by Linda Morris
“Did you get in any trouble with Dr. Dunne? You know, because you missed the event?”
She shook her head. “All was forgiven when your donation came in. Thank you for not letting what happened between us affect the donation, by the way. I appreciate that.”
His eyes darkened. “I would never let personal feelings stand in the way of helping kids who needed it.”
“I know that now. I’m sorry I thought otherwise.”
“Apology accepted.” His voice lowered, turning husky. “And I owe you an apology as well. Again. I know I said it before, but I’ll say it again because I mean it. I’m sorry I lied to you about who I was.”
She nodded. She had so much she wanted to say. Can I trust you? Why did you lie? Were you laughing at me? Maybe my doubts don’t make any sense, but I can’t help having them. I don’t want to be hurt again. She couldn’t say any of it.
“Apology accepted.” She took a deep breath and looked around. “What part of the school would you like to see first?” she asked, hoping he’d let her change the subject.
“Actually, I don’t care about the facility that much. A building’s a building. Let’s meet some kids.”
She smiled, pleasantly surprised. “All right. Let’s go to my classroom.”
“What do you teach?”
“Technically, third grade, but as you probably know, we do things differently at Horizons. Kids are grouped by ability level, not age, except for homeroom. For subject area work, we work across grade levels. If a twelve-year-old is reading on the first-grade level, he reads with other kids on the first-grade level, not other twelve-year-olds who may be reading far above him. We also work in small groups. Math is done in groups of four, for example, also organized by ability.”
At her classroom, she pushed open the door. Immediately, Caleb, a boy with severe ADHD, popped out of his seat and ran to her. He threw his arms around her hips in a hug. “I love you, Ms. Johnston.”
“I love you too, Caleb,” she said, bending and returning his hug. “Please return to your seat and finish your math.”
In the far corner, Carolyn looked up from the Captain Underpants book she was reading to a group of kids, her eyes widening as she guessed the identity of Kayla’s companion. She flashed a thumbs-up.
Hoping he hadn’t noticed, Kayla steered Ryan to a different corner, where a counselor led three students in a social skills group. “Hi, Pam. This is Mr. Langford. He wanted to get a better look at Horizons, to find out how we do things. Mr. Langford recently—”
Before he could finish, Pam rose, eyes shining. “You don’t need to introduce him! He’s just given our school five million dollars. How could I not know who he is? Thank you so much for your generosity.” Her heavily mascaraed lashes batted rapidly as she scanned Ryan from head to toe. Her smile froze as she took in his decidedly low-key clothes, but her high-beam grin returned after only a split second, brighter than ever. He shook her hand and returned her greeting politely, but his subdued tone told Kayla that he didn’t like the fuss the woman was making over him.
Surprising, because Pam was a cute young girl with a blond bob and a chest that entered a room well before the rest of her. He hadn’t been kidding when he said his wealth brought out the mercenary in some women. When she’d told Carolyn about the whole New Year’s Eve debacle, even her best friend hadn’t been able to quit talking about his money. He must get this all the time. Kayla had been outraged that he’d thought she might be after his money, but maybe he had good reason to suspect many of the women he met.
Pam edged closer to him and he sent Kayla an oblique look that she had no trouble reading: Help.
She compressed her lips to keep from smiling. “Can you tell Mr. Langford about what you’re doing with these kids, Pam?” she asked, trying to steer the woman away from her determined flirtation.
“Of course. We’re working on social skills, teaching these kids what kind of things make for a good friendship. Today, we’re talking about honesty.”
“Ah.” Ryan looked at Kayla, shifting uncomfortably. “Honesty is important in a relationship. I’ve learned that the hard way.”
Pam looked back and forth between them, obviously sensing some hidden meaning to his words. Kayla was a bit confused herself. Relationship? Surely he wasn’t talking about them. They didn’t have a relationship. They’d just had a disastrous, glorious night. Before she could make any sense of it, Caleb popped out of his seat again.
He wandered to the window and began singing. Loudly. “Caleb, return to your seat please,” Kayla said. When he didn’t respond, she went to him and put her hand on his shoulder to reinforce her instructions. “Return to your seat and finish your art.” He ignored her and began singing louder. To her surprise, Ryan brushed past her to tap Caleb on his other shoulder.
“Hey, buddy. Listen to your teacher. You have to finish your art.” Impressed by the attention from a tall stranger, Caleb complied.
“Thanks,” she told him cautiously. “You were good with him.”
“I’ve had a lot of practice with my brother.”
“Ah.” Her eyes dropped. She remembered the last time they’d talked about his brother. “I’m sorry I accused you of lying about your brother’s autism.”
He took her hand and looked around the busy classroom. “Is there somewhere we can talk in private?”
“Sure,” she said with a jerky nod.
She gestured to get Carolyn’s attention. “I’ll be back in a minute.”
“Take your time!” Carolyn called after her. Kayla led him out of the room, noticing Pam giving her the evil eye as she did. Outside the classroom, she self-consciously let go of his hand. “Come on. There’s a work room down the hall where we won’t be disturbed.”
In the work room, she closed the door and turned to face him. Before she could say a thing, he kissed her, pressing her against the door with his long, hard body.
Just like that. With no preliminaries, no apologies, no questions. His daring worked. She closed her eyes and let him do it until finally she caught herself and pushed him away. Explosive chemistry, they had in spades. Their problem was a lack of trust, and they hadn’t mended that fence yet.
He stepped back, his lips shining from her moisture, gazing at her as if she was the most beloved sight in the world. Her heart turned over. A part of her longed to trust him, to give him another chance to ease this ache she’d lived with ever since New Year’s Day.
“I want you to know what’s at stake,” he said.
“At stake?” She frowned. “What are you talking about?”
“I’m talking about what’s between us. It doesn’t come along every day. I’m not going to give up on it just because I screwed up.”
Piece by piece, since she’d seen him in Dr. Dunne’s office, he’d chipped away at her anger. It was a good start, but she didn’t know if she could forgive and forget. “There is no ‘us.’ We had a tryst, remember?”
“What about second chances? I know you believe in them. You chose to work here because Horizons gives kids a second chance.” He leaned against the wall, watching her closely. “Will you do less for me?”
His words struck right to her core, the place in her that believed in fairness and justice. She paced to the other side of the narrow room and turned to face him. The fluorescent lights hummed in the tense silence. She took a deep breath. “At least I can say this. We need to stop being so angry with each other. After all, if you’re going to be involved with the school, we’ll be seeing each other.”
“I am going to be involved with the school, Kayla. I’m not one of those guys you hate so much, with a PR person on one side and a swarm of photographers on the other, just looking for a photo op. I’m going to be here a lot, meeting the kids and finding out what this school really needs, what these kids need. But that’s got nothing to do with why I kissed you just now.”
“Why did you kiss me, then?” Damn, she hated the plaintive note she heard in her voice. He’d r
ipped her heart out on New Year’s Eve. She’d spent New Year’s Day in misery, crying harder over him than she’d ever cried over Steve, which made no sense whatsoever. She’d known Ryan for one night. One night, in which he’d turned her life upside down. He’d shown her a glimpse of something wonderful, and then he’d betrayed a trust she hadn’t even realized she’d given him.
Carolyn thought she should forgive and move on. Here was Ryan, asking her to do just that. Could she do it? Should she?
“Like I said, I want you to remember what’s at stake. How good it can be between us.” The husky timbre of his voice went straight to the tips of her breasts, making them tingle. Her lady parts were going rogue again, trying to make the decisions for her.
“I don’t make decisions based on sex,” she said. Liar, liar, pants on fire.
“I’m glad to hear it, but I wasn’t talking about sex. Not entirely, anyway.” He moved toward her.
She stepped back, but the wall behind her brought her up short. “You weren’t?”
He took advantage of her immobility and slid his arms around her waist. He played dirty pool, dammit. She let her hands rest on his chest and felt the lovely curve of muscle there. A sigh escaped her. The heavy pulse in her throat matched the one in the softness between her legs.
“What we found together on New Year’s Eve was something that doesn’t come along every day. I’ve gone thirty years and never met anyone like you. I’ve never felt anything like what I felt that night. I’m not going to throw it away without a struggle. I won’t let you, either.”
She swallowed hard. “Those are pretty words. But how can I trust you?”
“I’m sorry for what I did. I’ll be sorry about that for longer than I can even say. But you made a judgment about my motives without ever having met me.”
She sighed as he bent his head to nibble at her neck, his untrimmed hair brushing against her cheek. “I’m sorry,” she said.
“You were quick to judge, Kayla.”
His words hurt, but they rang true, as well. “I know. I’ve met too many phonies in this job and I made the mistake of assuming you would be one, too. I wasn’t fair to you.”
“It’s all right. I understand why you did it. In a way, I did the same thing. I’ve met too many women who only cared about my bank balance and I assumed you’d be one too. I thought you couldn’t be trusted with the knowledge of who I really was.”
“Two wrongs didn’t make a right, but maybe this time, just this once, do you think maybe they canceled each other out?”
“Maybe. Can I make a promise to you?” Ryan asked. He cupped her chin and looked intently into her eyes. “If you give me another chance, I will never lie to you again.”
Hope lifted her heart. “Thank you for that. And I need to promise something, too. If you give me a second chance, I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt.” She laughed as a thought struck her. “Maybe we both need work on our social skills. I can take you to Pam’s class for some tutoring in the importance of honesty, if you like,” she said, and then gasped as his hand slid up her blouse. Oh, Lord. She glanced at the work room door, willing it not to open.
“Um, no. Pam scares me,” he murmured against her ear. Kayla snickered. “Must be those dollar signs I saw in her eyes every time she looked at me. Besides, if any tutoring needs to be done, I want you to do it.”
“Me?”
“I have some fairly hot teacher fantasies, you know. I was homeschooled, so I missed out on that whole adolescent lusting-after-the-sexy-teacher thing.”
“Ah.” She slipped her left foot out of her flat and ran it along his calf. “You know what they say. It’s never too late to have a happy childhood.”
He chuckled into her shoulder and slid his hand even higher up her shirt. Kayla took a deep breath. “We can’t,” she said regretfully. “Not here.”
He removed his hand but didn’t release her. “I’m going to be in town for a few nights on business, staying at a hotel so I don’t have to keep driving back and forth. Have dinner with me?”
“Sure.” She dithered, not sure whether to speak her mind, and finally decided to go for it. “Where are you staying?”
“Some hotel downtown, with uniformed bellhops and a very ugly modern sculpture in the lobby.”
She laughed. “I’m not sure I can compete with that, but I’ll try. Would you like to spend the night at my place?” Her stomach fluttered as she waited for his answer.
His warm eyes darkened. “I think I’d like that.”
“You’re in town, what, two, three nights?”
“This time, yeah.” He brushed his hand down the curve of her hip to rest on her thigh. “You know, my house isn’t that far away from Indianapolis, especially if you don’t slide off the road during a snowstorm. I can see this thing between us really having some legs.”
He dipped his head to nuzzle at her neck, taking a tiny nip of her skin. Hmmm, that gave her chills. “Is that a fact?” she said, breathless.
“It is. You could drop by for a visit just about any time. Or I could swing by your place.”
“Just for one night?”
“Maybe,” he said, moving the collar of her shirt to one side to gain access to the spot where her neck met her shoulder.
She took a deep breath, willing her heated body to settle down. “I’ve realized I’m not the type.”
“I disagree. I see you very much as the one-night stand type.”
“You do?” She drew back a touch, surprised.
“Sure. And I think you should have all the sordid one-night stands you want.” He leaned in to kiss her, stroking his fingers along her cheek. “As long as they’re all with me.”
Her lips curved into a smile. “Now that, Mr. Langford, is the kind of thing I just might be cut out for.”
Acknowledgments
Thanks to Heather Howland for plucking my story out of the slush pile and seeing something worthwhile in it, and for many valuable editorial suggestions. Thanks to Tahra Seplowin for great edits, good humor, and a cheerful attitude through many rounds of edits and one superstorm. Thanks to Amanda Faris for her copyedits and to all those behind the scenes at Entangled who helped bring this book about.
About the Author
Linda Morris is a writer of contemporary and historical romance. She writes stories with heart, humor, and heat. She spends her days juggling family, writing, and acareer as a freelance editor. When she’s not writing, working, or mommying, she’s doing yoga, reading, working in her flower garden, or baking delicious things she probably shouldn’t eat. She believes that there are two kinds of people: pie people and cake people, and she is definitely one of the former. Her years of Cubs fandom prove she has a soft spot for a lost cause. A beat-up old copy of Kathleen Woodiwiss’s Ashes in the Wind that her mother bought for her at a garage sale many years ago was her gateway drug into the world of romance novels.
http://lindamorriswriter.blogspot.com
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Acknowledgments
About the Author