As I lay down, I could swear I still smelled him on my sheets.
Now that I was back in Texas, screwing my student was suddenly more real again.
I had no idea what I was going to do the next time I saw him.
God, I hope he hasn’t told anyone.
While it seemed a given, I knew how boys and men liked to brag.
What if he tells his friends? What if the administration eventually finds out?
I’d be so screwed.
I pictured my parents’ faces. They’d be so disappointed in me.
Despite being tired, my heart was now racing, which wasn’t going to get me anywhere.
Becca hadn’t heard anything, and Connor hadn’t heard anything. Because, if Connor had heard, he would have told Becca.
I needed to assume that everything would be fine.
And maybe I wouldn’t even see Mace for a long time. His chemistry class was over. I was not above avoiding my mistake. And maybe, after enough time passed, we’d both forget what had happened.
I rolled over and punched my pillow to bunch it up under my head.
“Oh, yes, Mace, yes. Fuck me harder.”
Mace grabbed my hair as he slammed into me from behind.
“Damn, I love your pussy and your mouth.”
I lifted my pillow and put it over my face and screamed into it. This time, for an entirely different reason.
Stupid memory. Stupid body.
It was going to be a long night.
“Coffee,” I croaked as I came out of my room the next morning. I had shut off my alarm after hitting snooze three times, so I was running late.
Becca handed me a steaming cup.
“God bless you.”
She gave me a sympathetic smile. “How’d you sleep?”
“Like the dead.” After I’d finally fallen asleep, that was. “I’m going to shower.”
The hot water felt good and helped wake me up. Once I finished, I put on the minimum amount of makeup to make myself look presentable and dressed in my most comfortable work clothes. I also reminded myself it was already Wednesday, and I only had a three-day workweek.
Becca waited for me even though we decided to drive separately that day since my car was fixed. Becca had a dentist appointment right after the last class got out, so she would be leaving work a little early, and now she wouldn’t have to come back and pick me up.
At school, we said good-bye and went to our respective classrooms. I had taken my workbag back home to South Dakota and on the airplane with me, so you would think I’d spent some time going over things for today, like my class lists. But I hadn’t. I had been too busy at home, and I’d been in too foul of a mood yesterday.
I quickly took out my class list for first period. It was still AP chemistry because AP classes were yearlong, but when I scanned the students, Mace wasn’t on it. A rush of relief went through me like wildfire. He must have needed to take another class at the same time as this one, so he was most likely moved to Mr. Howard’s fourth period. We followed the same syllabus for reasons like this, and I couldn’t believe I’d lucked out.
Second period was physics, my least favorite science. I understood it, but I didn’t enjoy it like I did chemistry and biology. I had a mixture of all the grades but mostly sophomores and juniors.
But there was a junior who was one of my favorite students. It brightened my morning to see that Amy Kendrick was in the first class of the day. I made a mental note to buy extra granola and protein bars to have on hand for her.
The morning went by fast. I decided to take the rest of the classes as they came. And, since it was the first day of a new semester, I spent most of each class doing introductions and handing out the syllabus. I had learned to use Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, and so on from a seasoned teacher at my old school rather than putting dates on the syllabus. That way, I could use the same syllabus for more than one semester.
At lunch, I met up with Becca and Connor. They were the only two in the teachers’ lounge.
“Hey, guys,” I said as I took a chair at their table.
Connor grinned at me. “I heard you had quite the adventure home yesterday.”
“Ugh. Yes, unfortunately.”
“How’s today going?” Becca asked out of concern.
“Better than expected. You?”
She nodded. “Good so far.”
“Becca said you’re moving out soon?” Connor asked me.
This had me smiling. “Yes.” I looked back and forth at him and Becca. “I was hoping you two would be able to help me move this weekend.” I tried to give them a poor me face, but I probably wasn’t pulling it off. “Pretty please?”
Becca picked up her phone and pulled up her Calendar app. “I don’t know. I’d better check my schedule.”
I balled up a napkin and threw it at her. “I forgot to tell you that you don’t have a choice.”
She tilted her head and stuck out her lip. “But I don’t want you to go.”
“Sure you do. Then, you and Connor can have sex as loud as you want without worrying about bothering me.”
Connor’s hand shot into the air. “I’m in. I’ll help you move.”
“Thank you, Connor.”
Becca reached over and put his arm down without taking her eyes off me. “I’d rather be quiet than have you leave me.”
I tapped my chin and looked off into space. “Hmm … how to say this?” I dropped my hand and met Becca’s eyes. “Excuse my bluntness, but you’re not quiet.”
Connor started laughing.
She narrowed her eyes. “You lie.”
I raised my eyebrows. “I didn’t want to do this,” I teased her. “But I believe, the last time Connor was over, you two decided to try something new …”
Becca’s face turned bright red, and Connor slapped the table from laughing so hard.
“You’re right. Move out. I don’t want you there anymore.”
Now, it was my turn to laugh. “I still love you, Becca.”
“I love you, too. But I really will miss you.”
“Same here. We’ll just have to make more plans to hang out together.”
She lifted her soda can. “Cheers to that.”
I tapped her can with my water bottle.
“How much do you have to move?” Connor asked after he stopped laughing.
“From Becca’s, not much. Just the stuff I have to pack up, like clothes and things. And then I have a storage unit with a bed and some furniture in it. I’ll have to go shopping for some new things to fill my house since most of my stuff is from college.”
“I can probably round up a couple of other guys to help.”
“Thank you. That would be great. The more people who help, the less time it will take, and I won’t have to take up your whole weekend.”
After lunch, I got a second wind. I had planned to go home right after work, but now, I was thinking of going to a couple of furniture stores. I had saved up money to buy things for my new place, and while I always hated shopping for clothes, I loved shopping for things for home. I didn’t have any papers or assignments to grade, so it really was a good day to go.
The second to last period of the day was one of my free times that I had planned to spend prepping for the rest of the week. However, I had AP biology for the last class of the day, and I couldn’t find any of the second semester coursework. I looked through all my files, but it was nowhere to be found. With a sigh, I went to the office to print off the syllabus and the first few assignments.
Once I’d gotten everything I needed, I chatted with one of the secretaries for a few minutes before the bell rang. “That’s my cue to get back.”
“Later, Eden,” one of them called out to me.
I got caught up by a bunch of students. Some of them stopped and said hi to me, and some of them were blocking the hallways. With a minute to spare, I made it back to my classroom and dropped my stack of papers on the desk.
Half the seats were already full
as I scanned the room. I’d spent too much time in the office to check my class roster, and apparently, I’d gotten too complacent as the day wore on.
Because there, in the back row, was Mace. I should have guessed. If he could be moved out of my AP chemistry class, that meant he could also be moved into my AP biology class.
I collapsed into my chair while he grinned at me.
“Welcome, everyone,” I said as I stood in front of the class with a nervous smile. “If you didn’t have me last semester, I’m Ms. Fijalkowski, but you can call me Ms. F because I know Fijalkowski is a mouthful.”
My phone vibrated in my pocket.
It vibrated again.
“I’d like to go around the room and have you introduce yourself to me and the class and then tell us what you did over your winter break.”
I pointed to a student in the front corner to start and went to sit down at my desk. Discreetly, I pulled my phone from my pocket and looked at who had messaged me.
It was from Mace.
I hadn’t even known his name was in my phone. And I had no idea how he’d gotten my number.
Mace: I can think of a much better word that starts with F than your last name.
I gasped.
Mace: Please do not say “mouthful” while I’m sitting in the back of your class. Now, I’m hard, and there’s nothing I—or you—can do about it.
I quickly minimized my messages, turned off the phone screen, and put it facedown on my desk.
I took a deep breath and looked up at my class. I immediately made myself look at the student talking and forced myself to pay attention. But my eyes drifted to Mace, who smirked when my eyes landed on him.
He looked down at his lap, and my phone buzzed again. This time, it caught the front row’s attention as it rattled against my desk.
I swiped my phone off my desk and clutched it in my hand.
I refused to look at it.
“I’m Mace Wagner.”
My head whipped up at his voice.
“If you don’t know me, I’m a senior and a football player. Over winter break, I stayed around here. Went to my mom’s for Christmas and spent New Year’s with my dad’s family before going out with friends.”
“Yawn,” another student next to him said jokingly. “Boring.” His name was Everett, and he was another football player.
Mace tilted his head back, relaxed and unfazed. “Well,” he said to his friend, “I did have the best fucking sex. That exciting enough for you?”
Everett hooted, and the rest of the class laughed as Mace slowly looked toward me. He raised his eyebrow as he waited to see what I would do.
I stood up, letting go of my phone, and clapped my hands. “Class, class, please quiet down.” I narrowed my eyes at Mace. “Please refrain from talking about … your special activities.” I looked at his friend. “Everett, it’s your turn.”
Everett smirked at Mace. “I didn’t have as good of a time as Mace, but I did get to go to Aspen with my family and go skiing. Oh, and I’m Everett, by the way. I play football with Mace.”
When the student in front of Everett began talking, I sat back down, relieved that there were no more sex comments.
My phone buzzed again.
Mace: Don’t look so embarrassed. No one knows I’m messaging you.
That text was before he’d said his introduction to the class. The next one was new.
Mace: If you stop ignoring me, I’ll stop reminding you of what happened between the two of us out loud in class.
Me: I’m not ignoring you.
Mace: Sure seems like it to me.
Me: I’m not. I’m trying to teach my class.
It was one of those half-truths, half-lie statements.
Mace: I’ll let it go for now, but we’re talking about this after class.
I put my phone on silent and set it down again.
I felt bad, but I barely heard anything the rest of the class had to say as they introduced themselves, and I had been so shocked to see Mace that I hadn’t even done roll call.
On autopilot, I passed out the papers I had printed in the office and explained what was coming up for the semester.
To say I was relieved when the bell rang would be an understatement. I put on a happy face and told everyone to have a nice night as they left.
I wasn’t surprised when Mace stayed behind.
I didn’t want to face him like this, but I had to let him know that I was in charge. I walked toward him, but he met me halfway. It took all my strength to ignore his piercing blue eyes, tight black T-shirt, and fitted jeans. He was a walking sex symbol.
“Listen, Mace, you can’t just—”
He pulled me into his arms and kissed me.
For a moment, all I thought about was how good he tasted and how good he felt against me and how good he’d feel inside me if I let it continue.
Someone shouted in the hall, and I pushed him away.
My heart was racing. Both from our kiss and from the realization that we could have easily been caught.
I grabbed on to the counter behind me, grateful that the only way someone would have been able to see us was if they’d walked through the door.
“Mace, you can’t—”
He stepped in front of me, pinning me in. “Can’t do what, Eden? Text you? Kiss you?” He slid his hand up through my hair. “Fuck you?”
I shook my head.
He chuckled and kissed my neck, sucking on my sensitive skin. He brushed his lips up until they were by my ear. “Let me fill you in on a little something. You’re mine. You’re mine to text. You’re mine to kiss.” He kissed my earlobe. “And you’re mine to fuck.”
He slid a hand between my legs and rubbed his fingers over my clit.
I moaned.
“I will do with you as I please.”
I grabbed on to his shirt and shook my head. “No, we can’t. What if we get caught?” I tried to sound serious, but my voice came out breathless. I didn’t sound very convincing.
“Shh, I won’t let that happen. Because, if we get caught, I can’t fuck you anymore. And I won’t do that to you or me.”
I put my head on his chest as I began to rotate my hips.
But Mace let go of me and took a step back. “I have to get to practice.”
“I thought football season was over.”
“It is. I have baseball practice.”
Of course he was in more than one sport. He was too much of an athlete.
He looked up at the clock. “I’ll meet you at your car in two hours.”
I should tell him no. I should tell him he was crazy. Instead, I opened my stupid mouth and said, “You’re really going to leave me like this?”
I watched as he adjusted his very noticeable erection.
“Baby, I’ve had blue balls since you left. You can suffer for two hours.”
After Mace left, I was this close to finding an empty restroom and finishing myself off, but I couldn’t do it. More than that, I didn’t want to. I was not going to let him get the best of me.
He was the student. I was the teacher. I was in charge. He didn’t get to tell me what to do.
I composed myself and finished up my workday.
If I were really as brave as I was pretending to be, I would wait the whole two hours to face off with Mace.
But I was partly chicken and took off thirty minutes early. He could confront me tomorrow, and I’d have a whole night to lecture myself and come up with a plan.
I was feeling pretty satisfied with my cleverness when I walked out of the building, so much so that I actually began to whistle a song that I’d listened to on the way to work that morning.
“You think you’re pretty smart, don’t you?”
I screamed. “Mace. Where the hell did you come from?”
“I had a feeling you’d try to leave early.” He was wearing the same clothes he’d had on in class, but now, he also wore a baseball cap with the school’s logo and a football on the fron
t.
I gripped the shoulder strap on my workbag and headed for my car again. “That’s not what I’m doing.”
He looked at his watch as he walked with me. “It’s not?”
“I mean, it is. But I was leaving because I got my work done, not because I was trying to skip out on talking to you or anything.”
“Uh-huh,” he said as if he didn’t believe me.
“How did you get my phone number anyway?”
He grinned. “I stole it the night that you gave me a ride home.”
I didn’t recall when he’d had an opportunity to do that.
“You gave me your phone to put in directions to my place. I sent myself a text and then deleted it off your phone, so you wouldn’t freak when you saw it. If you look in the Ws, you’ll see I left my number under Wagner, too.”
“That’s both crafty and sneaky.”
“Thanks.”
“That wasn’t necessarily a compliment.”
“Whatever. So, where are we goin’? What are we doin’?”
“We’re not doing anything.” I shot him a look. “I think we’ve had this conversation before.”
“But, this time, it’s going to end differently.”
“Oh, yeah? How so?”
I didn’t realize my mistake until we reached my car.
He whispered from behind me, “With me inside you.”
Nope. I wasn’t going to look at him. I wasn’t going to do it.
I unlocked my doors and set my stuff inside. I was about to get in the driver’s seat when I noticed Mace was gone.
He’d just disappeared.
“It looks like they did a good job.”
I walked around to the other side to see him crouching down next to my tire. “Uh, yeah, they did.”
Men. How he could go from talking about sex to cars in a matter of seconds, like it was nothing, baffled me.
Mace stood and brushed his hands off on his jeans. “I’ll have to use them again.”
I tilted my head to the side. “Wait. You were the one who got my tire fixed?”
He shrugged. “Yeah. I thought you knew.”
I threw my hands up. “Now, how would I know that?”
He opened my passenger door and rested his arm over the top. “Our bet.”
Wicked Chemistry Page 9