Page 85 of Taming His Teacher

That makes me laugh but I force my features into sternness. “You should’ve told me.”

“I know, and I will. In the future. If there’s still a chance of a future.”

“Yes, I think so.” That’s the understatement of the year. There’s nothing I want more than that. “And I— I owe you an apology. I’m sorry I doubted you. I should’ve talked to you instead of jumping to conclusions. It’s just that Will…”

I close my eyes and sigh. Will poisoned me and I let him for so long, he made my mind suspicious and wary. Even though Shep’s earned my trust, given me the antidote of steady, true and earnest love, it’s hard to silence that nagging voice in the back of my brain. But maybe someday I’ll be able to do it. I want to do it, so I open my eyes and let Shep see the depths of my vulnerability.

What I see in his expression isn’t a mirror of my anxiety. It’s rock-solid, unadulterated promise. “I know, lamb, I know. I’ll try to remind myself you’re stronger than you look. But I want, so badly, for you to not have to be. I’ll always be there for you. I’ll be your backstop when things get to be too much. I love you, and I want to take care of you. Forever.”

The bubble that’s been inflating in my chest bursts because it can’t contain that much happiness. He knows just what assurances to make. “I love you, too.”

“Then maybe, even though I’ve fucked this up, you’ll still say yes to marrying me?”

He reaches into his pocket again—how is it that men seem to have bottomless pockets?—and pulls out a black velvet box as he drops to one knee. It’s the sort of box that makes a certain kind of woman’s heart beat fast and hard. Mine is. When I crack open the box with trembling fingers, there’s a simple ring nestled in its place. A small round diamond on a thin gold band. I couldn’t be happier. I don’t need anything fancy; I don’t even need this.

“What do you say, Erin? We haven’t been together long, but I can’t imagine being with anyone else. You’re better than any fantasy I ever had and I want to make your dreams come true. Say you’ll let me try. Say you’ll be my wife.”

Strangely, there’s a flutter of pages through my head, as if they’ve been blown off the walls by a sudden gust of wind though we’re inside. Pencil sketches and torn-out sheets of notebook paper, the academic detritus of teaching assignments and love notes in plain sight. To weigh them all down with a simple gold ring, nothing would make me happier. So here in this room with his love for me plastered all over the walls, I say it.

“I will.”

He takes the ring from the box. It looks tiny in his hands as he slips it on my finger. When it’s on, I sigh. It looks better there than in the box. I love it, I love him. We’re going to be so happy together, our own little family on the Hill.I can be your family. I can be yours.

Epilogue

Three Months Later

Shep

“Good morning, gentlemen. My name is Erin Brewster. Miss Brewster to you, please, and we’ll be spending first period together this year.”

I shift in the hard, slick plastic of the desk chair. She’s wearing a close-fitting pencil skirt and it rides up her thigh as she reaches for the class list on her desk. She does roll call and when she gets to my name, her face flushes an incredible shade of red that makes me half-hard. I raise my hand from my seat in the back and barely contain my laugh when her eyelashes flutter and she fans herself with the attendance sheet.

“Right. Well. Let’s get started.”

She turns to the board and starts to write, drawing the graph of a simple parabola to illustrate the concepts of domain and range. It’s a lesson I could give in my sleep but I hold my tongue as she talks through it, hanging on her every word. I love to hear her teach, always have.

While I listen, my gaze skates over those damn purple flats, up the curve of her calf to where her legs disappear into that skirt that might as well be made of flirtation. From there, my study continues, over the curve of her breast visible through her prim cardigan, skimming the drip of pearls around her neck. Wisps of her hair have escaped her bun and curl around her nape and her ears, and she brushes a tendril off her pink face, getting a smudge of chalk on her cheek in the process. That’s when I can’t take it anymore.

I slide out of the chair and come up behind her, stilling her hand and taking the chalk from between her fingers before I press the length of my body along the back of hers until she’s trapped between me and the board.

“Shep, you’re going to get chalk all over my sweater.”

“That’s going to be the least of your problems if you forget your own name tomorrow.”

She giggles and turns her head, rests her cheek against the green surface. “You caught that, did you?”

“I did. Maybe you should try it again.”

She closes her eyes and rolls her lips between her teeth, pressing her hips against me. The pressure against my cock that’s no longer half-hard but full-on ready for her makes me groan. I wedge a knee between her thighs and urge her legs apart. Her back arches and I press into her harder.

“Again. Do it now.”

“Yes, Zach.” She takes a deep breath and opens her eyes while her fingertips graze the white writing on the board, smudging her perfect penmanship. That’s what I’d like to do to her. Muss her all up. “Good morning, gentlemen. My name is Erin Shepherd. Mrs. Shepherd to you, please, and we’ll be spending first period together this year.”

Hearing her say the words, the words I’ve longed for, makes me want her even more. Not to mention the gold band that rests snug underneath her engagement ring, the one that tells the whole world she belongs to me, forever. “Fuck, Erin.”

The blinds of the classroom are drawn and it’s pitch black outside. The door to Erin’s classroom is closed and locked and the building is eerily silent, not like how it’ll be tomorrow morning when classes start. The guys are back on campus but they’re occupied with all the welcome-back bluster. No one’s going to step foot in an academic building a second before they have to. Except us.

---