As soon as Ally left, Kelsey trained those golden eyes on me. “You’re early, Dare. In fact, I was expecting someone named…” She moved to her desk and flipped open an iPad.
“Charles.”
“Right, Charles Kramer. I definitely didn’t put two and two together. Actually, I’m not completely sure I knew your last name. We sort of didn’t…”
“Talk?”
Her cheeks flushed. “No, not much.” She wore black dress pants and some sort of coppery sweater that made her hair look like the pale edges of fire. She was goddamn beautiful and almost untouchable in her teacher gear.
I wanted to muss her up.
I wanted to run out the damn door.
This was not cool at all.
Especially since it was obvious she had more to say about Wes and I had a feeling not all of it was good.
She waved her hand. “Have a seat, Mr. Kramer.”
“Really? That’s where we’re going with this?”
She huffed out a breath. “What do you want me to call you? Pizza Guy?” Her cheeks got even redder.
My eyebrow rose. “Not sure you want me to call you Thank You Girl.”
She moved behind her desk and sat down. “How about we just go with Kelsey and Dare, hmm?”
That prim and proper voice was so at odds with the woman I’d originally met at the bar and again at her apartment. I was used to the girl who would blurt out anything. She definitely was like Sage in that regard. But this woman? The buttoned-up elementary school teacher?
Yeah, no, that didn’t compute.
I glanced down at the miniature desk she wanted me to sit at and gave her a bland look before using the desk as a chair. No way was I folding my six-foot-two self into that chair. Fuck, no.
“I’m early because I have to go back to work. I hope that’s all right with you.”
“Certainly.” She folded her hands. “Wes is a great kid. I don’t have any real issues to go over with you—” She broke off as I stood. “Where are you going?”
“Then I’ll tell him to be more careful and we’re good here, right?”
“No. Not quite.”
I fisted my hands at my sides. “Then what?”
She got up from her desk and came around to lean on the edge. “Mr.—” At my almost growl, she cut herself off. “Dare…” She scrubbed her palms over her pants. “This is awkward.”
“Because we’ve been naked? Or because you don’t want to tell me my kid has a problem?”
“Well, I certainly see where Wes gets his defensiveness. And that’s what I want to talk to you about, but only if we can have a conversation like adults.”
I crowded her against the desk, boxing her in with a hand on each side of her hips. “You were adult enough to take me into your body a few weeks ago.”
Her pupils blew wide and her fingers clutched the edge of her desk beside mine. “We’re not talking about that.”
“Then stop trying to talk to me like I’m a fucking stranger.”
Her gaze kept bouncing from my mouth to my eyes to my neck and back again. She licked her lips. “I’m your son’s teacher.”
“And I’m annoyingly hot for teacher evidently.”