Page 38 of Breaking Emily's Rules
So far I’d been nothing but the consummate professional student, and now I was flirting. I blamed it on the flying. It had turned out to be some kind of aphrodisiac.
“Okay, you asked for it. You get a C plus.” He continued to write down notes as if he hadn’t just metaphorically slapped my face.
“A C? You’re kidding, right?” I’d had one C in school and cried about it for a week. “I am not a C student.”
“I said a Cplus.”
“C, C plus, what’s the difference?”
“You’re an average pilot right now. You’ll get better.”
“I’m in a hurry.”
“Yeah, and I want to know why.”
There was the matter of the alumni’s newsletter, and I’d hoped to get in the next issue. It would be so impressive to be able to report I’d become a licensed pilot, and the tie-in to my namesake would make a nice little human interest story. But I didn’t think Stone would like that answer.
“I’m not getting any younger.”
Now he stared at me as if I had two heads. He was forever giving me that look, as if I confounded him down to the depths of his blue eyes. “Right.”
“Why do you always look at me like that?”
“How am I looking at you?”
“Like I’m some odd human species you can’t quite figure out. Like you don’t understand a word I’m saying.”
“Hmm. That isn’t too far from the truth.”
I slapped his shoulder. “Oh, c’mon. You know I’m your favorite female student.”
“You’re my only female student.”
“Look at that. I guess that makes me the favorite.”
“Don’t push it, Parker.”
I climbed out of the plane and followed him into the hangar, but only steps before the door I stopped in my tracks. I’d passed the test today. Unofficially, yes, and with a C. My least favorite way of passing. But still, I’d passed. I was going to get my pilot’s license. Soon, if I kept this up.
“Are you going to pass out again?” He opened the hangar door and paused, searching my eyes, his brow furrowed.
No fainting today. Not at all. This was a banner day for Emily Parker. “I passed.”
“It wasn’t a test. But yeah, if it had been. I passed you.”
“But I’m going to be pilot! Soon!” I shouted and ran toward him, almost surprising myself by grabbing his neck and planting a kiss on his lips. Apparently flying also gave me courage, because I’d wanted to do that for a while too.
Good Lord, he smelled so good. Like a combination of leather and musk. Stone made me forget from time to time that I’d given up men. His surly gazes and hard body could make a girl forget all kinds of things.
In the next moment, Stone’s arms came around my waist to pull me closer. “That was nice, but an apple would have been fine.”
“An apple?” I stammered.
“Teacher, apple?” He held me practically pinned against him, arms tight around my waist, hands lingering a bit lower.
Okay, so I’d just forgotten a simple connection between apple and teacher. My brain was officially on hiatus. “I lost my head for a minute. I’ll bring you an apple tomorrow.”
He looked like he would kiss me then, but the hot look in his eyes told me it would be nothing simple. I could almost taste his breath as he leaned in close, and I reviewed the reasons why I should forget about my plan to give up men. Molly was right. It wouldn’t have lasted anyway.
