further overboard than I already have. Flipping into my text messages, I pull up a long-running group chat with my girlfriends.
Me: I’m in need of more chocolate and more wine. I think I have a situation brewing.
Zoey: Oh shit, I totally forgot to bring you the chocolate.
Zoey: I’m sorry!
Me: Wait, what?
A deep wrinkle forms on my brow. What does she mean she forgot? I’m literally finishing off what she’d left on my desk right now. My lips part and my eyes shift back and forth, trying to think about who else could have left it.
Me: Did any of you leave it for me?
Hadleigh: I was going to give you some from my stash in my classroom, but then I saw you had some on your desk already.
Hadleigh: OMG, a secret admirer left Valentine’s Day chocolate for you?
Hadleigh: Hard swoon. I thought that only happened in Hallmark movies.
Quinn: Wasn’t me, girl, though maybe we single ladies should have thought to have done something for each other.
Madison: Sorry, it wasn’t me either. Gotta run. Shawn’s taking me to dinner.
Hadleigh: Sawyer’s cooking for me tonight. <3
Me: I’m not afraid to say I’m jealous of both of you. I’m sitting here drunk on half a bottle of wine and all I’ve eaten is most of this bar of really freaking good dark chocolate.
I pick up the bottle and tilt it over my glass trying to shake out the last little bit of goodness. When I lift the glass with no more than a sip inside, I pout to myself. Freaking awesome Valentine’s Day. Maybe I’ll crack open another bottle. That’ll make tomorrow fun for sure. Freaking Damon would have to come to my rescue again.
Zoey: Oh, man. LOL Maybe it was Sophia. I think she and Heath are out on a Valentine’s date.
Quinn: Yep, that’s right. The lovebirds are out on the town tonight.
Sophia: Hey, wait, I’m here!
Sophia: Heath saw my phone lighting up and told me I’d better check in before you all interrupted his plans for later.
Hadleigh: Yaaaasss, girl! There’s a party in his pants later and you’re invited.
Quinn:
Sophia: But, nope, it wasn’t me.
Zoey: It’s a mystery. Maybe you really do have a secret admirer.
Quinn: Does anyone want to get together Friday night? Maybe hit Shawn’s bar for karaoke or something?
Me: Agh. I can’t. I’m chaperoning the dance. Had to get my required extracurricular event in.
Hadleigh: Oh! Oh! Maybe the secret admirer will reveal himself at the dance!
Sophia: You know who else is on the list for chaperones, right?
Me: Well, you and Heath, right?
Sophia: And Damon.
Me: Ah, shit.
Hadleigh: That is one fine specimen of man-meat.
Zoey: Oh, boy. Here she goes …
Me: Isn’t Sawyer enough for you, Had?
Hadleigh: Totally. But a lady can look, can’t she?
Zoey: Hey, speaking of looking, you’ve been missing out on him at the gym.
Quinn: Yup. That man can fight. He was sparring with some kid and they were all sweaty chests and muscles.
Hadleigh: Oh man, I knew I should have done those barre classes!
Sophia: So, wait. Is there a reason we think Damon would have left you the chocolate?
Me: What? No. He wouldn’t have.
Hadleigh: Are you sure? His desk is right there.
And that’s when it clicks in my head. Aw, hell. Period. Cramps. Midol.
Chocolate. That damn man left me a chocolate bar. I’ve just reached a new level of mortification. I bite down hard on my li
p, which normally would hurt but I’ve had enough wine that it doesn’t.
Damon Madero left me freaking period chocolate. I toss my phone down, get up, and stumble my way into the kitchen, ripping the fridge open to grab a bottle of water. I chug it before dropping the bottle into recycling and heading back to my phone in the living room.
Me: OMG. OMG. OMG. OMG.
Me: He totally knew I was late this morning because I had cramps.
Me: He even gave me his little sister’s bottle of Midol.
Sophia: AHAHAHAHHHAHAHAHAAAA.
Quinn: Oh man, this is too good.
Zoey: So, we think it was him?
Hadleigh: Oh, hell yes! I seriously can’t wait to watch this go down in our workroom.
Me: You guys, he’s just trying to get under my skin. He knows I’m pissed about competing with him.
Me: He’s being extra nice just to make me mad.
Madison: Hey, girls! I’m back for just a sec.
Madison: I came to the ladies’ room as soon as we got to the restaurant so I could check in. I’m dead. This is too much.
It really is too much. Now I have to go to school tomorrow and try to focus on work and not on the fact that Damon-freaking-Madero gave me chocolate.
On one hand … oh my God, how sweet … but on the other, oh my God, he’s totally trying to wheedle himself into my good graces so that when he snatches the department chair position from me, I won’t be able to say a damn thing.
Because truth be told, he’s done well coming up with good ideas and has totally helped me out lately. This can’t be how this all goes down, though. This can’t be how everything I’ve worked toward for the last several years gets wiped away.
It doesn’t occur to me until much later, once the haze of wine has lifted, that I’d forgotten the whole reason why I’d started texting my girls in the first place. I still have no clue what to do about Prof.M.
Chapter 11
Damon
I miss her. Whoever “she” is, anyway. I’ve missed her quick wit and dry sense of humor. I’ve missed the way she argues with me, not scared for a second to share her own viewpoints. I’ve missed the naughty things that have come out in her messages. Yep. I’ve missed her a whole hell of a lot.
The image in my head of her is no longer enough. Not to mention, the last time I jerked off, I’d been thinking about her. Which would be fine, except at some point my unsubstantiated image of Sherlock4Love had morphed into Piper.
And … it hadn’t stopped me. In fact, I’d come so hard, I thought I wouldn’t recover. I’d been weak in the knees from it. Energy completely depleted. Dizzy.
It’s fucking crazy, is what it is.
So, I need to meet this woman from Tryst. I just don’t know how to convince her to agree to it—especially since she’s gone a bit radio silent on me when I bring it up. Not total silence, though. Those last messages were something else.
With a quick glance down at my phone, I see it’s 3:25 p.m. and I’m due in Jake’s classroom for our department meeting in five.
Just as I’m about to gather my things and move in that direction, Piper bursts in like a whirlwind, heels clicking, opens the bottom drawer of her desk, and pulls out a container. She gives me a sheepish grin.
My eyes zip to the clear-sided container like flies to honey. Ah, tell me she didn’t. “Are those what I think they are?”
A look of delight crosses her face as my mouth drops open. “Can’t hurt, right?” She winks and hustles out of the workroom before I can say anything more.
I work my jaw back and forth. That sneak. I chuckle to myself. Well, I guess this means she hasn’t quite given up yet. She brought cookies for our meeting—Jake’s favorites. I guess the suck-up battle is still going full force, from big things like my excellent strategy of introducing new books to the curriculum all the way down to the little things like Piper’s bribery cookies.
In Jake’s room, I grab a cookie before sliding into one of the student desks across from him and next to Piper. Kent comes in last, his face brightening when he spies the cookies.
“Ooh, cookies. Who brought these?”
I clear my throat. “That’d be Piper.” I shoot a faux-disgruntled look in her direction as I bite off a huge chunk of cookie and chew. Fuck, she makes a damn good cookie. My gaze doesn’t leave hers until Jake gets started with the meeting. It’s almost like I’m issuing her a challenge. My eyes say, Bring it. And her pretty brown ones come right back with a very distinct, Pretty sure I’ve already brought it.
“Kent and Damon.” Jake holds up a piece of paper. “You’ll be seeing kids collecting signatures for their permission slips over the next few days. I want to make sure the two of you are agreeable to welcoming any of the students who decide not to go with us on the trip next week into your classes that day. It’s Wednesday. We were really very lucky that Mrs. Smith helped us get approval so quickly.”
What trip?
Jake must see the unamused look on my face because he’s quick to say, “It should only be a handful.” He stumbles on. “Most of them are really excited to go see the screening of Hamilton with us.”
Well, of course they are. My irritation level begins to rise. Not because I can’t watch some extra kids for a day, but because she’d purposely planned this without me knowing.
My gaze swings to Piper, who is grinning as big as the Cheshire Cat. I give her a what the hell is this? look, to which she responds with a smile, her berry-colored lips pressing together as if she’s trying not to laugh.
I glance over at Jake with as much of a smile as I can manage. “Sure. No problem at all.”
After we finish other business, I collect my things. I’m not bitter, or at least, I’m trying not to be. Field trips are a pretty big deal, and a surefire way to impress. Especially since she’s gotten Jake to go with her. I just can’t believe I didn’t hear a word about it until now. I shake my head as I walk out the door.
Piper follows right behind me. I give her a quick glance, realizing she’s on her way back to the workroom, too, so I can’t even be alone to wrap my head around this … this … subterfuge. Fuck.
She hurries right along next to me. “It’s a field trip, Damon. It’s not a big deal.”
“Don’t play coy with me. You know it’s a huge deal. Hamilton? Why didn’t you tell me about this trip?” Ugh. I mean, we bicker pretty much nonstop, but we also talk quite a bit since we have planning and lunch together nearly every damn day. How had this not come up? Except—I shake my head. She must really want this position badly, which is really terrible because I have no choice but to go for it. My family’s future depends on it.
“Oh, well, we had already planned it out.” She tilts her head to the side, studying me as she sets her things onto her desk. When I don’t immediately respond, she pulls the cookie container open and proceeds to break a piece off of one.
I watch that damn cookie as she puts it into her mouth and force a growl back down before it can escape. I could watch her eat cookies all damn day. Fuck. She’s toying with me. I close my eyes, and my breath puffs out in a short burst. “We, who?”
Her slim shoulders lift quickly to her ears and back down. “Hadleigh wanted Sawyer to have the experience of planning a field trip with her before his student teaching is over, and I asked Jake if we could join in to help chaperone. Half of our kids are in the history classes that are going, so we didn’t even have to get another bus, we just added a few extra kids and got some extra tickets. There wasn’t even much of an expenditure for our department.” She turns and bends over to pick up her school bag from underneath the desk.
Despite how irritated I am about this fucking field trip, my gaze roves over her full hips and ass in the sexy pencil skirt she’s wearing. I swear, she’s a sneaky she-devil in disguise. Feeling annoyed by how much I like the view, I take a second to rearrange things south of my belt while she’s packing her bag.
“Hadleigh and Sawyer are, of course, taking on the histo
rical aspect of it, while we are going to be discussing scripts for plays and musicals in our classes. It’s straying a little bit from the curriculum, but—” She whirls around to face me.
“I bet Jake liked that. Too bad there’s no room for anyone else to join in.” My chest rises and falls quickly as I take a step toward her, effectively forcing her to back into the desk behind her. “Did you do that on purpose?” My brows lift in question and I smile, but it doesn’t quite reach my eyes. I already know the answer.
Her eyes flick to mine, then down toward my body as I take another step forward. Slowly, her gaze drifts from my chest to meet my eyes. I don’t know whether it’s seconds or minutes that we stand like that, breath coming fast and strangely labored by being close together—probably too close together. Her gaze drops to my lips, and as I watch, her tongue darts out to wet hers.
My dick twitches in my pants. As if to remind me he’s there and would very much like to meet the pretty lady in front of me. Dammit. This has got to stop happening.
She shrugs, then reaches behind her, and before I realize what she’s doing, she picks up a cookie and shoves it between my parted lips. “We’ve got it handled, Damon.” She wrinkles her nose and sidesteps me. “Thanks for playing, though.”
Chapter 12
Piper
I’ve been on cloud nine since my big win this week with the field trip. Damon had been fairly ticked off. The look on his face when he’d realized I’d gotten the drop on him with it had been comical. So funny. He should never, ever assume I’m not a worthy adversary. I’m Sherlock, dammit.
He’s been avoiding me the last few days, ducking out of the workroom whenever I’m there and not showing up early, like we are both known to do. It’s not enough to make me change my plans, or ruin my natural high, though. I owe Sophia big time for the initial field trip idea, and Hadleigh, too, for jumping onboard with the plan. It’s put me right back in the running for the coveted chair position, and I no longer feel like a big loser who is just struggling to keep up. Things are looking up.
Burn for You (Flirting with Forever Book 3) Page 6