Page 20 of When October Starts

“How are you feeling?” he asked. I opened my eyes to look into his.

“Good,” I smiled. “Very good.”

He looked pleased, but it felt wrong not making him feel what I felt after this. “I wanna touch you, too,” I whispered, but Ezra shook his head.

“That’s enough for tonight. It’s late, and you need to get some sleep.” He pushed my shirt down over my body, then pulled me closer to his body with his arms wrapped around me.

“Can I stay for breakfast?” He kissed my forehead and nodded. “Not gonna treat you like a fucking one-night-stand, Juno.”

Chapter Nineteen

Juno

“Good morning, sleepy head.” I woke up to the smell of bacon and coffee filling my nose. When I realized I was alone in Ezra’s bed, I got up quickly, put my panties back on and walked out of the bedroom.

He was standing in the kitchen, and there was music quietly playing in the background. “I wanted to wake up in your arms,” I pouted, walking up to him and wrapping my arms around his back. I leaned my head against his chest, and he placed a kiss at the top of my head.

“I didn’t wanna wake you.” His arms held me close to him, and I breathed in his scent. “Did you sleep well?”

“I did. I think I might get used to this.”

He rubbed my back and cupped my head, scratching my scalp softly. “You don’t regret what we did last night?”

I furrowed my brows and looked up into his eyes. “No. Should I?” I challenged, and Ezra shook his head with a chuckle.

“Of course not.” He paused, studying my me a while before cupping my face in his hands. “You’re beautiful.”

I puckered my lips and then raised an eyebrow. “What was that?” I wanted to hear it again. I would’ve cringed if Mom or Aggie said that to me, but when Ezra said those words, I couldn’t help but feel special and loved.

He laughed and rolled his eyes. “You heard me.” He leaned in and kissed the tip of my nose. “You’re the most beautiful girl I’ve ever met,” he then whispered, making me smile like a fool.

“I’m sure you’ve met prettier girls than me before,” I pointed out, mocking him.

“Will you just take the damn compliment?” he exclaimed, squishing my cheeks with both his hands. I had to laugh at his frustration, and I reached up to grab both his wrists, then stood on my tiptoes to kiss his lips.

I slid my tongue along his bottom lip, and his mouth parted to let me in. As our tongues met, his hands left my cheeks and moved down to my lower back.

One thing I’d never ever regret in life would be kissing my teacher. But I wasn’t going to shout it all around town. This was our secret, and I didn’t want to share it with anyone.

The smell of bacon rose up my nose again, and as much as I didn’t want to let go of him, I had to eat. I was starving.

I broke the kiss and looked back into his light blue, almost gray eyes. “I’m meeting Pixie to go to the island today after lunch. Mind if stay that long? We could cuddle on the couch,” I suggested.

A grin spread on his lips. “Are you gonna try to seduce me like you did last night?”

I shrugged, knowing that I wasn’t going to keep my hands to myself. “Probably. We’ll see.”

*

“What kind of scenes do I have to do today?” Pixie asked as I locked my bike.

“I just wanna take a few more shots of you near the rides and then the cottages. If we get enough today, I think I don’t need you anymore. Well, we still have to do the voiceover.”

“We can record that in school. I know Benji’s got a mic somewhere around school. And we can use the studio no one uses anymore.”

One year ago, Benji had the great idea of creating a radio show for our town. But before even asking us students if we wanted to take part in that project, he invested in all the equipment, only to then be let down by the underwhelming number of students who wanted to be part of the project. It was one. One student wanted to be the host.

The studio’s still there, untouched and ready to be used. “That’s a good idea. I’m sure Benji will be happy about that. Maybe I can even turn it into an editing room. Those computers have better capacity than my old laptop.”

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