Page 62 of Apparently, I’m Trouble

She wrapped her arms around my waist and pulled me in for a hug.

“It’s just that after you said the universe threw you into an enemies-to-lovers romance with him, I thought maybe you might’ve gotten to the lovers part.”

A laugh barked out of me. “I’d rather get a bull’s ass tattooed on my forehead, remember?”

She gave me a final squish, then let me go as she tried, and failed, to give me her sternest look. “I’m holding you to that.”

I waved a hand at her. “You won’t have to. My eyes are on the prize. Five spots, that’s the plan.”

Her smile was weak. “I can’t believe you agreed to take this on. It’s so much work.”

“There wasn’t much to agree to.” I shrugged. “You needed me. Of course I was going to do it.”

Lilly squeezed her eyes shut. “I just wish I didn’t have to ask you to do this. It isn’t fair on you. If Rutton would just stop listening to all those parents, my job wouldn’t be at risk in the first place.”

I nudged her shoulder and her eyes opened, meeting mine. “Hey. It won’t be long before this whole thing is over. The job will be yours, our students will graduate, and life will move on. Everything will be fine.”

Lilly’s shoulder nudged mine right back. “And you’re really okay?”

“As okay as I’ve ever been. And I know that meeting back there didn’t go the way you wanted, but I’ll fix it. Kira and Amber both deserve their shot.”

“They do.”

“And at least the table didn’t get flipped. I’d call that a win.”

Lilly let out a quiet laugh and relaxed. When she next spoke, she sounded playful, and the relief I felt was instant. “Do you think that, after the year is over, maybe they’ll end up as friends? Like we did?”

I snorted. “I doubt it, but crazier things have happened. I can’t believe that if it wasn’t for that literacy class, I’d never have met you. Think of how boring my life would’ve been.”

She grinned, and it almost made me forget the niggling guilt in the back of my mind–the fact that I’d lied, truly lied, to Lilly for the first time since I’d known her.

“I’m really glad you walked into that classroom.”

“Me too.”

She picked up a stray folder from her desk and said, “We’ll talk about the meeting later. All things considered, you held it together okay.”

I hmphed, trying to sound amused as she turned and left, waiting until she was out of earshot before I let myself sink back against my desk. My fingers shook as they curled around the wooden edge, my legs hollowing out as my pulse pounded hot and hard.

I shut my eyes and whispered, “It was just once. Once, and that’s it. Kira will graduate, and it’ll be like it never happened. And when the program is over, I’ll tell Lilly.”

But as I put my hand to my chest, I knew I’d gone from lying to Lilly to lying to myself.

Chapter 26

Theo

THEO’S APARTMENT

Saturday

I gripped my cock, water pounding my back as I stood in the shower. I pictured her here, on her knees, looking up at me with those dark eyes, her tongue teasing my tip as she touched herself. I knew what that tongue felt like, what her mouth felt like, and having that–just knowing what it was like to touch her–drove me fucking insane.

One taste. I couldn’t live with just one taste.

I knew Mia was wrong for me, but that didn’t seem to matter. I kept finding myself here, doing this. Making myself come to the thought of her beneath me, on top of me, soaked with my cum. In her mouth, her ass, her pussy; on her stomach, on her back, on her knees.

Pressure built as I pictured her bent over, hands braced against the tiled wall, her curves rippling as I thrust into her. Her prim, proper accent would tilt her moans, pushing them into something raw. I’d reach down, roll her clit under my touch, and she’d spread her legs wider, letting me in deeper.