Page 1 of Gifted

Chapter One

~ Noah Kessler ~

“We’re short one!”

“What do you mean we’re short one?” I demanded of Shirley, one of the other chaperones on this school trip. Considering we were herding a bunch of gifted kids, this group sure seem to wander around like a herd of squirrels on meth. Not that I’d ever seen squirrels on meth during my years as a math teacher. But these geniuses sure needed constant wrangling.

Which wasn’t ideal since we were traveling in Europe.

And now, we were short one.

“Which one?” I asked. I swore if it was Tyler again, I’d staple his ass to something. Okay. Probably, I wouldn’t since I was already in trouble with the board and headmaster because of my progressive views. Hence being commandeered into this trip during Christmas break, rather than skiing in Colorado with my family.

Who scheduled a field trip, to Great Britain, over the holidays anyway? Apparently, the Kiss Our Ass School for the Very Rich, Privileged and Occasionally Brilliant. Not the real name. It was just Canton School. But yeah, they were the ones who’d organized things for these think-tankers. We’d just spent ten days traveling the British Isles and tomorrow morning, Christmas Eve, we were flying home, getting there just in time for Christmas day.

“Poppy Kerrigan.”

That stopped me in my tracks.

“I’ll find her,” I growled, arousal, fear and anger warring through me at the sound of her name. Anger because she was lost. More anger because just the sound of my little lamb’s name was enough to have me fighting a boner. And fear that something had happened to her or I wouldn’t find her.

“Hurry!” Shirley urged, but I noticed she wasn’t rushing to search for our missing student. No, that fell to me, the one closest in age to our charges—though, I was still a good decade older than even the oldest of the bunch.

“The train’s already boarding,” she added.

Fuck. I broke into a run, my feet skidding on the icy wood planking of the platform where we’d waited.

I hated the idea of missing the train. More so, I hated the idea of Poppy missing the plane at Heathrow where we were headed and being stranded here in this small Scottish town. It looked as if the sky planned to dump buckets more snow on us, which was half the reason our guides had been anxious to get us on this train and out of here right now—and not a second later.

Why the hell hadn’t we stayed in the city?

And where the hell was Poppy?

A young American student alone in a foreign country? Shit! I’d heard all the horror stories of what could befall young travelers. The idea of Poppy being a victim turned my blood to ice faster than the cold weather.

I pictured my jailbait beauty with her cloud of midnight hair, falling around her shoulders in silky waves. Bright blue eyes. Pale, nearly snow-white skin that showed off the three freckles on her nose, so pale she couldn’t hide a single pretty pink blush. She had the sweetest full lips I imagined doing filthy things to. And kissing. There would be kissing, too.

In my head.

Only in my head, because she was a damn student, and I wasn’t interested in getting fired or worse. But I sure as hell would get fired if we lost a student! It wouldn’t matter that I wasn’t the only teacher on the trip. I’d get the ax. Pulling my bag behind me, I sprinted from the station and onto the street adjacent it. Wildly, I looked toward the nearby shops, remembering her being entranced by one of them yesterday.

And came to a dead stop when I saw her looking in one of the gaily lit windows, two men approaching her with her unaware.

“Poppy!” I bellowed, getting everyone’s attention just a moment before the train’s whistle went off, signaling it was leaving the station—as if the sound of its slow chugging didn’t give it away. Fuck!

Her head popped up, and she spun toward me as I closed the distance between us.

Wrapping an arm around her delicious body, I dragged her against my chest and kissed the top of her head. I wanted to do so much more, but right now was about making a statement.

“My wife,” I muttered to the men, sending them and their nefarious attentions on their way. My heart thundered in my chest as I imagined what could have happened if I’d been seconds later, if Shirley hadn’t done that final count. I might never have found my Poppy.

I had never wanted to spank a person as much as I did right then. And I had never had that urge with a student, so that was saying something.

“We almost lost you,” I said, reluctantly letting her go now that the skeevy guys were on their way. My arms already ached for her.

“Wife?” she whispered, staring at the front of my jacket. If her gaze dropped farther, she’d see I had a real problem going on. If not for her thick coat, she might have felt it popping out and begging to find its home inside her, a moment ago.

“I was scaring away those guys.” I jerked my head in the direction they’d gone.

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