Page 12 of Gifted

Chapter Seven

~ Noah ~

“Fuck,” I ground out under my breath. In trying to do the right thing, and I’d gone and hurt the most precious girl in my world. I should just let it lie, feel bad that I’d hurt her, but appreciate the result. I couldn’t. Fuck me very much. I couldn’t stand the fact she was crying into her pillow right now and trying to keep me from knowing.

I heard each sniffle and shuddering gulp of air like gunfire across the quiet room. My fingers clenched, my teeth gritting, as I heard her pain.

Damn. It. This girl already owned part of me, and I’d let her down. Who did she have? She’d thought she had me—and she did—and I hurt her by telling her she wasn’t an equal.

I was moving before I even realized it. I threw back the blanket and rolled to my knees then stood. The bed creaked as I climbed onto it.

“Little lamb,” I murmured, pulling her resistant body against me. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

“I’m fine.” Her sniffle and the way her body shook with a suppressed sob made it clear that was untrue.

“No. You’re not. I’m just…”

“Older than me. A grown up.”

Her emphasis stabbed me again. It wasn’t untrue, but the way she said it accused me of being an asshole.

She didn’t fight to get away as I held her, and even though she was crying, it felt so good to hold her. Yeah, I was a total asshole. And a hypocrite.

“Don’t cry,” I begged. “If I wasn’t a teacher at your school…”

What could I say? That I’d want her? I already did. I wanted nothing more than to have her in my life. The need had grown since last year when she’d been jailbait. But now, as she’d said, she was legal.

But still…

A student.

She didn’t say anything, and I didn’t move away from her. Apparently, we were going to share the bed, after all. Not just share it. I’d hold her in my arms.

I closed my eyes and just let the feeling sink through me. Tomorrow, I’d have to be back on the floor, but tonight, she needed my comfort. I just needed her.

Because of our position, my nose buried in her hair. At least, that was what I told myself while I inhaled her cinnamon-vanilla scent that would forever remind me of the holidays. Being with Poppy would be like having Christmas every day.

I closed my eyes, feeling the silk of her tresses, tickling my skin, while I imagined what it would be like to build a life with her, to come home to her every day after long hours…at the office. At the office?

Was the solution as easy as that? No, it couldn’t be. Whether I quit or not, there would still be repercussions. Seemed like I had a few days to contemplate it.

“I’m not a child,” she whispered. “I know what I want.”

“And what do you want?”

“The same thing you do.”

I doubted that. She couldn’t have any idea of the filthy things that crossed my mind when it came to her. How I wanted to take her in every position possible. How I wanted to pin her down and do whatever I wanted. How I’d imagined bending her over my desk and forcing her to serve detention on my dick. How I wanted her to be the mother of my children.

And now, that dick responded to my thoughts. I shifted my hips backward slightly, so it wasn’t jabbing at her ass, because the sweatpants I’d decided to sleep in hid no secrets.

“I doubt that,” I said, echoing my thought.

Her small fingers closed around my forearm. “Don’t patronize me.”

Patronize? This whole trip, these fucking gifted kids had taken me by surprise all the time. One second, a couple of them would be doing some TikTok dance, then the next, something that sounded like a forty-year-old spewed from their mouth.

“Do you know what happens to a person when they’re basically on their own from age eleven?” She didn’t give me a chance to speculate. “Yeah, I know it can go several ways. I could have become a criminal, been completely irresponsible. Or…I could have grown up really fast.”

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