by Bree Verity
“Maybe it’s too early to talk about this, but I wanted to know what you think about family.”
“What about family?”
“I have three kids, Des. I need to know you’d be good with a built-in family.” He looked at his hands, which were fisted together. “I don’t really want to subject them to someone who will make them feel abandoned or unwanted. They get enough of that from their mother.”
“Oh.” Desiree’s thoughts tumbled. She wondered if she should tell Jack about her dysfunctional youth, her hatred of her father for his many indiscretions, and her broken relationship with her mother. She had briefly mentioned her childhood when he was at parent teacher night, she wondered if he remembered.
“It’s just that, I’m not sure someone with loads of issues would be good for my kids. I just want to make sure you’re all good.”
Desiree plastered a bright smile on her face, ignoring the churning of her stomach and the screaming of her conscience. “Not a problem. I get why you would want to know that. And you can count on me.”
Well, at least you didn’t out-and-out lie to him.
He smiled, relaxing. “I figured you’d be alright, considering you’re a teacher.” He tentatively took her hand. “I’ve had a great time tonight, Des.”
“Me too.”
“We should do it again.”
“We definitely should.”
Desiree didn’t want the evening to end, and she could tell that Jack didn’t either. She stepped forward and kissed him on the lips before turning to her car to unlock the door.
Jack spun her back to face him. With his hands around her shoulders, his gaze bored into Desiree’s. Then he pulled her close, wrapping his arms around her. She found herself with her arms around his hips, being crushed against his substantial chest. She sighed in bliss, and was rewarded with a waft of Jack’s scent - some kind of masculine aftershave, but also Jack’s own personal musk. She leaned her head on him, happy to be encircled in his arms.
Far too soon, Jack loosened his grip, but it was only to draw Desiree back far enough so that he could kiss her. It wasn’t a chaste, controlled kiss like the one at the bar. This one was hot with restrained passion. Desiree opened her mouth, and Jack reciprocated. She used her tongue to lick along his lip, then invaded his mouth. He was quick to join in, their tongues dancing a sensuous tango. Desiree felt her head spinning. She didn’t think she had ever been on the receiving end a kiss like this. It wasn’t the kiss itself - she’d had plenty of French kisses in her life. No, this was something else entirely. The connection that she felt with Jack was extraordinary. Although this was only their second kiss, it felt like she belonged there, that she had been kissing him forever in this way. That they were experienced in the dance.
Jack pulled back, breathless. “Desiree,” he breathed. “You’re really something.” His cobalt eyes devoured her while his fingers trailed over her lips, over her jaw and down her neck, feathering on her decolletage. A small groan escaped her, and his hands reluctantly returned to her face. He kissed her again, but this time Desiree could tell he was trying to finish up the evening. And although she couldn’t think of anything that she wanted more than to draw Jack back into that amazing, spinning dance, she let him kiss her gently before he let her go.
“I really do have to go.”
“I know.”
“When can I see you again?”
“Give me a call and we’ll work out a time, okay?”
“Sure.”
Desiree turned back to her car and unlocked the door. This time Jack didn’t stop her, but when she got into the car and shut the door, she wound down the window and he leaned on the window sill. Desiree leaned over to plant a quick kiss on him before she started the engine. Trudy thrummed to life, and Jack’s eyebrow raised. “She’s got a great purr on her. A bit like her Mama.”
She laughed. “We are two of a kind, she and I.”
“I can see that. Sleek and sexy, but with power under the hood.” Jack winked and Desiree smirked at him.
“You have no idea, mister.”
He chuckled gently before kissing her one more time, and whispering, “Bye.”
“See ya.”
Jack stood up, and Desiree put Trudy in gear, driving away. Out of the rear vision mirror, she watched Jack until he disappeared, swallowed up by the Hay Street traffic.
CHAPTER ELEVEN.
Desiree doubted whether any of her students learned a single thing on the day following her date with Jack. She stumbled over simple concepts, forgot kid’s names, and left questions half asked. Her jaw hurt from clamping it down in irritation at her mistakes, and her eyebrows felt as if they were permanently drawn together.
But there was nothing she could do. Another compartment in her brain – the wrong compartment - kept insisting on centre stage. It was the one that held the memories of Jack’s kisses and caresses. No matter how many times she pushed them back, they kept forcing their way to the forefront, wiping out any other thoughts that were there.
For a woman who prided herself on her control, Desiree couldn’t believe just how out of control Jack made her feel. And she wasn’t sure she liked it. She wasn’t a little pansy-assed wide-eyed schoolgirl for fuck’s sake. She didn’t flutter her eyelashes and swoon at the first sight of a man’s attention. But there it was. She was fluttering and swooning like a debutante with her skirts lifted for the first time.
She continued to stumble around throughout the afternoon. Nathan Morton, whose mother she had the heated conversation with at parent teacher night, was in her final class for the day, and her concentration dived even more when she noticed him watching her, a smile playing around his mouth. It was so different to his usual hidden-under-the-hoodie behavior, she knew he could see the difference in her. And it made her even more clumsy and ditzy.
He wandered up to her desk following the class, which was also completely unusual. Nathan had never initiated an interaction with Desiree. As it was, he still didn’t look her in the eye, his gaze firmly on the desk.
“Hi, Nathan. What can I do for you today?” She kept her tone light, wondering whether any of the year coordinators had spoken with the teen. He seemed a little less downcast, so perhaps there had been some positive action.
“About calling my Mum to come see you.” He drummed his fingers on the table. “I appreciate it.”
Desiree smiled. “I’m glad. I hope everything is okay with you?”
“Yeah.” Nathan finally looked at her for a moment and threw her a half-smile before looking away again. She realised it was all the confirmation she was going to get. It didn’t really answer her question one way or the other, but it was more communication than she had with Nathan since the beginning of the semester, so she wasn’t going to let the opportunity go to waste.
“I wasn’t sure that I got through to your Mum at all. She was in a bit of a hurry.”
“Yeah, no-one can get through to my Mum.” Nathan’s expression darkened for a moment, before he pulled himself up, and returned to his normal nondescript face. “You were really distracted today.”
Desiree flushed and smiled. “Was it that obvious?”
“No, it’s cool. It’s like you’re in love or something.” He nodded slowly, almost to himself, and then said fiercely, “If you are, Miss Jackson, you should grab on with both hands and never let that shit go.”
She wondered at the intensity in his voice, and the way his fingers stilled against the desk. To Desiree, it felt as if he was speaking from experience, as if he was reliving a memory. She reached out to cover his fingers with hers, and softened her tone. “Are you alright, Nathan?”
He pulled away as if she had slapped him. “I’m fine. Don’t worry about me.” All of his muscles tensed, and an ugly expression crossed his face, pain and loathing raging over a mask of glittering hatred. Desiree almost took an alarmed step back, but managed to keep herself still as Nathan struggled to right his warring emotions. “I’m fine.” He said it ag
ain, softly, and she knew the conversation was over.
“Alright.”
He pulled a crinkled photocopied flyer from his backpack and thrust it at her, muttering, “Anyway, I heard you like to go out and see live music, so I’m onstage tomorrow night if you want to go.”
He turned and walked away before she could ask him what it was. She looked at the flyer – it was for an open mic night at a bar close to the school. Then she realised, although she had a pretty good handle on what almost all of her other kids did, she didn’t know anything about this side of Nathan. The first question that came into her head – how does he know I like going to see live music? – was quickly followed by a number of others. What was a kid of fifteen doing hanging around a bar? Do his parents know what he’s up to? Should I call them?
After a few moments of indecision, Desiree concluded that she wasn’t responsible for Nathan’s activities outside of school. And her previous intervention with Mrs Morton hadn’t exactly been a success. Decision taken, she picked up her stuff and started walking back to her office.
Despite her decision, she still felt a niggle of responsibility. When you put teenagers and pubs together, it usually meant trouble. But Nathan was just there to perform. Maybe there was no trouble at all.
But what if there was?
By the time she reached her office, she had reluctantly decided to go along to Nathan’s performance, if only to keep an eye on him. Pulling out her phone, she sent Jack a text asking if he wanted to go with her. When she hadn’t received a reply within two minutes, despite checking her phone every ten seconds, she scowled, then laughed at herself.
Jesus, Desiree, the man has to work you know. It’s not like he’s sitting on his phone waiting for you to call.
She also sent a text to Penny, giving her some teasers about her date with Jack, telling her where he took her, and that the date was really nice. She smiled as she hit send, knowing that as soon as she read the message, Penny would come back with a hundred questions.
Sure enough, minutes later Desiree’s phone pinged.
“Did you kiss him? Was it hot? Who goes to a burger joint? Nothing romantic about that”
Desiree snuffled a laugh, and replied, “It’s surprising how romantic a burger joint can be…” It was purposely click bait – Penny responded in seconds.
“Thats mean You cant not tell me now Did you kiss him?”
“Yes – and it was good”
“How good?”
Desiree thought for a moment. With Jack, it wasn’t all fireworks and jolts of electricity or any of that other stuff that usually makes for an amazing first date. It was just that it felt right and perfect and comfortable. Like they were in exactly the right place at the right time with each other. There was heat and fire, but not massive sparks. Desiree didn’t know how to describe the feeling to Penny, she’d never felt it before. Her usual was to have the sparks when she kissed the guy, then fall into bed with him to make sure the sparks kept going. With Jack, she didn’t seem to need to make the sparks happen. She wondered why it wasn’t important, and whether it was a problem. Maybe it was chemistry instead of electricity. Or something like that. Desiree shrugged to herself, and replied to Penny.
“Extremely good”
She was going to add but different to the message, only she didn’t want to try to explain something to Penny that she couldn’t actually work out herself. Pen’s “Yay!” in response brought a smile to her face.
Desiree heard the bell, so her last message to Pen was “Talk to me later I have to go be a teacher”
She picked up another pile of paperwork and headed to her next class.
CHAPTER TWELVE.
The Roundhouse Hotel was bursting at the seams with people. It seemed that the open microphone nights were extremely popular – or maybe it was because the Roundhouse served cheap beer during the open mic hours. Either way, Desiree was glad of Jack’s big hand to hold as they elbowed their way to the long bar. His size seemed to be a catalyst for people to get out of the way. Desiree noted the way the men seemed to size him up, and the women too – only for completely different reasons.
She reflected that it was nice not to have random guys hitting on her for once. She admitted to herself that she did look nice tonight – she had chosen hip-hugging blue jeans that she knew made her arse look amazing, a black, flowy off-the-shoulder top and black boot heels. A smile tugged at the corner of her mouth as she wondered which of these guys would be brave enough to hit on her when one of her hands was clamped firm in the bear-like grip of the big Texan ahead of her.
She figured it would be none of them.
Reaching the bar, Jack shouted his order for drinks to the bartender over the general noise, and then turned back to Desiree.
“It’s crazy in here. I hope this kid is worth it.”
Jack had been a little dubious about attending until Desiree made it clear that at an open mic night he wouldn’t have to take the microphone. It seemed that amongst all of Jack’s amazing skills and talents, singing did not make an appearance. Desiree wondered what else she could find out about Jack as she replied, “I’ve never heard him. But he’s a good kid.”
She looked around the venue to see a tiny stage set up in a corner on the far side of the bar. Once the bartender had given Jack their drinks, Desiree indicated that they should move over to where the stage was. Jack nodded, and once again they plunged into the sea of people.
The noise seemed a little more subdued at this end of the pub, maybe because people were there to hear the performers. They hadn’t started yet, and Desiree looked around for Nathan, spotting him chatting to some other youths who looked quite a bit older than him. She nudged Jack. “There’s Nathan. I might go over and say hello.” Jack nodded, and Desiree walked toward where Nathan was.
When he caught sight of her, his smile widened. Thinking back, Desiree didn’t think she had ever seen him look this happy or relaxed. This was a handsome young man, when he wasn’t hiding under his hoodie. She expected that he’d also made an effort to look good tonight, since he was hopping up onstage.
“Miss Jackson, you made it!” He flew toward her, and Desiree expected to be enveloped in a hug, but Nathan screeched to a halt in front of her, hesitating and colour rising in his face, like he thought better of it at the last minute.
“We’re not in school now, Nathan. You should call me Desiree.”
“Desiree.” He grinned. “We should be getting going any time now.”
“Cool.” She could see the excitement shining in his eyes. The teacher in her ached to ask what he was doing in a pub, but she knew better than to stick her nose in. She just hoped that Nathan’s friends were taking care of him. From the number of half-empty and empty beer glasses on their table, she doubted it.
“How are you getting home after?” she asked, immediately regretting it when Nathan’s expression turned to a scowl.
“I’ll be fine.”
“Are you sure? Because we can give you a lift…”
“I said I’ll be fine.”
His face was taking on the same ugly expression it had the day before, so she let it go.
“Okay. Well, I’ll be over there with that tall guy. We’ll be cheering for you!” She smiled brightly and a grudging answering smile crossed Nathan’s face. Impulsively she put a hand on his forearm and squeezed just a little. Surprised, Nathan looked down, then back up into her eyes. He nodded, his smile growing a little bigger, then turned back to his friends.
As Desiree walked back to Jack she could hear Nathan’s friends, “Who was that? She is hot, man. Check out that arse. Is she a friend of yours?” Desiree chuckled to hear Nathan reply cockily that, yes, she was a friend of his, and woe betide any of his mates who tried to hit on her. She was still laughing when she reached Jack.
“What?” he said, putting an arm around her waist and drawing her in close to his side.
“Boys are hilarious.” At that moment the music from the stage got lou
der, so to his questioning raised eyebrow, she said, close to his ear, “I’ll tell you later.”
The open mic night was compered by a vivacious blonde in a tight dress and heels, and a loud, nasally voice. The microphone was turned up so loud that Desiree could barely make out the words she was saying through the echo and feedback. She looked up at Jack and gave a meek shrug, which he answered with a grimace. Maybe an open mic night wasn’t such a good idea for their second date.
Thankfully, Nathan and his band were up first. To Desiree’s surprise, Nathan jumped up and took centre stage, guitar in hand. She was doubly surprised (and quite pleased) when they didn’t launch into a heavy rock song, but started with the chords of a well-known rock ballad. And when Nathan opened his mouth, Desiree was astounded.
Nathan’s voice was amazing. Not only did the words pour out of him, Desiree could hear the emotions of all the lyrics as well. She was mesmerized. How on earth could a fifteen-year-old kid sing so easily about love?
Then she remembered his comment from after class yesterday, about holding on to love where you find it, and chided herself for assuming that at fifteen, Nathan couldn’t know anything about love. She realised that Nathan was significantly deeper than she gave him credit for.
Nathan’s friends were brilliant on their various instruments as well, and all together, they were the total package. Nathan came alive behind the microphone. He looked out over the crowd, making love to the girls whose gaze he landed on, while his soft, seductive words drew them closer. He looked much older, much more mature than his fifteen years. Desiree smiled gently. She couldn’t wait to talk to him about this.
She leaned back into Jack and listened to the beautiful song. His arms wound around her waist, finding the bare skin between her jeans and her top. He leaned the side of his face on her hair and Desiree sighed a big breath of satisfaction.