Student Seduction

by Caisey Quinn

“What’s wrong?”

  He adjusted the collar of his shirt. “I don’t want to hijack your big night, Emersyn. That guy wanted to buy this. And probably a lot more of your work. I should get out of the way so you can mingle, or network, or whatever you need to do.”

  He started to move away from me and I didn’t think. I just reacted. Purely out of reflex, I reached for him, grabbing his jacket with two hands.

  “Don’t. Please. I don’t want you to go.”

  My confession intensified the building tension between us.

  His heated gaze locked on mine. “Say it again.”

  “I don’t want you to go, Aiden. Please don’t go.”

  His hand came up under my chin. “I don’t want to go. But I’m selfish when it comes to you. I don’t want to share you with all these people but I know this is what you need.”

  I shook my head. “It’s not. Without you, without the piece of my heart you took with you a long time ago, something will still be missing.”

  The words spilled out before I could stop them.

  I watched his Adam’s apple move up and down as he swallowed. “I lied to you once. Years ago. In California. Do you have any idea why I was there?

  “To say goodbye?”

  He shook his head. “I wish I was that guy, but no, Emersyn. I didn’t fly across the country to say goodbye. I came because I knew I’d made a mistake letting you go. I was there with a ring in hopes you were ready for forever. But you looked so happy and could barely contain your excitement about attending art school in Santa Barbara…I couldn’t take that from you. You were so young then. I wanted you to live your life and have amazing experiences. I’ve hated myself every day since, for letting you go. Twice, technically. But being here tonight, seeing how far you’ve come, I think maybe I did the right thing. And I want to do the right thing now.”

  Tears stung my eyes. “You should’ve told me. Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “I’m a hockey coach in North Carolina.” His voice was heavy. “You’re nights at the Met in New York City, sweetheart.” He waved his hand around the grand museum. “I would never do anything to take this from you. I’d tear out my own heart first.”

  He’s going to walk away. Which would tear out my heart. Again.

  No, dammit. Not this time. I wasn’t an eighteen-year-old kid anymore. No more of this leaving me for my own good business.

  He turned his back on me and I panicked. Letting every scary feeling I felt pour out like lava in the distance between us.

  “This, tonight, this isn’t me, Aiden. Yes, it’s amazing and I’m proud to be a part of it. But this isn’t who I am.” He turned and I maintained eye contact with him as I spoke. “I’m sweatpants and your old flannel shirt on Saturday mornings. I’m usually covered in paint and clay and sometimes random objects in a studio eating cold, leftover pizza most weekends. I still sleep in the hockey jersey you gave me.” When he didn’t speak, I tilted my chin upward. “You really had a ring?”

  He nodded. “I did.”

  “Whatever happened to it?”

  Silently, he used one hand to press my body to his and I felt it. The hard shape in his pants.

  “Is that a ring box or are you just that excited to see me?”

  My heart began beating rapidly, a once-wounded hummingbird brought back to life and ready to escape its cage.

  His eyes darkened but his mouth lifted at one corner. “I am always that excited to see you. I don’t know how this dress you’re wearing comes off, but I have pictured it on my hotel room floor half a dozen times since I got here.”

  So had I. A thrill ran through me at his confession.

  “I did miss your dirty mind and your filthy mouth, Mr. Singleton,” I admitted.

  “I miss having my filthy mouth all over you doing everything I imagine in my dirty mind,” he shot back.

  “Tell me the truth this time,” I demanded. “Tell me why you’re really here.”

  He pulled in a full deep breath, large enough to make his chest expand.

  “I’m here because I love you. Because I have always loved you and I have waited years for you to be ready, to reach out and ask me to come to you.”

  Tears pooled in my eyes once more. I let them fall this time.

  “I love you, too. I’ve needed you. I missed you so much.”

  When he kissed me, I was adrift in a sea of endless bliss. I savored the feel of his lips and his tongue, of his hands on my skin. It was so much better than reliving the memories of kisses past.

  He pulled back and looked at me the way my dad looked at Deb. Like I was an unexpected gift or a figment of his imagination too good to be true.

  “Every day I have missed you,” he said reverently. “Every hour I have wished you were still mine.”

  “I’ve always been yours, Aiden,” I told him. “Even when I didn’t want to admit that to myself.”

  “I had to keep telling myself we would find our way back, that history was bound to repeat itself.”

  I gave him a coy grin. “I do remember you being a very dedicated, hands on history teacher.”

  He laughed, leaning his forehead against mine. “If I propose now, will it mess up your big night?” He lifted his head and glanced around the room.

  I gripped his chin and forced him to look at me. No one else mattered.

  “If you don’t propose now, I might not say yes when you do.”

  His angelic face broke into a devilish grin. I watched, awestruck, as he went down on one knee.

  I heard the gasps of the people around us but I didn’t care. Cameras flashed and I knew this might overshadow my sculpture in the reviews, knew some might call it a publicity stunt, but I didn’t care about any of that either. My only concern was the man kneeling before me.

  My Aiden.

  Finally, truly, legally mine.

  He presented the open box with the most beautiful sparkling cushion cut diamond I’d ever seen. Simple. Elegant. Perfect.

  My tears blurred the scene before me as I nodded adamantly.

  He slid the ring on my finger and lifted me off the ground.

  Someone hollered out a hell yeah, pretty sure it was Axel.

  There was kissing. Lots of kissing.

  There was applause. More flashing cameras.

  But most importantly, there was us.

  Finally where we belonged.

  Together.

  Epilogue

  Present Day

  My feet hit the floor and I rubbed my eyes. The sun was coming up and my wife was missing.

  I checked her side of the bed.

  She hadn’t slept there.

  It was sprinkling outside and there was a chill in the air. Early Spring in North Carolina meant it wouldn’t warm up until closer to noon.

  I grabbed her favorite sweater and headed downstairs to make her coffee. Tripping over Toby, Drew’s dog we were pet sitting while he and James were visiting Guatemala with their daughter, I apologized and scratched behind his ears.

  “Sorry, big guy,” I said in jest, because he was the size of a small house cat.

  He followed me, prancing along excitedly until I opened the door to head out to Emersyn’s studio.

  It was drizzling out, just enough to change the Tobster’s mind. He retreated back toward the den.

  “Wuss,” I called after him, hoping he wouldn’t piss in my shoes again.

  I closed the door, pulling my rain coat over head to cover her travel mug as well as myself.

  Music was playing softly when I entered, something sweet and classical. A lullaby. I could always tells her mood, or the mood of what she was working on, by the genre of music playing. Must be something new.

  She was leaning over when I came up beside her. “Good morning, Mrs. Singleton,” I greeted her because, damn, that never got old. We’d been married two years and I still couldn’t get over how much I loved her having my name.

  She stood abruptly, spinning and blocking my view of her latest project.
I’d learned not to take it personal. Artists had their quirks about when they were ready for their work to be seen and I respected that.

  It was the same reason I closed my practices for the Hurricanes. A work in progress was private.

  “Good morning, Mr. Singleton,” she returned, her hair in a messy bun, dried clay on her delicate fingers.

  I handed her the coffee. She accepted it eagerly.

  “Mmm, thank you, baby. Best. Husband. Ever.” She sipped it quickly, then set the mug aside.

  “Did you get any sleep?” I let my thumb trace beneath her eyes. She was gorgeous always, but she’d been looking extra exhausted lately.

  “I’ll nap later,” she said. “I have something to show you.”

  I pressed my morning erection against her backside. “What a coincidence. I have something to show you, too.”

  She giggled like a school girl, which turned me on even harder since she was actually a student in my class at one time.

  “Me first.” Her eyes gleamed with excitement and what looked like nervousness. As talented as she was, having recently opened her own gallery in Raleigh, she still got anxious as if every piece was her first. “Then you can show me what you brought to show and tell this morning.”

  “Hmm,” I murmured against her hair, placing her hand between my legs. “How about show and touch?”

  “Mmhmm,” she moaned. I felt her knees weaken as her body pressed against mine. Kissing the nape of her neck, I caught a glimpse of her sculpture on the table by accident.

  While her pieces were largely abstract, I could still make out her intent. It was a large nest with two birds inside. They were looking down at something I couldn’t see.

  “You’re peeking,” she mumbled in her weakened state.

  I sucked the sensitive skin just below her ear. “Not me.”

  She whirled around in my arms and kissed me on the mouth, tasting of coffee. “You can look now.”

  Wrapping my arms around her, I leaned over to see what was in the nest.

  It was an egg, which I probably should’ve guessed but my dirty mind had been elsewhere. The oval shape had a pinkish marble outer shell.

  “It’s beautiful, sweetheart.” And it was. There was something about the protective way the two birds held onto one another while leaning over the egg. Something familiar.

  It was early, my mind was still sleepy and my sexy ass wife had caused a lust-filled fog to muddle my brain. But the pieces clicked together all at once.

  Two months ago, I’d been promoted from an assistant coach to head coach of the Hurricanes and we’d gone out to celebrate. We’d celebrated all night long.

  My wife had been tired for about two months.

  I’d noticed how motherly she’d been with Toby, cuddling and coddling him, calling him sweet baby boy.

  She was listening to lullabies and sculpting birds’ nests with eggs in them.

  “Does this mean what I think it means?” I didn’t want to let too much excitement show in case I was wrong. Sometimes a birds’ nest was just a birds’ nest.

  She sunk her teeth into her lower lip, urging all my blood to run south. “What do you think it means?”

  “You’re pregnant?” I looked at the egg again. “And it’s a girl?”

  Her face broke into a wide grin as she nodded. “We’re pregnant. And it’s too soon to tell the sex. I just have this feeling it’s a girl.”

  I wrapped my arms around her, lifting her off the ground gently. She laughed as I placed kisses all over her face.

  “So you’re happy with this new development, Mr. Singleton?”

  I sat her down on the table and moved to stand between her legs. “I’ve never been happier.”

  “I was thinking,” she began. “I could be wrong, but if it’s a girl, how do you feel about naming her after our moms?”

  My heart stuttered in my chest. Just when I thought I couldn’t get any luckier, my wife reminded me that there was no limit to her capacity to love.

  “I would love that, baby. If you’re sure.”

  She nodded. “Celeste Lorraine Singleton has a nice ring to it.”

  We both stared down a the pink egg in the nest.

  “Whatever we name her, I’m calling her princess,” I declared. “And she’s going to be the best damn ice hockey player in North Carolina.”

  Emersyn scoffed playfully. “What if she wants to be an artist? Or a ballerina? Or a scientist? Or a fashion model?”

  I pretended to contemplate this. “Then she will be the best damn ice hockey playing ballerina the world has ever seen.”

  Her answering laugh was interrupted by me kissing her, again and again.

  For a brief moment, I remembered a dark point in my life when I thought I’d lost her, lost my career, and had nothing to live for. I’d drank a lot, alone in my Airstream, surrounded by memories.

  My brother’s engagement party all the way in New York was the last place I’d wanted to go. Until I’d heard she was going to be there for a Lupus benefit. Somehow, the universe led us back to one another. History had repeated itself and it was even better this time around.

  I kissed her deeply, pouring all the love and appreciation I had for her into each meeting of our mouths as I laid her down on the table. Her legs locked around me as I ground my hips against her.

  She moaned and I caught the sound with another kiss.

  “I remember the first time I saw you,” I mumbled against her lips. In all these years, I’d never told her.

  “You do?” She pulled back and her eyes widened.

  I nodded, tracing her lips with my thumb. “I do. You were late to class at Southeastern. On the first day.”

  She closed her eyes briefly, a smile playing on her lips. “I had a habit of being late.”

  I ran my nose alongside hers. “The professor got kind of pissy with you in front of everyone.”

  She laughed. “Hmm, sounds like someone else I know.”

  I chuckled lightly against her skin. “You were carrying a coffee cup and he thought stopping to get coffee had made you late to class.”

  She nodded. “I’d come straight from work at High Octane and couldn’t leave until the girl for the next shift got there.”

  “I was so impressed. Most freshmen would’ve cried after the public tongue lashing he gave you. But you didn’t flinch. You just apologized and took his berating you with your chin held high. When I looked over at you later, you were tearing the edges off your cup and shaping them into all these intricate designs. When class ended, you dropped it in the trash and I saw it was from the campus coffee shop. I started popping in there as often as possible in hopes of seeing you.”

  “I saw you a few times, the handsome guy who always sat behind me.” She looked up at me thoughtfully. “Seemed like no one ever sat in the same seat twice. But no matter where I sat, you were always right behind me.”

  “To see what you were doodling or drawing or designing out of straw wrappers.”

  She glanced over at the nest beside her head. “All this effort just to get a sneak peek at my work?”

  I grinned, reaching down and tugging at her panties. “Something like that.” I kissed her stomach tenderly. “Thank goodness all that coffee I bought finally paid off.”

  I placed several long, languid strokes of my tongue between her legs until she was crying out, close to falling over the edge. Just before I entered her body, she took my face in her hands.

  “That night at the carnival,” she began. “I can’t explain it, but the moment you ran into me, I knew my life was about to change. I was drowning. Barely surviving every day by telling myself something good had to be coming some day. Something just for me.” She stroked my jaw with her fingertips. “It was you. You were my something good. It was scary and thrilling all at once.”

  I eased inside her hot, wet heat inch by inch, stilling once I was all the way in.

  Her back arched as I gripped her tighter. “The day you walked into my classro
om, I should’ve been terrified. Or angry. Or, I don’t know, annoyed at the very least.”

  She grinned up at me. “And what were you?”

  I took in the sight of my beautiful wife, the mother of my child, the illusive young artist half the world wished they could get their hands on, and reveled in the fact that she was mine. All mine.

  For the first time, I was grateful for the darkness and the pain and the fear of all these years because they brought us both here. I realized my parents must’ve been watching over me, because there’s no way I landed the most amazing woman in the world all on my own.

  “Happy, Emersyn. I was so damn happy to see you. Every time I have ever laid eyes on you, you’ve made me the happiest man in the entire world. Nothing will ever change that.”

  “Even when I’m humungous and pregnant?”

  “More of you to love, sweetheart.”

  Her body clamped down on mine, clenching hard and causing me to groan.

  “I love you, Aiden,” she said, writhing against me.

  I nodded, my teeth grinding together as her body milked mine, matching me thrust for thrust.

  “And I love you, beautiful, artistic, always late, chocolate cake loving girl.” Something occurred to me at the worst possible moment. I froze above her. “Uh, how do we tell our children we met when they ask?”

  Your mom was a high school student in my class is not an answer I want to give.

  “In college,” she answered quickly, causing me to assume she’d already contemplated this conundrum. Technically, this was true. “Can’t have them knowing Daddy was seduced by a student.” She winked up at me.

  “And this is why I love you,” I told her, leaning in for a kiss when she got closer to climaxing.

  She surprised me by rolling us so that I was on my back and she was riding me on her work table.

  “No, this is why you love me.” She bared down, stroking me with her body aggressively until I was coming just as she did.

  When she collapsed on my chest, I stroked her hair. “I could live a hundred years and never list all the reasons why I love you, Emersyn Singleton.”

  She rubbed my chest in slow circles. “You taught me to have faith in hope, Aiden. That and our future child are the most precious gifts anyone could ever give me.”