Page 295 of Tease Me


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So the guy hitting her was an accident? What if I hadn’t come along when I did? What if some dickhead took Mia’s virginity like she was a cheap whore in a car by the side of the road? She deserved better than that.

Well, I prevented things from getting worse, and certainly Cruz would have done the same if he was there and not drunk off his ass. Accident or not, no one messed with Mia and got away with it. I’d interrupt again if given a chance.

Her fucking virginity, though? And she wanted me to take it? I mean, yeah, as a man, the idea appealed to me, but shit. No. She was like a baby sister to me. One I had to protect from all the other assholes out there—and now protect her from myself, as my growing cock indicated.

I laid in bed that night and rubbed my temples. I only had another month or so until graduation and then I’d be leaving for the Navy. Until that day, I needed to avoid Mia like the plague.

Only the next day it wasn’t over. The cops showed up at my house to arrest me for assaulting Chad Buckingham, who turned out to be the mayor’s son. The guy who came close to taking Mia’s flower ended up belonging to one of the most pompous families in town. The look on my dad’s face as they took me away in handcuffs…It burned into my memory.

Thankfully, my dad knew the chief of police of Glendale Falls. They went way back, and he made the charges disappear. Dad took me out of school and shipped me off to the Navy instead of waiting around town for graduation, where I could get into more trouble. I ended up taking the GED, and left, never intending to return.

Yet, years later, here I was, back in Glendale Falls, going to college, and watching Chad roll smugly away in his cop car after threatening me. I returned to start a new life, get my degree, get a fancy job, settle down somewhere. No problems. But my growing attraction to Mia was a problem.

Chad could make some serious problems for me just to be a dickhead and get back at me for the past. And he was right—I didn’t have Dad around anymore to fix my problems.

6

MIA

Classes were smoothing out a little, and I was feeling like I had a bit more handle on them since my lesson plans were complete and rolling in full swing. Now I knew exactly what the students needed to learn and how to get them there.

I arrived early most mornings to get a jump on things, excited to show I could be the best professor Dean Perez had ever hired, but I heard footsteps coming down the hall. No one should be here yet, and my first class of the day didn’t start for another hour.

Still, the footsteps kept coming closer, and my heart raced a little. My posted office hours were in the afternoons. Safety on campus wasn’t something to take lightly. Next time I arrived early, I’d lock my door. But the breath I was holding relaxed when Teddy appeared in my doorway. “Good morning,” his deep rumble of a voice was sweet in my ears.

“Good morning. What are you doing here?”

He held out a single delicate, dark pink rose wrapped in paper with a little twine tied around it.

“I won’t keep you from your work. I just wanted to drop this off and say thanks for agreeing to tutor me. Have a great day, Mia.” He set it on the corner of my desk and walked out so fast that I didn’t get the two words of thanks out of my mouth.

I gaped at it sitting on my desk, and couldn’t stop thinking about it throughout my morning classes, contemplating the entire time why Teddy had brought it to me.

Maybe Barbie would hold an insight on a man’s philosophies of why they did what they did. She’d dated tons more than I ever did. I headed to her office for lunch to discuss this very thing over leftover pot roast.

I hoped that the break room would be empty when I arrived, but no such luck. Karen was sitting at a table within earshot of us.

“What do you have there, sweetie?” Barbie greeted me as I walked in and started shedding clothing layers. When it froze outside, our old campus buildings overheated inside. I handed her the rose to inspect.

“Hm. Who is your secret admirer?” she teased.

I opened my eyes wide and nodded my head towards Karen, silently alerting my friend to shut up. However, did she get the message? No. And she wouldn’t let up until she had all the information, so typical of her. I slid my chair closer to hers and took a seat.

“Teddy, and keep your voice down,” I warned. “He brought it to me this morning. Thank you for warming up my lunch.” I attempted a change of subject with Karen still in the room.

“Say, doesn’t the color of a rose mean something? Search it online on your phone,” she said before shoveling another forkful of meat, potatoes, and carrots into her mouth.

“I have no clue. Let me see.” I tapped on my phone and sure enough, there it was. “Wow, they have all kinds of colors of roses and meanings assigned to each one.”

“Don’t hold a girl in suspense over here. What does the dark pink color mean?”

I laughed at her impatience. “Dark pink means gratitude.”

“Mm-hmm, what exactly is Teddy thankful for, Mia?” She winked.

“Stop it. It’s not like that. It’s no different from a student bringing a teacher a red apple. He’s thankful because I told him I’d tutor him in English. We start after class tomorrow in the library,”

Karen stood and gathered her things. “A flower from a student? Remember the rules around here, Ms. Reyes,” she warned, and exited the room.

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