Page 59 of A Lesson in Obedience
Six words said so much. “So does that mean you care about me?”
He dropped his hand, backing away and plopping down into his desk chair. He glanced at the clock on his wall, then pointed towards his office door. “You should go. I have an appointment in ten minutes. I’ll see you at home.”
I rolled my eyes, not at all surprised by him. My legs were still shaky, but I kind of liked this lingering feeling of knowing what happened. “What about your—” I nodded to his obviouslyhard cock.
“It’ll go down.”
I didn’t know what else to say so I started to walk to the door, picking up my discarded backpack. His voice caught me by surprise before I left.
“I don’t get to have your mouth on my cock because I made a dumb, stupid decision. You deserved to come because of it. Simple.” He had his glasses back on his face, marking up papers with his red pen, when I turned around to see him. My eyebrows rose. “Don’t forget to close the door behind you.”
21
River
Icrumpled my napkin up, throwing it on my empty plate. I watched Grayson from across the table, sucking some of the salt from his fries off his fingers. I moved my plate to the side, sighing. This was way harder than I’d imagined. We could have conversations, we could even have lunch like we were doing now, but there was this shift that I didn’t like. I knew exactly what it was, but the fact that I couldn’t do much about it was what tore my heart apart.
Riley needed to take her time, however long that would be and I’d patiently wait. I’d waited far too long for someone like her to come into my life, so respecting her need to figure out how she felt and what she wanted was something I was more than willing to do.
“Earth to River.” Grayson waved his hand in front of my face.
“I’m listening,” I lied, straightening up on my side of the booth. Leif’s was busy and it had taken close to an hour to get our food, but it was always worth it.
“Your eyes do that thing where they glaze over like you’re in your own world, so I know you aren’t.”
I laughed, throwing a sugar packet at him. “Fine, you caught me. What were you saying?”
“What were you thinking about?”
I shrugged. “A lot of things. If you haven’t noticed there is a self-righteous wacko running this entire school who is obsessed with our girl.” I pressed my lips together, acknowledging my words.
Grayson’s eyes fell down to the table. He started tearing up his straw wrapper. “Y-yeah, that makes sense.”
I reached across the table and placed my hand on his wrist. “Hey, I’m trying to figure out how to navigate this.”
He placed his other hand over mine. “I know. I just want to do whatever she wants. You have to have some kind of idea what that is. She actually talks to you.” His tone had him sounding a little jealous.
“Believe me, if I had any idea, I would tell you. Anything I say to her now is just all the things I’ve told her before. She knows where I stand and that I’ve forgiven you, but Riley is her own person.” I squeezed his wrist. “She’ll come around, and I’ll keep you company until she does.”
“Aren’t you sweet,” Grayson chuckled, sticking his tongue out at me. His eyebrows furrowed for a moment.
“What is it?”
He looked up at me with his deep brown eyes that were filled with sadness. “It was really easy to be just friends and pretend like I didn’t know what you sounded like when you came because you were so genuinely happy with her. When she wanted to add me to that happiness, when I got to have both the people that seemed to, I don’t know, complete me in some way, it was something I couldn’t describe. And yes, that happiness includes your brother, as much as he doesn’t want to admit his feelings for her.” I laughed, until he moved his hand away from me, placing them both in his lap. “Now it’s starting from square one, just being your friend and trying to pretend that I don’t know what you sound like when youcome. I guess it’s a little worse since I also know what she sounds like too.”
He let out a laugh that had little to no humor in it. I let out a sigh, running a hand down my face and throwing him a soft smile. “You also happen to love her and I think she knows that. She doesn’t hate you, Grayson. I think that fact alone is why this is so hard for her. I mean the song does say ‘Love is a Battlefield.’”
Grayson snorted, a full genuine smile appearing on his face. The waitress came by and placed down our checks. I grabbed both of them before he could even reach his and walked over to the register. I tugged my wallet out from my back pocket, smiling over at the girl in front of me. I handed her the checks, noticing how she let her fingers linger on my own before pulling away.
I always had a good laugh when the women and men seemed to do this to me, but right now I just really wasn’t in the mood. She read me my total and I handed her my credit card. When she handed it back, she tilted her head to the side. “It must be exhausting.”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
She giggled. “That girl who went crazy at that meeting. That’s your girlfriend, right? It must be exhausting having to deal with all that.”
“She didn’t go crazy, she—” I started but she handed me my receipt, cutting me off.
“I’ve never been with a telepath. I’m just saying, if you want something easier, I get off at seven.” She looked me up and down and I commended her on her confidence, but she was barking up the wrong tree.
