Page 50 of Sexted By Santa
He walked away without looking at me.
“Um, hi,” I said nervously. “I’m here for the date?”
Surely, he hadn’t forgotten.
“Yeah,” Jaxson said as his fingers flew over the phone keyboard. “I’m almost ready.”
Whatever I’d expected after our almost kiss in the car and the ill-advised sexting, it wasn’t this. He barely seemed to notice me. Had I spent the past few days belaboring our every interaction for no reason? Did it mean nothing at all to him?
My stomach twisted into knots, even as I told myself it was for the best. These werefakedates. Best to keep that perspective.
Jaxson turned his back to me, tapping at his phone again.
“Might as well have dated Zayden after all,” I muttered.
Not that I’d actually met Zayden. He was merely a symbol, one that had taken on the most annoying traits my students displayed. My students, who were much younger than me. My students, who were closer in age to Jaxson.
God, what am I doing even debating this?
He turned toward me. “Sorry. What did you say?”
“Nothing. Just…you’re texting a lot. You haven’t looked at me twice since I arrived.”
Did I sound like I was sulking? Okay, maybe I was. I had gotten used to Jaxson’s eyes on me, warm and appreciative. I didn’t like playing second fiddle to whoever was on the other end of that fascinating chat he had going.
What if it’s someone on Thrust? Someone his own age?
My gut tightened uncomfortably at the thought.
Jaxson smiled, eyes crinkling at the corners. “You sound like me when I lecture Tori for spending too much time on YouTube.”
“You’re saying I sound like your father,” I said slowly, waiting for that to sink in.
Jaxson snorted. “Well, at least you don’tlooklike my father.”
He deliberately ran his gaze up and down my body. Which was ridiculous because I was bundled in a coat and scarf—it wasfreezingoutside—and he could hardly see that I’d dressed down tonight, exchanging my usual suit for a fitted button-down shirt and pair of slacks. Somehow, Jaxson’s gaze made me feel as if he saw past all that, though, to the naked skin beneath.
The skin you showed him with that video exchange.
I suppressed a shiver as he looked me over, clearly appreciative of what he saw.That’s more like it, I thought, before remembering that I wasn’t supposed to want Jaxson to want me. Damn. This was more difficult than it had seemed when my mind spun out a dozen reasons why I shouldn’t pursue anything more with him.
He looked good too, of course. Even on his worst day, he’d be out of my league. He wore dark jeans—tight enough to mold to muscled thighs while remaining comfortably loose—paired with a sweater that looked soft enough I wanted to curl up against him and sleep there forever.
Not the reaction I wanted if we were going to keep this platonic. And until I made up my mind about that, I shouldn’t leer at the man.
I averted my gaze. “We need to go.”
Jaxson checked his phone once more.
“You can use your phone in the car too,” I pointed out, because we reallyweregoing to be late if we didn’t get on the road.
Jaxson pocketed his phone with a rueful smile. “Sorry. I was delivering a few last-minute instructions to the Winstons. Tori is with her friend, and I’m a little nervous. This will be her first night away since she became diabetic.”
“Oh.”
That made sense. Jaxson was a father first and foremost—something I should have remembered.
“It was rude not to explain what I was doing,” Jaxson continued. “I might be a little anxious about it tonight. I hope I won’t be too awful a date.”
