Page 38 of Sweet Poison

“What are you doing here?” I demanded aggressively, but even as I spat the words out, I knew I shouldn’t have uttered them in front of the girl. Instantly my gaze swung to her. She was looking at me curiously. Cole got down on his haunches next to his daughter.

“Did you see the seats outside in the hallway on our way here?”

She nodded solemnly.

“Good. Go sit there and wait for me,” he instructed. “And remember, don't leave until I get there. For any reason.”

She threw me another inquisitive glance, then skipped away to do as she had been asked.

He straightened and met my gaze. “I just brought my daughter to her new school,” he said in response to my aggressive question.

I felt incredibly silly, but then again, he wasn’t going to gaslight me into thinking that all of this was normal and that I should just take it all in my stride, without any drama.

“I … I thought you were just passing through.”

“You may have assumed that, but I never divulged that information.”

My frown deepened. “Then why didn’t you resp-” I started to say, but then I cut myself short. I was beginning to whine, I could hear and feel it, and I swore against that embarrassment.

“You know what it doesn’t matter. I’m glad she's here; we’ll take good care of her.”

I turned around to leave then, but he caught my hand, and immediately my body responded, which infuriated me. I twisted my hand out of his grip and backed away.

“That's inappropriate. Please don’t interact with me like that again when we’re in such a public setting.”

“I understand,” he said, but he continued to stare at me in the most inappropriate way. “I didn’t respond because-”

“No need,” I stopped him with a hand in the air. “No need. It’s all water under the bridge now. It will never happen again. You’re just one of the parents, and I’m your daughter’s teacher. Let's continue on with the tour.”

“I didn’t respond,” he continued as if I had not spoken, “because it was the wrong time for me. Too many things were happening and I couldn’t handle a new relationship. It wouldn’t have been fair to you. I had to put my daughter’s needs before my own.”

My heart ran wild in my chest. For me, that night was unbelievable, amazing, out of control. Our chemistry was insane, and things could have got really wild between us. But for him, he simply decided to shut it down because it was inconvenient.

“So you decided to forget I existed?”

“As per our initial agreement, yes.”

“Well, I'm fine with that,” I lied. “We can continue to maintain the stance that we’ve never met each other. It will be easy. Our only connection will be your daughter, and as a parent, the interactions between us need only be few and far between.”

Every word I had spoken had caused me pain, and he watched me with a strange expression on his handsome face.

“Alright,” he said finally.

I sent him a dry smile then and turned around to leave. I headed over to where he had told Anya to wait, and I was impressed to see her waiting on the bench, still and watchful. She turned as we approached, and a large smile of relief came across her face when she spotted her father. Most kids did not react like that from such a tiny separation.

It made me wonder just where her mother was. I knew absolutely nothing, and it was killing me. But given the terms of our uneasy truce, I decided that it would be best for everyone if I never found out.

Chapter 23

Cole

Once we had agreed that our relationship was to be purely one of a teacher and parent, she conducted the tour without once looking at me again. Addressing all her comments to either my daughter or an invisible being about six inches to my left.

It gave me the chance to stare uninterrupted at her. The hunger was real. In the sunlight her hair glowed, in the dim bunker where their camping equipment was stored, I thought I smelled her heady scent and nearly reached out and touched the delicious curve of her cheek.

“We’ll be sleeping outdoors?” Anya asked with amazement for she had never been camping before.

“Yes, under the stars,” Montana replied and smiled.

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