Lover: A Student Teacher Romance (Court University Book 4)

by Eden O'Neill

  He smirked as his fingers drew down his mouth, but then, it was sad. He sat on one of my barstools, his hands lacing, and a flash of light in my periphery took my attention. My phone lay on the counter behind me, the countertop across from Alec near the range.

  I edged a look down at it.

  Ramses: Hey. Mom said she just left your place and passed someone on the elevator who looked like your ex-husband. You okay?

  “Come here, babe.”

  My hand squeezed at my side, the thoughts barely surfaced to even think to grab my phone.

  Alec faced my way, his hand out. “Come here.”

  I wasn’t his babe. I wasn’t his. I shook my head. “Why are you here?”

  “Come here, and I’ll tell you.” His lips wet, mouth turned down. “Why do you have to make everything so difficult? I come all the way here. I send you flowers…”

  What?

  Ramses: I’m going to go ahead and come through. Just need some peace of mine. Let me know otherwise, and I’ll give you space.

  Alec’s hand continued to wave in my direction, my ex-husband clearly too wasted to notice I’d been eyeing my phone. He started to get up, to get me, and I didn’t want to risk grabbing it.

  I came closer, but I didn’t take his hand.

  “You sent those flowers?” I suppose it made sense. Besides the fact Ramses hadn’t even done anything wrong that day I’d gotten them, he had technically gifted me with hiking clothes in my car.

  Fuck.

  The hike itself and the pizza had obviously been another gift, and the roses, though I wouldn’t put it past Ramses, didn’t seem like his style. He was very intentional in the things he did. Preferred spending time with me and not just words or little gifts. I mean, he did give me hiking gear, but he gave it in order to spend the day with me. Things like roses and chocolates, a secretary would send. They weren’t personal.

  Alec’s personal assistant probably had sent them, and I wouldn’t put it past him if she filled out the card, too. Alec had just never been good at getting out his emotions. He was a very physical person. He enjoyed tackling guys on the field and like most men, fucking any moment I’d granted him access to it.

  Honestly, those narrowed traits were probably a big reason he had fallen into himself as hard as he had after we’d lost the baby. He really didn’t know how to express those emotions and ended up blaming me.

  My eyes flicked over to my phone, the screen dark. I didn’t know what Alec would do if I tried to reach over and grab it. Or what I could do once I had.

  He said he’s coming.

  “I want you back,” my ex-husband said, basically laughable. He put his hands on his thighs. “The break up was dumb.”

  “And what do you call hitting me?”

  “A mistake.” He stood, and I backed up. He shook his head. “I won’t hurt you, Bri.”

  I didn’t know that.

  And I didn’t, backing up again. At this point, my cell phone was nearly across the room.

  Alec placed his hands on the island. “Is this about that kid?”

  “What kid?”

  He shot me a look like I was an idiot, a snarl really when it curled his lip. “That kid the internet says your fucking.” He nodded. “Yeah, I know about him. Looked him all up after the two of you went fucking viral over the weekend.”

  Oh my God.

  I pushed a hand over my head. “That has nothing to do with you.”

  He swung around the island, and my butt touched the counter. My fists balled, and I started to turn around, reaching for something, anything to possibly arm myself with, but my ex-husband stopped.

  His gaze circulated to the granite counter top.

  “This other one his?” he asked, directing a finger toward the tea cups. He gazed around. “That little shit here?”

  “He’s not, and you need to go.” I spoke braver than I felt in that moment, my swallow hard. “You need to get out of here. I don’t know how you found me, or why you felt the need, but you need to go. We’re divorced, Alec.”

  “A divorce you called over one mistake,” he growled, completely trivializing that he had hit me, placed hands on me. He thrust a hand over his head. “And even though I didn’t agree with it, I let you go. Figured you needed time.”

  I laughed, which only heated his gaze.

  “I’ve known where you were for months. Some little bitch tagged a photo of you and her at the store one day. Put me on it. Didn’t take me long to figure out you’d gone back to teaching. Had my people make some calls and got your address. Wasn’t hard.”

  I should have made it harder.

  Forcing myself not to shake, I watched as he gave me back my space, retreating and taking a seat again. Maybe he saw he had rattled me.

  “I figured with time you’d come back.”

  “Well, I’m not. I won’t,” I said, and like the universe knew I needed it, a knock filled my condo in the next moment. One that shot my ex-husband’s gaze in the direction of the hall. It was so obviously Ramses. He’d said he was coming by.

  “You expecting someone?” Alec asked, getting up, and I started to say yes and that he needed to get the fuck out again, but his waistband gave me pause. His shirt slid up as he kicked the barstool from underneath him.

  The nine-millimeter on his hip had been old hat when we’d been together. The man hailed originally from Texas, something he’d always had, but in this situation...

  “Alec.”

  He paused, facing my way. The knock on the door hit again, and I forced myself to ignore it. I swallowed. “You said you wanted to talk. Let’s talk.”

  I waited with bated breath as this man righted and returned to his seat, so desperate for whatever he thought this meeting would result in that he did listen to me. He gripped his hands on the counter. “I do want to talk.”

  One more knock, only one until it stopped, and I closed my eyes.

  I couldn’t sink into the dread of my reality, Ramses leaving, leaving me, and this man in my kitchen. I couldn’t because I needed to figure out what to do.

  I had knives, but none easily accessible. I had a knife drawer, but it was across the room and kept no guns like Alec.

  I didn’t know if, not hearing from me, Ramses would take the initiative and use his house key. I’d given him one for emergencies but wasn’t sure if he’d just let himself in after the week we’d had. We were basically on a pause until I said something different.

  The thought sobering, I eased forward, my ex-husband opening his hands. “Now, just hear me out, Bri.”

  His words were lost to the ether at the sight of movement behind him, a man lingering in the hall. A large man with broad shoulders and dark eyes.

  Oh my gosh, Ramses.

  I lost my breath in that moment, my stance rigid and straight. It was enough for Ramses to pass his gaze between Alec and me, the man still talking. And where Ramses may have introduced himself, he didn’t. He stood there, watching on.

  But then I mouthed: “Help.”

  Alec noticed, turning back, but arms looped around his neck, cutting off his words mid-sentence.

  Alec choked, struggling against Ramses strong hold. He punched at Ramses’s arms, and Ramses growled.

  “Bri, get out of here. Call the cops!” Ramses roared, my ex standing, but even with his height, he fell just short of Ramses.

  My boyfriend held on tight, but Alec had him in width. He was used to tackling guys twice Ramses’s size and shot an elbow into my boyfriend from behind. Strengthening his hold, Ramses refused to let go, but then Alec backed him into the wall and I screamed.

  “Ramses!”

  I forgot completely about running. I forgot about calling the cops because the impact completely knocked Ramses’s equilibrium off and he fell back.

  He let go.

  It was enough for Alec to reach back into his waistband, the action in slow motion. The man had death in his eyes, intention in his gaze. I knew he’d have no problem shooting Ramses rig
ht there in my kitchen. He’d have no problem killing him.

  That was all I saw, my life and future flashing before my eyes.

  It was enough for me to run.

  It was enough for me to act, refusing to let this man take everything away from me. Ramses stood across the kitchen with his hands up, but while Alec moved that gun in the direction of my boyfriend, I found something to defend myself with.

  I found something to end this.

  The steak knife lodged into my ex-husband’s back, coming out dripping, coated in red. Alec stiffened, ramrod straight, but he didn’t drop the gun.

  “Stop this!” I roared, tears streaming down my cheeks, and I stabbed again. “Stop!”

  He merely stared back at me, rage in his eyes.

  But then I stabbed again.

  Again.

  And again.

  The rage slowly changed then, anger and fury twisting into something else. Something more deadly. That malice quickly transferred to fear, and it wasn’t until he dropped the gun, falling to his knees, it turned into something else.

  Vacancy.

  His soul lost behind his gaze, his face hitting the floor, and I blinded completely at the sight before me. At what happened and didn’t need to. My ex-husband didn’t have to die. It didn’t have to be this way.

  “Brielle…”

  It took me a second, a long second, to realize I was on the floor, sobbing and rocking with arms around me.

  Ramses’s arms, his strong body hugging me close. He held my bleeding hands, my arms shaking in his. “I know,” he said. “I know.”

  Apparently, I’d been saying it out loud. That this didn’t have to happen, over and over, I kept saying it, and each time Ramses kept saying he knew. He kept saying he understood. He told me it would be okay, and it took so long to believe him. That this nightmare would finally be over. That I could move on.

  That I could heal.

  I started to do that in his arms while we waited for the cops to arrive later that night. He’d taken the time to call them, but then, he was back with me. He was back to this, on the floor with me and holding me so tight.

  I’d never felt so safe in my life.

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Ramses

  There was this thing my mom had told me a few years ago. After my dad’s trial, then again once they’d finalized their divorce. She’d said, “After the ashes fall, things will be okay. After the ashes fall, we’ll be all right, but only after the ashes fall, Ramses.”

  After the ashes fall.

  Her words hit me in a new way that day Brielle’s husband went after her. Because it wasn’t my own trauma or even my family’s this time. It was the woman I loved, her own rebirth as I stood by her. We had a sea of cops and noise we had to deal with that night. Her ex had died.

  He was gone.

  He’d succumbed to clearly his own insecurities and made Bri have to deal with those, too. I stood by Brielle during the thickness of it, and Mom came over too, doing the same. We were both there for her while this new reality manifested itself before her. Her own ashes were falling around her, and I found my mother’s words surfacing again after the night concluded. I told Brielle these ashes would fall. They’d rest, and after, she’d be okay.

  We’d be okay.

  Back when my mom had shared the words, I honestly hadn’t believed her, but going through everything with Bri, meeting Bri, told me what kind of place I was in, as well as what kind of man I’d become. I was living for the day and completely feeling it. I sunk into it with no life raft. I was alive for the good, but also for the bad. But one better, I was strong enough for both. I was brave enough to let in the good and not worry about it being taken away. But I also came equipped to handle whatever life decided to toss out along the way. That was how life was. One couldn’t have one without the other. One couldn’t truly appreciate love until they endured pain. I had endured pain. I had endured love, and Brielle had as well.

  She later told me she’d been about to come see me, when her husband had intercepted her. That she’d planned to fight for us and ended up fighting for herself that night. What happened to her husband was truly horrible, but on the other side, she came out stronger. She was brave enough for the good and bad too. She was ready to live and take on whatever life gave her. We’d do that together.

  After the ashes.

  The next couple of weeks prior to commence were truly deplorable. Brielle had to deal with a lot of stuff she shouldn’t have had to deal with. Press and the media alike surrounding her and her ex-husband’s confrontation. He obviously hadn’t left her condo alive that day, and once the media found out, they’d had a frenzy. The man was a beloved sports icon, there for his fans on the outside, but clearly, not for the woman who had probably trusted him most. I felt for the guy in the only way I could that didn’t involve me punching a hole through a wall. He’d experienced trauma too, but in no way did that justify the way he’d treated Bri, then gone after her.

  I gave Brielle everything she needed, of course, people to help her wrangle the sea of paparazzi that followed, and even Mom worked out things on campus. University staff were in the middle of final grading, but Mom made sure Brielle didn’t have to worry about that. Mom even offered to let Brielle stay at her place while all this blew over.

  Of course, Brielle couldn’t stay at her own house or even my properties. People, the media, were well aware we were both together and that I’d been there the day of the confrontation. TMZ was after us both, had a field day, but we didn’t split up. I set us up in a private place upstate, a place where we both took some time. We stayed there together until the day of the commencement ceremony.

  I had no desire to even walk that day, didn’t care, but Bri wanted that for me. In fact, it was the one normal thing she said we both should have. She wanted to be there for me that day, to support me, and she also didn’t want me to miss the experience with my friends. Knight, Royal, and December were also graduating with me. We’d all passed our final classes, with flying colors even.

  I did walk with the rest of my friends that day, did experience that time, but after, it was just Brielle and me again. It stayed that way until nearly a month later.

  And that was only because my mother begged me to surface.

  My graduation party couldn’t very well happen without me. My mother’s words, not mine. She’d waited to throw the whole thing until after Bri and I felt comfortable, and I made completely sure Bri was before telling my mom yes. I didn’t push Brielle, but ironically enough, she’d been the one to push me. She said she wanted to party, party with me, and hell, if I’d turn down a moment to actually show her off to my world.

  That was exactly what I did, my girlfriend not far from me that whole day in the manor I’d grown up in and around the people I cared about the most. Even my grandparents and some of my extended family had come out from Syria, and my mom’s family too, who were normally sprinkled across the country. I introduced my girlfriend to everyone, mine, and even Brielle’s parents showed up from Jersey. She said she’d invited them because she wanted them to meet me.

  And how crazy was that?

  How crazy our worlds were combining, a new future I could see happening right before me. If it were up to me, it’d be a lot sooner, but I did tread lightly when it came to my girlfriend. We were still very new, and even though I felt the way I did about her, I resisted defaulting to old habits and rushing things.

  Even still, that didn’t keep me from taking her father aside later that evening and having a little talk with him. I wanted to get a few things out in the open, and I felt better after I did. Ironically enough, after I shook her father’s hand, I had a hard time finding Brielle. She’d said she was going to mingle and had spent the most time with my mother and even December today.

  My best friend wasn’t quite showing yet, and I did get on her for keeping that little detail from me. I’d confronted her via text not long after Prinze had spilled the beans, and she
must have handed Prinze his ass immediately after.

  I knew because he’d shot daggers at me most of the grad party.

  It seemed our little coalition may have been short-lived because he scowled at me pretty much all damn afternoon. I mean, he always scowled but definitely more than normal. Even Knight, LJ, and Jax asked what his deal was. They’d come to the party too, brought their girls. Jax and LJ went to different colleges out of state, but it appeared they were already making plans to come back home following their own commencements.

  We were all about to be permanent residents in Maywood Heights. At least, for the foreseeable future, and some of us may have been surprised about that. This town had some crazy shit happen to all of us, yet we were all here. Coming back to our roots. We were all about to be in each other’s lives again, and at the present, it seemed like for a very long time. I couldn’t seem to get rid of these people.

  And that might be okay.

  LJ and I actually had a very healthy discussion regarding our future business endeavors. Well, as much as we could before Knight decided to bust it up. These boys really loved to one up the other, Jax and Royal coming in at one point too. Once that happened, of course, talks traveled to Royal and December, their baby. The couple had decided to make all us guys godfathers, and I think we all, at least me, were in awe of that. A new generation was coming and as it appeared, really soon. I even gave Prinze one of my father’s best cigars, and I got that scowl of his to melt away for a little bit. We were going to be in each other’s lives for a very long time, might as well start showing the world now we didn’t completely hate each other.

  I clasped Prinze’s shoulder with a smile before leaving the group and heading off and finding Brielle.

  She didn’t leave my lap once I had.

  In my mom’s parlor, I kept a hand on her hip while the pair of us chatted with various guests, and it took me a second to realize Brielle kept filling up her wine glass during the conversations. Well, my mother’s attendants were filling her glass. Mom had this event catered, and every time a server would come around to ask if we needed something, Bri would wave for a fill up.