Page 5 of Tempt Me

I trailed my fingertips along the edge of the paper, her eyes following my hand with a sharp inhale. Careful not to touch her, I turned my finger and pointed to my eyes.

“When I am speaking, I expect a response.” I bit back my smirk.

Her bright eyes locked onto mine. She swallowed hard, shaking her head. That fire settled back into her gaze.

“Do you understand, Ms. Summers?” I said.

She nodded, accepting my challenge.

“Actually, I can’t stay. I have very important errands that I refuse to be late for.” She smiled at me but with a sickly sweet emotion behind it.“Youunderstand, right?”

She was baiting me, and damned if I didn’t jump to it. I dropped my pen and started walking toward the front of theclass. The other students were snickering at her blatant defiance of me, and I knew that her challenging my authority would only bring some brave or stupid students to follow her lead.

As I continued my introductions while I walked the line between desks, I caught her gaze. She was studying me. Her irritation was showing under the surface because she started tapping her yellow-painted nails on the keyboard in front of her. The noise pissed me off, and when she noted that, she continued to do it all while staring at me.

Was she trying to piss me off?

A student raised their hand, and I had to divert my gaze from the curious girl in the back.

“Yes?” I allowed, nodding in recognition.

“Are you new here? I would have remembered you.” The drool was apparent on this girl as she ogled me.

I adjusted the collar on my button-down. I wasn’t shy or lacking in female attention, but at my place of work, I needed to keep it professional.

Suddenly, an image assaulted my mind of the heat from this fiery girl when she was pressed against my body in the graveyard. The fear in her eyes felt like an electric current in my blood. Looking down, I had to turn my body to avoid people seeing my sudden hard-on.

Great, I was going to be known as the creepy, perverted teacher.

I walked to my desk and sat down to cover my damned stupid appendage. I answered the girl’s question. “Yes and no. I used to work here a while ago, but I…took a leave of absence.”

The classroom was quiet, probably trying to analyze what I had meant and thought of all the elicit possibilities they could conjure up. The only noise I heard was a feminine snort from the back of the room.

Now, she was laughing at me?

Growing flustered by the minute with the frustration and arousal of this defiant woman, I cleared my throat.

“Right. Well, the first day is complete. Sign your syllabus and write a ten-page essay on a crime you have witnessed or committed in your lifetime and the repercussions that the action has had since for you.”

Shuffling of papers and chatter started. I stood and walked to the back of the classroom again to the disobedient brat.

“As I have cleared my schedule, I will see you in my office before you attend to yours.”

She said nothing, but the red blush coating her neck and cheeks was enough to confirm she had heard me.

“Do you often order your students around like cattle? Because buddy, it is not the 1950s anymore, and this is a courtesy to show up. I won’t answer some weird summons again.”

I leaned against my desk, studying her. She had her reddish blonde hair pulled into a knot on top of her head and wasn’t wearing the black blazer she had on before. Now, her prim little blouse and uniform skirt were on display, along with her stockings.

Get a fucking grip, Roe.

“I don’t refrain from discipline for disobedience. So, we are both stepping outside our usual boundaries, aren’t we?”

She blinked rapidly, dropping her backpack onto the chair across from my desk.

“What do you want from me, you weirdo?”

A smile stretched across my face as I walked over and pushed the door to my office closed.

---