Page 24 of Love Complicated

“Grady’s.”

That’s not surprising. Grady can barely dress himself properly. I still have to get on him about putting his shoes on the right feet. But it still doesn’t explain what started all this. “Why’d Cash spit on his desk?”

Ridge’s lips pull up into a smile. A devastatingly beautiful one. God, ten years did him so good. “He’d been drawing on it and decided to erase it, I assume.”

I don’t know for sure, but Ridge seems entertained by this, doesn’t he?

I have to get out of here. I can’t be in the same room with him. “Okay, well, if he’s not in any trouble, I’ll talk to him about it tonight. I have to go.”

Ridge grabs my elbow, effortlessly spinning me around to face him. I can’t even accurately describe the feeling that rushes through me when he touches me. It’s a jolt of excitement and panic, and I don’t even attempt to pull away or extract myself from his grasp. And I don’t want to.

His touch catches me off guard. I’m lightheaded by his presence, and I drop my purse in the process.

“You don’thaveto go anywhere,” he whispers, way too close to my ear.

“I do, and you’re the last person I need to be in a room with alone,” I shoot back.

He doesn’t blink. “Because you don’t trust yourself around me, even after all these years.” His voice crawls inside my veins like the bite of a venomous snake, and I freeze, anticipating my reaction to the poison. “It doesn’t matter how long it’s been. I see the flush in your cheeks, the way your breathing increases. You never could resist me.”

What a cocky motherfucker. I square my shoulders, but I don’t say anything to argue with him. Why should I? He knows.

“That’s why you said no to me,” he says, unblinking. “You don’t trust yourself around me.” His mouth twists into something resembling a smirk, but it fails to last. “You were always easy to read.” He brushes his knuckles over my cheekbone, amusement dancing in his pupils. “Tell me I’m wrong.” His body is so close to mine I can feel his heat. It throws me back to the night we shared all those years ago.

“Why do you care?” My pulse drumming wildly.

I don’t think he likes that I’ve brought that up, but he also doesn’t give me a lot to go on as far as his facial expressions. “I’vealwayscared.” His voice is velvet, caressing me in places he has no business reaching. But there’s certainly truth to his words. He did care. He just didn’t know how to handle the emotions that came with it.

“It sure didn’t seem that way,” I answer truthfully, closing my eyes.

“I can show you just how much I cared. Wanna pick up where we left off?” he whispers in my face, watching my reaction to him like it’s a game. Goose bumps spread and it feels like someone turned the heat on. I know I’m breathing heavily but you know, he is too.

“I uh. . . no. That’d be inappropriate,” I tell him, my voice a hiss in attempt to convey my anger for him. “You’re my sons’ teacher.”

He pins me with a grin. “That’s for me to decide,” he says, releasing my arm. “And I’d really like to start where we left off.”

Ridge Lucas is smart. No, smart isn’t describing him accurately. More like crafty. He’s sharp and almost always a step ahead of everyone else. Including me. Especially me.

“I have to leave.” Picking up my purse, I turn around and bolt out of the classroom, leaving the only guy I could never control myself around in the school.

I contemplate having the boys switch schools, maybe leaving the state all together if Ridge is back in town, but then again, I wouldn’t do that. I wouldn’t because I think I know why Ridge came home.

For me.

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