Walking backward up the hall, Amber pleaded, “Don’t give up on me. Keep your eyes peeled. I have faith that you’ll find something that fits me.”
“Mr. Manning…he’ll fit you real nice,” Carol called out to her retreating form.
Amber turned around, heading forward as she waved bye to her friend above her head.
Opening the glass door, Amber walked into the empty library, her thoughts playing back the conversation with Carol. She had told her friend the truth. She didn’t need another man right now. It had taken her a year and a half to get Doug firmly out of her life.
No, she had to be honest with herself. It had taken one night of pleasure by a man that stepped out of the dark into her life. That’s what got her over her ex. Chris, the man who took her into the arms of ecstasy and she hadn’t been the same since. Heaven only knew how long it would take her to get him out of her system. Her mind and body still recalled everything about him. At times her mind played tricks on her, making her believe she saw him at every turn in the small town.
But she figured he was a long way from little Yorkshire County. For almost a week after he had left, she found herself headed toward the home office several times tempted to ask Mr. Wilks if he had given Chris a lift into town to get a tow truck to pick up his car. He had been walking from the interstate off-ramp. She doubted this small town was Chris’s destination. As cocky and self-assured as he seemed, he definitely had a big city attitude.
Amber moved up and down the aisles, pulling books off the shelf. Her class had a book report due at the end of the year and she wanted to set the books aside, so on Monday it wouldn’t take all of the block period for the students to make their selection. Of course, she could have given her list to the librarians and they would have pulled them, but why make someone else do something for her if she could do it for herself—independence 101.
Dropping her armload off on one of the round wooden tables, Amber headed to the back section where the teacher’s resource materials were shelved. She was hoping to find a teaching project book that would give her some fresh ideas when she began the New Imperialism unit.
Entering the U-shaped aisle with books on all the sides, she dragged a finger along the shelves as she perused the binders.
“Hello…beautiful,” a deep masculine voice rumbled.
She didn’t need to turn around to know the owner of the voice, but she forced herself to turn around and verify if it was another hallucination.
There, standing just inside the small entrance to the section, was Chris. Thick black haired, blue eyed, broad shouldered Chris. Her heart slammed into her ribs and her knees went weak. Twenty-one days since the last time she had seen him and he still had an overpowering impact on her.
“Chris,” she knew her words sounded breathless, but she couldn’t help it. Her whole body was reeling. “What are you doing here?”
“Amber.” He paused as if he needed to savor the sound of her name. “I could ask you the same thing. I thought I was dreaming when I stood to leave the auditorium and saw you walking out. Why didn’t you tell me your new job was at the school?”
Looking into his eyes, she answered truthfully, “Chris, it wasn’t that kind of night.” Taking a deep breath she continued, “No strings, remember.”
“I remember everything. There’s nothing that I’ve forgotten about you or that night,” he said, moving toward her.
When he stopped, his body heat singed her senses. “Chris…we can’t do this.”
“We? Still in your Mistress role?” His eyes were lit with humor.
Amber stepped back, trying to put more space between them. “I can’t do this.”
He wouldn’t be deterred. Following her steps, he brought himself close enough for Amber to feel the flutter of his breath on her face. “Why? Maybe we were meant to do this thing for longer than a night.”
She flattened her hands against his chest. “Look, I barely know you and the only thing you know about me is all my hang-ups.”
Gazing directly in her eyes, he began, “My name is Christopher David Manning, I teach physical education and I’m the head basketball coach for the girl’s team.”
Mr. Yum. She might have guessed. “Don’t, Chris. Don’t give us false hopes.”
She saw his eyes darken with anger.
“False hopes mean that there was no truth to the feelings or emotions we felt that night.”
She forced herself to laugh, anything to put space between them, even if it were only emotional space. “Feelings and emotions, Chris. Don’t fool yourself.” She purposely tried to hurt him. “It had been a long time since I’d had sex and I was feeling hot and horny and you were available. Any man would have done it.”
Displeasure made his blue eyes go dark as sapphires. “Any man would do?” Taking a step, he forced her to retreat deeper into the aisle. “If any man could have gotten you off and you feel nothing for me, then tell me you’re not wet. That you haven’t been that way since you saw me,” he demanded.
Her breath caught. Could she confess that lie and get away with it? She had been in a state of arousal ever since she’d heard his voice. Even now, her swollen sex throbbed against the crotch of her panties.
Her voice trembled, “I’m not.” She lifted her chin in bravado, daring him to call her a liar.
She shouldn’t have dared, because Chris picked up the proverbial gauntlet. Grabbing her waist, he pressed her back against the bookshelves. Before she could respond, his hand made its way up her khaki skirt and palmed her moist heat, squeezing.
A small cry escaped her mouth.
“Not wet?” he asked, his breath heavy against her ear. Chris dragged his tongue across her cheek to her mouth, laving her sealed lips.
She turned her face away from him.
His fingers breached the edge of her underwear, gliding over the slick skin. She was wet all right and she was soaking in the proof.
Stroking her stiff clit, he groaned.
Amber purred.
His words slid across the edge of her ear. “Tell me this is not for me.”
He had started a hot itch between her legs that stole her thoughts. She couldn’t speak. She was panting. Drowning in the haze of arousal to the point her own name was lost to her.
Two fingers rubbed her opening and entered. Chris was filling her as his body leaned heavy into hers. Shutting her eyes, flashes of excitement burst behind her eyelids. She didn’t want to enjoy it or squeeze her thighs, trapping his hand there. But she was doing both. Only Chris could do this to her, make her forget where she was and focus on him and what he was doing.
Shoving deeper, he used her wetness against her. Her legs trembled and gave out. It was only because of his body and hand she didn’t collapse onto the floor, a needy puddle. His treacherous thumb joined in rubbing and circling the seat of her desire. His fingers spread wide along her walls, and she could hear the slurping of her juicy pussy as it feasted on the thick invaders.
“Please,” she whimpered asking for more, while knowing she shouldn’t have it. It would make parting from him harder, but her mind kept screaming that she needed it. Needed what Chris was doing to her. It had been three long weeks without him. Many times, she had lain in bed pleasuring herself while thinking about him, but it never felt like this. Never this intense.
“Amber, if I thought that this…” In and out he went, sliding along her sopping passage. “…for one moment, was for someone else…” In. “…it would…” Out. “…drive me…” In. “…insane.” Out.
Her senses followed the movement of his hand as her mind attempted to understand his message to her. His lips compressed tight against her ear, as if he were speaking inside of her, his words becoming her thoughts.
She moaned as her sex contracted around his fingers.
“Do you understand, Amber? It would practically kill me.” He twisted his hand, penetrating her at a different angle and brushed her sensitive spot.
Then right there among
the teaching manuals, he finger fucked her. Driving her insane and killing her softly with an orgasm that shattered her very existence, making her cry out. Not caring if someone entered the library and heard her. Her body tensed and released as her sex convulsed and shivered around his fingers.
Amber bit down on her lip, attempting to stifle her cries.
When she came back to semi-reality, Chris was breathing just as hard as she was. She didn’t have to see or feel his erection to know that he was hard; it was there in his eyes. No longer dark with anger, they were now shadowed with heightened arousal.
But she couldn’t do this. She had made so many wrong choices because of her feelings for a man and she wasn’t willing to risk it again. Her heart ached and her chest filled with pain, but it was a decision she had to make.
“Let me go, Chris,” she said, her voice hoarse with ecstasy. She used her hands, crushed between their bodies to push him back.
Scanning her face, then returning to her eyes, his voice was rich, unrelenting. “Never.”
“You know this can’t work,” she exclaimed.
His fingers slipped free from her body. “That’s one thing I don’t know.”
The feeling of absence gnawed at her.
Chris lifted his glistening hand and her aroma permeated the air between them. “This is more than just sex.”
Amber knew he wasn’t referring to the wetness on his hand, but the emotions linking them.
She watched as he placed his fingers in his mouth, closed his eyes and savored her spicy fluid. Sucking and washing them, placing her essence within.
He removed his fingers from his mouth, but didn’t drop his hand. Instead, he spoke against them, but his words were clear. “While I’m playing basketball, how many men do you think will smell me and wonder whose pussy I’ve tasted? Knowing that every time I lick my lips, I’m tasting her again. Tasting you.”
Her sex swelled and pulsed with renewed excitement. Amber wanted to turn away, wanted to be appalled at his words or feel shame, but couldn’t.
“Hmm,” he hummed loudly, licking the last visible trace of her essence from between his fingers.
“Why are you doing this?” she hissed.
Chris lowered his hand and stepped back, broadening the space between them. “I know you’ve been hurt in the past. I’ll give you some time...but I won’t go away. I want more than just another night with you. I need you in my life and you need me.”
She shook her head at his words. “You’re wrong. Face it, Chris. We were living a temporary fantasy. Caught up in one reckless night. There could never be an us…it’s over!” She pushed past him, ran out of the library disregarding her books. Then she zipped down the hall and into her classroom. Closing the door. Closing Chris out. Closing herself in before she lost herself to him.
Tears burned her eyes, dropping her face in her hands, she cried.
She ignored her heart telling her to give their relationship a try. She couldn’t put her heart on the line again. What if he hurts me and tries to control me like Doug?
Warring between her heart and mind exhausted her. Everything in her wanted to be with Chris. Their night haunted her, played in her thoughts as if she were caught in a dream she just couldn’t awaken from. He hadn’t just given her body pleasure beyond anything she’d ever experienced, he’d cherished her.
He had adored her body and made her do the same. Doug always made her wants and desires appear small and insignificant to his. Chris had given her confidence in herself and her own sexuality.
All he asked was for her to let down her guard and give them a chance. But, it couldn’t work.
Could it?
Chapter Five
“You don’t want any of this,” Chris taunted dribbling the ball toward his opponent.
“Fuck you, Manning.” Coach Patterson, head of the football team, barked. “You’re not getting near that basket.”
Moving forward, Chris met Patterson at the half court line. “We just kicked your team's ass on the last day of school. Now you want more.”
Patterson crouched down and spread his arms, keeping his stance wide, trying to hold Chris up court. “Not this time. I don’t like losing. Even if it’s not my sport.”
Chris chuckled. “I’ve been beating your ass in things since junior high.” He faked left.
Patterson matched his moved. “Ha. Not with the ladies.”
“In your dreams.” Chris spotted Bob, his teammate, and shot the ball to him then stepped to the right to get in position for the return pass.
Turning to see who he threw it to, Patterson followed him. “Oh, yea. Remember Jessie Carmichael?”
“That was in the seventh grade.” Chris watch Bob pass the ball to another of their players.
“Watch and see how quickly I’ll get the new teacher, Ms. Malcolm, before you.”
That comment caught Chris up short. Eyeing the linebacker-built black man before him, he thought about Patterson sweating on top of Amber and it pissed him off. “She’s out of your league. You wouldn’t even know the scent of her pussy if you smelled it.”
“Bet I would.” The chauvinistic smirk on Patterson's face made Chris’ blood boil.
Without thinking, he blew in the other man’s face. Even though it was more for effect, because he’d already washed up since leaving the library, he couldn’t fight the urge to put Patterson in his place. Amber was his. No matter how she was trying to fight it. They’d had something that night and discovering that she was now a resident in his town only intensified his desire for her. Not only physically, but emotionally.
Coach Patterson froze in place, stunned. Patterson wasn’t close to a rocket scientist, but Chris knew the man understood. Using the opportunity to dip around the wide man, Chris drove straight to the basket.
Chris went up for a lay-up and found himself sprawled out on the wood floor from an elbow to his gut by Coach Patterson.
“There’s more where that came from, son of a bitch.” Patterson laughed and high-fived his team mates.
Getting a hand up from the biology teacher, one of his teammates, Chris had to smile. He deserved the jab. This was his favorite time of the year, when he and the other teachers got to play a rambunctious pick-up game. No rules, just good-natured fun.
The principal, performing as referee, blew the whistle and called a foul.
At the foul shot line, while he stood there waiting for the referee to bounce him the ball, Chris felt the tingling feeling of someone watching him. Glancing up in the stands, his eyes locked with Amber's lovely brown gaze where she sat beside Carol.
She’d come. He could only hope that it was because she was as drawn to him as he was to her.
The urge to tease her was stronger than the need to antagonize the football coach. He gave her a quick wink as he licked his lips. He caught a glimpse of her burying her face in her hands as he turned and let go of the ball for his free throw shots.
By the time the game was over, Amber was gone. A part of him wanted to go after her. Search the school grounds until he located her and force her to address what was happening between them. Instead, he kept himself calm. Today he would give her space, but soon she’d understand just how much she was beginning to mean to him.
Amber Malcolm was his saving grace and he wasn’t going to let her walk away from what they could have.
~YH~
“Amber! Wait up a minute!”
Amber moved with quick steps to her car. She didn’t have to turn around to see who headed toward her. It was Chris. She’d seen him moving in the direction of the school gym from his vehicle in the parking lot. She figured he was returning to school to get ready for the girls’ game tonight.
He was the last person she wanted to see. The reason she usually holed up in her classroom or teacher’s lounge grading papers until she was sure the school was empty of faculty.
“Amber.” His hand lightly brushed her shoulder blade as she attempted to get her key in the door.
/> Damn, why’d he have to be so quick on his feet?
His touch caused heat to dance up along her spine and made her heartbeat accelerate. Even if her mind told her to stay far away from him, her body didn’t feel the same. Hell, no. Every muscle recalled his touch, taste and the sensation of his cock thrusting deep inside of her. Sighing, she turned and faced him.
“Sorry, I was lost in thought. Didn’t see you.” She gave him a false, cordial smile as her body proclaimed her a liar.
Chris titled his head and raised an eyebrow at her words, but didn’t contradict her. “You’re not staying for the game? A few of your students are on the team.”
She knew his words were true. That was all several of the girls in her class spoke about. “I know, but papers don’t grade themselves.” She lifted her briefcase for emphasis.
“It’s an important game. I’m sure the students will appreciate it.”
“It is, but not as important as me planning for the big exams coming up. Scores are important for me as they are for you.”
Taking a step toward her, he placed a hand against the roof of her car. She could feel the heat of his body and smell the delicious, robust scent of soap and Chris. An intoxicating combination. She began to tremble in response.
Get away. Her mind screamed. Chris was dangerous. Emotionally dangerous.
“Did you enjoy the faculty game last week?” His blue gaze held hers.
Oh, goodness. Her nipples tightened as her memory chose that moment to replay him staring at her across the gym floor. His eyes locked on hers. When he licked his lips she had felt cream pool in her panties. Yes, the man was dangerous. She wasn’t sure of the exchange between him and the football coach, nor did she care, but she just wanted to be left alone to do her job.
Yeah, right. Her heart thumped.
“What I caught of it, it was interesting.” She shrugged.
“Let’s call a spade a spade, Amber.” His voice became low and husky. “I know you’re trying to avoid me.”
She attempted to chuckle his comment away; instead it came out as a broken cough. Swallowing, she licked her lips. She didn’t miss his eyes tracking her tongue.
A Naughty Little Christmas (Cowboys, Cops, and Kilts: 8 Seasonally Seductive Romances from Bestselling Authors) Page 48
