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I had no idea what to even say to that. My parents felt like a staple in the universe, their marriage something impossible to break. It wasn’t that I ever thought they were happy, I just didn’t expect either to ever do anything about it. People in our world didn’t break up—they just had quiet affairs and smiled for the camera when needed.
“What about my brother?”
“He’s not happy, but that’s really too bad. I’m tired of living my life based on what I should do instead of what I want to do. Seeing you grow, seeing you find your own place in the world, one you picked, it inspired me to do the same. So, please, will you come to dinner next weekend?”
I swallowed hard, wanting to say so much but managing only to nod in response. It felt like an open door that had been locked my entire life, like entry to something I never thought possible.
She smiled, the expression uneasy as though she wasn’t sure how to react either, then nodded and left.
I stood alone there, in the large classroom, thrown by the situation, by the future and options I’d never thought I could have.
“Was that your mom?”
Somehow, even Kenz’s voice didn’t surprise me. She often popped in to see me, and it always made me smile. The fact she might be around when my mother stopped in was hardly a shock.
“Yeah.” I looked toward the door where my mother had left. “She’s leaving my father, and she invited me to dinner. She also apologized for…well, everything.” Even saying it didn’t feel real.
Kenz slid her arm around my waist, nuzzling into my side. “Really? That’s great.”
Years ago I would have rolled my eyes, would have said it was pointless, that it didn’t matter, but now? Now I saw it differently. Kenz had shown me that family mattered.
It didn’t have to be made by blood, didn’t have to consist of people who shared DNA, but no person could survive entirely on their own. I hadn’t had family before, but Kenz had created one out of a ragtag group of misfits hell-bent on revenge. She’d formed those bonds, showed me how much that mattered, and now?
The idea of having my mother back pleased me. It felt like finding something I’d missed before. I thought about the future, about children someday, about holidays and celebrations and all the things that had been lonely for me before. The idea of having my mother at those felt good.
I turned my gaze toward the reason for it all—Kenz.
She’d given not only me the chance for a family, but she’d given me a purpose again. The proof sat in this classroom, in the students who had already left, the prosthetic on my hand, the lesson plans on the board.
She peered up at me, somehow able to appear so innocent despite the far-less-than-innocent ideas in my head. “You know, I think you’re going to win favorite instructor this semester by the students. Pretty unfair, given you only started teaching at the end of the year.”
“What can I say? This face is a winner.”
She leaned against me with a playful bump. “You know that’s not it. You always listen to the students and give them help. You don’t talk over them, don’t treat them like they’re stupid.”
I chuckled at her words to hide my discomfort at the praise. “I never would have thought myself the teacher type. Well, other than in a few role plays.”
She made a show of rolling her eyes. “You’re such a pervert.”
I turned fully toward her, looking down at her lovely face, wondering how I’d ever thought I was happy before she’d come into my life, before she’d taught me how life was supposed to feel. Except, those sorts of words or comments were far too deep for a man like myself, and one of the many lessons Kenz had taught me was to not bother trying to be anyone except who I was.
So I danced the fingers of my good hand along her side, teasing her through the thin fabric of her top. “That’s no way to speak to your teacher, is it Ms. Williams?” I cocked up an eyebrow.
Red colored her lovely cheeks before she responded with a soft voice, “You’re such a pervert,Professor Moore.”
“What a rude and entirely true thing to say about a trusted educator. Now, why don’t we discuss extra credit?”
“I’m not taking a class from you,” she complained. “And we’re busy! I brought you clothes to change into before the exhibit.”
I glanced at the clock, then pulled Kenz tighter against me. “We’ve got time. I mean, I’ve got to get naked before I can get dressed, right?” I leaned in and ran my tongue along her earlobe. “Besides, you should know that I am a very serious instructor who puts the proper education of my students above everything else.”
She shivered against me, a sign that her resistance was wavering. “I don’t think this is what they put in the catalog for education.”
“That’s their mistake. I bet if they included this, they’d have more students than they could handle. Now, come on, sweetheart, you’re not really going to turn me down, are you?” I pulled back just far enough to peer down and into the familiar eyes of the woman I loved more than anything else, the one I owed everything to.
She took my hand in hers—my damaged one, the one I’d thought had ruined my entire life, that had stolen away everything that mattered to me—and she kissed it, trailing her lips along the line between the real and the fake. She never shied away from it, never treated me as though it bothered her, or if she were uncomfortable. Because of that, it no longer bothered me, either. “Okay,” she said back to me, giving in. “But not here. Maybe we can go discuss my grades in your office, Professor Moore?”
And just like that, my cock ached and my head went blank, her teasing voice stealing any rational thought I might have had. So I took her hand in mine and headed out, toward my office, ready to show this girl who had saved me every bit of my appreciation.
