Forever Bound (10 page)

I frowned. “
Distinct
, honey.”

“Distinct,” she repeated, pronouncing the word carefully. “I think it’s a distinct possibility.”

“What is?”

“That Mr. Curtis is the man.”

I closed my eyes and groaned.

There was nothing I could say.

***

I didn’t have any duties at lunch the next day, so I planned to make good use of the time finishing the lesson plans I hadn’t done the previous afternoon.

I’d brought a sandwich from home, so I just ran to the teacher’s lounge for a cup of coffee before heading back to my classroom.

Declan seemed to come out of nowhere, falling in step with me in the hall. “Hello,” he said, with a smile that was almost intimate.

I blushed. Like an idiot. “Hello.”

“How is your day going?”

“Okay. I’m trying to get some work done over lunch, since I’m not on duty.”

“Neither am I.” There was a strange resonance to his tone—sexy, teasing, and naughty at the same time.

I took a deep breath and looked away from him. “You should try to get some work done too. Even if you’re not a real teacher-” I’d been speaking softly, but I broke off at his quick look. “Even so, you’re responsible for these kids’ education.”

“I know that. I’ve been killing myself trying to do a decent job, while still watching out for Jessileigh. Believe me, it hasn’t been a walk in the park.”

I knew it hadn’t. And, honestly, I was surprised and appreciative that he’d done as well as he had. Even Lily wasn’t complaining about his teaching anymore.

But I couldn’t let the softness show, since I definitely wasn’t supposed to be feeling affectionate and admiring of him. “So you shouldn’t waste time you could be using to prepare for class,” I said, rather primly.

He grinned at me, and his expression changed to one I recognized. “I love when you get all prim and talk like a teacher.”

My cheeks grew hot and I dropped my eyes. “I am a teacher.”

He leaned in and murmured, “It makes me hot.”

He was making me hot too. I was all too aware of his expression, his body, the heat and tension I could feel vibrating off him.

“Have you thought any more about…possibilities?” he asked in that same thick tone.

I knew exactly what he was talking about. I nodded. “I’ve thought about it. As long as we keep it simple and no-strings, then I guess we can—“

I broke off because I couldn’t speak. He’d taken my arm and was dragging me with him. I had no idea where until we’d reached a supply closet. Before I knew it, we were inside.

“What are we doing?” I gasped, when he closed the door and turned around with a hot look.

His hands slid from my shoulders down to my hips and pulled my pelvis toward him firmly. I groaned low in my throat when I felt the hard bulge of his erection against my middle.

“What do you think we’re doing?” he murmured huskily, backing me up against a small table in the corner.

I felt my butt connect with the edge and shuddered as Declan pressed the entire length of his body up against me. “In a closet?” I whispered foolishly, feeling like I might melt away.

Declan heaved me up until I was propped on the edge of the table. I clung to his shoulders while he started unbuttoning my blouse. When he’d gotten enough of the buttons undone, he lowered his mouth and spoke over my bra, “Only convenient place at the moment.”

The vibrations on my breast made me moan helplessly. But, as I cupped the back of his head with my hands and held his face more firmly to my chest, I managed to say, “Not much for patience, are you?”

He sucked hard on my nipple through the fabric of my bra, causing me to gasp harshly. “I’m about as far from patient as possible.” His tongue teased me.  “I can’t stop thinking about you. I’m frustrated as hell right now.”

My head fell back when he started teasing my nipple once more with his tongue. “Maybe I am too.”

I was grateful I’d worn a skirt when he started bunching it up around my hips. Then his hand found the damp spot in my panties, and he made a throaty sound of approval against my breast.

I gave a little gasp when he raised his head, adjusted my weight on the table, and then parted my legs. “You better have a condom.”

“I do,” he said, reaching into his back pocket. “I was hoping you’d change your mind sometime soon. Actually, I prayed that you would.”

Feeling precarious and off balance on the little table, I held onto his broad shoulders as he unfastened his pants. I felt wild and a little naughty to be having sex like this, with most of our clothes on, in the closet in the middle of the day.

I reached down with one hand to stroke his freed erection, thrilled when he moaned under my light touch.

“Now,” Declan grunted after a minute. “What was it you wanted?”

I parted my legs and tried to move him into position. “I thought you were the one who wanted it.”

He rolled on the condom and clamped his hands down on my hips and angled them slightly. Then positioned himself at my entrance. “I’m pretty sure you want it too,” he rasped, teasing me mercilessly with tiny, tantalizing thrusts.

Sucking in an urgent breath and clawing at his shoulders, I hissed, “Inside me, Declan. I want you inside me.”

He drove his pelvis forward, fitting himself inside me in one swift thrust.

I swallowed a sound of pleasure as he filled me with perfect, delicious pressure. I adjusted my hips until I was more comfortable on the edge of the table and brought my legs up to hook around his thighs.

“You do want this, don’t you?” he asked, his voice a hot breath against my ear.

“Yeah,” I gasped, clenching around him possessively. “God, yeah.”

On a hoarse grunt, he pulled back, pausing for a beat. Then he hooked one of his elbows under my knee, pulling me open more completely before he pushed back in—the momentum of his thrust forcing me back and up, only halted by his strong hands gripping me from behind. “Like that?” he gritted through his clenched jaw.

I bit my lip to keep from crying out, but my neck twitched erratically, tossing my head to the side. The delicious friction sent sharp sensations shooting out from my center. “Yeah. Just like that.”

He withdrew and thrust again.

My arms had somehow gotten twined around his neck, and I leaned forward until my mouth was at his ear. “Hard,” I whispered. “I need it hard, Declan.”

I could hardly believe this was me.

He took me harder. My leg that was hanging over his arm bounced with our rhythm, and I felt the jolts of pleasure from each thrust start coalescing into a swell of rising pressure. He must have been feeling it too, because soon he couldn’t maintain his steady rhythm.

Making little noises with the tempo of our motion, I pulled back to look at his face. I saw that his expression was twisted with effort and concentration, and I knew we didn’t have very long.

Feeling stable now on the table in the strength of his arms, I eased one of my hands past my bunched up skirt down to where we were joined, rubbing myself to speed things up.

The pleasure immediately intensified, and my inner muscles instinctively clasped at his hard flesh.

His hot, wild gaze had followed my hand, and a primal sound burst out from his throat. Declan started grunting out rough monosyllables now, and I heard him pant, “Come, Kristin. Come.”

I rocking frantically against him, trying to reach that peak.

“Come,” he grunted, this time with rough authority.

So I did.

I hissed in pleasure and bit down over the fabric on his shoulder as I felt the familiar waves of pleasure overtake me. My fingernails raked over the skin on the back of his neck. My head falling backward, I saw Declan's face transform as he finally let himself come. My muscles clamped down around him as he kept pushing into me, muffling the sound of his own release against my neck.

My throat felt raw, and my breath was raspy as a started to relax. I clung to him tightly as the contractions faded. His body was hot and shaking a little under my arms, and his mouth on the skin of my throat was warm and moist.

He finally raised his damp face. Gazed at me for a long moment. Then kissed my gently, his tongue sweetly stroking my mouth.

When the kiss finally broke, I leaned against him, hot, breathless, and trembling. I couldn’t believe we’d just done that.

I couldn’t believe
I’d
just done that.

I’d never done something like that before in all my life.

His arms were still wrapped around me, but one of his hands now slid up until he was cupping my cheek, tilting my head back until I was meeting his eyes. “That was amazing,” he murmured.

“Mm hmm.” That was as articulate as I could be at the moment.

“You are amazing.” He caressed my cheek with his thumb.

I swallowed hard at the wave of emotion that washed over me at the tender gesture and the look in his eyes, different but just as powerful as the physical sensations of before. “You’re kind of okay yourself,” I managed to say.

His smile broadened. “Glad to hear it.”

I was feeling so soft and emotional that I had to remind myself that this was just a fling. Sex and nothing else. “I had no idea that casual sex with no strings could be so hot,” I said, pitching my tone as teasing.

He blinked and didn’t answer for just a moment. Then he smiled again. “I think any sex between you and me is going to be hot.”

“True.” I really had to pull myself together, since I was starting to read things into his words and expression. I pulled away from him physically as the first step. “Okay. That was fun, but I better get back. My lunch break is almost over.”

“Mine too,” He straightened his clothes and ran a hand over his face, like he was still a little befuddled.

But there was no way he was as befuddled as me. “Talk to you later,” I said quickly, and then I left with a wave of my hand.

I ran to the bathroom to bring my body and my mind into some sort of order.

But, ever since Declan had entered my life, all order and reason seemed to have vanished.

Declan

It takes a lot to throw me.

And I was thrown.

It took a solid five minutes before I could even think of leaving the damn closet because I was completely out of my element here. I’d seduced dozens of women in my life, and I’d been seduced by just as many. But what just happened here with Kristin was far beyond anything I’d ever experienced.

And it scared the hell out of me.

You’d think I’d be happy, right? I mean, what man wouldn’t be over the freaking moon to have a woman who was all prim and proper one minute and sex on a stick the next?

Me, that’s who.

I knew almost from the start that there was an attraction between us—hell, I pursued her with single-minded intent. I never wanted to get involved with a woman with a kid, and if anything, Lily was the perfect excuse to keep this simple. Uncomplicated. But now? I don’t particularly feel like I want that anymore.

Quickies in a storage closet are all fine and good, but watching her walk out the door had felt…wrong. I wanted her here with me. I wanted to hold her, kiss her…have more time with her.

Shit.

There was no way that I was actually feeling this way. It…it had to be something else. Maybe the fumes from the cleaning products in the closet were messing with my brain because I was so
not
the guy who was looking for anything more than a good time.

I straightened my clothes and fumbled for the light switch just to get my bearings. No one was in the hallway when Kristin walked out, but I wasn’t stupid enough to think we’d have that kind of luck twice. So I grabbed a box of tissues, some hand sanitizer and some paper towels and carefully opened the door.

The coast was clear, and I all but ran back to my classroom. Once there, I looked around the room and cursed. Kristin had a valid point earlier. I should have used my time to do some stuff for lesson planning or at least stayed close to the cafeteria to keep an eye on Jessileigh. After all, that was the reason for my even being here.

Not to have hot sex in a storage closet with a fellow teacher.

No matter how much she turned me on.

Shit.

I dropped my unnecessary supplies on my desk and made my way back to the cafeteria. I needed to remember why I was here. I needed to focus on doing the job I was hired to do. There was no way I’d be able to live with myself if something happened to that little girl while I was off being a screw up.

Hadn’t I learned that lesson already? Didn’t I know better?

The sad truth was that I had learned it, but there was something about Kristin that was…different. I didn’t feel like I was being a screw up when I was with her. I didn’t feel like our time together was just casual or for fun. Being with her made me want to be a better person, a better man.

Now I just had to find a way to balance it all out and see if she was interested in maybe a little something more than a fling.

***

“No. Absolutely no. You need to stop this right now. I’m not kidding.”

I was driving through town on my way to my hotel after school and decided that I needed to talk to someone. Levi was busy. Sebastian was unavailable.

That was how I ended up with Cole.

“I think you’re overreacting a bit, man,” I said with a nervous chuckle. “Seriously. Relax.”

“Hell no!” he snapped back. “What is it with you guys? Why the hell can’t you just be happy with the way things were…are? I mean, we’ve been over this before, and I’m seriously considering getting a fucking tape recorder and just hitting the play button because it’s getting annoying to have to keep repeating myself.”

He’d lost me. But that was nothing new. Cole had a tendency to ramble on about stuff that none of us remembered. “Refresh my memory. What exactly have you been repeating?”

Cole growled into the phone. “Okay, first it was Levi. I was willing to let that one slide because it’s Harper. They’d known each other for most of their lives, and it was bound to happen. Sebastian? That was just crazy. I know he sort of got thrown together with Ali because he was keeping an eye on her with that case and all that crap, but still. He didn’t have to go and ask her to marry him. And now you.”

“Hey…whoa. I’m not asking Kristin to marry me,” I said defensively.

“Not yet. But I can tell, I can just fucking tell that it’s not going to be long.”

“You’re wrong,” I mumbled and cursed under my breath. “Look, all I’m saying is that…I just want to spend some time with her.”

“And the kid.”

I nodded. “And Lily. They’re a package deal. I’m just not sure how to interact with kids.”

“Says the first grade teacher,” Cole said with a snicker.

“Grow the fuck up. I am the first to admit that I wasn’t the right one for this job, but I was the only one available. So I’m here, and no one’s been scarred for life.”

“We don’t know that for sure.”

I wanted to argue, but he kind of had a point. “I may not be winning any teacher of the year awards, but I’ve certainly gotten better. I’m following the lesson plan thing about seventy percent of the time, and the principal is making sure that I’m not skipping anything vital. All in all, I’d say that the kids are all right.”

Cole made a non-committal sound. “If you say so. But that’s not the point. We were talking about you and hot teacher.”

“Kristin. Her name is Kristin.”

“Okay, whatever. You and Kristin.” He sighed dramatically. “What’s the holdup then? You want to hang out with her, clearly she’s into you, so what’s the problem?”

“She wants casual. She wants a fling. We agreed to that. She hasn’t really been involved with anyone since her husband died, and she sort of sees me as a safe way to have some fun without it getting too serious.”

“Why does she think that?”

“Seriously? Look at me. I’m the poster boy for having a good time with no strings attached.”

“Okay, wow. Thinking a little highly of yourself there, aren’t you?”

“I didn’t mean it like it’s a good thing,” I said, feeling more than a little exhausted with this conversation. Why couldn’t Levi or Seb been available? “Let’s just say that I’m not the white picket fence type of guy. I never wanted to be. Having fun, flirting? That’s me.”

“Obviously it’s not anymore, or we wouldn’t be having this fucking stupid conversation.”

That was it. Cole didn’t understand. Hell, I’m not even sure that I understood what I was feeling. “You know what? Forget that I called. It’s nothing. I’ll handle it.”

“All right, all right. Get your panties out of their knot.”

“They’re not…”

“So you admit that you wear panties,” Cole said and then burst out laughing.

It was hard not to join in. “I can’t wait until you hit puberty,” I said after a minute. “You’re an ass.”

“Yeah, but right now I’m the only ass available to talk you down from the ledge.”

“I’m not on the ledge.”
Much
. “I just needed to bounce these thoughts off someone. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know how much longer I’m going to be on this case or how much time I have with Kristin. I’m afraid that I’m going to come on too strong and scare her off or that I’ll do something stupid with the kid and ruin everything.”

“It seems to me like you’ve bonded with the kid. From everything you’ve told me, Lily has your back.”

I couldn’t help but smile. Lily had actually been a lifesaver in the classroom. Not just with Jessileigh, but with me too. Whenever I was struggling with keeping things on task or trying to remember where we were supposed to be and when, Lily was there to offer her two cents and her input. I resented it at first, and then I realized what an asset she was.

Besides being a great kid.

“She does,” I finally said. “But…it’s a big responsibility—you know, it’s not like I’d just be dating Kristin. If things didn’t work out, I’d have invested time in a relationship with Lily too. The kid’s already lost her father. I’m not sure how she’d react to having another man disappear from her life.”

“Shit. I hadn’t really thought of it like that.” He paused. “And tell me again why you can’t just keep it casual with the mom?”

“Because I don’t want to. I’m not digging the late-night booty calls or sex in a supply closet thing anymore. Actually, I’m feeling a bit…used.”

A hearty laugh escaped from Cole’s mouth and I wanted to strangle him. “Dude, you did not just say that! You’re feeling used? You?”

“Can you just be serious? For a fucking minute?” I yelled. “Damn it! I’m really struggling here, and you laughing at me isn’t helping at all!”

Cole instantly sobered. “Okay, you want help? Here it is. You’re moving pretty fast here. You’re not used to not being in control in a relationship. Even in your most casual of hookups, you called the shots. It seems to me like you’re spending a lot of time waiting on Kristin and taking your cues from her. And unfortunately, that’s what you’re going to have to continue to do. You don’t want to mess up her life or Lily’s. If you want to know where you stand? You’re going to have to talk to her. Instead of getting naked with her next time. Talk to her. Get to know here a little more and feel her out—not up.” He chuckled. “Sorry. Last time, I promise.”

I sighed. “You’re right. This is foreign territory to me and I guess I’m not used to having to be patient—or take my cue from anyone else. I just wish it wasn’t so…complicated.”

“Well, it is. Just talk to her. Make the time to actually talk to her so maybe she doesn’t feel like she’s just a fling or booty call to you.”

“Okay, can you stop saying booty call? It just sounds…wrong.”

Cole chuckled. “You are so screwed.”

I gave a mirthless laugh. “Yeah. I know.

***

The next two days at school were hectic. We had to spend a lot more time working on the Christmas pageant, and thankfully, Chuck took pity on me and had one of the music teacher assistants, come and work with my class instead of me doing it. Don’t get me wrong, I still had to be there and do some stuff on my own with the kids, but the majority of the preparations were done by the music teacher.

Dodged that bullet.

I hardly saw Kristin. She seemed a little more distracted than usual, and whenever I got within a few feet of her, there was always someone close by who needed her attention.

I needed her attention, dammit.

Lily must have noticed because she came up to me with a big smile on her face. “What’s up, Lil?” I asked. I probably shouldn’t have been so informal with her, but it just slipped out.

“You’re smiling at my mom,” she said, almost singing the statement.

“What? No. No, I’m not.” Maybe I was being a little defensive.

“It’s okay,” she said lightly as she started to hop from one foot to the other. If anything, her smile seemed to grow. “She smiles when she watches you too.”

“What do you…” But the kid had skipped off. Was I desperate enough that I was going to ask a six year old for relationship advice?

Maybe.

By the time I looked back across the room, Kristin and her class were walking out of the auditorium. She looked back and our eyes met, and all I wanted to do was walk over to her and kiss her and just ask how her day was going.

To quote Cole, I was so screwed.

***

I had the kids lined up at the end of the day like I always did, with me and Jess at the back of the line. The first bell rang and my little bus riders walked out of the room playing follow the leader out and down the hall. We waited quietly for the second bell for the carpool kids.

I felt uneasy. It wasn’t something I could pinpoint and put my finger on, but it was like that sixth-sense you get when you know something’s going to happen. The last time I remember feeling that way was that fateful day in the dessert.

The day we lost Gavin.

I had been distracted by the feeling, but I wasn’t going to let that happen today. Reaching down, I took Jessileigh’s hand in mine. She looked up at me, her eyes huge, and it was as if she sensed something too. Doing my best to relax and reassure her that everything was fine, I smiled. “Any plans for after school today, Jess?” I asked.

She had finally relaxed with me calling her that. “Daddy said that we were going to go horseback riding if it wasn’t too cold.”

I chuckled. The kid was bundled up in a hat, coat, scarf and mittens. Chances were there wasn’t going to be riding of any kind today. “And what if it is too cold? What’s the plan after that?”

She shrugged. “Hot chocolate and coloring.”

“That sounds like a great way to spend the afternoon, if you ask me,” I said.

“Really? You like coloring?”

I nodded my head. “And hot chocolate. It’s one of my favorite winter drinks.” I couldn’t help but keep grinning at the look on her face. She seemed very pleased by my response. “I especially like it with the little marshmallows.”

“Me too!” she exclaimed, her entire face lighting up.

“Well, that’s because you’re very smart,” I said.