First to Fail: A Strictly Professional Romance (Unraveled Book 3)

by Marie Johnston

  “She said she was upset and couldn’t take another day in this place.” His voice rumbled over my body. I craved his voice. “According to her, ‘it’s so basic.’” His statement lacked humor.

  “Did she mention who she was with?”

  He shook his head. “No. She said she camped out in the bathroom, in clothing that wouldn’t repress her free spirit.”

  “As soon as you drove away, she left with another student.”

  Chris studied me for a moment. “And I suppose you can’t tell me who?”

  “No, but I’m going to address his absence tomorrow with his parents.” And the staff that didn’t report him.

  Fire flashed, making the green in Chris’s eyes lighten. “A guy? Dresden?”

  I pursed my lips to keep from confirming the boy’s identity, but Chris didn’t push it.

  “Are you kidding me? She was alone with him all morning, doing God knows what?” He shoved his hand through his hair. “Shit.”

  I rested my hand on his chest. He froze under the touch, but I didn’t move my hand. He needed to know about Dresden, but my next observation was what bothered me. “You remember when you picked her up, she was wearing jeans?” He nodded. “I… It’s just that… Those other times she was tardy, she wore skirts.”

  A muscle jumped in his jaw. The level of conversations he probably had with his daughter this year weren’t for the weak dad.

  It wasn’t my goal to make him reminisce, so I got to the point. “Jaycee was wearing jeans. It’s cold out, and while I’m not around Jaycee a lot, when I was”—when we were together—“she wasn’t a jeans girl. She wore leggings. I’m worried that she is getting pressured for more than a few feels in a janitor’s closet.”

  “And jeans were like her armor?”

  “It might be stupid.” It’s not like they would prevent anything sexual from happening, but they’d slow it down more than leggings. “I might be way off the mark. I was her age once. Some guys that age see an insecure girl and think that it’s an opening.” I shrugged and dropped my hand.

  Chris’s gaze darkened. “Did you have a Dresden in your life?”

  I chuckled, but I couldn’t look at him. “I was only fooled once. After that, I made it a policy to not date classmates.” I hesitated over the parallel to my adult life. “Anyway, Jaycee and the boy had something going on last fall, then there wasn’t, and I saw him arm in arm with other infatuated girls. Now, Jaycee’s hurting and acting out. Even if he’s not fully aware, he senses her weakness and he’s probably looking for more than some fondles.”

  Chris sucked in a breath, his gaze heated. “I’ll talk to her. And maybe buy her a few more pairs of jeans.”

  My lips twitched. The topic was too heavy for laughter, but he was heeding my concerns. Few other parents facing the woman who’d kicked their kid out of school would do the same.

  “How’s it going with Nana and Papa?” I hadn’t meant to broach the sensitive topic that I was the root of, but I couldn’t help but worry about him.

  His shoulders dropped and he shook his head. “I haven’t talked to them yet. I’m going to get Jaycee settled in a new school and then meet with Cierra. She’s the one wielding the power whether she wants it or not.”

  “Do you think she’ll talk custody with you without her parents interfering?”

  Chris’s expression remained somber. “It depends on what they think about her fiancé. If she wants to redirect her focus to make my life miserable while she gets hitched without the drama, then that’s what she’ll do.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “Yeah,” he said quietly.

  Without thinking, I stroked his cheek. He looked destroyed. He’d offered everything he could to Cierra, and it hadn’t been enough. Then he’d ditched his career for his daughter and it still wasn’t enough. I almost said something stupid like, “If there’s anything I can do,” when clearly, I’d done enough.

  Frustration tracked up my spine. The stinking mess of his life had landed at my feet and I’d only been a catalyst, but he blamed me. And I agreed, even if I was just doing my job.

  My gaze swept his tired face. His hair was more disheveled than normal, like he’d run his hands through it a few hundred times. But that didn’t detract from his attractiveness. A good-looking man who was eaten up with anxiety over his future with his daughter.

  “Chris.” I couldn’t think of more to say. I just wanted to make it better and I didn’t know how, and it wasn’t my place.

  He swayed closer, his head dropping. My breath hitched. Was he going to kiss me? My gaze hooked on his lips. They were parted and a breath away.

  I stretched up and met him in the middle. Our mouths crashed together with a stronger force than anticipated. I clutched his shirt to keep my balance. His hands snaked around my waist, turning me until my ass hit the edge of the desk.

  Desire roared through me like a lightning bolt, singeing all my good sense with it. I’d missed this man, and he had me in his arms. That was all I cared about.

  Clutching him, I pushed closer. Our mouths were open, our tongues tasting, savoring. The ruffling of papers falling to the floor didn’t bother me in the slightest.

  Oh yes. I’d missed this, how he made me feel, the fire he stoked inside of me.

  Prying my hands off him, I slid them under his coat and around his waist, wanting the heat of his skin to seep into me. I curled my fingers around the hem of his shirt and tugged it up.

  He mimicked my actions. My shirt was loose in seconds and his fingers skimmed around my waistband like he was searching for the clasp.

  Worried he wouldn’t find it, I released his top just as he abandoned my waist and bunched up the material of my skirt. Cool air hit my thighs and I widened them to fit around him.

  He settled between my legs, the warm denim lighting up my nerve endings as the edges of his coat tickled my shins. More. I needed more. The ache in my center that taunted me each night I fell asleep alone bloomed back to life. For as long as we’d known each other, we hadn’t landed in bed as often as other couples with less tangled obligations, but my body was primed for him. I could’ve stripped down the moment I’d turned and seen his rugged figure in the doorway.

  We ground against each other and I let out a whimper. The rigid length behind his fly wasn’t enough. Reaching between us, I flipped open the button of his pants.

  He groaned when my fingers grazed his shaft. Or was that me? I ripped the two sides apart, not caring if I destroyed the zipper.

  He blazed a path across my cheek and down my neck. Separating long enough to give me room to work him free, he released my hips to flick open the top buttons of my shirt. One plastic round loosened and clattered to the floor.

  Maybe I should care about being presentable, but my door was shut. I fisted his length. Long and hard, he throbbed in my hand, just as I was doing in his.

  He wrestled my shirt open far enough to yank down my bra. My nipples popped free, like they were reaching for him. I arched back, releasing him to bring my breasts closer to his mouth. He rocked his hips and I strained for him.

  Biting my lip, I let my head fall back. His wicked tongue circled my pebbled nipples. Still it wasn’t enough. Wiggling, I stroked my sex against his length.

  Dammit, my underwear was in the way. We were both dressed way too much to do this properly, but I was a starved woman and would take what he gave me.

  As if sensing my need, and since I wasn’t being coy, he wedged an arm between us to guide his erection to me. Pushing aside my underwear, he rocked his hips until his shaft was at my entrance.

  “Yes,” I hissed. He entered and a needy moan escaped. How could I be so close to orgasm in such little time?

  He was kissing his way back up my neck. “Natalia,” he whispered before he claimed my mouth.

  I grasped his shoulders as he set the pace. My keyboard screeched across the desk behind me. My care quotient was low. Anchored to my desk with him dominating my body, I let myself
go. Digging my heels into his ass, I held on as he thrust in and out. He pumped up, hitting the most sinful spots inside me. At his deepest point, my clit rubbed against him while my nipples scraped against his shirt.

  I moaned and whimpered into his mouth, his strong arms holding me in place.

  The force of his thrusts increased, but he kept me from bouncing across the desk.

  The first spasm hit and if he weren’t wearing a shirt, I would’ve drawn blood curling my fingernails into him. He pounded into me again, ripping a muffled scream from me.

  When the apex of my orgasm hit, I jerked, my legs coming loose from around him, but he held on. He had me. I was safe with him as he swallowed the ecstatic noises I was making and prevented me from falling.

  With a final thrust that pushed me higher than I’d ever been, he stiffened and groaned. It was my turn to hold him as he shook with his release. He pulsed inside of me, the moves amplified because my sex was clamped so tightly around him.

  We clung to each other as we crashed back to reality.

  He didn’t jerk away, but he released my mouth and caught my legs to help me down. My breasts spilled out of my top as I sat forward and scooted off the desk.

  Oh my god. That just happened. Never in my life had I thought I’d get busy in my office. I stood and let gravity deal with my skirt as I pulled the edges of my shirt together. Looking over my shoulder revealed a few papers hanging off the desk, the keyboard ready to crash to the ground, and the floor littered with stacks that I’d have to reorganize.

  It was a strangely satisfying view.

  Chris had tucked himself back into his pants and rearranged his shirt. I couldn’t meet his eyes as I smoothed my hands over the material that remained bunched over my thighs. I paused as he grasped an edge of my gaping shirt.

  “I ruined your top. Do you have something to cover yourself with?”

  I nodded. “I have a jacket.”

  He didn’t withdraw his hand but hooked his fingers under my chin and lifted. “We didn’t use protection.”

  I didn’t risk dislodging his touch to nod. “I’m still on the pill so I’m not worried. Are you?”

  He shook his head, his gaze level. “I just wish…” He sighed and released me to turn away. “I just wish we could’ve been more.”

  I had to lean back against the desk again, needing the support. He still wanted to be with me? Beyond our chemistry? “I’m not saying it’d be easy, but we could be.” My voice was so small to my own ears.

  He swiveled back toward me. “What would you tell your parents about me?”

  The question caught me off guard, but it wasn’t the reason for my delay in answering. I was running the conversation through my head.

  “If you’re thinking about how you’d start with my work history before Arcadia, then that’s the wrong answer. And honestly, I don’t need the detail that I’m fucking the principal thrown in my face when I’m fighting the Richards to parent my own damn kid.”

  I reared back like he’d slapped me. Didn’t he realize the irony of what he’d just said—beyond the hurtful denigration of what we’d just done? “I guess we’re done here then.”

  “Natalia. I didn’t mean it like that.”

  I crossed my arms to help push my shirt together. I was bared enough around him. “No. You said what you meant. You’re hung up on what I’d tell my parents, and you’re just as afraid our relationship will affect your chances against the Richards. Not to mention the issue of me expelling your daughter.” And having sex in my office.

  “No one can claim you gave us preferential treatment,” he said bitterly.

  I winced. No. I had. The art project had derailed my intentions, but it’d highlighted another glaring need within the school. And showed I didn’t need to come down like Thor’s hammer with each infraction.

  “Goodbye, Natalia.”

  He strode out of the room, swinging the door shut behind him. I was enclosed back in my office. Alone—the common factor of all my identities.

  Chapter 14

  Chris

  “What’s this about Jaycee going to public school?”

  I buried my head in the hand that wasn’t holding the phone to my ear. The one time Cierra calls Jaycee out of the blue and it’s during the school transition. She’d only been expelled two days and would start at the high school in their district tomorrow. “Cierra, that’s what I wanted to meet with you for lunch about.”

  “Mother is going to be pissed, Chris. You promised to send Jaycee to Preston. They paid for everything.”

  “Did Jaycee tell you what happened? She was with a boy, Cierra.”

  Silence descended on the other end while I explained each disciplinary action.

  “Jaycee mentioned getting in trouble, but didn’t mention any of that,” Cierra said tersely.

  “Honestly, I didn’t either because I don’t have custody and I’m afraid your parents are going to take her away. Can you help out with that?” I hadn’t meant to be blunt, but Cierra might’ve called her mother first to complain.

  Cierra sighed. “What are they supposed to think? She’s sneaking off with boys, changing her appearance, and getting kicked out of freaking school. Something has to change.”

  “Give her a chance at this new place. Preston wasn’t healthy for her.”

  “Both you and I graduated from there. It’s not the school.” That was straight up her mother talking. “And I’m getting married at the end of April. I can’t deal with this right now.”

  Did she miss the irony? She claimed the school wasn’t a factor in Jaycee’s unhappiness, then announced she couldn’t deal with Jaycee because of the wedding.

  “I’m her father. She’s been with me for almost five years. Things were fine until high school started.” Please see the sense in what I’m saying.

  “I’ll talk to Mother and Father, but they aren’t going to be happy. Without a quality education, they fear for her future.”

  “Lots of people who succeed in life don’t go to Preston Academy.”

  “Jaycee comes from a legacy.”

  I held back a snort. They weren’t Rockefellers or Vanderbilts. The empire the Richards wanted Jaycee to run was formidable in their mind only. They were good at what they did, and they didn’t want to see what they had built die. I couldn’t fault them for that. But laying their company’s future on a teen wasn’t fair. Upsetting her home life to protect it was unreasonable at the least. So was expecting me to sit back while they decided her future and absorbed her into their company. A place she’d be miserable in as she told others how to diversify their portfolios and when they should invest in high-risk stocks.

  If that was the future she wanted, then I would support her. But the only thing Jaycee wanted to invest her time into was her art, helping others with her art and making them happy like she does with Lynne. I seemed to be the only one who knew that about her.

  “Why don’t we see how she does in public school before we make any permanent decisions?”

  “I’m not keeping this a secret from them.”

  No. It’d ruin her wedding plans. She wanted to shove the problem onto her mommy and daddy and return to her ideal little world.

  “About the custody—”

  “Chris, now’s not the time. I’m. Getting. Married.”

  “Which makes it the perfect time.”

  “And do you have money for a lawyer?”

  Disappointment coursed through me. “Do we need to go that far?”

  “It’s a smart move, Chris. I can make all the changes I want, but you should have your own lawyer to read it over.”

  The lawyer topic had been her stalling tactic when I’d drained my savings to buy a house and open a comic book shop. And I’d gone along with it.

  “I have a lawyer.” I knew a lawyer. “Are you willing to meet to outline custody arrangements?”

  “So not the time. Seriously. Jaycee’s been expelled.”

  “Cierra, help me out here.” T
he desperation must’ve flowed through the phone. She’d called me once upon a time, begging the same way.

  “Of course I’ll meet with you. You’re her father, but we have a serious situation to deal with first.”

  She probably meant her wedding.

  We disconnected and I slumped in my chair with a sigh. I wasn’t concerned about getting back to the floor. Mara was arranging displays and since Jaycee wasn’t as concerned about her image anymore, she was running the till and helping customers. Going out there to watch her genuinely smile and interact with them was tempting, but I needed a few minutes.

  Last night, I’d had to go home and pretend everything was fine, that I hadn’t just mauled Natalia in her office after we’d broken up and argued. Then argued again afterward. I’d burned our fajitas and loaded the dishwasher but forgotten to turn it on. Jaycee had teased me about getting old and I couldn’t even play it off as a busy day at work because she’d been there.

  I rested my head on the back of my chair and stared at the ceiling. My office was the opposite of Mara’s. Old movie posters decorated three walls and Jaycee’s sketches of the store hung on the fourth wall. The window shade was closed and I let my eyelids drift shut.

  I missed Natalia. Spying on her for five seconds before she’d spotted me hadn’t helped my control yesterday. The play of the lights over the blond highlights in her hair had caught my eye before my gaze had drifted down to her business-wear-clad ass. She’d had the coat off that went with it—and I’d seen her at work enough to know that the suit coat was a layer to hide behind. Without it, the taper of her waist into the rounded flare of her hips was mesmerizing. Then she’d caught me lusting after her and had barely batted an eye.

  But she’d proven she wasn’t immune to me either.

  What the fuck had we done? Two people who couldn’t climb a hill had no business dreaming of mountains—or whatever prophetic words my mom had spewed when I admitted to Cierra’s rejection.