I liked her determination.
That was my goal as well.
A goal I was able to accomplish all because of Bowe.
Bowe, who, when I’d left this morning, had offered to drop my daughter off at my mother’s house since his first class wasn’t until nine.
I looked at the clock just as Etta had done, and winced.
It was eight fifty-nine, and I was now on my second class of the morning.
Maybe I should’ve gone to pee before class.
Taking one last look at the clock, I stood from my chair and hurried to the doorway, only to run smack dab into the chest of a very hard man.
“Oomph,” I pushed up, and then a smile appeared on my face.
“You know,” Bowe said as he smoothed his hand down over his chest. “I never thought to ask you what classes you were taking and where you were taking them.”
I grinned.
“I’m taking them here. And, obviously, you get to be my teacher,” I teased. “How cool.”
A smile widened on his face, but just as quickly fell as he realized that we were standing in the doorway staring at each other like two goobers.
“Where were you headed?”
“To the potty,” I said. “’Scuse me.”
He moved to the side, and I turned sideways to slip past him.
His erection didn’t go unnoticed, and once again I cursed myself for making that stupid ‘don’t take this any further than friendly’ rule.
He’d been nothing but a perfect gentleman in the time since we’d agreed that he could move in.
And when I say perfect gentleman, I mean he was everything that a husband would be minus the hot and sexy relationship that I knew he would bring to the table had I asked for it.
Had I not put a hard limit on it.
Fuck!
Rushing through the bathroom routine I’d perfected at the young age of two, I hurried back to the room, and felt my knees get weak when I heard him speaking out loud to the class.
“I’m Bowe Tannenbaum,” he was saying. “I’m a firefighter with Kilgore Fire Department, and will be teaching you cardiology for the first half of the semester.”
“Ohh,” a girl up front called bawdily. “How exciting. Have you saved many people?”
Was it acceptable to kill a classmate on the first day of class?
My eyes went to the front of the room and I inwardly cursed.
Mother fucker.
My pen came down to the table top with a clatter when I realized who was at the front of the room, and all eyes, including the one person I didn’t want to see ever again, came to me.
Jade fucking Matthews.
My father’s other daughter, the one he adopted and made his own when she was fifteen. The same age I was when he decided I was no longer the daughter he wanted.
Troy’s wife. The mother of Troy’s children. The mother of my daughter’s half sibling.
In my class.
Talking to the man I was slowly falling in love with.
Goddammit.
***
I walked in the door of my house, feeling just as much rage running through my veins as I had before, and slammed it behind me.
“Whoa,” Bowe said, startling me. “What’s wrong?”
I bit my lip.
“I don’t want to talk about it,” I admitted. “All I want to do is forget that this day ever happened.”
It was three hours later, and I’d just finished the class that I knew was going to be a trial on my heart as well as my sanity.
That woman had a way of making even the best of women lose their shit.
I hoped I wasn’t going to be one of them who did.
“Oh, you’re going to talk about it,” he countered, taking hold of my hand and leading me to the kitchen.
He pulled one of the kitchen chairs out and deposited me into it before he walked to the fridge, opened it, and came back out with two bottles of beer.
“I have another class after this,” I told him. “I won’t be done today until four.”
Bowe laughed. “So do I.”
I rolled my eyes.
“Then you shouldn’t be drinking either,” I informed him.
He grinned unrepentantly and twisted the cap off before handing me the first beer. He followed suit and tipped the bottle, draining half of it before I could place the cold glass to my lips.
“It’s good,” he told me as I continued to watch him.
Shrugging my shoulders and mentally saying ‘fuck it’ I placed the bottle to my lips and chugged it, not stopping until I ran out of breath.
“Agh,” I belched, then immediately started to color. “Forget that you just heard that.”
Bowe winked at me. “I can do that. Now tell me what the hell is wrong.”
I sighed dramatically.
“That girl with the blond curls…”
He nodded his head. “The one with fake hair and eyelashes?”
I nodded in confirmation. “Yeah, that one.”
“What about her?” He pulled out another beer.
“She’s the woman who singlehandedly ruined my life.”
His brows shot up in surprise. “How?”
I started to explain.
And by the time I was done, I had finished two more beers.
“I really need to stop,” I said, waving his offer of another beer away. “And that bitch will just find a reason to get me kicked out of nursing school. She’s an asshole with a capital shit stain.”
Bowe’s lips twitched.
“Your father did everything with her that he should’ve done with you. When you graduated with a high-grade point average, she graduated with a higher one.” He flicked fingers off, numbering the shitty things that the woman had done to me over the course of the last seven years. “She stole Troy away from you and then had her baby with him as the daddy first,” he grimaced. “Although, I still feel that you lucked out on that one.”
I grinned at him.
“I do as well. I’m more just trying to point out everything she’s done to make my life a living hell,” I explained.
“What else?”
“She held my baby first,” I bared my teeth. “I was too drugged up from my emergency C-section to be aware that she was even in the room. She held Elise before I could. Though, so did Troy, but it didn’t leave anywhere near as bad of a taste in my mouth as the fact that she did.”
Bowe’s eyes were lit with humor.
“What else?” He tipped the top of his bottle at me.
“She stole my car when I was seventeen and then wrecked it,” I sighed. “Although, I can’t prove it.”
Bowe blinked.
“She sends me fucking invitations to her other kids’ activities like birthdays and recitals as if we’re some big happy fucking family.” I licked my lips, grimacing when I thought of the woman’s two other kids from her previous relationship. “And when my father found out I was pregnant and homeless, he bought me this house,” I hesitated. “And built Jade one exactly like it. Paid them overtime so they got her house done in about four months.”
Bowe’s eyes weren’t showing the least bit of humor anymore.
“This sounds like a real problem, and not one that’s just full of coincidences,” he admitted. “Do you know why she hates you so much?”
I shook my head.
“No clue,” I said. “I haven’t done anything to warrant that kind of hatred from her. If anyone should be mad, it’s me. I’m the one that’s suffered here, not her.”
“I can request that you be moved to my later class,” Bowe offered.
I shook my head almost immediately.
“If I transfer, then she’ll know that it was because of her, and I’d rather spend the next six months completely miserable rather than give her the satisfaction,” I told him bluntly. “I hate her guts.”
Bowe sighed.
“Well, that’s just unfortunate then,” he stood up and stretched his arms up above
his head. “I don’t think there’s anything else I can offer you besides the use of my body to relieve some of that tension.”
A startled laugh left my mouth, and I stared at him incredulously.
“I’ve been dealing with her shit my whole life,” I told him. “If she’s there, it’s not going to affect my learning or how I conduct my daily life. It’ll just suck. As for the use of your body…well…you’re my teacher now. That’s strictly forbidden.”
Bowe’s laugh made his belly muscles jump and bunch, causing my already haywire emotions to jolt in response.
“Angie.”
I looked over at him, taking in this new emotion I couldn’t quite read flickering in his eyes.
“What?”
“I want you.”
My brows rose.
“I’m not going to force myself on you. I can tell you’re not ready. But when you’re done with school…when this shit with your ex is behind you…I’m coming for you, and there’s not one thing in this entire world that can stop me. Not even you.”
Chapter 11
Red bull and vodka, because you want to be wide awake for this mistake.
-E-card
Angie
1 month later
“No, Jade. Look at this. This is the heart. If there’s any sort of conduction in it whatsoever…” I listened—again—as Bowe tried to explain the way that the heart’s electrical pathways work.
“So, if there’s no electrical impulses…” Jade’s annoying voice repeated the same thing that Bowe had just said not even five seconds before.
But officer, I swear, it wasn’t premeditated. She was talking in class and all of a sudden I had the urge to stab her with my pencil. Over and over again.
“Correct,” Bowe’s deep voice interrupted my inner thoughts.
I caught Bowe’s eyes, and I swear to God it took everything in me not to start laughing.
At this point in our nursing career, we were supposed to have the basic handle on human anatomy.
If, after Jade graduated and became a nurse, I walked into a room and saw she was my nurse, I’d walk right back out. I wouldn’t care if I was in the throes of a real-life heart attack. I wouldn’t let her anywhere near me.
It’s bad enough that she was on the same clinical rotation as me.
I secretly thought that she had a lot to do with why she was in the same rotation as me. Likely, she was the one to ask for the shift, knowing that I had to have a certain one to keep up with all of my jobs.
Though, after my first two clinical shifts in the ER, I scaled back on my shifts at work. I now only worked twice a month, and the rest of the time I spent at my brother’s.
Though, all I did there was file and answer phones while studying.
“All right, who can tell me what the proper protocol is when you have a patient enter through the ER doors not breathing, with no shockable rhythm, and bleeding profusely from a gunshot wound?” Bowe asked.
Jade raised her hand, and I accidentally snapped my pencil right the fuck in half.
“Ms. Matthews?” Bowe asked, pointing at me.
His tone was completely neutral, but his eyes…well, those were filled with mirth.
He knew what that woman was doing to me and he was finding it funny!
“Push fluids,” I suggested through clenched teeth.
Bowe grinned, then turned his eyes to the rest of the room. “Right. Then what?”
Jade raised her hand even higher.
There was absolutely no way that Bowe didn’t see her hand. It was right in front of his face.
He didn’t call on her, though, and I could kiss him for that.
Then again, it didn’t take much for me to want to kiss Bowe.
He was looking much, much healthier lately.
His eyes were ringed with less black as he was now getting plenty of sleep.
The bruising around his face was gone.
His hair had grown back, covering the scars on his skull.
Although, he’d been wearing hats lately.
Today was a black hat with KFD embroidered in red.
It looked old and worn, almost as if this was the one he used while he was working out or on shift. The bill of the cap was curved perfectly as any country boy was known to do with his hats.
And I wanted to wear it.
I wanted to put it on my head with my hair down, and look up into Bowe’s eyes as he leaned down and laid a demanding kiss on my mouth.
I wanted him to run his hands over my hips, pull me to him, and hold me in place whether I wanted him to or not.
I wanted him to tangle his hands in my hair, tilt my head back, and suck on my neck while I rode his leg.
“All right, class. It’s time for a short break. Be back in ten minutes,” Bowe’s voice interrupted my fantasy. “I’ll be locking the door at the ten-minute mark, so be sure you’re on time.”
I got up and practically ran out of the room like Bowe was about to assault me with his tongue.
Unfortunately, he didn’t.
Disappointed that I was losing my control, I decided to use the bottom bathroom instead of the top bathroom.
I’d nearly made it to the doors of the women’s restroom when I felt familiar arms encircle my hips.
Then Bowe dragged me into the empty computer lab, shut the door, and locked it.
“Please, for the love of all that’s holy, tell me you were not undressing me in there,” Bowe ordered, crowding me. “Because the only thing that’s making me be a good boy is the fact that you are being a good girl.”
He prowled forward, and I started to back away.
My back hit the door, and he stopped with less than a few inches separating us.
He wasn’t touching me, but he was close.
If I breathed in, and he breathed in at the same time, my breasts would hit his chest.
Then, as if we both planned it, each of us inhaled.
The tips of my breasts brushed his chest, and my eyes closed.
“Jesus Christ.”
My eyelids parted lazily, almost as if they were heavy with sleep, and I stared at him as he fought an inner battle.
A battle that I wasn’t sure I wanted him to win.
“The jeans you are wearing today leave very little to the imagination,” he growled. “And I’m hanging on by a thread. Please, please—if you’re not ready for this, you need to get in control. You need to stop, because I’m tired of being the good guy.”
“Did I ever ask you to be the good guy?” I asked him, licking my lips.
He looked at me, was about to move forward until his lips touched mine, then the alarm on his phone started to chime.
“Fuck.”
He took a step back, and my body screamed out in protest.
“It’s ten minutes. I’m supposed to close the door and lock it.”
“Fuck the lock.”
Then I threw myself at him.
His mouth slammed down on mine, and his large hands caught my legs right under the knees as he slammed me against the door.
My hands went to his neck, squeezing tightly, as his beard started to rub deliciously against my neck and cheeks.
His erection pressed into my pussy, grinding into me as we got lost in our kiss.
The kiss had damn sure surpassed out of hand, and went out of the solar system when his hand went up my shirt, his rough hand moving up to my breast.
“Oh, God,” I gasped into his mouth. “Please.”
His free hand went down the back of my pants, straight into my panties, delving deep into the folds of my sex.
One long, rough finger stretched further than the rest, and dipped straight into my pussy.
“Oh, God. You’re wet.”
I was. So wet.
For him.
“Bowe,” I said.
He pulled his head back, and I watched his eyes as he pushed his finger into me, over and over again.
Then, with no warning at all, he was gone.
He stood across the room from me, chest heaving, as he watched me.
I was sure I knew what he was seeing.
My hair, I could tell, wasn’t in the bun I’d placed it in with a pencil halfway through class. Long tendrils hung down in my face, and one lone curl was moving in front of my mouth with each gasp from my lungs.
My shirt was askew, and my jeans were lower than they should have been.
My nipples, well those were probably indecent at this point.
Bowe wasn’t in much better shape.
His shirt was stretched out from where I’d fisted it with my hand.
Parts of it were untucked from his jeans.
And then there was his cock, which filled up the front of those jeans and stretched down one leg.
“Go to the bathroom and get cleaned up. I’m going to go to the teacher’s lounge and grab my drink I left in the fridge.”
I nodded my head.
“You have to move.”
“Okay.”
I still didn’t move.
“If I get close to you right now, I’m going to be bending you over the computer desk and fucking you until you get kicked out of school,” he informed me. “So you need to leave. Now.”
I swallowed, searched blindly for the door handle, and then wrenched it open, all but fleeing.
He wasn’t the only one about to lose his composure.
I was about ten seconds from doing the same thing, and letting him take me wherever he wanted me.
Letting my career flow down the drain all because I couldn’t get a handle on my emotions or hormones.
I arrived back into the classroom, seven minutes after Bowe had told us to be back, and took my seat, hoping beyond hope that nobody would be able to tell that I was on the verge of orgasm.
Jade’s eyes followed me the entire way, staring at me as I found my way to my seat.
The minute I sat, the girl that I’d met on the first day of class, Etta, looked over at me.
“Are you sure you’re not sick? You looked flushed,” Etta observed.
I swallowed.
“I’m okay. Just a little dizzy.”
Wasn’t that the truth.
I wasn’t just a little dizzy.
I couldn’t feel anything but my throbbing pussy that I could still practically feel Bowe’s fingers buried inside of.
Put Out (Kilgore Fire Book 5) Page 8