Page 52 of Forfeits

A familiar voice sounded from the back corner of the room.

“Connor, one more curse and I’m sending you back to the bus. Come on.”

Lucy and I swiveled our heads to see Aiden Thompson in the middle of a gaggle of school-aged kids by the Triceratops display.

“Aiden!” Lucy said, running over before my brain had even caught up to what was happening.

She stopped in front of him, waving her hand enthusiastically.

“Hi!”

“Lucy! How are you?” Aiden said with a huge smile, before turning to his troupe of about six kids. “Guys, stay in this area please. We’ll move to the next room in about ten minutes. Don’t forget to write down at least three interesting facts about your favorite dinosaur in your notebooks.”

Aiden looked even more attractive than I remembered. My dick twitched its recognition of that Dominant tone as well.

Fuck, what was I supposed to do now?

Aiden scanned the area. He found me before I had a chance to hide. He gave me his winning smile, and my will crumpled.

“Mr. Marin. How are you?” he asked, and I almost cried at the formal address. But Lucy hadn’t known we’d been dating.

“Good. Lucy had an appointment, and I took her out of school for the day.”

“Nice!” He turned back to Lucy. “Playing hooky?”

“Yep. Don’t report me.”

Aiden lifted his hands. “I would never. It’s important to spend time with your dad.”

He glanced my way again, and I thought I saw regret and melancholy in his expression.

Fuck.

Now I felt awful. It was so nice to see him. I’d missed him more than I’d expected. My life was busy, and I didn’t have much time to mope. But, lying in bed at night, I’d recalled our time together with more and more regret that I’d broken up with him.

When I’d thought back to the night of Lucy’s nightmare, I’d soon realized that I’d overreacted. I couldn’t possibly be home every time something happened, and Patrick had been there because I’d made sure someone was looking after her. Soon, she’d be old enough to stay home in the evening by herself. I couldn’t bubble wrap her. And I couldn’t sacrifice my happiness for the sake of some misguided idea that I should always be beside her.

In a moment of guilt and possibly sub drop, I’d broken up with someone who had only ever treated me with respect and appreciation, even in the midst of a kinky interlude that had blown my world apart in an entirely positive way.

“What are you doing here?” I asked with a smile, to let him know I was happy to see him.

“I got a frantic call this morning to sub for a teacher that had a trip planned. I was free, so I took the job.” He looked around and did a quick head count, then turned back to me. “Luckily, there are two other teachers at the museum, and we’ve each got six kids to keep track of. It’s not too bad.”

“You are a fucking saint, Aiden,” I murmured, then remembered he’d gotten stern with one of his students for cursing. “Oh shit, sorry,” I said, putting a hand over my mouth.

“Nice, Dad,” Lucy said, grinning.

“Mr. Marin,” Aiden said, in such a teacher-like way it made me blush. “Stop setting a bad example.”

There was a twinkle in his eye and a sternness to his tone that went straight to my dick. Our gazes held for several beats.

“Hey, Aiden, you should date my dad.”

We turned to see Lucy standing by the Gallimimus exhibit with her hand on her hip and a contemplative look on her face.

“Lucy!” I said. “You don’t even know if Aiden is gay.”

“Yes, she does,” Aiden said.

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