Schooled

by RaeLynn Blue

  “So don’t, Harper, let him get away from you. Better, don’t throw him away. You will never get that chance again. Ever. Every story has two sides. You only heard the cracked-out side from Tara.”

  “I heard his side too,” Harper shot back, too fast and much too hard.

  Carlita flinched. “Yeah, but I wondered if you actually listened.”

  “He said he was innocent,” Harper said, blowing out her feelings’ turmoil. “Innocent men don’t serve time.”

  Carlita snorted. “Are you black? Of course, innocent men serve time. What else did he say?”

  “Yes, I’m black.” Harper sighed before continuing, “But Nathaniel is not. They don’t lock up white folks without a lot of reason.”

  Carlita sucked her teeth and folded her arms over her chest. “You didn’t listen to that boy at all,” Carlita replied, shaking her head.

  Harper reviewed her behavior dozens of times last night, and no, she hadn’t listened to him at all. She heard every word, but her fears hastily ravished any attempts to logically understand why he would lie to her.

  “Maybe you ought to call him now that you’re a little calmer,” Carlita suggested as she adjusted her belt and stood up. She slid the chair back to its matching desk and put her hands on her hips. Tossing her head back, she looked every bit the stern schoolteacher of old, and that posture meant Harper was about to be given a task.

  “Carlita…” She so didn’t get it. This wasn’t a small matter. The man was a convicted felon and she was a teacher, for crying out loud. Never mind the damaged trust.

  “What are you going to do, Harper?” Carlita asked. The injured woman who mourned the loss of her true love had been carefully tucked back into the internal abyss she kept him. “Let love pass or go grab some ass?”

  Harper burst into laughter. “Did you exhaust all that wisdom and now it’s back to ‘hood-isms?”

  Carlita shrugged. “Life breeds its own wisdom, as you well know.”

  Harper smiled, but deep down she had no idea what she was going to do about Nathaniel.

  Carlita shook her head as she strolled out of the classroom, back as straight, make-up as perfect as when she came in. Though she seemed like the same woman on the outside, Carlita had been changed by Harper’s relationship with Nathaniel.

  And that weighed heavily on Harper. If being with Nathaniel had managed to spiral through Carlita’s hardened outer shell and invoke such poignant emotions, well, then maybe Harper had overlooked something.

  She sighed, leaned her elbows on her desk, and dropped her head into her open palms. She missed him. Missed his capable, construction-hardened arms wrapped tightly around her, making her feel safe. Those delicious moist lips she loved to nimble, to lick and to suck. The sensual aroma of masculinity he wore like a cologne saturated her sheets. And Carlita wondered why she couldn’t sleep last night. Every inhaled breath brought Nathaniel close to her.

  Body blaring its hunger at levels so hot she broke out in a sweat, Harper lifted up her teacher bag, her purse, and got to her feet. Nathaniel’s omission had seemed like sacrilege, but maybe Carlita was right. There were two sides to every story and she’d only listened to Tara’s. Truth was that when Nathaniel had produced his version, she’d been so angry her heart had hardened, protecting itself from further emotional damage.

  Bastard. He’d been a bastard to put her in this situation. He should’ve been honest and upfront. You’d never have given him a chance had you known, and you know it.

  Shaking her head to clear the cobwebs, Harper shoved all thoughts concerning Nathaniel to the back of her mind and attempted to think about next week’s lesson planning. Not that he would stay there. No sooner had she reached her sleek car, than thoughts of the man came seeping forward again.

  “Damn him!”

  “Would that be me you’re cursing about?” came the long caressing stroke of Nathaniel’s voice against the back of her neck, forcing all points in her body to tighten in wet desire.

  “Nathaniel,” she breathed, spinning around to face him.

  “Yes,” he said, a wry grin spread across his face as if he knew that her clit was pulsating without fail, beating out its hunger as if ignited and powered by the Energizer Bunny. “Me. I miss you, Harper.”

  Tousled honey-brown framed the beautiful face that tossed her the wry grin. He looked yummy.

  Mouth dry, she had to swallow several times before she had enough salvia to produce a word. “What…”

  “Am I doing here?” he finished.

  He stepped all into her personal space, engulfing her in his scent and she closed her eyes and moaned as the hairs on her neck rose. Inhaling him, she sighed, but then caught herself.

  “Yes! Explain yourself. I am leaving my job,” she said, adjusting the teacher bag on her shoulder. “I don’t have time for this.”

  Quaking inside, Harper turned her back to him. Though she put her back to him to force him to back up, the damn man stepped closer. His breath hot on the back of her neck, forced her nipples to tighten so stiff peaks.

  “You don’t have time for us, Harper?” he asked, and it wasn’t a question. “I’ve got something you’re going to want to hear.”

  Harper closed her eyes. Did he not get it?

  “The question is, am I really going to want to hear it?” she asked, keeping her back to him. She could see his reflection in the window’s reflection. His face seemed calm.

  His voice lowered, spilling goose bumps across her flesh. “I’m here because you are my morning sun, my evening moon, and my afternoon delight. I am nothing but a shell without your love to fill me, make me alive, and make me whole. God, Harper, you are my world, and I am forever drawn to you, linked to you. You anchor me. Harper, I love you!”

  Knees weakened, she spun around completely unaware that her purse and her teacher bag had slide to the ground. He closed the small distance between them, not an inch of light could part them. He shoved his hand into her hair and lifted her face to his. She met his gaze, and trembled at the hot flashes of love she found there. Her heart shot up to her throat.

  My God, what would I do without you, Nathaniel?

  “I love you, Harper, and nothing is going to keep me from you,” he said, nose nearly bumping hers. “Do you understand?”

  He wasn’t serious. Was he?

  Chapter Nineteen

  It took every bit of resolve not to latch onto her deliciously plump lips and tongue-fuck her mouth until she melted in a puddle of need right in front of him.

  But the distant jingle of keys from a custodian forced him to reel himself and his hormones back in. She worked here, and if anyone saw them, Harper would have some explaining to do. He’d already cost her so much drama, that to add to his tally would be more than he could bear.

  So, Nathaniel steadied himself and released her hair, allowing the silky brunette strands to glide through his fingers, like spring water, cool and exciting. He sighed, and tried again.

  “Please answer me, baby.”

  Her lips quivered a bit, and she bit her lower lip between her gorgeous white teeth as if to quell whatever emotion rode her heart. Those eyes met his and he nearly dropped to his knees right then and there. All the air gushed from his lungs and he closed his eyes.

  Tears. Shiny, unshed, and bright tears had found refuge in her eyes.

  “Give me a chance, Harper,” he begged releasing her, stepping back from her and fighting the urge to snatch her into his arms and kiss those tears away. Did what he say really make her so sad? He didn’t want to make her unhappy.

  “I didn’t mean to hurt you,” he said, shoving his hands into his pockets to keep from touching her. “I didn’t come here to bother you. If you want me to go, tell me.”

  Harper had crossed her hands over her chest as if hugging herself. The temperature had dropped a bit and her breath escaped in puffs of fog. She blinked and those tears spilled over, racing down her cheeks, but she made no move to wipe them.

  �
�Just tell me what you think you’re doing?” she asked, harsh and unforgiving.

  Not what he had hoped to hear. Didn’t she see how her body reacted to him? Did the two weeks of intense love making, movies, dinners and afternoons in the park not lend itself to how compatible they were?

  “I came to tell you that I love you—”

  “Which you did,” Harper interrupted ruthlessly. “I’m late for, for a date. So hurry up.”

  A date?

  “Who…uh,” he stammered, stifling a demand and focusing on the point of him coming here. “I told you yesterday I was innocent.”

  Harper sighed noisily but he pressed on. “And I have proof, in Tara’s own words that I wasn’t guilty.” He fished in his pocket and waved a mini recorder.

  “Weren’t you the same person yesterday who was telling me that the last person I should listen to for the truth is Tara?” Harper asked, hands now down at her side in balled-up fists. “Now you bring me a tape of her saying exactly what you wanted her to say. Convenient, isn’t it? What did you promise her? A hit?”

  Nathaniel eyebrows shot up. “If you’d give me a damn minute, I’d tell the other part,” he said, swearing at his clumsy attempt to repair this. Harper remained injured, mistrustful and suspicious. He had to go ahead with what he started. “I knew Tara’s words wouldn’t be enough for you, especially after what I said yesterday. So, I contacted Detective Brown, the same man who arrested me. Today, Tara is under arrest. Her confession that she lied under oath and her recent drug use helped them place the silver bracelets on her. The statutes may not remain on my case, but her drug use is enough to give her a hard slap on the wrist and hopefully rehab. It also gives me full custody of Scott.”

  Harper’s mouth closed. Whatever she was about to say, Nathaniel would never hear it. “Really?”

  “Yes. I have her on tape, but she didn’t say those things to me. She confessed to Detective Brown, and I have a copy. She told him how satisfied she was to see my, and I quote, ‘high and mighty ass,’ end quote, be taken away in handcuffs. Oh, you know Tara, she’s only telling the truth when she’s knows it’ll hurt others. So, it gave her great joy to rub my face in her betrayal. So here.”

  He extended it out to Harper, a clear offering.

  “It’s all here. It’s not digital. You can’t say I fiddled with it at all.” She stared at the miniature cassette as if it had suddenly grown wings and was levitating. “Harper, I meant what I said. I was innocent. And I meant that I love you.”

  He couldn’t help himself. He reached for and pulled her close. She let him take her and allowed him to wrap his arms around her. With the cassette in her hand, she allowed him to hug her tight to him.

  “Give me a chance. Give us a chance,” he cooed into the top of her head. He could feel her quivering. Wrestling with herself maybe? “Please, Harper. You can’t deny what you feel is right. And baby, we’re right together.”

  Harper groaned. She lifted her head and as her eyes met his, he found them free of anger, free of suspicion, but still full of questions.

  “I stand corrected, Ms. Perry.”

  “As do I, Mr. Pearson,” she said, looking at the tape cassette nestled in the palm of her hand, very much like his heart. “As do I.”

  * * * *

  Harper held the same fears and frustrations as other women. Sure, she had passed what some would consider young, but she certainly couldn’t hang her hat on the old crowd either. Somewhere in the vast chasm between a large crush of people those inadequate labeling couldn’t help but render them in the vaguest of terms middle-aged.

  So as she stood there in the cozy cocoon of Nathaniel’s arms, Harper realized how close she’d come to losing him. This felt right. Yes, this was very right and she’d been very wrong. The cassette’s hard plastic edges bit into her palm, and she realized she didn’t need to listen to it anyway. She loved him and she should’ve listened to him.

  Her heart throbbed as his hand caressed her back, and even through her coat, the warmth spread down to her toes and up to the roots of her hair. The smile etched itself across her face and didn’t stop there, her entire being was buzzing with an energy she hadn’t ever experienced before.

  “Nathaniel,” she said, “I’m sorry.”

  “Oh?” He placed a light kiss on her cheek that sent a tingle to her core.

  “My stubborn streak is as broad as an elephant,” she said, feeling her still damply frozen cheeks blush. “I let my fear and Tara taint my view of you. I love you. Forgive me.”

  “There’s nothing to forgive,” he said with an earnest look. “I should have been honest with you at the first possible moment, and I swear I’ll always be honest with you.”

  “That means the world to me, Nathan, but still I should have listened,” she insisted, and she would have said more had he not covered her apology with a deep kiss.

  “Let’s go to my place,” he breathed as he pulled away and gazed into her eyes. “It’s closest, and we need privacy to continue this apology.”

  Epilogue

  Summer, Bur Mill Park

  A hand clapped Harper on the shoulder and she jumped forward in her seat.

  “Relax, baby,” Nathaniel’s croon caressed her exposed neck. “I’m back with ice cream. Now who had the chocolate chip?”

  “Duh, me,” Scott called out from the end of the picnic table. “You and her got those lame flavors. Vanilla and chocolate. Ha, ha.”

  Nathaniel smiled as he passed the cup to Harper.

  “Nothing funny about it,” he said, winking at Scott. “I liked chocolate before I met her. And I’m sure she’s always been a fan of vanilla.”

  She simply nodded and was rewarded with one of Nathaniel’s charming smiles. Each time he grinned like that, her mouth went dry and her heart fled into her throat. It burned from the intense love that shined from his handsome face. Free and full of life, the little shadows that once haunted her lover were gone. Those gloomy pockets of pain and hurt had been chased from Scott, also, as much as could be for a teenager.

  The fabric of the sky stretched outward in sunny cornflower blue. Picture perfect as if on a postcard, and Harper sighed in pure contentment. To think she almost let it all go by her. She held it in her hands and she nearly threw him out with the garbage.

  “Dad, I’m going over to the statue of General Greene. That all right?” Scott asked, palms flat on the table, but he didn’t move. Not until he got permission from Nathaniel. Their dynamics came from months of fierce therapy and challenges, but they were making headway.

  “Sure.”

  Scott bounced up from the table and, taking his iPod and heading toward the famous general.

  “Why you smiling like that?” Nathaniel asked, sitting down beside her on the picnic table, one leg through over each side of the seat.

  He scooted up to her. The knuckles on his hand brushed across the side of her jaw. Automatically her eyes closed and relished his touch. When she opened her eyes, she met his intense bluish green ones. He placed his hand at the small of her back, instantly making her clit throb and chills scurry across her body.

  “I’m happy,” she said. The giggle blossomed in her belly and spilled from her lips. Wow. I am actually really, really happy.

  “Good. Me too,” he said, and then kissed her lightly on the mouth.

  She spied Scott quickly turn back to the statue of Greene.

  Nathaniel followed her gaze. “Give him time, Harper,” he said. “He likes you, though.”

  “He’s a teenager. He doesn’t like anyone.”

  Nathaniel grinned and conceded the truth with a playful shrug. “But I like you.” He took her hand in his. “Love you a lot.”

  “And I love you,” she said, leaning down to nuzzle her nose against his. “Let’s leave the past behind us and look toward our future together.”

  “Yes ma’am.”

  About the Author

  RaeLynn loves nothing more than long, hot baths, snuggling in front of crac
kling fires and sleeping in late on Sundays. She writes books that aren’t your run of the mill romance with sex under the covers and with the lights out–they’re sensual and erotica romance. And that means lust, passion, and a whole lot of sex. Are you ready to join her on her latest fantasy? Out here in the west, imaginations run wild, and entertainment knows no bounds.