Zane found this very surprising. “You do? This is one of the best areas of the city. At least as far as neighborhoods, affluence, and socio-economic status go. That’s generally what makes or breaks a school system.”
Mr. Trujillo’s eyebrows shot up. They were rather bushy considering the lack of other facial hair present on the man’s cheeks and chin. “You’re not quite what you seem are you, Mr. King.”
It was Landry’s turn to grin. She suddenly picked up Zane’s hand and gave it a squeeze between her own. “No, he really isn’t. You have no idea how smart this guy is because he just pretends to be a useless playboy.”
“Thanks, babe.”
“Anytime,” she quipped. Then she stared at her boss. “You’re putting me on administrative leave. That’s why you pulled me in here. You’re putting me on leave.”
“Yes.”
“I can’t afford that and you know it.” The tightness in Landry’s voice raised the hackles on Zane’s back. At least it would have if he had been in his wolf form. Right now he was just feeling prickly and angry that this principal seemed so determined to flatten Landry.
“It’s not unpaid,” Principal Trujillo assured her.
Landry snorted. “I get extra money from the bus and lunch aide duties. I’m not going to get that when I’m down to my standard salary on administrative leave. That’s a big deal to me. You can’t do this. It’s not fair.”
“It is fair.” He steepled his fingertips in front of his face and paused. With his legs folded and his hands like that he looked like some evil overlord plotting his next move. “We have to let this die down. We need to perform a standard investigation into the incident. At least I was there so it’s not like there’s some kind of fact-finding issue. I know it wasn’t your fault, Landry. Not exactly. But I will have to be honest about what you said to the man and about how it affected him.”
“Fine.” Landry didn’t seem bothered. “You go ahead and do that. But you especially let the school board and the union rep know that I’m being punished because I refused to change a student’s test grade on the demand of their parent when it wouldn’t even have affected their overall grade and would have done nothing but set a standard of letting parents instead of teachers decide when a kid deserves an A.”
The principal looked tired. “I’ll let them know.”
“It’s not fair,” Landry repeated. “You know it isn’t and that makes it worse.”
The older man pursed his lips and looked at least a little sorry. “Maybe this is a chance to plan your wedding. Think about it like that.”
“Sure. Great idea,” Landry muttered.
Zane could not decide if this was a positive or negative comment on Landry’s part. Right now he was pretty sure that he had no clue what to think about anything. Maybe that was the best place to start.
Chapter Nineteen
Landry barely managed to make it all the way back to Zane’s truck before she completely lost her shit. It was still raining outside. Sheets of water ran down the front and back windshields and she could not even make out the school building’s familiar profile through the passenger window of the oversized vehicle.
Zane flipped on the headlamps and that almost seemed to make it worse. It was almost like the world had gone completely dark at noon. Perhaps it had. Maybe this was like some biblical plague. The plague of stupid choices exacerbated by the idiotic actions of others. Yes. That sounded about right.
“Are you all right?”
It took her a minute to process Zane’s words. Was she all right? Hmm. Let’s see. No. Not really. But it was almost like her tongue was glued to the roof of her mouth so she wasn’t likely to be able to express that to any satisfaction.
“Landry?”
“I’m just trying to process, Zane.” There. She finally managed to say something. That was a big bonus. Swallowing the lump that had appeared in her throat, she attempted to pull herself together just a little bit more. “I don’t get it. Why the big show? All of the just go with its and follow your leads? Are we…?”
Oh, holy shit! Here she was suddenly publicly engaged to this man and deep down inside she was worried that it wasn’t real. That was rich. That was just—ugh! Why should she care if it was real or not? She didn’t need Zane King. She did not need anyone. Not her parents, her grandmama, her boss, her students, her job… Okay she was getting a little bit lost here and it was kind of pathetic.
“What’s wrong, baby?” The gentleness in his tone made her heart bleed. How was she supposed to be angry at him?
“I don’t know what’s wrong.” She exhaled and inhaled and tried to contain her breathing, control it, something. “Was that real? What just happened? It’s like I went to work this morning and everything was great. Then all of a sudden the entire universe went nuts. Some idiot parent shows up in my classroom with my boss in tow and boom! I’m suddenly embroiled in this insanity where he’s attacking me and I’m having to defend my decision to help his kid with his homework so he can actually learn the material instead of just giving him a fake A on a test!”
“That’s dumb.”
Somehow that was the most hilarious thing that Landry had heard all day. She burst into giggles that were as uncontrollable as they were manic. Covering her mouth with both hands she struggled to stop sounding like she’d lost it. But that wasn’t actually how she felt. She felt like she’d lost it. That was just how things worked in her world.
He let her go for a few minutes before he spoke. “Landry, I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be,” she gasped. A huge exhale and finally she stopped laughing like a lunatic. “It’s not your fault, and honestly I don’t understand what’s going on, but you’re not usually erratic. Sometimes you don’t think things through. But you aren’t a guy to go a million directions at once unless he has a real reason. I trust you. Besides, it’s not like I’ve got a boyfriend to get pissed off or something.”
The interior of the truck was starting to fog up. People were going to think that they were out here necking like teenagers. That would just make everything seem that much more genuine and real. Landry wondered if there would be news vans sneaking around with reporters trying to get a photo of the two of them kissing in the kitchen or in the driveway or at a store or pretty much anything. Maybe they were being recorded right now. Was this what it was like to be a King?
“I went to a coffee shop this morning to get some advice on the newspaper article thing,” Zane told her suddenly.
That made absolutely no sense. Landry frowned at him and tried to think clearly. “I’m sorry. You’re going to have to explain that. What kind of advice do you get from coffee shops on that sort of thing? I know baristas are a bit like bartenders, but still.”
“Right.” He chuckled and reached over to touch her hand. The light contact made her tremble like a leaf. He stared at his hand touching hers for a moment as though he’d lost his train of thought. Then he suddenly came back to the moment. “My brother Jason’s wife, Skye, pretty much constantly hangs out at this place called The Corner Shop. She used to work for the Dallas Star.”
“Oh.” That was a bit shocking. “So she told you to what? Upstage the Star?”
“Basically.”
“I suppose that makes a sick kind of sense.” Landry could not help but feel a little bit used. “So basically you needed a huge stage and this bizarre occurrence of mine happened to fit the bill?”
“I suppose you could put it like that.”
“Wow.” Landry now officially didn’t know what to say. “I guess it’s really fortunate that I screwed up with that parent and they called all of the newspapers and television stations in order to get someone over to the school to break the story.”
“I suppose.” His phone started buzzing in the center console. It vibrated hard against the plastic and took several moments to stop. He didn’t reach for it. “I never intended to make you feel like I was using you though. It’s not like that. I promise.” His phone star
ted vibrating again. The thing actually sounded angry. Or maybe that was just Landry projecting her assumptions onto the noise.
She pointed to the console. “You should answer that.”
“I’m busy.”
“Yeah? But you purposefully just splashed your personal business across every news outlet in Dallas. I’m pretty sure you’re about to feel the family backlash.” Landry could not help but feel satisfied when she saw Zane’s face pale beneath his tan as he absorbed what she was telling him. Landry patted his arm and for some reason felt just a smidge better. “Uh huh, this is what happens when you don’t warn people you’re proposing to a woman and pretty much blindside your whole family and friends network.”
“Experienced with this or something?” He grumbled the words as he groped inside the center console for his phone. Finally, he came up with the little thing as it went into new spasms of shaking and noise making. “Damn. I have like, forty missed calls and dozens of texts.”
“Yeah, like I said.”
He reached for the ignition and started the engine. “Well, since you don’t have anything else to do I suppose you can head to the King Security Solutions office and have a nice little conversation with my family.”
“Excuse me?” Landry swung her head around so fast it felt like she popped her neck. “You cannot be serious!”
“As a heart attack.” He was already steering out of the parking lot and heading for the highway that would take them to downtown Dallas. “You’re going to go with me and we’re going to pretend to be the happiest couple in the city.”
“You’ve lost your damn mind.” She pressed her lips into a tight line. “Just because you’re a good kisser does not mean I’m willing to get all lovey-dovey in front of your family!”
“A good kisser?” He was suddenly smiling like the cat that got the cream. “So you think I’m a good kisser? How good? The best you’ve ever had?”
She folded her arms and refused to speak. Except she could not keep quiet. Dammit! “What are you? Twelve?” she muttered. “The best I’ve ever had? Really? And no!”
“What?” He nearly steered off the road, overcorrected on a curve, and earned about a dozen angry honks from a small commuter car behind them. “Then who was the best?”
“Thackery Morton in sixth grade,” Landry told him primly. “No tongue.”
“You liked my tongue,” Zane growled. “Don’t make me pull over and prove it to you.”
She grunted at him because she could. The man was absolutely insufferable. “Don’t be ridiculous. You’re driving to your family’s office building. Remember?”
Steering violently to the right, Zane ignored the shrill honking of horns and the squeal of other tires as the truck slid just a bit on the drenched road before coming to an abrupt stop on the side of the busy highway.
Landry gripped the door with enough force to rip the handle off the interior of the truck. “You can’t pull over on a highway like that! You’re going to get us killed!”
“Oh yeah?” He was already reaching over the center console.
Landry tried to push him away. “What are you doing?”
Then he caught her in his arms and suddenly she was frozen like a little mouse. “I’m proving that you liked it.”
Landry might have protested, but he slammed his mouth down on hers and anything she might have wanted to say died right then. The sexy feel of his lips moving against hers drowned out every rational thought in her brain. There was nothing but the spicy taste of him and the erotic sensation of his tongue rubbing against hers as he made love to her with his mouth over and over again until she was straining against him.
At some point Landry realized that she was practically crawling into his lap to get closer. That was when her senses finally kicked in and she gasped for air and struggled to breathe against the onslaught of incredible feelings rushing through her body. Her emotions were in a tangle and the physical power of her response to Zane was almost too much to bear.
“Stop!” she moaned. “Zane, please!”
He finally let go. Landry sprang back to her side of the truck as though she had been tethered in place by a bungee cord. It was like waking up from a dream or coming up for air after a lifetime of being under water.
“There.”
His male grunt of satisfaction was totally annoying and yet precious too. How was she supposed to get mad at him when he looked as though he had just conquered Everest? The shining gleam in his dark eyes was all mischief and male bravado. This man was—well, right now he felt as though he was all hers; and how on earth was that a bad thing?
“There?” She forced herself to make a face at him. “That’s what you have to say? You must be joking. There. Like you showed me or something. Sheesh, Zane!”
But he was grinning and laughing and once again she could not even begin to make herself be angry at him. Then his phone buzzed angrily once again and Landry realized that the two of them were pulled over on the highway. It was something that a police car had apparently noticed as well because through the wet early afternoon gloom Landry spotted red and blue flashing lights pulling over behind them.
“Um, Zane?”
Landry watched in her side mirror as the police officer got out and started walking up to Landry’s window since it would allow him to see inside the vehicle without standing right there in speeding traffic.
“We’re good, babe,” Zane assured Landry. “I’ve got this. He pushed the answer button on his phone. “What?”
Of course Landry could hear nothing but the timbre of a voice on the other end of the line going ten thousand miles a minute and the hum of the window right beside her going down as Zane opened it to allow the police officer to look inside the truck’s cab.
Landry wanted to cover her face with her hands and close her eyes until it all went away. The police officer took one look at Zane yakking on the phone and then nodded his head at Landry. “We got reports of some erratic driving from a vehicle answering to this description. Are you all right?”
“Yes. His family is just calling every five seconds. That’s all.” Landry swallowed. She felt absolutely idiotic making excuses for Zane who was currently saying yes, I know about a thousand times. What was happening? Or did she really want to know? “I’m sorry, officer. Although if you want to give him a ticket he definitely needs someone to teach him a lesson.”
The officer threw his head back and laughed. He didn’t seem to mind the rain pattering down on his wide-brimmed state trooper’s hat. “Aren’t you the couple that just got engaged on TV?”
Oh God. Was that their identity now? Landry supposed it was better than people calling her the teacher who had been attacked by a parent, but still. She bobbed her head up and down. “Yes. I suppose we are.”
“Then I’ll just wish you the best and thank your fiancé for getting off the road to take his phone call.” The officer looked fascinated by Zane’s animated phone call. “Have a nice day.”
Landry had to answer. It was only polite. “Thank you, officer!”
Then the window buzzed up, the police cruiser went around them, and Landry continued to listen to the craziest phone call she had ever heard between Zane and what she thought was one of his brothers. But it could have been his mother. She wasn’t sure. She wasn’t sure she wanted to be sure. Did it matter when the whole thing was just for show? Or was it? Landry could not even answer that question.
It was like the whole world had gone crazy. Landry was so confused and so upset by everything that had happened today. It was only—what time was it? The clock on the radio display said just after noon. So here it was in the middle of the day and Landry was already pretty sure that her life was never going to be the same again. Ever.
Chapter Twenty
Zane would have been proud to call Landry his fiancée regardless of the circumstances. That really wasn’t the issue. As he tucked Landry’s hand into the crook of his arm and made his way through the front doors of the King buildin
g in downtown Dallas he wondered if she felt the same. Her mood seemed to be low. Or maybe that wasn’t the right word.
“Are you okay?” Zane finally asked as he bypassed the security checkpoint by the guard desk in the main foyer of the building. “You seem awfully quiet.”
They were nearly to the bank of elevators. Zane could not help but notice that everyone was staring at him. That was not really all that problematic to begin with. Staring he could handle. It was the horrible feeling that every female around him was trying to gauge her chances to somehow catch him up like a fish in a net.
“I’m fine.”
Okay. So that reply was not exactly comforting. But Zane glanced around and realized that they were standing in the midst of several people waiting for the elevator. Maybe Landry just didn’t want to talk right now. That was understandable right? It didn’t mean she was angry at him for some unknown female reason.
Ugh. Female reasons. Zane felt his stomach knot with nervousness. He hated that. He hated the feeling of being totally out of control and unable to regain it. As if the whole world were dictated and run by the whims of the female in the household.
The elevator doors dinged and whooshed open. Landry stepped inside and Zane followed. What felt like a hundred people came in after them. “What floor?” someone called out.
“Ten!” Zane called back.
Of course that caused everyone in the elevator to turn around and stare. Floor ten was corporate offices. Nobody went there without a reason. No doubt the rest of these poor saps were employees who wondered what actually happened up on the corporate level. This was probably especially true since there had been some payroll issues in the last few months since the death of Zane’s father Big Mac King.
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