Page 146 of A Heart of Bluestone

I’m not quitein the know, of course.

Who would tell me any kind of gossip?

But locked in a closet for a while, that’s Dray’s classic move. He’s done it to me a handful of times over the many years in this hell.

Still, I can’t accept it as more than a ridiculous assumption that hardly holds up against the truth of my existence here.

I let a small smile slip. “You ignored me because… you thought that he liked me?” I grin around the words, and shove and shove and shove at the reminder of Dray’s tender gaze caressing me on the couch, his whispered confession before I slipped away to a sleep—no!

I banish it.

He was drunk. He must have been.

It was a prank, nothing else.

And I have another focus.

My future.

“What if I like you?” I whisper the words that burn my cheeks.

Eric’s eyes touch mine. They are so soft, so gentle, so unlike the freezing, blue eyes of Dray. Eric is caramel, Dray is sunkissed marble.

I twist around before pulling myself up to perch on the edge of the desk. “What if I have liked you for a while?”

Eric’s throat bobs.

He passes the corner of the desk until he’s standing right in front of me, so close to my dangling legs.

I watch him advance, the starlight above glistening over the rich mahogany waves he has for hair. His dark, honey eyes drink me in.

“I like that you are kind, and gentle, and fair—” maybe the last one is a lie, because that fairness hurts my grades “—and I like your mouth and your eyes, and the way you—”

In a quick heartbeat, he closes the distance between us with a single, swift step.

And his mouth is on mine.

My breath catches in my throat.

Instinct has my thighs inching apart for him, to draw him in closer. He chases the invite, his hand swift to find the nape of my neck.

I arch my neck to open our kiss, and our tongues touch.

He deepens the kiss.

Fingertips graze down the nape of my neck. His other hand finds the meat of my thigh, and there it rests, tender.

His touch is gentle.

Too gentle for a teacher touching a student, but just right for a gentry courting an aristos.

I decide now, that’s what will come from this.

And, I hope, a better grade.

Eric ends the kiss with a gentle close of his mouth, and mine follows. He lingers his lips on mine for a beat before he draws back and drops his gaze to the floor between us.

He says nothing.

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