Page 35 of Directing You
Chapter 16
Reid
The next morning,I woke up in the most delicious state. Naked. With a gloriously nude Hazel spooning in my arms, her smooth, toned back facing me and my hard cock nestled against her ass.
After the mustard debacle last night, my doctor told me the signs to look for that would indicate a negative reaction to the epi pen… none of which was new to me. I’d been through this rigmarole before. But for Hazel’s sake, I took extra caution.
It also took a whole lot of persuading and another call to Dr. Moore to convince Hazel that it was safe for me to have sex. Finally, she let me make love to her… and I swear, we didn’t stop. We had sex several times before finally falling asleep only a couple of hours ago. Even though it was only 6:30 a.m., I felt more rested than I had in years.
I stretched, sliding my finger over the dismiss button for my alarm as Hazel moaned and stretched beside me, spreading those supple breasts with the movement. “It can’t be time to get up already,” she groaned.
I leaned over her, cupping her jaw, and pulled her in for a deep kiss, ignoring the way my stomach flipped as our lips touched and her tongue parted my mouth.
I sat up and she followed me, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. “Shhh,” I hushed her, guiding her to lie back down. “You have time to go back to sleep before class…or should I say, rehearsal.”
“No,” she muttered, and I swallowed my laugh. She was clearly not a morning person and it was adorable. “I’ll get up too.”
This time, I didn’t stifle my laugh and chuckled against her mouth as I knelt over her and kissed her once more. “It’s six thirty in the morning and I still need to go uptown to change before class. Go back to sleep, Hazel.”
She blinked, moisture filling her eyes as she tugged the sheet up around her breasts. “If I go back to sleep,” she whispered, “then I’ll wake up alone. And our one weekend will officially be over.”
The vulnerability in her voice was refreshing and raw. She wouldn’t look at me. Instead, she cast her eyes down at her wringing hands in her lap. “Hey,” I said quietly, tucking my finger below her chin and drawing her gaze back to mine. “It’s only over if we want it to be.”
“But…school. Their policy would never allow—”
I cleared my throat and felt her immediately go tense in my arms. “That was just a morning throat-clearing,” I said. “Not the allergy. As for the school’s rules… I’m teaching as a favor to… to a friend.” I swallowed the wordex-fiancé, unsure of why I wasn’t being completely honest about my previous relationship with Faith. Even yesterday when we talked about Faith right here in this bed, I couldn’t bring myself to tell Hazel that the woman who broke me was her previous teacher. Like I feared that somehow saying Faith’s name would give her power over me, over us, and this weekend. “Right now, I’m more concerned with getting to know you than a gig I care very little about.”
She blinked so rapidly it would have been comical if I hadn’t been waiting on eggshells for her response. “But—”
“I won’t do anything without you making the final call. But if we go to the department head together…”
Hazel’s eyes went wide as saucers and she shook her head, her mouth dropping. “We can’t. Professor Dercy already hates me. She thinks I’m a lazy slacker.”
“If Dercy thinks you’re lazy, she clearly hasn’t taken the time to get to know you.”
“She actually used to be my biggest supporter in the program. But after I failed Professor Lewis’s class, it was like her entire opinion of me changed.”
“Because she doesn’t know the truth ofwhyyou failed. You should tell her.” I didn’t want to push Hazel too hard. This was ultimately her decision. Whatever she chose, I would support her, even if I wanted something different.
Hazel shook her head. “If learning I’m a burlesque dancer isn’t enough to get me fired and lose my scholarship, then our relationship woulddefinitelyget me kicked me out of the department.”
“Okay,” I said. I understood where she was coming from. And if we were going to try this…truly try this…it had to be her call. In every possible way. “What if I quit this teaching job? Then we’re not doing anything wrong.”
She sighed, swinging her legs over the edge of the bed. “You can’t quit. Then me and my classmates are without a professor for the semester.”
“They would find you all another professor,” I said. It was true. There were adjunct professors and plenty of people in New York City dying to get their hands on a teaching opportunity.
“Even so…that professor isn’t going to be a Broadway director who is planning to workshop a new show with us.” She stood, slipping her arms into a robe and tying it around her waist before padding into the kitchen, filling the coffeepot with water. Shaking her head, she spun, finally facing me and leaning against the counter. “It wouldn’t be fair to the class to lose that opportunity because you and I had one amazing weekend.”
Her words stabbed me in the chest. I didn’t think she meant that the way it sounded, but it hurt all the same. I took a step into her, resting my hand on her hip. The silk of her robe wrinkled beneath my rough palm and I squeezed her gently. “The weekend was amazing,” I said, smiling. “But who says it just has to be the one? Think of all the amazing weekends we could have together. Besides,” I gently poked my index finger to her button nose, “you still owe me a home cooked dinner. One that doesn’t try to kill me, preferably.”
She blew out a breath through tight lips, giving a small chuckle. “I just…I don’t see any good way this can end. Some love stories are long. Like three-book-trilogy-series sort of long. And…some are short novellas. But just because it’s short doesn’t mean it’s any less epic.”
I inhaled a sharp breath through my nose, my chest rising with the movement. “Love story?”
Her eyes darted to the right, and she spun around to prepare the coffee. Or maybe to escape my inquiry. My gaze. “Notlove. That’s not what I meant. Just, like, you know, a whirlwind romance thing that’s in every romance novel.”
“But that’s not what you said.”
