AllFreeNovel
Share Us
God, she loved it when he talked so possessively. And just that quickly, forgave him for whatever he was doing with Dr. Langford that evening.
“I do, but my teacher’s in Phoenix tomorrow giving some paper at ASU. We were allowed to go as extra credit, but I couldn’t because it’s show week.”
She knew he’d appreciate how dedicated she was.
“And you don’t want to take advantage of the opportunity to sleep in?”
She about melted right there on the couch when he said that. It made her crazy to know he thought about her in her bed.
“No,” she told him. What she wanted was to know, the whole time she was with Dr. Langford, that she’d be going straight to Matt afterward.
“Okay,” he said, standing, his hands on the back of his chair. “Unless you hear from me, plan on being at her office at nine tomorrow morning.”
Their meeting was over. Sophie understood. He could only be this close to her for short periods without making a move. He was, after all, a mature and incredibly virile man.
Flicking her blond hair, she smiled at the thought. As for her—she was almost perfect. If he’d only give her another month or two…
CHAPTER TWELVE
“YOU DON’T HAVE to come here at all, but if you’re going to come, you can’t just take out the trash and pretend that last night didn’t happen.”
Phyllis had been waiting for Matt to say something the whole ten minutes he’d been in her house taking care of chores. Other than a grunted hello, he hadn’t said a word. He was on his way out the kitchen door with the trash and she was afraid he’d just go on home from there.
“I’ll be right back,” he said, disappeared with the one small bag of garbage he’d collected. He was wearing jeans and a brown corduroy shirt, and from out of nowhere Phyllis was remembering how he’d looked with no shirt at all, those powerful shoulders above her, how the smooth skin, the rippling muscles of his back, had felt to her touch.
She wasn’t wearing jeans today. She’d very proudly donned leggings and a long chenille off-white sweater that morning because the button on the black jeans she’d been planning to wear had refused to fasten. A fact she’d bragged about to Tory when she’d spoken with her on the phone after school. Still in Phoenix, Tory was due to come home the next day.
Ben was there, too. He hadn’t left the hospital since he’d arrived the day before. Alex was staying with the Montford clan at Montford Mansion.
“Anything else you need done tonight?”
Matt was standing just inside her back door. He was looking at her, but there were no windows to his soul tonight. Only walls.
“I need you to talk to me,” she said honestly. She’d been unable to concentrate all day, thoughts of him popping up at odd times, usually when she’d been trying to concentrate on something else.
Like teaching class.
One of her students had reminded her of Matt today. He looked nothing like him. Acted nothing like him. But he’d been wearing a maroon leather jacket…
Moving not an inch from the door, he pulled up the zipper of his brown leather jacket. “I talked to Sophie.”
It wasn’t what she’d thought he was going to say. “And?”
“She agreed to meet with you.”
“Oh!” Phyllis hadn’t expected that. At least not so soon, so easily. Maybe the girl wasn’t in as much trouble as Phyllis had suspected. “When?”
“Tomorrow morning at nine okay with you?”
“Perfect. That’s right in the middle of my office hours.”
“Good.” He unzipped his jacket, rubbing the tab back and forth between thumb and forefinger. “I might just be wasting your time with her,” he said, his free hand on the doorknob. “She seemed fine today. Said she was fine.”
Phyllis frowned. “But you told me her lack of concentration’s been a problem all semester.”
“It has. Today, though, she seemed in top form. We went over the schedule for this week’s show and she’s done a great job. Had everything well thought out. I couldn’t have done better myself.”
High praise indeed. She’d have said the words out loud but couldn’t rely on his sense of humor. Not at the moment, anyway.
