Teach Her: A forbidden Professor and Student romance (School of Seduction Book 2)

by Gisele St. Claire

  “Well, even if she isn’t going to run for us, she’s a beautiful girl, and I’m sure she’ll give us a few great runners.”

  “What are you up to?” Alex asked as he put away the brush and stepped out of the stall to join me where I stood.

  I shrugged. “Just needed to get out of the office for a little while.”

  “Already?” He looked at his watch. “It’s early in the day. Why don’t you hire someone to take care of some of the stuff you don’t enjoy? That’s what bookkeepers are for, after all. It would give you a break and let you have a chance to get back out here with the horses where you want to be.”

  Alex was perceptive with more than just the horses.

  “Yeah, well, I might do that after the next couple of derbies have passed. I’ve got too much on my plate right now to hand it over to someone totally new.”

  My brother sighed and shrugged. “Whatever you say. Just don’t be afraid to ask for a little help when you need it.”

  I gave him a firm pat on the back and continued on down through the stables, past the stalls that housed our many horses. A few of our ranch hands were leading some of the horses out to graze in the pasture, while some of them were headed to the arena and our track for training. As I exited the other end of the massive stable, I saw Emma atop her horse, Saoirse.

  “How’dya do, Miss Emma Lou?”

  Emma frowned at me, and I could see her brow furrowing under her helmet. I knew she hated it when I referred to her middle name, Louise, but told myself that someday she would come to think of it as endearing, so I kept up the practice.

  She tossed her head back. “Saoirse and I just went out for our morning run. I was about to take her back to the stable and then head in for my lessons. Is Hetty here yet?”

  I shook my head. “She wasn’t there when I left the house, but there’s a good chance she’s arrived by now. Better hurry on back, you don’t want to be late.”

  My twelve year old daughter beamed at me from where she sat on her horse and headed into the stable before dismounting. I watched her lead her young horse into the stall and couldn’t help but notice how much she was starting to look like her mother. It wasn’t a bad thing, but I did wonder how Emma would feel as she looked in the mirror and started to notice the resemblance she shared with the woman who left her—and me—behind when Emma was just a toddler.

  I walked toward the pasture as I recalled the time directly after Kelly left. It had been a shock to me when it happened, but when I had a little time to think it over, nothing about it was too surprising. We had married straight out of high school, and my parents had been opposed to the match from the start. Kelly’s parents were business owners in the nearest town, and ours had been the kind of wedding that made the local papers. Our courtship had been brief — we dated at the end of high school, and because I was an idiot, I had proposed to Kelly not long after graduation. We married and moved into a house here at Killarny Estate and had had a hell of a time for the first couple of years.

  Kelly was wild and looking back I could tell she had been just a little too wild for me. It wasn’t something I had noticed at the time, and while it was just the two of us, it was easy to forget that we were stepping into a new world that included all sorts of new responsibilities. Back then we would spend our weekends hopping around the bars in town before heading back to the privacy of our house at the ranch and going at it like rabbits. It was no surprise when Kelly got pregnant, and I was overjoyed, but she didn’t seem too enthused about it. Slowly she warmed to the idea, and once Emma was born, I could see that she really did love our daughter.

  Things were never the same though. Kelly never looked at me the same way, and I tried to encourage her to go see a doctor to see if what she was struggling with was postpartum depression, but she wouldn’t listen.

  I came home one evening to find all of Kelly’s things gone, a note on the kitchen table, and Emma wailing in her playpen. I had picked up my daughter and the note and read the words through tears as Emma sniffled and buried her head against my shoulder. Kelly was gone. She apologized in the letter, said she was heading to California to pursue her dream of being an actress, and that she was going with her friend, Bud.

  Bud was the guy she had dated before me in high school, and suddenly it all started to make sense. We never really heard from her after that, aside from a Christmas card or a birthday present for Emma on the years that Kelly remembered, which were few and far between.

  As far as I knew, Emma had no real memory of her mother. It made me sad, but I wondered if it was for the best that she didn’t know what she was missing out on. If Kelly had hung around much longer, it would have been more difficult than it already was to get Emma used to not having her mother around.

  I had been so grateful to my parents for the support they were during that time, especially my mother. She had done all she could to be the maternal figure in my daughter’s life, but she never stopped pressing me to go on dates and get out there again, constantly reminding me that I was still young and there was happiness out there for me if I would just go looking for it.

  Her last attempt had been just a few years before she passed away when I had first hired Hetty Blackburn, a local teacher, to be Emma’s tutor. The ranch was well out of the way, and it was quite a hike to the nearest school, so I had decided to homeschool Emma. It gave her a chance to be around the horses more and to study at her own pace, which was quite a bit faster than the average elementary school student, according to Hetty.

  Hetty was pretty and a very sweet woman. Her black hair and blue eyes were a sort of bewitching combination that was hard to ignore, but I couldn’t get back into dating; not then and not now, even though it was 10 years since Kelly walked out. Even if I hadn’t already been very hesitant to date, Hetty already had one major strike against her—she knew my daughter.

  I leaned against the bright white fence and watched as a group of our horses played together in the dewy field that was filled with clover. The place was even more picturesque than usual in this light. Killarny Estate was really something to be proud of, and I was so glad to have the privilege of being a part of a four generation horse ranch, the largest one in Kentucky, and now, for all intents and purposes, running the place.

  One rule I had established for myself was that until I knew I could trust a woman, she would never meet my daughter. And since I wasn’t in the mood to start dating yet, nothing had ever made it that far. Sure, I had been with women since Kelly—too many to count—but I was there to get what I wanted and get out. I never went out with anyone that I thought was there for more than what I was because I had more heart than that. But I didn’t trust anyone to give me any more than what I was looking for at the moment. It was sex, pure and simple—though rarely pure or simple. I was there for a release, to have sex, hear them scream my name, and then leave quietly. The closest I had ever come to bringing a woman home was the Lawrence girl who I made it all the way back to the ranch with, but we never left my truck. We had made it as far as the pecan grove when I pulled over and had her right there in the cab of my pickup. When we were done, I turned around and drove her right back to her house. But that had been the last one, and that had been a long time ago now.

  There was no need to complicate my life any more than it already was and I was certainly not going to bring any of these women into the life of my daughter. She had already experienced enough pain from my poor choices, and I wasn’t going to do that to her again.

  My middle brother, Jake, came riding up on his stallion and brought the horse to a quick halt a few feet away from me.

  “Showing off?” I asked as I cocked my eyebrow at him.

  He swung down off the saddle and gave the horse a pat. “This bastard is ready to run!”

  Clement certainly looked like he was ready for it. His eyes were wild, but it was clear that he was happy after his morning run with Jake.

  “Think about how fast he’s going to be with one of the jock
eys on him!”

  I nodded. “We’re taking him to the Waters derby, right?”

  “Yup, just a couple of weeks away now.”

  I noted to myself that I needed to check that out on the calendar. There was still a lot left to do in preparation, and we weren’t sure how many horses we would be taking. Clement was certainly on the top of the list, but I knew we needed to have a few backups. Killarny Estate had always been top of the pack as far as producing some of the fastest race horses in the country, but ever since my father had packed it up and gone to Costa Rica, it felt like we had lost some of our edge. I had no idea what it was Dad had that we didn’t quite have down yet, other than the forty years of experience. What I did know was that it was crucial for us to win this derby. Things were tight, and if we were going to turn them around and maintain things the way they were around here, or if we were ever going to have any hope of making Killarny the very best again, we had to win the Waters derby.

  “You coming?” Jake asked me as he brushed his reddish-brown hair back out of his face and wiped his brow with the back of his sleeve.

  I looked at him bewildered. “Of course I am.”

  He shrugged. “Don’t act like it’s a given. You haven’t been there in years.”

  “Yeah, well…now I don’t really have any choice, do I? Dad is still in Costa Rica, and I don’t know the next time he’s planning on coming back, so I’ve got to be there to represent the ranch. And I think Emma would enjoy the trip to Tennessee, so yeah, I’ll be there.”

  “You’re not nervous, are you?” Jake winked at me, and I frowned in response.

  “Why would I be nervous?”

  “Because,” he began, pausing to spit on the ground. “Little Sara Waters is going to be there. I wonder if she is going to follow you around like she always used to when we were kids.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Sara Waters is thirty by now. I am sure she has got better things to do than chase around a nearly middle-aged man with his twelve year old daughter in tow.”

  “Hey now, don’t write yourself off just yet. You’re only a year or so older than her, right? I bet she would be champing at the bit to get a piece of a Killarny brother.”

  I shook my head and started off back toward the stable, Jake following behind me with Clement.

  “Then she can have her pick of the other four. Hell, she can have both Stephen and Sam if she wants them.” I stopped and looked around. “Speaking of that, where are the twins?”

  Jake shrugged as he continued toward the stable. “Who the hell knows. They’re out every night of the week. Probably still in bed.”

  I knew he was kidding about the last thing. If we had been taught anything as kids, it was that getting up early in the morning was the Killarny way.

  “Okay, well. I need to go find them. I’ll get back to you about the Waters derby. We need to talk about some logistics getting there, but it can wait until later.”

  As I walked off toward the other barns to locate my two youngest brothers, I couldn’t help thinking about what Jake had said regarding Sara Waters. I hadn’t seen her since we were practically teenagers. It must have been a decade or so. I wondered what she looked like now and if there was a chance that we’d get some time alone when I was at her father’s derby in a few weeks.

  Chapter 2

  Sara

  “Sara?”

  I looked up from the top of my reading glasses that I used only when I was working on my laptop. They were sliding down my nose, and I pulled them off my face and rubbed the bridge of my nose as I looked at Elsie, my father’s secretary, standing in the doorway of my office.

  “Yes?”

  “Your father would like to see you. He said he’s got a few last minute things to go over for the derby.”

  Of course, he does, I thought as I flashed Elsie a smile and a nod. He was waiting until two weeks before our derby to go over something that I had a feeling would be of utmost importance and require my immediate attention. It was the typical stunt my father always pulled this time of year.

  “I’ll be right there. I’m just finishing up a few things.”

  My father acted as if his office wasn’t right down the hall from mine. He certainly could have used what little exercise the walk would have provided, but I knew he was never in any kind of temperament to hear my suggestion.

  I closed my laptop and grabbed my notebook full of notes for the upcoming derby and headed down the hallway to his office. I found my father leaning back in his chair, grinning wide, with a cigar hanging out of his mouth as he chuckled into his phone.

  “Well, well. How about that! I imagine we’ll be seeing her here in a couple of years then. That’s great, Jameson. I look forward to seeing you in a few weeks. I’ll talk to you later.” He snapped the flip phone shut, and I shook my head, still surprised that the man refused to upgrade his cell phone from the one he had gotten ten years prior.

  “That thing is going to give out on you,” I said with a half-smile.

  “Nah, she’s holding up. They don’t make things like they used to. I’ll use her until it’s time to put her out to pasture.” He tapped the end of his cigar on the ashtray on his desk.

  “You know, I could probably call OSHA about you smoking in here. I’m sure they’d have something to say about your daily cigar and the fact that your most valuable employee has to be exposed to carcinogens.”

  He laughed. “Sweetheart, that’s the beauty of a home office. I’m the king around here. What I say, goes.”

  “And your lungs may as well,” I said as I scrunched my nose and waved the smoke out of the air. “Elsie said you had a few things to talk to me about.”

  He cleared his throat and put the cigar down in the ashtray, a thin thread of smoke rising from the tip.

  “I sure do. With the derby coming up we’ve got a lot going on, and I know you’ve been just as busy as I have.”

  I smirked but didn’t say anything. The idea that my father had been doing as much work around here for the derby as I had was laughable. Beyond making phone calls to his good ol’ boys at ranches around the country, he didn’t do an awful lot for the derby anymore. Most of the work was left to the rest of us and since I was second in charge most of it fell on my lap to take care of.

  “It is definitely the busiest time of year for us,” I said with a nod.

  He narrowed his eyes, and I could tell the wheels in his brain were turning.

  “I hate to ask you to do much more, but I need you to make a call and take care of something for me.”

  “What is it?” I asked, leaning in to see what he was looking at on his desk. He pushed a folder toward me. It was labeled ‘Killarny Estate’.’

  “What’s going on with the Killarnys?”

  My father took a deep breath. “I’m going to need you to tell them they won’t be entering a horse in this year’s derby. Not this one and, not the next one. Not ever again.”

  I looked at him with my mouth agape. “Why would you remove the Killarnys from the derby? They’ve had a relationship with us for as long as anyone has and they have been a very valuable draw for us. People come from all over to see who the Killarnys are racing. Dad…you’re going to have to explain.”

  “I’ve got my reasons,” he said, sounding suspicious as he picked up the cigar again.

  I crossed my arms in front of my chest and leaned back into my chair. “Well, you’re going to have to tell me what they are before I go about ending one of the oldest relationships we have with a stable. Aren’t you considering the kind of repercussions this could have?”

  He shrugged. “Listen to me, Sara. There’s more going on here than what you think you know. I’ve been suspecting them of some things for quite some time, and I just want to keep things above board around here.”

  “Above board?” I was confused. I had only ever known the Killarny Estate horses to be absolutely clean thoroughbreds. I couldn’t imagine the family being involved in something unsavory. “What are the
y doing? Are they colluding with someone? Fixing a race?” It was the only thing I could think of, but it seemed very far off base. Anything else though…would be nearly criminal to consider.

  “I think they are doping their horses.” He said the words matter of factly and waited for me to respond.

  “You’re kidding, right? Jesus, Dad, you’ve known Sean Killarny forever. The last thing they would do is dope their horses.”

  “People do it all the time. You know that. When the testing isn’t as rigorous, it’s especially bad! And I’ve been noticing a few things over the years that have left me very suspicious of them. I also think that they’ve been using this relationship for a long time now and think that they can get away with it. Well, I’ve got news for Sean Killarny—it’s done. I don’t mess with dopers, and I won’t have them giving my derby a bad name. Imagine if the word got out that this was going on. People would bring this relationship up in the discussion for sure and then you would have folks looking at our derby. Think about all the sponsorship we could lose, not to mention our license.” He took a deep breath. “No, I cannot allow it to continue. They can’t keep coming here if they are going to operate that way.”

  My mind was whirling, trying to put all the pieces together. I couldn’t believe that my father really thought the Killarnys were drugging their horses, but he was right—some people did, and if we were accused of having any connection to them it could look very bad for us.

  “Evidence…I’m going to need to see something. I can’t just call them up and tell them without—”

  “Sara.” He cut me off and held up his hand to silence me. “Trust me. I know what is going on over there. We can have no connection to it. I can make the call if you would rather not take care of this yourself, but since you are in charge of day to day operations, I thought it would be best if you took care of this yourself. If you can’t though…” he reached for his phone.