Python: Ooooh and sassy too. Me likey.
Python: Do you like tacos?
Me: Do you like air?
Python: I’m not entirely certain, but I think that was a death threat.
Me: I mean, it wasn’t, but it could be.
Me: Yes, I like tacos. Why?
Python: Just making sure for our date tomorrow.
Me: We’re getting tacos tomorrow?
Python: Guess we’ll see.
Me: If we’re not getting tacos, then why ask me about tacos? You can’t just tease a gal with tacos and then not deliver.
Python: Geez. Someone likes their tacos. I’ll make a special note of that.
Me: Sorry. I’m hangry right now.
Python: Why are you horny? Been looking at those pics I sent you again?
Me: Robbie…
Python: I’m gonna go ahead and exit this convo while I still have my balls intact. I do cherish them and was hoping to maybe keep them, have another kid down the road. So, yeah. Bye now.
Python: For clarity’s sake…I DID NOT mean have a kid with you.
Python: Not that you’re, like, disgusting and I’d never consider it, but yeah, not right now.
Python: You know what? This just went really fucking south. We’re going to pretend this never happened and I left a long time ago.
Python: Bye.
Me: Robbie?
Python: Yeah?
Me: I really like you.
Me: But please stop talking.
Python: Done.
Me: What time is our date tonight?
Me: And how should I dress for this occasion?
Python: I’ll pick you up at 7. Feel free to be naked.
Me: You want to take me out in public naked?
Python: No, but I can always have an appeteazer before we head to dinner.
Python: I’m talking about you, Monty.
Python: More specifically, your pussy, in case you were wondering.
Me: I…ahem…yes, I got that, but thank you for the, uh, visual there.
Python: Visual, huh? What are you thinking about?
Me: You know.
Python: Explain, and in great detail, please.
Me: I will not!
Python: Fine then. Be naked.
Me: Or what?
Python: Oh, Monty. If you think your defiance has done anything to diminish this boner I have, you’re wrong.
Python: Be. Naked.
22
Monty
“I am so going to hell.”
He climbs back up my body, hovering over me with a wicked grin. “You gonna save me a seat when you get there?”
“No. I can’t believe I just let you do that to me.”
“I can. It’s impossible for you to resist me.”
“Sometimes I wish I could. You’re a little much at times. Plus, you know, there’s the whole me being your son’s teacher and all thing. That would really lessen the worry hanging over my head.”
“Then how about for tonight, we’re just Monty and Robbie? I’m not a dad and you’re not my kid’s teacher. We’re just two people trying really fucking hard to not fall for each other too fast. We’re just out to have a good goddamn time. Maybe we’ll kiss. Maybe we’ll hug. Maybe I’ll bury my face between your thighs again. We’ll just have to see where the night leads. Sound good?”
My legs squeeze together at his words and I nod.
“Yeah?” His grin grows. “Which part?”
“You know.”
“You’re damn right I do, baby.” He leans down to kiss me, and I push his face away. He sticks his tongue out, licking my hand instead.
“Oh my gosh, put that thing away!”
“That is so not what you were saying just a couple minutes ago.”
I groan and grab the nearest pillow, whacking him with it before covering my reddening face.
Just as Robbie requested, I was naked at seven sharp…or as naked as I was going to get when still having to answer the door.
When I pulled it open for him, all I had on was my robe, pulled tightly against me, my nipples straining against the fabric at the sight of him.
He knew it too.
Without a word, he backed me inside, not stopping until we reached my bedroom. He stripped the thin material from my body, laid me down on the bed, and used his tongue to bring me to the point of no return…twice.
He drags the pillow from my face, smiling. “You’re welcome, by the way.”
I lift a brow. “I’m not going to fall to my knees thanking you.”
He slams his eyes closed and draws a heavy breath. “The images floating through my mind right now…” He shakes his head. “But no time. We need to get going soon before we miss it.”
“Miss what? Tacos?”
“Yes. There’s a food truck I want to take you to and it’s only at certain locations during certain hours. We need to get moving if we want to make it.”
“People eat food out of trucks?”
He looks at me incredulously. “Yes. Now put clothes on, my little sex vixen.”
I roll from the bed and begin pulling on the outfit I laid out. Robbie heads out of the room and down the hall, to the bathroom I assume.
“I’m using your mouthwash!” I crinkle my nose at the thought then he continues, “I won’t put my mouth on it. Stop panicking.”
Warmth passes over me as his words sink in. He knows me so well already that it’s a little scary. It hasn’t been that long since we met, and we’ve been officially dating for an even shorter amount of time, but he knows me.
It’s moments like these that make this so difficult.
When I saw Robbie walking down the hall toward my classroom the other day, my heart began beating a mile a minute because I genuinely thought he was there for me.
Then I connected the dots, and just as quickly as my heart had started pounding, it stopped.
What we’re doing, us seeing one another, it’s not bad…but it’s not necessarily good, either.
According to the handbook, we’re not breaking a single rule set forth by the school. But, in the eyes of many, we’re breaking an ethical one or two, and that’s just as bad.
I would never, ever use my relationship with Robbie to give Xavier an academic advantage, and I know Robbie would never expect that of me either.
It’s explaining all that to a seven-year-old that might be difficult, which is why we have to keep this strictly on the down low while I’m still his teacher. Next year, when he’s out of my class, we can tell him.
Next year.
My lips tug into a smile at the thought of spending that much time with Robbie.
That would also mean hiding us, our relationship, for the entire school year, and that part makes me want to cry.
A wall of warmth crashes over me as he approaches from behind.
His heavy hands settle on my waist and his lips drop to my ear. I shiver at the contact.
“As sexy and fuckable as I think you look in those ridiculous skirts of yours, they’ve gotta go.”
With one quick move, he unbuttons the fastener and the garment drops to the floor, leaving me standing here in nothing but my shirt and panties.
“Robbie!”
He smacks my bottom hard enough that I know it’ll hurt to sit for the next several hours and then he falls back on my mattress with a bounce.
“What? I brought the bike. You can’t wear a skirt on the bike.”
“The bike?” The words come out as a squeak and I clap my hands together. “I’m so excited!”
“Me too. I can’t wait to feel your legs wrapped around me. Now pull on those skintight jeans again and grab a jacket.” He taps on the watch adorning his wrist. “Clock is a tickin’.”
I race around the small room, pulling my jeans from the drawer and sliding them on. “You know, we’d have had plenty of time to get where we’re going had you not requested I be naked when you got here.”
“I’m sorry, are you actua
lly complaining about orgasms right now? Because I can always just stop giving you them if they’re that much of an inconvenience for you.”
“No!” I shout too quickly. I shove my feet into my sneakers and stand, bumping my head on the rack lining the small space. “Ow! Cats.”
“Just say fuck, Monty,” he teases.
“No.” I emerge from the closet wearing the jacket he requested, then pull my hair to the side and twist it into a quick braid. “And no taking my happy endings away either. I like those.”
He pushes off the bed and comes to a stop in front of me. He tucks a stray hair behind my ear and says, “I know you do. I think your neighbors might too.”
I gasp at the suggestion because I was quite loud during that last one.
“They do not! Let’s go before I change my mind about dating you.”
He laughs and rolls his eyes as I stalk away.
I can feel him at my heels, trailing closely behind me as I lead us down the short hall and to the front door. I grab my purse and pull out my keys, yanking him from the apartment because he’s suddenly the one dragging his feet.
He stands dangerously close behind me as I stick the key into the door to lock it, so close I can feel his breath on my neck.
I hate that it gives me shivers.
“You’re always threatening me, and it’s so fucking hot,” he whispers.
Then he promptly drags his tongue across my neck.
“Robbie!” I yell, slapping at him.
He just laughs, and I fall for him a little more.
“These might be the best tacos I have ever had in my entire life.”
“Right? I knew you’d like them. I found this place on accident one night when I was out for a ride and I’ve been stalking their social media pages since. That’s how you know where they’ll be.”
“It’s so good. So…fresh, and I love that you can get it any way you want. It’s like…like…” I snap my fingers together. “Oh my cats, I get it!”
His brows pinch together. “Get what?”
“The name! TacoWay! Like Subway, only for tacos. You can make your own concoction.”
“You’re just now getting that?”
“Stop judging me and just eat your taco.”
“I could always eat your taco.” He winks and takes another bite of his food.
I stare up at him in disbelief.
“I meant your puss—”
I slap my hand over his mouth, looking around to make sure no one heard what he just said. The other patrons pass by without a care in the world, minding their own business and doing their own thing.
He laughs against my hand and I glare.
“I know what you meant, you perv.”
“You love my perviness.”
“Sometimes. Sometimes it makes me blush so much I think I might turn into a tomato or something. I’m certain one of these days you’re going to make me blush so hard it’ll stain my cheeks and that’ll just be how I look from now on.”
“I like your blushing. It’s cute.”
“It’s blotchy and embarrassing and ugly.”
He sets his empty bowl down and stares over at me as I shove another bite in my gourd.
“What?” I ask through a mouthful of food, something that is so unlike me.
He shakes his head. “Nothing.”
I chew and swallow before speaking this time. “No, tell me, please. I detest when people do that. All these thoughts of what they could be thinking run through my mind and it’s never pretty. So, please, just tell me, even if you think I won’t like it.”
He sighs. “Haven’t you realized by now that I think you’re beautiful no matter what? Those freckles you hate so much are sexy as shit. Your—”
“I thought we established that there is nothing sexy about human excrement.”
“Stop interrupting, it’s rude.”
“Sorry. Continue.”
“Anyway, as I was saying,” he jabs. “The red hair you think is ‘bright and unattractive’ is alluring. It calls to me. Your body, which you often complain about, is what most would call perfection. Your long legs that make you ‘look like a giraffe’? Fucking hot, especially wrapped around me. Hell, even your Casper complexion is hot.”
His words make me want to throw my arms around his neck and kiss him over and over again.
My eyes sting with unshed tears, and I do my best to blink them away.
I’ve never in my life felt like I fit in. I’ve always been that pale, ginger girl who could turn as red as a bottle of ketchup at the simplest words or comments. I’ve never felt beautiful. I’ve never felt sexy.
Until Robbie.
“Casper complexion, huh? Gee, thanks.”
“I’m saying you’re sexy as fuck, Monts, and I don’t ever want you to feel like you aren’t. I don’t ever want you to feel like I don’t want you because of your self-designated flaws. I love you just the way you are.”
His back goes ramrod straight as he realizes the words he just spoke. His lips part as if he’s going to say something else, but nothing comes out.
I wait.
And wait and wait and wait.
He doesn’t say anything.
Neither do I.
It does nothing to counteract the way my heart begins to beat faster and faster.
Love.
He said it. He knows he said it. I know he said it.
Yet, we ignore it.
“How’d you like riding on the bike?”
“It was…”
“Scary?” he provides, laughing at me. “Because I sure as shit heard you yelling in my ear when we got on the highway.”
“I would prefer to never to do that again.”
“I’ll take the backroads home.”
“There are backroads?” I nearly shout. “Why didn’t you just take those to begin with?”
“And miss all the screaming? Nah.”
We fall back into a comfortable silence as I finish eating my food, setting the empty container on top of his. I wonder if it will always feel like this with him, if things will always be so easy between us.
Well, as easy as they can get with me being his son’s teacher and us having to hide our growing relationship.
Maybe this isn’t so easy after all…
“Talk to me. What’s going through that head of yours?”
“Huh?”
He brushes his fingers over the crinkle that’s formed between my brows. “You’re thinking about something you don’t want to think about it. What is it?”
“Everything.”
“Us, isn’t it?” he guesses.
I nod.
He sighs and pushes himself off the concrete wall we’re seated on. His long legs carry him back and forth and back again as he paces, hands on his hips, a frown slashed across his mouth. “We’re at a real fucked-up crossroads, aren’t we?”
“We’re screwed, and not just literally.”
He coughs out a laugh but continues pacing. “Good one, but yes, we are—though I think if we’re creative enough, we can make this work.”
“Should it really have to be that hard though? Should we have the need to be ‘creative’ to enjoy our relationship?”
Robbie grins at me as he does another pass. “I like it when you call it a relationship, makes me all mushy and shit on the inside.”
“Stop making me laugh. I’m being serious. This is serious.”
“I know, Monty. I know it is. We can make this good though. It’s gonna be hard, in more than one area”—he throws me a wink—“but it will be worth it. Put the work in now, enjoy the results later.”
“Later as in end of the school year later? As in about ten months from now later?”
“Yeah, that later.”
“You planning a future with me, Robbie?”
In a flash he’s right in front of me, his hands cradling my face and pulling me toward him. His face is hard, eyes serious. He’s holding on tight, like he desperately needs me to li
sten to him.
“Damn fucking straight.”
He smashes his mouth to mine and a tremor rattles through me. I was not expecting the weight that slams down on me.
It’s heavy, but not in a bad way.
It’s good—really good.
“You’re not giving up before we even really get started, are you, Monty?” he asks, his forehead resting against mine, his breath coming in short gasps.
I swallow and shake my head. “No.”
“Good.”
He takes my mouth again, and somehow, it’s so much more than it was before.
That weight? It was nothing, not compared to this.
I’m falling for him.
Hard and fast, it’s happening, and I don’t want to stop it.
A whimper escapes when he begins to pull away, and he laughs breathlessly against me. “I can’t keep kissing you like this in public.”
“Yes you can,” I tell him.
“Do you want me to strip you naked in front of that family over there? That wouldn’t be very appropriate for a teacher to do.”
“That wouldn’t be very appropriate for anyone to do.”
“Eh, we’ll agree to disagree on that one.” He gives me another chaste kiss before pulling away and grabbing my hand, lifting me from the wall too. “Dance with me.”
“I am not dancing with you in the middle of the street.”
“Sure ya are.”
He tugs me along, dragging me out into the center of the boardwalk. You’d think on a Sunday night this place would be dead, but the weather is perfect and there’s no way anyone could pass up being out tonight.
There’s a man busking on the street corner across the way. His croon carries over the crowd, and everyone within earshot is mesmerized.
Texting (The Complete Series Page 60