I inhale and stand up straight, determined to be professional. I will not embarrass myself and I most definitely will not embarrass a parent. I like my new job, even if I need to find a second one to pay my rent and my school loans. Losing the job I have because I’m an idiot is out of the question.
I take his hand, shaking once. His fingers are roughly smooth, with that thicker texture testosterone gives a man’s skin, and they engulf mine.
I inhale again.
“Ms. Frasier.” He nods toward my name tag and I swear his eyes are lingering on my chest. “You’re new?” Oh, his voice really is like sonic velvet.
When he releases my hand, I almost sigh. His gaze does the unconscious dance over my breasts and my hips that straight men’s eyes do, and it takes all my effort not to wiggle where I stand.
The man is too damned distracting.
But I think he’s trying to be professional, too. Because I’m one of his kid’s teachers.
“Started this week.” I smile as I pretend to look for his name on the list. “I’ll be teaching pull-out art classes as soon as my room is set up.”
“Bart will like that.”
I look up again. He’s still smiling, but now the muscles of his face have taken on a deeper pull. His stance changed, too. I can’t put my finger on it, but I’m sure, all the way to my bones, that this man loves his son.
And I want to sigh again, but I don’t. I dig through the pile and pull out a neon pink, size medium t-shirt. “I have your t-shirt right here.”
No way is it going to fit.
Mr. Quidell laughs when he holds it up. “We match.”
He’s right. I hadn’t thought about it, but the store only had six colors, so there’s doubling. Each teacher got a color and Sandy put one parent with most of us.
And I got Mr. Quidell.
I am blushing. I must be the same color as our shirts.
He’s making a face and yanking on the seams of the shirt, like he’s trying to stretch it. “Is this the biggest you have?”
“No one warned me about your big broad shoulders,” I blurt out. Oh hell, I think, and curl my lips into a thin line. I almost slap a hand over my mouth, but that would just make things worse.
He laughs again and that crooked smirk reappears—and my stray thought about vanishing into a supply closet with him for a quickie jumps back into my head.
Why am I thinking this way? I know how to keep my libido in check. I’m not some young freshman with a crush on the senior quarterback. Or a hero-worshipping fangirl.
The last thing he needs is to think that I’m some firefighter bunny.
His brow crinkles. His gaze drops away and he steps back, holding the t-shirt up between us like a screen. “I’ll make do.” When he lowers the t-shirt, he’s looking down the hall. “Should I go to Bart’s room?”
Did I make some unfriendly facial tic? Did he pick up something from my body language? I stiffen, thinking my ogling made him uncomfortable. He’s a parent of one of my students. Damn it, I need to be professional.
Kids are so much easier to deal with than men.
I hand him his group’s pink t-shirts and his list. “We’ll be lining up in a couple of minutes. Will you be riding on the bus with us?”
He glances at the names before answering. “Had an indicator light come on as I was parking, so it looks like it.” A frown jumps across his face before he flashes another friendly-but-distant smile.
I make a show of marking my sheet. Dan Quidell nods one more time, watching me for a longer moment than I expected, then walks away, toward his son….
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Also available from Kris Austen Radcliffe:
The Fate - Fire - Shifter - Dragon Series
Fantasy and Futuristic Romance
Trilogy One: Activation
Games of Fate
Flux of Skin
Fifth of Blood
Short Fiction:
Prolusio
Conpulsio
Trilogy Two: Redemption
Silence Summer 2014
All But Human Coming soon
The Quidell Brothers
Contemporary Erotic Romance
Thomas’s Muse
Daniel’s Fire
Robert’s Soul Coming soon
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Thomas's Muse: A Quidell Brothers Novella Page 10