by Gigi Thorne
“No,” he growls out, lowering his face to the side of my cheek until his lips are inches from my ear. “That’s not what I want.”
The rejection hits me in the gut, but I take a breath and let it wash over me.
"This is wrong," he mutters as he presses me against the wall. He cups my chin, his mouth just inches from mine. "I'm your teacher. This has to stop."
I lift up onto my tiptoes and lean into his awaiting kiss. We can stop tomorrow... not tonight. It’s not the end of the world. At least he’s honest. At least he saved me the energy of pursuing something he’s not interested in.
“Thanks for being straight up with me,” I tell him as I pull from the kiss, although I’m confused. Why is he here right now? He wanted to talk, we covered that Pattie’s and my lips are sealed. So why is he still here? What are his lips doing so close to my skin? Why is his body bracketing mine, holding me captive to all this lust?
“What do you want, then?” I finally ask.
“I don’t want to leave it in the past,” he groans, his every breath kissing my skin. “And I don’t want to wait.”
“What, then?” I ask.
“If I have to quit my job to be with you, then that’s what I’ll do. Until then, I’m taking you right now… right here. And before I’m done with you tonight, I’m going to punish your ass for telling your friend about us.”
Throbbing with anticipation, I arch into him, unable to fight. Unable and unwilling.
8
Jackson
I took Kara all over her parents’ house. Against that wall. At the top of the stairs. In her pretty bedroom. Then we slept for a while. Not long after dozing off in her bed, I wake up to the sound of her calling my name, her voice in a mild panic.
“Are you okay if we go to your place?” she asks, her eyes glued to her phone screen.
Sitting up, I lean against the backboard to clear my sleepy haze. “Sure. Yes. Everything all right?”
Kara kicks her legs off the edge of the bed and jumps to her feet.
“Yes,” she answers, picking up each piece of clothing that we stripped off of each other’s body just a couple of hours ago. She piles them up on one arm and scans the room. “But my parents will be here within the hour. My mom just sent me a text from the airport.”
“Definitely.” I’m fully awake and clear-headed in no time. I don’t know if Kara’s parents are easy going or conservative, but I don’t want to meet them like this for the first time. Not with my pants down, so to speak. “Let’s move.”
We’re dressed and out the door within ten minutes, and shortly after that, I’m showing her into my new home, into my bedroom.
Her clothes are the first thing to come off. I watch her remove her clothes as though she’s more comfortable without them. She smiles when she notices that I’m staring, my hand over my zipper, ready for my dick to spring free.
“You realize how risky this is, your coming here?” I ask her, standing at the foot of my bed, fully clothed as she crawls into my bed, her body completely bare.
“Risky? What do you mean?” she purrs out the question, seeming more playful.
“I may not let you leave,” I explain, and hear the seriousness in my voice. I’m not kidding. I’m dead serious.
Kara turns on the bed, still on her hands and knees, and crawls over to me. “I may not want to go either.”
She cranes her neck up at me and slowly licks across her top lip. With the way her face isn’t far from my groin, I take the movement for what it is. An invitation. One where my dick is the guest of honor. Well, I love a woman who’s as eager to suck my cock as I am to eat her out.
I look down into her face, aroused and mesmerized as she runs her palm over my bulge through my pants. She takes her time dragging the zipper down, her eyes locked on mine, seeming to take pleasure from my reaction. She might be inexperienced but she sure as fuck knows what she’s doing to me. Her tiny hand slides past the open zipper, and she pushes my boxers out of the way to wrap her little fist around my shaft. As she pulls my cock free and sees my big, thick hard flesh up close, I hear her release a moan from deep in her throat. Her pouty lips part slightly, then some more, and she leans closer, circling her pink tongue around the head of my cock. Fuck, I’m harder than ever.
The urge to keep watching her is strong, but fuck, I want to let my eyes shut and just enjoy her handiwork. Soon enough I do the latter, letting the feel of her lips sliding up and down my shaft overtake everything else. She uses her mouth and her hands to work my full length, alternating her rhythm to bring me closer as I start to pump in and out of her gorgeous fucking mouth, hitting the back of her throat each time. She’s so fucking good. My hips buck, and she puts both hands on my hips to let me make my own pace. I run a hand through her hair, gripping her scalp to anchor her to me as I fuck her sweet mouth. And soon, the image drives me to come hard. And she swallows every drop as though it’s the best thing she’s ever tasted.
Coming for her is the biggest fucking turn on for the both of us. I’m still rock hard, and from the juices dripping down between her thighs, she’s ready for me.
“I want you on top,” I manage to groan out as I find and put on a condom from my bedside drawer.
I push my pants and boxers down my legs, take off my shirt, and leave the bundle of material on the floor. I’m on the bed right away, enjoying the view of her tits as she straddles me. Holding on to my shoulders, Kara kisses me hard. Her tongue passes along the seam of my mouth, and I get a taste of my come. I fucking love that she tastes like me. As our tongues connect, she lowers onto my thick, condom-wrapped cock. Inch by inch, her tight, wet heat takes in more of me. Her hips sway and roll, grinding down on me, and I can’t stop myself from wrapping one arm around her waist and dragging her pussy down and up along my cock.
Looking up into her face, I see the pleasure build, the same way each thrust takes me closer. When her head falls back and her body tenses and bucks, I know she’s hit her peak. I keep pounding into her long after she comes, long after her body goes limp, and after a while, I come again. Lying back into bed, I lower her with me. Her head rests on my chest, and I hold on to her while our breathing comes back under control.
As I start to drift off, it’s clear to me that there’s a lot we haven’t said. A lot that I should tell her about me, my family, everything I’ve been through. I want to know everything about her too. But for the first time, I know there’ll be time for all of that. There’s time because neither of us is going anywhere.
Because she’s already mine.
The closer I get to Kara, the more confident I am that we have something special.
Something more than chemistry in the bedroom.
I spend the morning in bed with her. We fuck, talk, and laugh. Then she tells me about losing her younger brother, Aiden to a tragic fall at the midway. I understand why she’s so protective of children there, and why Nathan and Sofia have taken such a liking to her. Before I know what I’m doing, I tell her about losing my sister, their mother, to a brain disorder that went unchecked. We open up to each other in ways I didn’t think two people could in such a short time. There’s no logic as to why, or how, but we just… fit.
Which is a fucking problem.
My trip to her house last night was supposed to be a wake-up call for both of us. Instead, we’ve dug ourselves deeper. So deep that neither of us can seem to stop. So deep, we may not be able to crawl out.
Sometime before noon, we make it out of bed. I put the coffee on. Kara explores my house and settles in on the front porch with her phone. She seems at home here, and I watch her for a while, imagining what we could be, if this dark cloud weren’t lurking, waiting to unleash on us.
A familiar minivan rolls onto the last empty space on my driveway, and I’m instantly tense. How the fuck am I going to explain Kara to Sam? Pouring coffee into three mugs, I wait for the first cloud of the hurricane to hit us.
Sam hops out of the driver seat while the back p
assenger door slides open automatically. He does a double-take when he notices Kara relaxing on my porch, wearing one of my button-down work shirts and nothing else. The look of surprise on his face is almost entertaining. Almost.
I look back and forth between them, examining their reaction to each other. Shock. Confusion. Fear.
Sam leans into the back of the minivan, undoes the kids’ seatbelts, and lift them out onto the driveway, and all that hesitation disappears when Nathan, then Sofia run up the porch steps into Kara’s arms.
Or maybe it doesn’t. Sam’s floored.
He tells her a brief hello, then I hear the front door open and his heavy footsteps as they make their way to me. He stops at the kitchen entryway.
“I just want to know three things,” he says, a baffled look on his face.
“Good morning, bro,” I answer. “Go ahead. Ask away.”
He points in the direction of Kara and his kids through the window “Why the fuck is a student out on your porch, when did you fit in the time to introduce her to my kids, and how did she manage to get through to Nathan?”
“Long story,” I answer him. Setting a mug in front of him, I take the one I made for Kara with me, and grab a couple of the juice boxes I keep stashed in the fridge for the kids. “Give me a second to give them these.”
I’m out there and back in a few minutes. Sam has the same look on his face.
“What the hell, Jackson?” he demands. “Did you just make me an unwitting party to your… affair with a student?”
“That's not the way it went down,” say, my eyes narrowing. “Have a seat. You might not believe it, but this is how it happened.”
We sit across from each other at the kitchen table, and I tell him everything. Start to finish. In order. When I’m done, he shrugs and drags the chair back from the table. “You need to pull your head out of your ass and put a stop to that. Right fucking now.”
“Were you listening to a word I just said?”
He levels his gaze at me but doesn’t answer my question. “Get me a pen, will you?”
Leaning back toward the counter, I pull open one of the drawers and lift out a pen and notepad. “What’s this for?”
“This shit’s too big to hide.” He pulls out his phone from his pocket and scrolls through the app, then jots a number down on the notepad. “You do realize you’re just a week into this job, right?”
“Dude, I just told you, we didn’t plan this.” I say, losing some of my patience. “And you’re supposed to have my back. You know I wouldn’t look for this kind of trouble.”
“Yeah. I know. Tell me something. How many people know about… this… her?
“You, me, Kara, Kara’s friend from school,” I tell him honestly.
He leans his weight against the table, looking exhausted already. “Jesus. Someone else knows?”
“Just one person, I think.”
“You think? Listen, you have to go to Edlund,” he says, referring to the school principal.
“Fine,” I answer, my voice tight. “I’ll talk to him on Monday.”
“No.” He slides the notepad across the table. “You’ll call him on his home phone right now, and you’ll meet with him. Today. Tell him it’s urgent and involves a student. Tell him it can’t wait.”
I run a frustrated hand through my hair. “You’re blowing this out of proportion.”
“No.” He pounds a fist onto the tabletop and I snap to attention. “Don’t be an idiot. You’re being naïve. He can fix this for everyone. It’s not too late. But if you wait another day to tell him, you might as well consider your career over. She’s not a minor is she?”
I shake my head. “No.”
“Good. Still, let’s get him on the horn. And I’m telling you. You have to. Right now.” He reaches forward and taps the notepad a few times with his index finger. “Right fucking now.”
As he gets to his feet, I put Edlund’s number into my phone contact list and fold the page with his number in two. “Fuck, all right. But give me a second to tell her. She deserves the headsup. This’ll affect her too.”
“Fine.” He turns and heads back to the front door. “I’ll take the kids back home. Fill me in later on how it goes.”
Less than an hour and a half later, I’m sitting across from Edlund in his office. Kara’s out in the hall, waiting for me to wrap up so her meeting can start. Edlund knows everything now. He’s not happy to be faced with a situation like this so early on in the school year, but I can tell he’s serious about figuring out the best course of action for all parties. For the school. And for himself.
9
Kara
In the beginning, I thought that what I felt for Jackson was just wild and fleeting, an insanely potent attraction. A novelty. A temporary addiction. I was sure it’d eventually fade once we got used to being together. But I was so wrong.
Knowing him has seared my soul.
As I sit in the hallway of the principal’s office—on a Saturday afternoon—I’m about to face what I’ve known all week. Our being together will change everything. It’ll probably wreck Jackson’s career.
We’ve only slept together on two separate nights. Two nights to change a whole lifetime doesn’t sound fair. But neither of us can turn our backs. Not anymore. I’m not just hot for my history teacher, I’m madly in love with him.
Jackson Kent has my heart.
Depending on this meeting with Principal Edlund, if he’s even remotely against throwing his support behind us to help find a solution, Jackson and I will both be ruined. My mind and body are in turmoil from this truth. We need him. Without his backing, it’ll be disastrous. I don’t know who else saw us, or how they found out, but left unchecked, the rumors at school will spread. Soon, kids will start staring, speaking in hushed voices as Jackson or I navigate the hallways. Our names will be the ones uttered on their lips like a sin.
I’ve seen this before with rumors about other students. The difference here is this one’s about a student and a teacher. Without the principal’s intervention, any day now, someone will crack a joke or make a comment in front of a teacher, shining a light on Jackson and my illicit, forbidden love affair. Edlund will have no choice but to either expel me or fire Jackson. My parents will be pulled into it. Maybe the police too, if they believe there’s a pattern where Jackson is concerned. I wish we could both deny it, sweep it under the rug, keep it hidden. But lies this big have a way of catching up to people. And when they do, they take away every good thing along with them.
I don’t want the situation to worsen or to get that far for Jackson.
Checking the time on my phone, I start to worry. They’ve been in there for over half-hour. I don’t want to lose my shit, but I start to mull over another option. It’s purely a fantasy. Nothing I’d ever do for real, but as I have time to kill sitting here, I picture myself driving home. I’d look around the pale lilac walls of my bedroom, assessing how much I'll need if I run away. It's the last thing I want, but there’s a part of me that is sure that such a move will hurt the least.
It's like that philosophical question about the tree that falls in the forest when no one's around. Right now I want to believe it won't make a sound. It means I can apply it to all the chaos I’m about to create in my life, in Jackson's, at school, for my parents.
If I leave, if I go far, far away, maybe there won't be any fallout for them, or consequences. They'll only have to deal with rumors, not reality. Right now, it's just talk, not truth.
The school can't fire Jackson for inappropriate behavior with a student if I'm no longer a student. Surely, they can't destroy his life if I'm not around at all. And my parents, they won't have to face the blame, the shame of my mistakes. I desperately want to spare them all the pain, but it's too late for that. Leaving will hurt. But staying will break them.
Before too long, this unrealistic option starts to sound like the only course of action. The one thing I can do is lessen the blow for everyone by leaving. They'll mis
s me while I'm gone. I'll miss them terribly too. But once the dust settles, when what's happened is so far in the past that no one remembers or cares anymore, I can come back to them. To him.
My leaving will restore all their lives to the way it was before.
But as I get to my feet and start to leave Principal Edlund’s office, his door creaks open. Jackson emerges first, and passes by me without saying a word. This is not good.
“You may come in, Miss Richards,” the principal addresses me. He stands aside, straightening out his yellow short-sleeved shirt over his blue jeans. It’s the first time I’ve seen him dressed so casually, but then again, it’s Saturday and this is a spur of the moment meeting.
Suddenly cold, I hug my arms around myself as I slip into his office and find a seat. I don’t know how these meetings go. It better not last as long as Jackson’s. To say I slept with a teacher before I knew who he was, sounds straightforward enough. Sure, we’ve muddled it up some more by sleeping together last night. And this morning. But as it’s too late to run, all I want is to hear what will happen to us now.
“Miss Richards,” he says, his dark brown eyes on me. “I’ll start off by saying I’m rather surprised to have you in my office for such a highly sensitive issue. Other than the short string of absences a few years ago, your record here at school has been pristine.”
He pauses, as though waiting for me to explain myself. I’ve got nothing to say. Pressing my lips together tightly, I look at the way the light streams in through the shuttered window behind him, making his graying hair shimmer, and I wait for him to tell me my fate.
10
Kara
I roll my shoulders to ease the tension in my neck and back, still waiting. Mr. Edlund opens a file folder on his desk and studies the contents.