by Mariano, Sam
I could be found out, I could wind up in deep trouble and lose my job over being with Noelle, but it would never be because she turned spiteful. Noelle isn’t spiteful. She’s never proven herself to be anything but thoughtful and considerate of others.
As if I needed more proof that she’s not out to punish me for being a bastard, after the awful way I treated her, she still allowed herself to have fun with me last night. She still gave herself to me without hesitation, like I somehow deserved her when we both know I didn’t.
She’s intoxicating, like the purest form of an already potent drug, and I want more. I don’t care if she wrecks my system, I don’t care if she ruins me as much as I ruin her—I want her, she wants me, and nothing is getting in our way this time.
If by some chance being with her costs me everything else, to hell with it.
I’ve been with plenty of women over the years, but I’ve never enjoyed any of them the way I enjoy Noelle. There’s a brightness that radiates from her—from her mind, from her heart. It dances in her eyes; I taste it on her lips when I kiss her, feel it when I touch her.
I don’t know why I wasted time trying to be noble, trying to play it safe. That’s not me. If the spark between us burns down both our fucking lives… well, then it does.
Peace washes over me. I want to do things right this time, and that means no lies. She figures me out most of the time anyway, but just to fully wipe the slate clean, I lightly grab Noelle’s bicep and urge her to roll back over.
She does, looking up at me curiously.
“I need to tell you a few things,” I say to my beautiful girl.
Since she has come to expect more bad surprises than good ones from me, she frowns at me like I’m about to ruin her day. “Okay…”
“I didn’t go on a date with anyone the other night. I tried to, but I ended up parking at the restaurant and not wanting to go inside, so I turned around and went back home.”
Noelle’s lips curve up, a twinkle of pleasure in her eyes. “Oh. Well, that’s much better than what I was expecting you to say.”
“I also slashed my own tire.”
Her eyebrows rise in surprise. “What?”
“I overheard you talking about going out with some idiot kid. I didn’t want you to. Knew you couldn’t go on the date if I didn’t take you home, so, I… made sure you couldn’t.”
Now her jaw drops completely open and she elbows me in the stomach, causing me to grunt. “Oh my God, Cal. Literally all you had to say was ‘I don’t want you to go on a date with anyone else tonight’. You didn’t have to damage your car!”
“I hadn’t committed to pulling my head out of my ass yet, I had to do things my own way.”
Noelle grins, rolling over to face me and snuggling up against my chest. “You’re crazy, but I’m crazy about you, so maybe I don’t have any room to talk.”
I offer her a little smile back, curling my arm around her waist and pulling her snugly against me. “I also want to say: I’m sorry for the way I treated you the other night.” At some point while I slept she must have put her robe back on, so I have to peel back the top and push it down her slim arms to get a look at those lovely breasts again.
Blinking in apparent surprise, she utters a soft “Oh.”
“I was awful to you, and you did nothing to deserve it,” I continue, bending to kiss the ball of her shoulder.
“It’s okay,” she says softly. “I mean, not the stuff you said to me, that was all terrible,” she adds quickly. “But I was totally fine with the bedroom stuff.”
My mouth tugs up with dry humor. “Yes, I could tell.”
Narrowing her eyes at me, she shoves me in the shoulder.
“Anyway, you’re mine now, and I take care of what’s mine,” I assure her, grabbing the back of her neck and pulling her in for a kiss.
There’s a dreamy smile on her face when I pull back. “You sure do.”
“Being with me won’t always be easy, especially for the next few months. Obviously, no one can know about us. I can’t get away with dating one of my students and keep my job, so we’ll have to hide our relationship.”
“I can do that,” she says a little too eagerly. I don’t think she understands how hard that will be once the blush of a new romance has worn off, after months have passed and I can’t do the things with her that other girls her age are able to do with their boyfriends.
It doesn’t matter, though. We’ll figure it out together. If the alternative is fighting this attraction we both feel and watching her date other people, I’ll take a little difficulty.
The simplest solution would’ve been to wait until she graduated, sure, but it’s too late now that I’ve felt her naked body pressed to mine, felt the heat from her needy pussy as she writhed against me and begged for my cock.
I’m thoroughly satisfied with that decision now, as I untie her belt and slide my hands inside her white fluffy robe. My fingers skim her soft skin, and I remember a couple of the questions I forgot to ask her last night, in the heat of the moment.
“Are you on the pill?”
Noelle nods her head. “Sure am.”
“That’s good. Pregnancy might have been hard to explain.”
“Hey, it’s Christmastime. We could go super traditional with our excuse—virgin birth. How dare anyone question my miracle?”
My lips curve up faintly. “How far had you gone before last night?” I ask, running my fingers along her jaw and drawing her gaze back to me.
“Only as far as I went with you. I had a boyfriend for part of last year, but it wasn’t super serious. We never made it past, like, over the clothes action.”
Pure as the driven snow, then.
“I intend to dirty you up quick,” I warn her.
Offering me a playful smile, she says, “I’m a very fast learner. You can ask my teacher if you don’t believe me.”
“Nah, that guy’s a dick,” I joke.
Scowling in jest, she pokes me in the shoulder. “Hey, don’t talk about my man that way.”
My gaze drops from her face and follows the trail of her robe. I push the rest of it off her and slide my hand down her side, caressing her bare hip, then running my hand over her smooth little ass.
Noelle sighs softly and wraps her arms around me, curling a leg around my thigh. “Are we going for round four?”
I nod as I lean in to kiss her. “I think we have to,” I murmur against her lips.
“I don’t have to do anything,” she brags, mocking me again.
I roll my eyes and push her onto her back, pinning her little ass to the bed and showing her just how wrong she is.
Epilogue
Noelle
One Year Later
Just hear those sleigh bells jingling,
ring tingle tingling too.
Come on, it's lovely weather
for a sleigh ride together with you…
I hum along to the Christmas music as I refill the chest full of plastic-wrapped candy canes. My early shift at the North Pole is nearing its end, but my day isn’t even half over. I’m so preoccupied thinking about my plans for the evening, I don’t even notice the extremely dashing dark-haired gentleman approaching.
“Excuse me, miss. I was told I could get an Elfie over here. How do you feel about posing topless?”
Pleasure washes through me and I feel myself light up like a Christmas tree as I lift my gaze to Cal’s. “What are you doing here, troublemaker? We’re supposed to meet up at my mom’s house in an hour.”
Cal leans over the countertop, claiming my lips in a quick, possessive kiss. “I was in the area. Picking up something for tonight.” He lifts the Daring Dolls bag so I can see. “Figured I’d drop by and see my favorite elf while I’m here.”
“Mm, well, I’m glad you did,” I murmur, leaning in to steal another kiss. One is never enough with him.
Speaking of one, it has been one whole year since we spent the night together at the Marymount Inn. One beautiful, in
tense, incredible year with this maddening, gorgeous, wonderful man.
Cal promised me that morning that he would be good to me from then on, and while I hoped it was true and he wouldn’t push me away again, I had my doubts about his ability to follow through.
It turns out, he was better than his word. He hasn’t just treated me well since deciding to give in to this attraction, he’s been the absolute best—my shoulder to cry on when things get stressful, my challenging partner, pushing limits and demanding my best when I forget to be brave. He’s my best friend, my lover, and yes, my teacher. Cal still teaches me things all the time, even though he doesn’t get paid to anymore.
Now that I haven’t been in his class for a good six months, we’ve finally decided to go public with our relationship. It’s been a hard secret to keep, especially from my mom, but I started dropping hints that I was seeing someone a few weeks ago, and tonight I’m finally bringing Cal home.
He doesn’t stay at the North Pole for long since he has to get ready for dinner, too. I’m sure it’s not his first choice to spend our anniversary having dinner with my mom, but he made our after-dinner plans, so he’s going along with it.
An unexpected rush hits after he leaves, so I end up having to stay past the end of my shift. I hurry home since I still need to shower and shave and get date-ready—and I still have to finish preparing Cal’s anniversary present, too.
Once I’m showered and buffed to perfection, I make quick work of doing my hair and getting dressed. I pick out a cranberry-colored sweater dress with deceptively warm black stockings, then I grab cute ankle boots to pair with it. We’re going to Winterfest tonight, and while it’s not as cold as when we went last year, it’s still chilly, and it’ll be even colder on the ice.
Then again, no matter how cold I get, Cal will warm me up afterward when we go back to the inn where we spent our first night together.
I have his real anniversary present wrapped on the bed, but before I go downstairs for dinner, I need to get his other gift ready.
Dropping onto the chair in front of my desk, I open my laptop and turn it on. While I wait for it to power up, I run my hand across the red leatherbound book I was reading last night. A Christmas Carol. The least naughty gift Cal gave me last year.
I love this book. I keep it around even when it’s not Christmastime, just because it reminds me of the start of our relationship.
In that spirit, I thought this year it would be a fun throwback to write another sexy homework assignment for him. This one I’m not afraid to print off, but it prints without jamming anyway. I staple the pages together and fold them in half, then I slide them into the crimson envelope that already contains an incredibly gushy card about how amazing he is and how much I love him. I put on an extra layer of lipstick, then I seal the envelope with a kiss.
My phone buzzes on the desk beside me. I don’t have to pick it up to see his message: I’m here.
I grin, grabbing my phone and his card and going over to collect his present off the bed. My purse for the night is oversized since I’m also using it as an overnight bag, so I shove in the present and card and head downstairs.
I greet Cal at the door, hoping to hide my nerves, but I can’t hide anything from him. Where I’m worried, he’s calm, as if this can only possibly go well.
Firmly placing a hand at the small of my back, he pulls me in, pressing a reassuring kiss to the side of my face. “Relax.”
“I am,” I insist, even though it’s not true.
He takes my hand and gives it a squeeze, then we walk together to the dining room where Adeline has already set the table for us. My mom is at the foot of the table; she looks up with a bright smile when we enter the room.
“You must be Callan,” my mother says, standing to offer her hand. Cal gives it a good, firm shake and she smiles with approval. “I’ve heard so much about you.”
That’s not true. I mean, I gushed about how smart and wonderful he is in hopes that my praise would make her more inclined to like him, but as far as the important things… no.
They exchange polite greetings and I’m relieved that my mom doesn’t seem to be alarmed by—or even notice—that he’s a tad older than I am. Of course, my mom has always been drawn to men a little older than her too, so that might be why.
Adeline brings in salads as soon as we sit down. Conversation remains light, for the most part, but while the verbal exchange is pleasantly mundane throughout, I notice my mother examining our interactions quite closely. When Cal mindlessly places his hand over mine atop the table, when he tells her a cute story about something I did and he squeezes my thigh under the table, even the way he watches me leave the room when I excuse myself to go pee.
I’m not sure what she’s watching for, but I come back as quickly as possible, not wanting to leave him alone for a potential ambush. When I come back, everything is still pleasant, so I tell myself to relax a bit.
The main course has been served while I was gone. I take my seat beside Cal and grab my fork, but before I take a single bite, my mom begins the line of questioning I’ve been dreading.
“So, what do you do for a living, Callan?”
Neither of us says anything right away. Cal looks over at me, wordlessly checking that I still want to stick as close as possible to the truth.
I know it’s not an easy truth, but I don’t see the point in trying to lie. Things are too serious between us to even fantasize that she’ll never find out where he works. We’re only celebrating our second Christmas together this year, but if it’s up to me, I’ll spend all the rest of them with him, too.
I nod at him subtly, dropping my fork and resting my hand over his before I can think better of it. Lending each other support when things are rough comes so naturally to us, and I’m not used to having our behavior observed by an outsider.
“Cal is actually a teacher at Oak Grove High. English lit.”
My mother holds my gaze, but her expression betrays nothing. I can’t tell if she’s not surprised, or she’s so stunned that she’s trying to remember how to speak.
“A teacher,” she finally says.
My appetite abandons me with a quickness. “Yeah,” I say, hoping I don’t look as uncomfortable as I feel.
“And you never crossed paths when you went to school there?”
I fight the urge to look at Cal again, knowing it would come off as suspicious. This is much harder in the moment than I thought it would be. Curled up naked in Cal’s bed when I came up with this hare-brained idea to be honest, I had at least a dozen arguments to back up why it was the best course of action.
Seeing that I’m clamming up, Cal asserts brazenly, “Noelle was one of my students, actually.”
My mother blinks at him several times without speaking.
I feel ill. This was a bad idea. We should’ve lied. It’s not like my mom was going to fact-check our story. I could have said he did literally anything else. I could’ve even said he was a teacher at a different school. The public high school, maybe. She never had to know.
“I see,” my mother says evenly, placing her fork down on the table. Looking back at Cal, she asks, “And do you make a habit of dating former students?”
I cringe, but Cal’s not insulted and merely offers back a thin smile. “No. She’s the first. I expect she’ll also be the last. Just one of those things.”
“I’m not sure which ‘one of those things’ that might be. I’m not sure having a sexual relationship with a former student is typically ‘one of those things’.”
“Mom,” I say, pleading with my eyes for her to drop it.
“I’m sorry, Noelle, it’s a little strange. You were in his class as a pupil until six months ago. When did you start seeing him, exactly?”
“Who cares?” I toss back, rather than offering a fragment of the carefully thought out story we came up with before all this. “We love each other. This isn’t anything icky.”
“Okay,” she says, even more skeptical.
“Long enough to love each other. That’s… so, at least three months? Four? Five? Did he call you the day after you graduated?”
Before I can answer, Callan does for me. “I understand why you’re skeptical, Miss Harper. I would be too, in your shoes. But, believe me, I am very serious about your daughter. It was when she was my student that she first caught my attention, but it was her mind that drew me in. I would read her papers, and they were so compelling. Skill and intelligence aside, I was fascinated by the way she viewed and processed the world. Hers was nothing like my point of view, but I was enthralled, nevertheless. I fell a little in love with her just peeking into her mind, though I obviously didn’t want to admit it at the time.”
Mom glances down the table at me, but I’m too busy melting into goo to reassure her that our stories line up.
Cal goes on, completely unapologetic. “As soon as she was no longer my student, yes, I did pursue her, and from a professional standpoint that’s certainly straddling a line that shouldn’t be crossed, but that should illustrate how important your daughter is to me. I’ve worked hard to get where I am, and if I got fired over this, there’s not a school in the country that would hire me. I value my job, Miss Harper, but not enough to miss out on Noelle.”
My mom regards Cal for a long time, not saying anything. The wordless scrutiny goes on forever, but when she finally looks away, there’s no longer distrust or hostility in her gaze.
“Well, all right, then.”
My heart floats with relief. “Yeah?” I ask hopefully.
“I suppose people meet in all kinds of ways,” she says. “At least his interest in you was provoked by what’s in your head rather than what’s in your blouse. That’s more than I can say for most men.”
* * *
After a romantic evening strolling through Winterfest, drinking hot chocolate, ice skating, and stealing kisses beneath the mistletoe, Cal bribes one of the men driving the sleighs to give us a ride over to the Marymount Inn, just like he did last year.
