The Red Zone

by Knight, Amie

  We spent the next two hours eating brownies with ice cream on top and watching old reruns. But really, I spent those two hours learning that family wasn’t always the one God gave you. It was also the one you chose.

  Lukas: Are you seriously going to make me come up to that school?

  It had been two days since I’d gotten that text from Luk. Four since our night on the couch with Ella. Three since I’d taken Ella to the community center to drop off her empty toilet paper rolls. And I was thanking my lucky stars he hadn’t made an appearance at The Cottage House. I needed time to think. I knew he thought I was avoiding him, but in truth, I just hadn’t decided what I should do about the Lukas situation. He’d said he wanted me, my lips. But he’d never said he wanted a relationship. A girlfriend. And if I was going to break all my rules, I needed more than I want your lips. I needed everything and deserved it, damn it.

  I was cleaning up my classroom from a long day. My TA had called off sick and the kiddos had just been having one of those days. Where nothing went right. Where one meltdown turned into two and where I ended up putting on an educational show at the end of the day because I didn’t think me or them could handle it anymore.

  I was working on my lesson plan for the next day in my head while shuffling around the pile of papers on my desk when I heard the creak of my classroom door.

  Looking up, I immediately froze. My lucky streak had run out. He was making good on his promise or threat. Whatever you wanted to call it.

  He walked toward me like a predator stalking his prey and instinctively, I backed up.

  His head shook back and forth slowly, as a wicked smile covered his face. “Imagine seeing you here,” he said.

  Rolling my eyes, I mumbled, “You didn’t imagine shit.”

  He kept going until he had me pressed up against the far wall of the classroom. “Better watch your mouth, Ms. Knox. Have you forgotten where you are?”

  Oh, I hadn’t forgotten. I was all too aware.

  He pressed in further like he had that night in the bar and he smelled so good. I’d forgotten. And that was my problem. Anytime the man was around, all my defenses melted away like a piece of ice in a glass of warm sweet tea. He made me forget what I knew. Forget what I needed. Forget what I wanted.

  “I’ve missed you.” Dipping his head close, he ran his cheek down the side of mine and whispered into my ear, “Why are you making this so hard on both of us?”

  I whimpered and that seemed to be all the permission he needed. His arms wrapped around my hips and cradled me close. He nipped at the lobe of my ear and my eyes nearly crossed.

  “We shouldn’t be doing this,” I whispered to no one. Because he sure as hell wasn’t listening and I wasn’t making a move to push him away. But then his mouth left my ear and hit the spot just behind it that I had no idea until this very moment that I loved. His tongue darted out, tasting the skin there before his teeth bit, and my knees got weak. But my mind, it prevailed. “I’m not even sure you really like me.”

  I mean, I knew he liked me. Or I knew his body liked mine. But I wasn’t sure if he really liked me. Like more than a one-night stand liked me. Because I wasn’t the one-night stand kind of girl.

  He pushed me harder into the wall and I felt the evidence of his arousal against my hip and it did not disappoint. It didn’t seem fair that the perfect boy of my childhood dreams was also packing that anaconda.

  His hand creeped up under my skirt and coasted across my thigh, and my head flew back, exposing more of my throat to him, my body on auto pilot, and it was flying right into dangerous territory.

  “I’m pretty sure you can feel how much I like you, Scarlett.” His deep voice rolled over me, through me, setting me afire. The sheer amount of want in it was dizzying.

  Scarlett. God, the man hardly ever called me that. He taunted me with Red when he was joking around. But Scarlett, him calling me that? Damn. It did things to me. More than goose bumps, more than weak knees. It caused an ache deep in me, past the sensitive tips of my breasts, beyond the apex of my thighs, straight to my core, and it scared the absolute bejesus out of me.

  “Your cock likes me, Luk. Not you.” Deny. Deny. Deny. This couldn’t happen. We were in my classroom. I was his sister’s teacher. He was my first kiss and he’d broken my teenage heart.

  His head snapped back to mine in record time and his lips were there, back at my neck, eating it up. Licking, tasting, sampling every corner, every dip, every turn. He finished me off with a long bite to my chin. “Mmm. My mouth seems to like you, too.”

  “Your mouth is going to get me in trouble. We’re at school.”

  He backed up just enough so he could look between us down at my form-fitting black pencil skirt and white blouse. “I know exactly where we are, Red. And it’s the stuff that dreams are made of. Now how about you hop your ass up on that desk for me and make this more than a dream?”

  I eyed the desk across the room, but I knew better. Whatever this was between Luk and me was just temporary. He wanted my body, not my heart, and I had to protect it at all costs. Because the fourteen-year-old girl inside me was still madly in love with him. Thank God, twenty-four-year-old Scarlett knew better.

  I slid between him and the wall and took three steps away. Pulling down my skirt and straightening my blouse, I said, “This is not appropriate, Mr. Callihan. It’s not the time nor the place.” But then again, it never would be if I had my say. This whole thing had disaster written all over it. And poor Ella, what would she think of all this? I had to think of her and my heart. And less about the eight pack I knew Luk was sporting under his T-shirt. God, I remembered it from the other morning in my bed and it was magnificent.

  His eyes were wild on me. Like he was going to pounce any moment, so I took another healthy step back.

  He matched my step with one of his own. “Name the time and the place, then.”

  “What?” I said, backing up again. He wasn’t supposed to say that. He was supposed to say, well, it was nice knowing you, but since you don’t wanna give up the booty, I’m outta here.

  “I said, name the time and the place.” He took another step forward.

  My mouth fell open, but nothing came out. So, I backed up again, my mouth opening and closing like a fish. Because I didn’t know what to say. What in the heck was happening here? Was he asking me on a date? Were we arranging a booty call? Whatever the answer was, none of it was good.

  Two more steps back up on my wobbly red heels and my behind was pressed right up against the front of my desk. And then like a predatory animal he prowled toward me. Slow enough I could escape, but there was no hope for me. He had me right where he wanted me. I was easy prey when he looked at me like he did right now.

  His chest pressed into mine. His jeans brushed my knees and I shivered. I quivered at the mere brush of his clothing. I was so screwed. He was closer than close. He was on me like white on rice.

  His hands came up and cradled each side of my jaw, and his forehead lowered to mine. His heavy breaths mingled with my own.

  With eyes pinched closed like he was in pain, he said, “I’m going to kiss you.”

  My body locked tight. Oh, no, he couldn’t do that. If he kissed me I’d think about it at least the next ten years and that would be awful. I still obsessed over the day he’d kissed me when he’d told me goodbye. I couldn’t let him do that to me again.

  “That’s a terrible idea,” I whispered, his lips a breath from mine.

  Slowly his eyes opened and they were suddenly boring into mine. “Why, Scarlett?”

  I couldn’t tell him the truth. That his kiss had ruined my teenage heart. That I’d never moved on. That no other kiss had ever compared. That I still thought about that kiss and what I had meant to him. I couldn’t tell him any of that because it sounded pathetic and desperate even to my own ears.

  So I lied. I lied my face off. “It’s just not appropriate. I’m Ella’s teacher and you’re her guardian.”

  His smile
said it all, but it didn’t have to because his mouth wasn’t far behind. “That’s bullshit. None of that has anything to do with me putting my lips on yours.” He studied my face like he did when we were in school together. Like he was trying to figure me out. I prayed he wouldn’t.

  And while his eyes pillaged my very soul, his knee slowly wedged itself between my thighs, causing my skirt to rise. I turned my head to the classroom door, terrified someone would walk through even though I knew it was after hours and we were alone.

  His hands left my jaw and traveled down my neck, past my shoulders and the outer swell of my breasts to settle on my hips where he squeezed.

  “What are you so afraid of, baby?”

  He called me baby and he was doing it again. That thing where he made me dizzy and stupid. He was making me forget why this was a bad idea. Why I shouldn’t want this. Because he felt so, so good against me.

  His warm palms left my hips and slid down over my ass and to the bottom of my skirt where he clutched the hem in his fists, slowly sliding it up more.

  I should have said stop. Anything, but the farther he pushed up my skirt, the more his knee moved in and up until it sat right there against me. Right where I needed it.

  A small squeak escaped my lips and one corner of his mouth lifted in a slow smile. “God, you’re gorgeous.” His nose brushed the side of mine and the harsh stubble on his jaw scraped my skin exquisitely. His massive hands moved under my skirt and right to the globes of my bottom, squeezing, before one moved up and snapped the top of my panties. “And you have a thong on. You’re trying to kill me, Red.”

  He lowered his head more, zeroed in on my lips, and even though I was a mess of hormones and turned on more than I’d ever been in my life, I couldn’t give it to him. I couldn’t give him my kiss again.

  I turned my head in the nick of time and his mouth landed on my jaw.

  “You’re not going to give me your mouth, huh?” he mumbled against my cheek before pressing open mouth kisses down my face to my neck.

  “No,” I whispered into the quiet room, my voice breathy.

  “Mmm,” he moaned right into the spot where my shoulder met my neck before giving me a bite there that simultaneously stung and lit my body on fire. “Then I’ll just have to take what you give me. Now won’t I?” he growled.

  And then he was there. All over. All hands and teeth and skin. His lips moved down to my chest where he kissed me like he was worshiping me. His hands cupped my ass hard and using his teeth, he peeled back my blouse until the tops of my breasts were exposed.

  He pressed his mouth there, biting them, nipping at the sensitive skin and sucking until I was a mindless, needy puddle of want merely held up by an edge of a desk and two hundred and ten pounds of muscle.

  I tried to hold back. To not cry out, but I was weak when it came to Lukas Callihan and his magic. It had always been that way and before I knew it, I was sighing and then moaning and eventually begging for more. “Please,” I cried, pressing my hot core against his knee as my hands gripped the edge of the desk so I didn’t float away.

  Leaning back, he demanded, “Unbutton your shirt. I want to see you.”

  It was a dare. It was a promise. And I was a fiery redhead. I’d never backed down from a dare.

  I let go of the desk, my chest rising and falling like I’d run a marathon. I pushed one button through the hole, my eyes on his. Because I knew if I looked away for even one more second I’d lose my nerve and despite my better judgment, I wanted this. I loved that he wanted me. I’d dreamed about it for so long.

  Two. Three. Four. Five. And my shirt was open and I was standing there, my cream lace bra visible to the one and only Mister Quarterback. If I hadn’t been so worked up, I would have been shaking in my red pumps.

  “Jesus, Red. I can’t believe how beautiful you are.”

  I paused, feeling like a fool. Of course he couldn’t believe it. I’d been too skinny and gangly then. I hadn’t even gotten my breasts yet. And just like that all those old insecurities poured into me. I couldn’t help but think of that day. The day he’d left. And kissed me. Virtually stealing my heart and taking it with him all the way to South Carolina. He’d never called. Never written. He’d taken my first kiss and disappeared. And God, how my heart still ached when I thought about it.

  I lay back further on the desk clutching the open lapels of my shirt, realizing what a fucking terrible idea this was. I could get fired over this. Over a man who probably wanted to fuck me and toss me aside like yesterday’s garbage. What in the hell was I thinking?

  “Come back to me, Scarlett.” He was over me, closer and pulling at my fisted hands, his eyes pleading. His eyes. They’d always made me weak. Even then. More so now.

  I let go and his hands pushed each side of my shirt aside before heading south back down to my ass. “I can’t kiss your lips, but I can kiss you here.” He started at my chin. “And here.” My neck. “And here.” And he was back at the swells of my breasts. He took the silky lace of my bra between his teeth and pulled each cup down under my breasts and my nipples beaded in the cool air and under his lustful gaze.

  “And here,” he said with finality before drawing one of my aching nipples into his mouth and laving it with his tongue. His wet mouth was hot against my aching nipple and with one hand, I clutched the back of his head, holding him to me.

  “Oh my God,” I moaned, knowing this was so wrong but felt so damn right.

  “No, baby. It’s just me, Luk. But I have to believe that God had something to do with this moment.” He chuckled quietly against my breast and the vibration and his breath only made me hotter, wetter. God, I was soaking. It was embarrassing really, except for the fact I couldn’t think long enough to even be embarrassed.

  His mouth devoured my chest as his hands gripped my hips harder and pulled me toward his knee that was between my legs. And that was it. His knee was right there, creating a delicious friction right against my clit through the thin material of my panties.

  My breath caught and I stilled. I hardly breathed. It felt like everything stopped in that moment. Or something snapped. Like I’d finally reached a breaking point. I felt my body lock up tight, ready for whatever came. Everything but my lower half, that is. Because I couldn’t stop myself. He pushed me down on his knee and I went there willingly like the crazy, sex-deprived freak that I was.

  I couldn’t stop it. I didn’t want to. It was the most amazing feeling I’d ever had in my life. Better than my hand. Greater than all the vibrators and dildos galore. A simple man’s knee was doing me in. I was such a sexual novice.

  His breath and lips and tongue pillaged my chest. His hands held my hips like they were a lifeline, like he was afraid if he let go, I’d fly right away and never come back.

  While his mouth devoured the tops of my breasts and then farther down to the hard buds of my nipples, he used his hands to grip my ass and rock me against his knee in that same delicious spot that had me seeing stars behind my eyelids. Because my eyes were clenched closed. I couldn’t bear to watch this man steal what little was left of my heart. I hadn’t let him have my lips, but I realized in that moment it didn’t matter. These feelings were something I’d never experienced with another man. He was just making more firsts for me to crave, want, need. Damn him.

  I pulled at his hair, angry, needy, damn irate at the situation but unable to stop it. Because I was too caught up and he was too damn sexy for his own good.

  He grunted from the spot right between my breasts and sucked hard like he wanted to punish me, too. Pulling me more tightly against his knee, he rocked me harder there in a rhythm that did more than just turn me on. No, it had me moving toward something I didn’t think possible with my panties still on and his dick still in his pants.

  My breathing picked up and my body curved inwardly until I was practically curled around him and begging him to keep going. “Yes,” I panted right into the hollow of his ear.

  “You’re on fire, Red. And you�
��re going to burn me up. Aren’t you?” He looked down between us at the spot where I was pressed up against his knee. “Are you going to come right here on my leg leaned up against your desk like a good girl? Look at you making a wet spot right there on my knee.”

  My face flushed hot and my cheeks burned, but I didn’t care. His voice was thick with anticipation and sex. It was deeper, more gravelly, more everything and I felt it right down to the tips of my toes. At this point, I was riding his leg and chasing the kind of orgasm I’d only ever dreamed about—one that wasn’t self-induced.

  “Fuck, you’re pretty,” he said, looking down at my face before leaning in. I tipped my head back and moaned as his lips missed mine and landed right on my chin. He worked his way down again, this time not even bothering with the tops of my breasts. He went straight to my nipples, sucking them hard enough to sting.

  I cried out and pushed even harder against him, wet spot be damned. I needed to come. Now.

  “That’s it, Red. Ride me. Use me.” He bit the tip of a nipple hard and held it between his teeth before finally releasing me and giving the nub long licks with his tongue, soothing the sting. “Come all over me, baby.”

  Those words and that deep voice washed over me like a tidal wave because in seconds both of my hands were in his hair and holding him to my chest while my bottom half was locked tight around his, my shorter legs so intertwined and tangled up with his that I didn’t know where mine began and his ended.

  I ground down and threw my head back, my orgasm shooting through me like lightning, so very unexpected in its intensity. “Yes, yes, yes,” I cried as I rode it out, unabashedly unashamed. My legs and arms shook around him.

  Luk’s hand stayed at my ass, rocking me slowly against him while his mouth sucked gently at one nipple and the other hand played at the other, gently squeezing. A squeezing that caused me to contract at my core.

  My body fell lax back against the desk and still Luk kissed every available surface of skin he could reach. Tender kisses that wound my body down, all the while wounding my heart.