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I laughed. “What? How could you possibly know that?”
“Because I’ve known you your whole fucking life. And you’re giving me that ‘I just got my socks knocked off’ look. So go on, spill. Did you do it on the Ferris wheel, or what?”
I covered my face. “The bouncy castle, actually.”
“The bouncy—Kendall! I was joking! Are you serious right now?” She squeezed my knee. “You dirty whore.”
I let out an elongated sigh. “I just don’t know what to do now, Jamie. It was perfect—everything about it was just—ugh.” I couldn’t even find the words. “He was amazing. But it was such a risk. I slept with one of my students’ parents. I could get fired if this got out.”
“No one needs to find out. It’s not like you haven’t done the whole ‘forbidden relationship’ thing before.”
“But it’s different this time. Not just because it’s my job that’s on the line this time, but—he’s got a daughter. What am I thinking messing around with a guy with a kid? I could never be some kind of—” I almost said “maternal figure,” but I couldn’t make my mouth form the words.
“You’re worrying about this way too much. Just have some more meaningless sex with the guy and relax. You don’t have to go catching feelings.”
The sex I had with Mason was anything but meaningless, but I didn’t mention that. Before I could say anything at all, Jamie sniffed the air with a confused look on her face. “Is something burning?”
Shit.
* *
On Monday morning, I was determined to act completely normal when Mason arrived. Due to an ear infection, Elijah had to stay inside during an outdoor PE activity, but I was somewhat grateful for his presence. Maybe it could ease the tension a little.
But when Mason “Two Orgasms” Reed walked into my classroom, my stomach fluttered and a warmth spread through my cheeks. Clutching two coffees against his chest, he halted when he saw Elijah coloring a picture at his desk. “Uh oh. What’s going on, buddy?”
“He’s got an ear infection,” I explained. “His mom doesn’t want him going outside.”
“You sure felt fine Saturday night, dude,” Mason said, standing directly in front of him. Elijah looked up at him with wide eyes. “Uh huh, I saw you. Double-fisting snacks and giving the bouncy castle supervisors a run for their money. Our regular ol’ shy Elijah was nowhere in sight. Now—which one is the real you?” Mason bent down and raised a curious eyebrow at the child, like he was trying to crack the code or something. Elijah quietly giggled in response.
Mason approached me with a shrug. “At least I tried.” He held my coffee toward me. “Here you are, princess.”
His eyes lingered on my flushed cheeks as I accepted the coffee from his hand. “Thanks.” The image of him looking up at me from between my legs flashed before my eyes, and I had to force myself to look down at my cup as I took a drink.
Mason remained standing in front of my desk, sipping his own coffee as he eyed Elijah. If I had to guess, he was probably a little annoyed by Elijah’s presence—it meant he’d have to censor himself. “So,” he said, turning back to me. “What do you have for me today, Ms. Devin?”
I picked up a stack of the kids’ Halloween crafts from Friday afternoon. “I could use some help taping bats to the back of the door,” I said.
Mason sat his coffee down on the corner of my desk—the only part of it not covered by clutter—and clapped his hands together. “All right, let’s do it.”
I pulled two rolls of masking tape from my desk drawer, handing one of them to Mason—along with half of the bats. As he followed me toward the classroom door, all I could think about was what he said about watching my ass jiggle when I walked. I was wearing a brown corduroy pinafore over a crème top with crème tights that day—and I had no idea what I looked like from behind. The grin he was failing to suppress when I turned around, though, confirmed my suspicion he was checking me out. “Is something amusing?” I asked.
He put his stack of bats on the shelf by the door and tore off a piece of tape. “Just thinking about how much fun that festival was.”
I glanced over my shoulder at Elijah as I rolled my own piece of tape. He was picking his nose and watching us closely. We couldn’t have this conversation—not now. “Yeah, all the kids really enjoyed that pumpkin slingshot.”
Mason pressed the first bat against the door. “I was actually thinking that bouncy castles are way more fun than I remembered.”
I smiled from one side of my mouth as I stood on my tiptoes to tape a bat near the top of the door. “Well. You’re not wrong about that,” I mumbled.
Mason bit into his tape to tear off a piece, which was somewhat unnecessary—but hot. He glanced over at Elijah, tossing his head to get his hair out of his eyes. And, with his voice low, he stepped a little closer to me to say, “I just—I don’t know what—I’m not sure if—” Whatever he wanted to say to me, he sure was having a hard time spitting it out. Finally, he took a deep breath and started over. “I wanted to see how you were feeling about what happened.”
“Well.” I eyed the bats we’d already taped to the door, contemplating where to hang the next one. “I think it was a huge risk. And we’re really lucky we weren’t caught.”
“Right,” he said quickly, nodding in agreement. “It was a little bit stupid. Having said that, though, I’m glad we got it out of our systems.”
“That we did.”
“I also think… that it probably wouldn’t be a good idea for us to—” He brought his eyes up to mine when he said, “Do that again.”
