Page 58 of The Hallows Queen

When Carson drops his and Logan’s food down on the table, my focus snaps back to the present. He nods at me as he sits, and I raise my brows in greeting.

“Here you go, baby,” Carson says as he puts Logan’s food in front of her, and she moans a thank you as she takes a hungry bite.

I stand up, mumbling that I’m going for a cigarette and rush from the cafeteria. When I’ve made my way through the hallway and out the front door, I fall against the wall and dig a smoke from my pocket. My hands shake as I light it, my heart pounding with unleashed anxiety.

When I suck smoke into my lungs, I hold it, telling myself the nicotine will calm me down. As I blow it out, my head starts to level out.

I need to get a fucking grip before I lose it.

Smoking the rest of my cigarette slowly, I run over every minute I’ve spent with Penelope so far. Her hand around my throat, her pussy on my lips, her laugh, her tenderness, her shifting uncomfortably at her desk.

I want more.

Chapter16

Penelope

I hustle to the teachers’lounge, sweat coating my lower back and my hands trembling.

He’s my fucking student, he’s my fucking student, he’s my fucking student.

Oh, this is bad.Bad,bad, badbadbad.

I don’t bother going to the cafeteria to get anything to eat in fear I’ll run into him again, and he’ll see that my composure and confidence was all an act. I’mfreaking the fuck out.

I feel like my throat is swelling, threatening to cut off all access to oxygen.

This is so fucking bad.

I push through the entrance to the teachers’ lounge, my chest rising and falling too quickly, and when the room is finally empty, I blow out a heavy breath and lean against the wall.

My head falls forward. “Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck.”

My ass slides against the wall until I’m kneeling and I can drop my head between my knees to calm my racing heart. My entire life flashes across my mind; every achievement I made in school, all the money my parents spent on my education, it’ll all disappear into thin air if someone finds out. It doesn’t matter if he’s legal, it won’t fucking matter, becauseyou can’t fuck your student and live to tell the tale.

I will lose everything the moment he breathes a word of this to anyone – given he hasn’t already. Maybe I just sat through three class periods and all my students already know, maybe I’m lunchtime gossip for every teenager in this building right now. Maybe I’m the fucking punchline already.

That thought makes my chest heave again, and I stand up straight to walk over to the makeshift kitchen counter along the far wall. Grabbing an empty coffee mug from the shelf, I turn the tap for the cold water and fill it. I down the entire mugful without a breath, then I slam it down on the counter.

No. I am not going to let this ruin my life.

I am not going to playvictimright now.

I made the decisions that led me here, and I can survive this.

I say a quiet prayer that he takes my words seriously and stays away from me, pretends he and I never met, and I can start fresh without this hanging over my head.

I’m not going to torture myself with this until the guillotine finally falls and chops me in half.

Taking one last deep breath, I tuck my hair behind my ears and run my hands down the front of my skirt.

I walk to one of the tables and sit down, planning to ride out the rest of the lunch period without another worry.

After a minute, the door opens and a few teachers come in, the woman I met this morning, Lucy, being one of them.

“Hey!” she greets me, a thin man with dark skin trailing behind her, his mouth curved into a smile.

Lucy drops the box of pizza she’s holding on the table I’m at, and then sits down. “Lawrence, this is Penelope. Penelope, Lawrence.”

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