Page 14 of Before He Was Her Headmaster

Sebastian makes a rueful face. “Hey, I can be tough on you guys. Don’t misrepresent.”

Stacey laughs. “That’s true.” Her eyes sparkle, but it's completely innocent. “He’s really more like our dad than our headmaster.”

That doesn’t help my secret,your headmaster is hotproblem. Now I’ve gotyour de facto dad is hotissues as well. I slide a look at Sebastian, and his cheeks have gone dark up high, near his temple.

He’s old enough to be Stacey’s dad, too.

Old enough to be mine.

It should highlight the off-limits, completely forbidden nature of our new relationship. But my brain doesn’t agree. When he instructs us to pull out our notebooks and do some free writing and word association exercises, I go in a filthy but innocent direction.

Kind / secrets / dad / nobody sees him but me / off-limits

Not so innocent. I flip the page and start over, being stricter with my brain this time.

Kind / stranger / surprising / singular moment / time slip / temporal warp / meet again / if only / maybe next time

My pen slows to a halt on the last point. I’m gripping it tightly, my fingers clenched with tension that echoes the ache in my chest. Maybe next time, what? Maybe next time I meet a hot stranger, it won’t be a harbinger ofNo, Lily, not for you.

“Does anyone want to share their lists?” Sebastian asks.

I flip my notebook shut. Not me.

But I take part in the discussion that flows from other people’s work, and the hour flies by. It's lunchtime before we know it, and everyone else is out of their seats before I even have my tablet away.

I’m the last student to the door, and I poise my hand on it when I hear Sebastian clear his throat. “Lily, do you have any questions?”

Chapter 6

Sebastian

She lets the door swing closed, then comes back to the circle, sitting a few chairs away from me.

“We survived that,” she says with a laugh.

“Did you look at the course outline? You have two graded projects. I’ll have someone else mark your work.”

“I don’t mind—”

I mind, though. I put up my hand. “It’s important to me.”

She shrugs. “Okay.”

“All the other students have had me in previous years, so if they’re overly comfortable with me….”

She laughs. “Have any of them been asoverly comfortablewith you as I have?”

I shift in my chair. “Fuck no.”

“Then it’s fine. I’m not jealous of their familiarity with you.” Another shrug. “It’s nice.”

“I wasn’t thinking of jealousy,” I mutter.

A small smile plays at her mouth. “They all think of you as their campus dad. Is that how I’m supposed to think of you, too?”

I stand up abruptly. “It’s different.”

“Exactly.” She stands, too, and we’re both moving to the door at the same time.

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