Page 39 of See Me After Class

I sat down hurriedly. "Sir."

He stood next to the desk. "Are you going to tell me what you were doing in here last night?"

"You know exactly what I was doing in here last night."

The words slipped out before I could catch them. I stared up at him, appalled.

"Before that," he said menacingly. "Why were you in here in the first place?"

There was no good excuse I could offer, and he knew it as well as I did. I merely looked at him, silent and stubborn.

John let out a deep, angry breath. "I see. Well, I guess I didn't really expect you to provide a satisfactory explanation. If you had one, I would already know it."

I didn't blink. I couldn't breathe.

Something about the way he said the wordsatisfactorywas already turning me into a puddle on the inside. I couldn't risk it.

"But there will have to be… consequences."

Oh, fuck. He's going to fire me.

My stomach clenched. At that moment, I nearly blurted everything out.

Please, sir, I'm sorry. I suspect you of being a murderer, which is why I was going through your papers in your private office without permission. Please don't be angry.

Yeah. There was no point to that, was there?

John took my silence as further defiance. His thick brows clenched together. In this strong sunlight, I could see the light chestnut streaks in his hair really shine through.What an odd thing to focus on.

And his eyes. His dark brown eyes, surrounded by the beginnings of dark frown lines, the ones surmounting the harsh grooves that now marked his nose and mouth.Fuck.Chelsea was wrong. He was exactly as scary as he looked.

In all the thrill of the chase, I hadn't truly factored in the risk of getting caught myself. Big mistake.

"Get up," he said abruptly. I scrambled to my feet instantly, overtaken by panic.

"Hands against the desk," he ordered, picking something up from his desk. It looked like a wooden ruler.

I put my hands against the—wait,what?

I wasn't even sure I'd said the last part aloud, not until he snapped, "You heard me."

I snatched my hands away from the desk. "What the hell is this?"

John smiled mirthlessly.

"It's called confronting the problem, Desdemona." He thwacked the ruler into his palm. "Either I fire you, or you takethe punishment for your snooping in a different way. It's your choice."

My eyes widened. "Are you serious?"

He cocked his head to one side. "Try me."

Hewasserious. He was completely serious.

He was actually planning to use corporal punishment, like I was some naughty school student back in the nineteen twenties or something.

And the truly appalling part was how seriously I was considering it. His voice had that kind of commanding, almost hypnotic quality. And if I didn't want to be fired?—

I almost thought of begging, of asking if there was anything else I could do to apologize. Only the thought that I had already tried that other thing and had been completely unsuccessful in using it to get away scot-free changed my mind.

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