Bait: Winchester Academy, Book 1

by Madison Faye

  “It is,” she says quietly. “And no apologies.”

  I smile as I lean down, kissing her softly.

  “You saying you want me all to yourself?”

  “Yes,” she says fiercely.

  “Good,” I growl, “because I’m all yours. And anyone else comes sniffing around you…”

  “I’ll just tell them about my much older, scandalous, hot boyfriend.”

  I chuckle. “Boyfriend, huh?”

  She blushes. “I… I know it’s—”

  “I’ll be your boyfriend, Ana,” I purr, pulling her close. “I’ll be your everything.”

  I kiss her slowly, tasting the sweetness of her lips and feeling her bare nipples dragging over my chest.

  “So, does this mean we’re going steady?”

  She rolls her eyes at me, smiling as she looks away.

  “Think we can go to senior prom together?”

  She slaps me playfully, marching over to the couch and tossing my pants and shirt at me.

  “You are such a dork, you know.”

  I laugh. “And yet, I got the varsity cheerleader.”

  She grins, watching me pull my pants on as she reaches back to clasp her bra.

  “Yeah, you did,” she says softly, pulling close to me and standing on her tiptoes to kiss me. I pull her into me, my shirt on but unbuttoned, hers still off, and I’m wondering if I have time to spread her legs and put my mouth on her before she’s late for her next class, when suddenly, the door to my office bangs open.

  And standing there, wild-eyed with a furious and triumphant look on her face, is Vice Principle Lyne.

  12

  Oliver

  “Oh, this is perfect!” Kelly crows, crossing her arms over her chest and leaning against the doorframe of my office.

  “Kelly—”

  “Uh-uh, no!” She grins wickedly at me. “You are fucked, Oliver, and you are done here at Winchester.” She sneers as she turns her eye on Anastasia, who’s hiding behind me, clinging to me.

  “And you? You little tramp?”

  “Watch it, Kelly,” I hiss, my jaw clenched as I snarl at her. But she just laughs.

  “Cool it, tough guy. I’m not afraid of you. It’s you who better start getting scared, because I’m calling the fucking police!”

  I don’t react. I don’t yell, or scream, or swear at her. I don’t apologize, and I sure as fuck don’t grovel. Instead, I take a deep breath, and I get ready to play the card I was always going to play with Kelly Lyne. It wasn’t supposed to be now, and I shouldn’t be doing it without the go-ahead from my superiors, but I know in an instant that it’s now or never.

  I’ve put in the work. I’ve done the digging. And I’ve found all the evidence we’re going to need to put Kelly away for a long, long time.

  She sneers at the both of us before she whirls, whipping her cell phone out. Ana crumples behind me, and when I turn, I can see tears in her eye.

  “I—I’m so sorry,” she whispers fiercely, fighting back tears.

  “You have nothing to be sorry about, baby girl,” I growl.

  “I do! I—your job! They’re going to—”

  “They’re not going to do a damn thing, beautiful,” I say quietly as a grin spreads over my face.

  “Oliver, I’m a student. I might be eighteen, but I’m still a—”

  “Do you trust me?”

  She stops, her brow furrowing as she looks at me curiously.

  “Yes,” she says quietly. “I mean, of course I do.”

  “Then I need to tell you something, something that’s going to change all of this.”

  “How? Oliver, I’m a student—”

  “And I’m not really a teacher.”

  She blinks, and the air between us hangs for second as she processes what I just said.

  “What?”

  “Ana, I’m not a teacher. I mean, I am, but not really.”

  “What are you talking—”

  “Ana, I work for the FBI.”

  Everything goes quiet, and she just stares at me for what feels like an eternity, before she slowly opens her mouth.

  “You’re joking, right?”

  I shake my head. “No, baby, I—”

  “But you work here.”

  “Cover,” I growl quietly. “I had to establish cover.”

  “And me?” she snaps. “Am I part your little pretend story?!”

  “Fuck no,” I growl, wrapping her in my arms and pulling her into me.

  “Ana, you’re nothing I ever saw coming. You’re nothing I was even looking for, and then suddenly, there you fucking were, and now I can’t even imagine my world without you in it.”

  She swallows, raking her teeth over her bottom lip as her big blue eyes lock with mine.

  “You’re really with the FBI.”

  “I really am.”

  She smiles, looking away as she shakes her head. “What the hell is FBI doing at Winchester Academy?”

  My mouth tightens. “This.”

  I whirl, storming into the classroom to find Kelly on her cellphone.

  “Yes, that’s right officer, a student! I believe she’s sixteen years—”

  She yelps as I yank the phone out of her hands and hang up.

  “You are in big fucking trouble, Mr. Bard,” she hisses, jabbing a finger at me. “That was the police, and trust me, they’re on their way to lock your ass up!”

  And I just smile.

  “You sure I can’t persuade you to look the other way on this?”

  She scowls. “Are you fucking serious? No, you fucking asshole. You’re going to—”

  “How about a bribe?”

  I smile widely, and I see the quaver in her face, the color draining from it.

  “Excuse me? No, you’re—”

  “Because that’s your gig, isn’t it? Taking bribes? Accepting whoever can pay, regardless of grades? Fudging test scores? Denying other students whose parents’ business rivals pay you to do so?”

  Kelly goes pale.

  “Lies,” she whispers hoarsely, and you can see she doesn’t even believe her own lie.

  “Ah, Kelly, it’s not the bribery people even give a shit about. It’s the other stuff.”

  She swallows, her cheeks going gaunt. Oh, she knows the hammer is about to come down.

  “See, it’s the embezzlement and fraud that people give a shit about. And, well?” I smile widely at her. “I think you put it best, Kelly. So, to use your own words, you’re fucked. You’re done here.”

  “You—you—!” Kelly stutters, her eyes wild as they dart around the room.

  “Well you’re fucking a teenager!”

  “I’m eighteen,” Anastasia hisses from behind me.

  “You shut up, you little slut!”

  “Do not fucking talk to her like that,” I rumble, my eyes narrowing at Kelly.

  She sneers at me. “You want to take me down? Well, you’re going down too, asshole. Eighteen or not, she’s still a student, and whatever the fuck you were doing in your office, this is still school grounds. They’re going to burn you for this.”

  “Maybe,” I growl, my face hard. “But I’m willing to let them.” My lips pull back in a sneer. “How about you?”

  Kelly swallows, her face red and her nostrils flaring as she breathes heavily.

  “You screwed a student—”

  “And I’m not really a teacher.”

  She frowns, narrowing her eyes at me.

  “What?”

  And just then, the cops burst in.

  “On the ground! Now!”

  Ana screams, but I turn and smile at her, shaking my head as I get to my knees.

  “It’s going to be okay, baby.”

  “Now, asshole!”

  I turn and glare at the cop. “There’s a number in my wallet, back left pocket. I need you to call it.”

  “How about go fuck yours-”

  “I’m FBI, dickhead,” I growl. “Undercover.”

  The cops pause, gla
ncing at each other.

  “He’s lying!” Kelly shrieks, and I grin as I shake my head. If she had any sense whatsoever, she’d be using this disruption to get herself gone. But of course, she doesn’t.

  “He’s a professor here, and he’s been fucking her!” She jabs a finger at Ana. “This girl is sixteen years—”

  “I’m eighteen,” Ana mutters. “And nothing happened, at all, until I was.”

  The cops just look plain confused at this point, and I sigh.

  “Back left pocket. The number. You want to settle this? Call it.”

  “He is lying to you, officer—”

  “Ma’am?” one of the cops finally barks at the hysterical Kelly. “I need you to calm down and take a seat while we figure this out.”

  The man goes for my pocket and pulls out my wallet. And sure enough, on a little white card with the logo for a plumbing company that doesn’t exist, is a number. The man starts to dial and brings the phone to his ear. I can hear it ring, and then the muffled voice. The cop frowns.

  “They say they need a check in code.”

  “Five-five-zero-one-four-nine-eight, alpha alpha bravo.”

  The cop repeats the code into the phone and then clears his throat.

  “Yes sir, this is lieutenant Reed with the—yes, sir. Yes, sir I’ve got him right—yes, sir.” He glances at Kelly. “Yes, sir, she’s here too. I understand.”

  He blinks as he hangs up and eyes his partner.

  “He’s right.”

  And right then is when Kelly decides to book it. She screams, and she makes it about as far as the door before lieutenant Reed grabs her and hauls her back.

  “Ms. Lyne? You’re under arrest. The FBI will be here shortly to take you in and process you.”

  He glances at me. “If you could stick around…”

  “No problem.”

  I stand, and without another word, I turn to Ana and pull her into my arms, kissing the top of her head. I glance up to see both cops eyeing me warily.

  “I’m eighteen,” Ana mutters at them. “Go stare somewhere else.”

  I chuckle as I pull her into my office, leaning down to kiss her.

  “This doesn’t change anything, you know.”

  “Well, it does.”

  I frown, and she grins.

  “I mean, I think your cover is blown.”

  I chuckle. “Probably.”

  “So, you’re not my professor anymore.”

  “That’s probably a good thing, baby.”

  Ana shrugs, making a face. “I dunno, I mean, that was kind of the whole attraction. Without that kinky factor of you being my professor…” She sighs. “I mean, besides that, you’re just a creepy old guy who’s fucking an eighteen-year-old.”

  I stare at her, and about a quarter second later, she cracks, dissolving into giggles as she throws her arms around me.

  “You know I’m kidding, right?”

  “Old guy, huh?” I groan, wrapping my arms around her.

  “Kidding!” she snorts, looking up at me and laughing at the fake pout on my face. “Aww, did I hurt your feelings?”

  “I’m crushed, actually.”

  She grins. “Can I make it up to you?”

  “Definitely.”

  I lean down, cupping her cheek as my lips find hers.

  “There’s something else I should tell you,” I murmur into her lips.

  “What?”

  I pull away, smiling, my eyes locked on hers.

  “That I’m in love with you, Ana.”

  Her face goes red, her eyes shine, and suddenly, she’s grinning ear-to-ear as she leaps into my arms, her legs wrapped around my waist.

  “I love you too,” she whispers fiercely.

  We crash together again, lips searing into the others, and we let the rest of the world just fade away.

  Because really, what else is there but her?

  Epilogue

  Anastasia

  “Your father doesn’t own a shotgun, does he?”

  I giggle, turning to lean up and kiss Oliver’s cheek.

  “He does, actually. But only for duck hunting.”

  “How about boyfriends who are twelve years older than his eighteen-year-old daughter hunting?”

  I shrug casually. “Well, guess we’ll find out.”

  Oliver groans, and I giggle again as I squeeze his hand.

  “You know they’re both going to love you, right?”

  “So long as we don’t tell them how we really met? Yeah, I think I might have a chance.”

  I laugh as I turn to kiss his cheek again. We’re standing in the driveway of my parent’s house—well, manor, if you want to get fancy and technical about it. They’ve known about Oliver for a while, but this is the first time they’re going to meet him. And yes, we’ve got a fake story about how we met at a coffee house, where we were reading the same book and struck up a conversation.

  Hey, it’s so cheesy that everyone wants to believe it.

  The story is also that Oliver cut it off as soon as he found out I was a high school senior, but that it was me that pursued him, and eventually got him to relent.

  …I mean, that part’s half true, I guess.

  Yes, my parents were leery at first, but when they found out that Oliver’s in the FBI and not like a professional musician or a painter or something—something “juvenile and rowdy” as my mother might put it—I guess they settled down a bit. The fact that he was my professor is never going to come up with them. Trust me on that.

  You see, Winchester Academy was more than willing to bury the entire thing. It was the board who’d first gotten the FBI involved in prying into Kelly’s scheming. Everyone had wondered, but there was never any proof. That was one of the reasons Oliver was brought in, to be eyes on the ground and do some digging from within. Actually, part of his assignment had been to date her—something that makes my blood boil just thinking about—but he declined to. He’s told me it was because his first day there, he saw me an knew it was all over for him.

  So, with Kelly fired and arrested, the board at Winchester buried everything about Oliver. To the other students, he left to pursue a teaching job in Europe. Well, all the students except Kempton. But, that’s another whole story in and of itself.

  The funny thing is, while not technically a teacher, Oliver could have been. His undergraduate was in government, and he even has a master’s in education. You see, his mother was a schoolteacher, and his father a cop. Originally, he was going to follow mom’s path, but it was the FBI and law enforcement that eventually wooed him.

  I guess there was a bit of scandal at work for him when him being involved with me was revealed. But what were they really going to do? I was eighteen, and nothing inappropriate had ever happened before then. Well, nothing inappropriate besides me leaving my panties in his desk drawer and him taking them. But, no one has to know about that, right?

  Aside from that, he wasn’t technically my teacher, nor was I technically his student. There might have been some raised eyebrows, and maybe some mutterings and disapproving looks, but you know what?

  Screw ‘em.

  I found the man of my dreams—my true love, and the one who makes my knees weak every single time.

  …Oh, right, and the man who I’m going to marry.

  He doesn’t know I know yet, but I know. I do still have to live on campus until I graduate, but trust me, there’s a lot of sneaking out to go stay at Oliver’s place most nights. Kempton’s great at covering for me. And it was recently at his place, after he fell asleep, that I was snooping around and found the box with the ring in it.

  I’m pretty sure that’s one of the reasons we’re meeting my parents this weekend, so Oliver can get them alone and ask permission. Or at least let them know, which I happen to think is a pretty classy move.

  “Alright, shall we go in and rip the Band-Aid off?”

  Oliver nods. “Yeah, guess we should.”

  I start to walk for the door, but when I
realize he’s not next to me, I pause.

  “Hey, are you—”

  I turn, and my jaw drops.

  Because there, on his knee, right in front of me, is the man I love, holding up an open velvet box containing a diamond ring.

  “Will you marry me, Anastasia?”

  I blink, my lips moving but no words coming to them.

  “I—wait… is that real?!”

  He grins. “All you gotta say is yes, baby girl.”

  I swallow, heat blooming through my entire body as I stare at the ring. Slowly, my eyes drag up to his.

  “You’re serious.”

  “I’ve never been more serious about a thing in my life, beautiful,” he murmurs. “Now, there are conditions.”

  I just nod, in shock.

  “You have to finish school, and you have to go to college in the fall. Wherever you go, though, I’ve got free access to arrange a transfer, so you go to school where you want to go, and I’ll be there no matter what.”

  I nod eagerly, grinning from ear-to-ear.

  “Anything else?”

  “Aside from the whole forever and sickness and health and all that shit?” He grins. “Nope.”

  “Can I please just fucking say yes now?”

  Oliver chuckles, nodding. “Whenever you—”

  “YES!”

  I shriek, leaping into his arms and peppering his face with kisses.

  “I thought we were here so you could ask—”

  “I already did,” he winks. “Your parents and I met last week, while you were cramming for that Shakespearean Lit test.” He grins. “They like me, you know.”

  “Told you they would,” I grin, poking him in the arm before I melt into him and kiss him slowly as the world melts away around us.

  “You know,” he murmurs, pulling away. “They might start to like me a little bit less if I keep making out with their teenaged daughter in their driveway.”

  I laugh, kissing him again.

  “Well, I think you should keep kissing me.”

  He grins. “How about for now, we go tell your parents, and later, I kiss you everywhere.” He purrs the last word out, and I shiver, heat pooling between my legs.

  “I guess I can do that,” I sigh.