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I couldn’t help myself.
My feet carried me forward, and I wasn’t sure whether it was the darkness in the room or the fact we were alone in a place that was mine. “What are you doing in here, Aria?” I asked, my voice deeper than usual. She was getting to me more than I cared to admit.
“I…” She bit down on her bottom lip, and I heard her quick inhale of breath as I halted a foot in front of her. Her head tilted back so she could stare up at me. Her T-shirt slid up, and I nearly groaned when more of her creamy skin showed, peeking at me, tempting me more than anything else ever had. “I slept here last night.”
“In my bed?” I was fighting every instinct I had not to press my body against hers, but I was starting to lose control.
Aria nodded in reply to my question, but she didn’t make a single move. Could she feel the air swirling between us? I couldn’t have been imagining this, it just wasn’t possible.
“Do you do that often?” My voice was practically a whisper, but the thought of her sleeping in my bed had me irrationally fired up. How many times had she slept on my sheets and then I’d slept on them the night after? How many times had her red hair been spread over my pillows?
“Only when I stay over,” she said, her voice small and unsure. I was towering over her. Maybe I was scaring her?
Shit.
What the hell was I doing?
Not only was she seventeen, but she was my goddamn student, and I was here staring her down and licking my lips like she was here for me, and me only.
I needed to get away from her.
As far away as humanly possible.
Chapter Five
ARIA
“And, I swear to god, he was the best kisser ever.”
Hope’s words vibrated through my head, but I wasn’t really listening to any of them. She’d talked nonstop about her amazing weekend with her sister and their band and all the hot guys she’d met backstage. Hope wasn’t the kind of person who liked to stay home on her own, so she preferred to be around people than alone. I didn’t understand it because alone was my favorite place to be. Her life was so different from mine, and sometimes I wished I was her. She didn’t have a care in the world, or at least that was how she made it seem.
“But then he got a little too handsy if you know what I mean.” She elbowed me in the side, but I kept my gaze trained on the bustling school hallway. “Aria? Are you listening to me?”
“Huh?” I whipped my head around to face her, blinking several times in quick succession. “Yeah, yeah, he was the best kisser but then got too handsy.”
She sighed. “He was so hot too. Maybe I should have lost my V-card then and there.” She paused as I stopped at my locker to switch out my books. “What do you think?”
I closed my locker, the scrape of the metal making me cringe. Everything had me on edge today. I’d woken feeling a little weird, and not really with it. It was like the edges of my vision were constantly blurry. “I think you should have offered it on a silver platter to him.”
Hope blinked, her brows rising, and I tried to keep my face pulled into a serious mask, but I was failing epically. “Oh hardy har,
you’re so funny.”
“Thanks.” I hugged my books to my chest and leaned against the locker, able to feel like I could finally take a full breath. Hope always managed to make me think about anything else but what was whirring around in my head. There was only a minute or two until our next class, a class I still wasn’t sure whether I dreaded or anticipated. My feelings were all over the damn place, and it was all down to one person: Cade.
“Seriously though, you need to listen to your gut if you—”
A gruff laugh cut me off, and I swung my gaze toward the door to my right. I knew who it would be before he stepped out of his classroom, but I hadn’t expected a woman to follow him out. A woman who looked familiar.
I couldn’t move my attention off them as she whipped her hair to the side and placed her hand on his arm. My skin crawled as I watched her touch him, and I couldn’t help but wonder if he liked it. Was she the kind of woman he had always dated? The obviously beautiful kind?
“Isn’t that Miss Simmons?” Hope asked, and I narrowed my eyes on them.
It was Miss Simmons, aka Jasmine’s big sister. The same Jasmine who we avoided at all costs. The same Jasmine who liked to fling names at me like it was a sport. The same Jasmine who hated me for no apparent reason.
“Yep,” I said. Cade’s gaze met mine, and his dark-blue eyes flashed with something I couldn’t place. I wondered whether he was thinking about Saturday. Was he remembering how close we’d been in his bedroom? Was he thinking about the way we’d talked like we used to, and laughed like we did when we were younger? But the look was gone in an instant as he stared back down at Miss Simmons.
“I better head to class.”
