by Lee Piper
Right?
I needed to change the topic of conversation to something less humiliating.
“So, how was your date with Pete? Get any action?” I wiggled my eyebrows and she laughed.
Phew, crisis averted.
“Grace, I had such an incredible time. He took me to this new restaurant that just opened up on the foreshore of Meelup Beach and we sat and talked for hours. It was perfect.”
I nodded my head enthusiastically but felt a stab of jealousy to the heart just the same. It must be awesome spending time with someone you either didn’t have to continuously run away from or want to kill.
She continued, “So when the place closed we both went back to his place and … hung out some more.”
“I bet you did.”
Carli smiled again and I could see how genuinely delighted she was with Pete. I was pleased for her, she truly deserved to be happy after the horrendous time she’d had on the dating scene. Let’s just say, profile pictures from online dating websites didn’t mean shit. But I couldn’t help feeling sorry for myself too. The situation I currently found myself in was well and truly a pain in the ass.
“Crap, I almost forgot.” I looked up at Carli as she continued, “Serena dropped by before.”
“Serena?” I was pretty sure all dogs within a five-mile radius had just cocked their heads from my high-pitched shriek.
“Don’t worry, I said you were doing preparation stuff in the library.”
I sagged with relief, but only slightly.
“But she wants to see you in her office though, like now.”
I groaned.
It was no secret I wasn’t enraptured with the newly appointed principal of Geographe High. Serena had been preparing me for upcoming leadership opportunities by riding my back ever since her damn arrival. Well, that’s what she chose to call her overbearing interference anyway. I just called it fucking annoying. Which left me in the precarious position of wanting to prove myself to her, but hating having to do it in the first place. Surely my class results were enough evidence? But no, sadly not.
“What’s the bet Dean Thornton is in her office right now demanding my immediate resignation?”
Dean Thornton was one of Geographe Bay’s wealthiest businessmen and he made sure the entire universe knew all about it. Daily. His son, Mark, was in one of my classes, and was also the bane of my existence. Seriously, the kid was an absolute dick. He was a walking advertisement for contraception. Don’t get me wrong, on the whole I genuinely loved working with students. I mean, that’s why I chose to become a teacher in the first place. But there was something about this teenager that rubbed me up the wrong way.
Big time.
Just picture the most stuck-up, insolent, disrespectful adolescent you can think of. Then add a heap of pimples plastered all over a lanky frame and spiky dark hair. That was him—a fucking waste of space. Anyway, in class last Friday, I dared to offer him some constructive feedback on his recount draft. He hadn’t taken the criticism well.
Or at all.
“I’d lay twenty bucks on it.”
I smiled darkly. “Shall we make it a fifty to see if he gets out of there alive?”
“Done.”
A couple of minutes later I was seated on some ridiculously uncomfortable utilitarian-looking couches in the main foyer of the administration building. Serena was making me wait. She always made me wait. I wasn’t sure if it was a personal thing, where she was trying to stamp her authority over my time, or if she was legitimately in the process of trying to placate a very pissed off parent. Regardless, I still felt pretty freakin’ annoyed at having to be here at all, and my current frustration didn’t bode well for this meeting.
Martha, Serena’s PA, put down her phone receiver and gave me a well-practiced smile. It was no doubt designed to instill confidence into the hearts of the soon-to-be lion fodder but such niceties were wasted on me for two reasons. One, Serena didn’t in the least bit intimidate me. And two, I had no heart left to instill any confidence in.
“She’s ready for you now.”
I nodded my head and gave Martha a grim smile before standing and wrestling some stray strands of hair back into my messy bun. I quickly straightened out my black pencil skirt, checked to make sure my red fitted blouse was still tucked in at the waistband and was glad for the extra inch of height from my patent leather pumps. Believe me, with Serena, I needed all the help I could get. Once satisfied that I looked less disheveled than I felt, I marched on into her office.
And then stopped dead in my tracks.
What the hell?
“I’m so glad you could make it, Grace,” Serena said coldly, “finally.” Her green eyes assessed me, no doubt waiting for some form of weakness to show so she could pounce on it with unabashed glee.
When she wasn’t being a complete and utter bitch, Serena might be what some would call attractive. Beautiful even. She was about thirty years of age, with long bleached blonde hair that was always pulled back in a sophisticated knot. This highlighted her open face that was sun-kissed and sprinkled with freckles, though her skin showed a hint of aging through slight wrinkles that appeared around the edges of her eyes when she smiled or scowled. The latter was much more frequent where I was concerned.
I didn’t say anything in return to her greeting which, let’s be honest, was really an insult in disguise. I couldn’t. I just frantically tried to maintain the illusion of outward calm while my internal workings were in the process of dealing with an all-encompassing meltdown.
Levi was here.
In Serena’s office.
He was actually here.
Holy fuck.
When Levi looked up to find me gawking at him, he at least had the courtesy to look as equally bewildered as I felt. His blue eyes immediately widened, registering genuine shock. But as his gaze fluttered over my outfit it grew dark. Was it with lust? Desire? God, I hope so. I mean, God, I hope not.
Shit.
And of course my traitorous body responded shamelessly to say the least by hardening and moistening in the appropriately designated areas. Christ. In order to distract myself, I turned back to Serena, confused.
“Grace, I’d like you to meet your new student teacher, Levi Mondez. He will be working with you for the next six weeks while he’s on his final placement from Greater Western University.” Serena glowered up at me as she clipped out her final words of warning. “I’m sure you’ll make him feel very welcome.”
My confusion transformed into outright anger, and I gave her my famous glare of epic proportions. There was no way in hell this was happening. Seriously.
“No.”
“No? This isn’t a request, Grace. In order to continuously improve your teacher ranking you need to demonstrate an ability to mentor others within a structured educational setting.”
I raised my eyebrows and was about to say exactly where she could shove her structured educational settings, but she continued.
“This will also look favorably on your application for the role of English coordinator next year.”
Crap. She had me there, and by the satisfied look on her face, she knew it too. I really wanted that role and would do a much better job of it than Spread-Her-Legs Sophie, the school’s current and shall we say, promiscuous English coordinator. Sophie’s sexual exploits were legendary around campus. Rumor had it that she’d already made her way through the science department, well, all the men under fifty anyway, and was currently in the process of shacking up with a different environmental studies teacher each week. Married ones included. The girl was ruthless but I had to admire her dedication and drive. It was just a pain in the ass that after all the effort she spent servicing her vagina, very little was left for the improvement of our English department.
“Fine,” I bit out, “I’ll do it.”
“Of course you will. Now, this week Levi is only to observe and note your teaching practices. However, next week he will be required to take over some of y
our classes. It’s up to you to determine which ones, though I don’t want your Year Twelves to be disrupted. They need continuity during this crucial stage of their studies.”
I tried so hard not to roll my eyes at her condescending manner. Of course I wouldn’t set a university student free on my unsuspecting Year Twelves, particularly one this damn fine. The girls, and to be fair some of the boys too, wouldn’t be able to string more than a sentence together for the entire six weeks, let alone pass the freakin’ course. Did she honestly think I was that deranged?
So instead I pasted on my most disdainful smile and asked pointedly, “Are we done?”
Her jaw clenched as she spat, “Yes.”
I inwardly fist pumped the air, thrilled that I’d riled her. This morning was looking up after all.
Serena then turned to smile across at Levi. “Welcome to Geographe High School. I’m sure you’ll enjoy your time here.”
“Thanks.”
And with that one word, I was completely undone. Levi’s voice was even more sensual than I’d remembered. As he stood and towered over me, with those intense blue eyes and that lopsided cajoling smile of his, I had to do everything in my power not to climb the man like a tree and shamelessly rub myself all over him.
School principal be damned.
So as a distraction, I chose not to look at his face at all. Which of course was a huge mistake because it meant my eyes hypnotically trailed down his white business shirt. It did little to disguise the delectable raven tattooed on his neck and even less to contain his broad chest and protruding biceps. I swallowed. There was no way I was going to let my eyes travel any farther south because I honestly didn’t trust myself with what would happen next if I did. So they just had to make do with his shirt buttons.
How the fuck could Levi’s shirt buttons be sexy?
This was nonsensical.
Lord in heaven, how are me and my saturated panties ever going to survive the next six weeks?
In order to refocus, I inwardly punched myself in the boob. It happened once when I was younger. My older sister and I were fighting in the backyard over … God knows what really, but at the time it seemed pretty important. Anyway, it hurt like hell and certainly got my attention then, so it couldn’t hurt now. Figuratively speaking.
“Come on,” I muttered to Levi’s mouthwatering shirt buttons, before leading him out of the lion’s den and towards the relative safety of my microscopic office.
As we crossed the quad it felt like all the staff and students we passed stopped dead in their tracks and unashamedly ogled the man just behind me. There was going to be news of a delicious new student teacher spread throughout the school by the start of lunch. I’d bet my sweatbox of an apartment on it.
When we finally entered the office and I shut the door behind me, I was grateful Carli was blessedly absent. That way she wouldn’t have to witness my gradual demise from sanity into madness. I stepped towards my workspace and couldn’t help it, I face-palmed my forehead while letting out a muttered oath. My half of the office literally looked like the aftereffects of an earthquake. One that had reached 8.4 on the Richter scale at the very least. My continued embarrassment was seemingly endless where this guy was concerned.
Behind me, Levi chuckled and I instinctively curled my hands into fists. Surely my reactions to him weren’t healthy. I mean, the guy made me feel like I was bipolar. Well, this time would be different because he was on my turf now and I wouldn’t let him get to me. After all, this was my place of work. This was where my intellect was respected by all and my Smart Mouth feared by many. I wasn’t going to let any man, especially Levi, rile or turn me into a quivering mess. We weren’t at The Hole for God’s sake, I had a job to do.
Man. The. Fuck. Up. Grace.
I took a deep, steadying breath and squared my shoulders before turning around to face him. Surprisingly, being armored with a professionalism and cutthroat efficiency I didn’t entirely feel made the whole situation I suddenly found myself in appear slightly less insane.
“Right. This is my office.” I spread my arms wide in case he was a visual learner and needed the gesture to aid in his understanding of the freakin’ obvious. “So this is where you’ll be based,” I swallowed, “for the next six weeks.”
Levi took a step towards me, gently murmuring, “Grace—”
“As you can see, there’s not much room. But I can move some of my stuff so you’ve got somewhere to work when you’re not in class—”
“Grace—” He took another step forward and was now a hairbreadth away from me. But I still didn’t stop babbling, or meet his eyes.
“Though, we’ll have to find you a chair from somewhere. I’m sure one of the classes nearby will have a spare one you can use—”
“Grace, stop.” He cupped my chin in his warm hand and I breathed in sharply at the contact as my eyes flew to his, startled. “I just want you to know that I didn’t set this whole thing up on purpose, I swear.” His expression looked genuine.
I nodded and said softly, “So this is why your band’s taking a break for a couple of months, because of your placement here.”
It was his turn to nod.
“Let go of me.”
Levi slowly unclasped my chin and withdrew his hand, though his heated gaze told me exactly what he thought about the loss of contact. Mine must have said exactly the same.
The two-faced bastards.
“This is my place of work, Levi. You can’t play me here like I’m your guitar or something.”
“Play you?”
“I won’t let you.”
“I’m not trying to play you, kitten. I thought I made it pretty clear what my intentions were on Saturday.”
I shook my head. “I told you, I won’t hurt Riley like that.”
“And I keep telling you, she’s not int—”
The bell rang for class. Fortunately, it stopped that agonizing conversation dead in its tracks and I quickly turned around to scan the floor for my teaching folder. When my gaze finally came across it, hidden beneath a curriculum binder from 2007, I shook my head. I honestly didn’t even know what that binder was doing there.
I grabbed the remainder of my gear before stating, “Let’s go.” After that, I strode out of the office and towards class.
I could do this.
I had to.
Nearly all of my Year Tens were seated and ready to go as I entered the classroom, no doubt reeking of my pent-up sexual tension. The kids and I previously had the whole I’ll-lock-you-out-of-the-room-if-you-don’t-arrive-to-class-on-time-and-try-explaining-that-to-Mrs. Nebril-when-one-of-her-cronies-spots-you-skullking-in-the-corridor-during-lesson-time conversation earlier in the year. It only took Mark’s attempt at testing that theory to prove to the rest of the little treasures exactly how serious I was in my threat. I received a very firm talking-to from Serena about failing to provide learning opportunities for all students in my care blah, blah, blah. But I honestly thought the experience was well worth it. And after watching Mark try not to cry once he punched the locked classroom door with his fist, the whole class agreed with me on that one too.
As Levi strolled in after me, a collective gasp burst from the girls and the boys suddenly sat up a hell of a lot straighter in their chairs. Poor things. They looked like constipated meerkats. To place such a godlike man within the midst of so much pubescent insecurity was really unfair on them all.
“All right everyone, listen up.” I glanced around at the sea of hair flicking and intense scrutiny, trying to mask a smile. “This,” I gestured to Levi who thankfully stood at a professional distance, “is Mr. Mondez. He will be working with us for the next six weeks.” I swallowed again. “So make sure you give him the same respect you would give any other teacher.” I narrowed my eyes at them. “Got it?”
A mumbled yeah sporadically rippled throughout the classroom.
I smiled sweetly. “Now, I emailed back your edited recount drafts yesterday so I want you to work on th
e good copy which is due by the end of today.” With that, the students opened up their laptops and grumbled under their breaths about the relevancy of creative writing for their future career prospects. I graciously ignored their complaints as they eventually got to work.
“So where do you want me?”
Many x-rated images immediately sprang to mind but I quickly shook my head to clear them all. I opened my mouth to reply, only no words came.
Not a single one.
Christ, this was awkward.
So I cleared my throat and searched the room, hoping for inspiration to thwack my momentarily nonexistent vocal chords upside the head.
The class was a typical rectangular shape, with a bi-folding wall at the far end covered in posters from the latest feature films currently out in cinemas. Student work, mainly posters on classical texts, took up all the space on the left wall which faced another of windows. They showed the crystal clear sky, meticulously tended school oval lawn, and far off in the gleaming distance, the beach.
I loved the beach.
And more than anything in the world, I wished I was there right now. My dad and I always used to spend time together at a secluded cove only us locals know about. It was a place where we would sit, talk, be. My mind cast back one year ago.
“Here you are, one caramel ice cream.”
I rolled my eyes, though still accepted the offered confection. He knew I would, I always did. “Dad, one of these days, you’re going to realize that I’m actually an adult now.”
“Impossible,” he huffed, “through my eyes, you’re always my cheeky little monkey.”
“I’m never going to live that one down, am I?”
“Nope. But if it makes you feel any better, I still call your sister Ballerina.”
“So do I.” I smirked. Fawn colored droplets dribbled down the waffle cone and then onto my fingers. I quickly licked them clean. “So good.” It didn’t matter how many times a week he bought me this particular flavor, I never got sick of it. It was quite simply the tastiest damn ice cream on the planet.
Dad chuckled softly at my obvious enjoyment and then groaned dramatically as he sat down next to me.
