When I spun around, Daniel was approaching with a flash in his eye that looked both angry and amused. My mouth parted as he backed me completely against the wall, closing me in and blocking the light with his broad frame alone. His hands reached to grab my waist but halfway through, he stopped himself. Despite looking desperate to, he didn’t touch me. Though the intensity of his voice felt almost as tantalizing.
“What did he tell you?”
I slipped my hands behind my back. “Everything.”
Despite a wide grin, Daniel let out a low groan. He rolled his head back. “Christ. You really weren’t supposed to hear any of that.”
“Why not?” I asked, my fascinated eyes watching as he rolled his neck slowly to face me again, wearing a faintly teasing smile on his lips.
“Why not? It’s not me. You know it’s not. I honestly don’t know what came over me when I saw you that night,” he said, watching me stare at his mouth. I couldn’t help it. I could smell the bourbon on him and the buzz in my head made me want to taste it too. I glanced up to see his jaw tightening as he swallowed. “All I know is I should’ve stopped myself from going into that restaurant beca
use once I saw you, Nina, right away I felt myself thinking things I shouldn’t. And that was before I overheard your friend’s stories.”
“What happened after you heard them?”
Daniel’s smile was slightly crooked and insanely sexy. “You know what.”
Yup. Thanks, Mike. I grinned, tilting my head at him as my hands slid out from behind me. They wanted desperately to touch Daniel and bring him closer but they didn’t dare to just yet. “So we’re even, then,” I said, gathering my hair over one shoulder, thrilling in Daniel’s dipping gaze as I arched my back to do so. “You know a few of my dirty secrets and I know a few of yours.” Geez. I wasn’t a flirt by nature but perhaps I’d consumed Linh’s essence along with the shots she handed me.
Daniel shook his head at me and grinned. “That’s not fair, that’s two entirely different levels of embarrassment. My secrets are about you. Yours are about other people.”
“I have some about you, too,” I offered. Christ, Nina. My drunkenness was quite the double-edged sword. With my lower lip bit back, I peered up at Daniel, whose blue eyes danced as they gazed down at me.
“Huh. I guess that balances it out then,” he said, his tone flirtatious in a way that made my heart pound so hard it felt like each beat was lifting me off the wall. “Though you’d have to reveal your secrets for us to be actually even.”
A wary hum escaped my lips. “Mm, yeah, that’s not gonna happen,” I laughed quietly, looking down at my hands as they twirled the hem of my top. My secrets weren’t so much secrets as fantasies, but they were all sexual and about him. And most of them had been dreamed up while sitting in his classroom during a lesson.
My face grew hot as I ruefully recalled them and reminded myself that the object of those fantasies was standing before me, knowingly watching me as my cheeks flushed, my lower lip disappearing between my teeth as I recalled one of the steamy scenarios I’d created for us my senior year. It had been in his classroom and though they were against our school dress code, I was wearing a short skirt.
In my feverishness, his voice sounded far away.
“Really not gonna tell me then, huh?” He chuckled something low and sexy. “Yeah…” His eyes fixed on my lips as I nodded. “That’s probably for the better.”
I looked up at him, inquisitive until I saw the look in his eye. It was hungry but resistant and entirely tortured. He swallowed hard when my gaze met his and only then did I realize that I’d played too hard with the hem of my shirt and tugged it down enough to bare a peek of lacy bra. Daniel’s eyes bore into mine in a seeming attempt to keep from looking downward.
“Nina, you’re killing me right now,” he exhaled, laughing lightly at himself as he forced his eyes elsewhere while I fixed my neckline.
As I did, I watched as his sleepy gaze shift around the room, seeming to awaken at the sight of others, like he’d forgotten for the past ten minutes that anyone else was around. That anyone else existed. He blinked and straightened his posture, as if suddenly remembering to be good in case these people might somehow know others from Woodhill. My eyes darted about his face as I felt him coming back to Earth though I wasn’t ready to just yet.
“Daniel.”
Without a thought, my fingers grabbed tight handfuls of his shirt. Immediately, his focus returned and upon catching my expression, evaporated back into that lusty haze. Good. Whatever zone we were in, I needed more time. I was still hot, dizzy and wanting desperately for him to touch me. I watched as Daniel’s eyelids grew heavy again, his breath ragged as I released his shirt to flatten my palms on his hard chest.
“What are you doing?” he murmured, gazing down at my hands so that his forehead touched mine. He exhaled hard when my fingers curled against his skin, scratching through his shirt.
And with a grunt, his hands were suddenly on my hips, grasping with a tight intensity, as if he’d been waiting forever to put them there. Suddenly, he had me pushed against the wall. Immediately, I was breathless, in need for more of his touch. I closed my eyes, rolling my head to the side and willing him to put his lips on my exposed neck. A thrill coursed down to my thighs when he did. Breathing hard, I slid his palms from my hips to my backside, eliciting a deep groan from the bottom of his throat.
“What are you doing to me?” he repeated, drawing away just enough to look at me. My eyelashes batted as I shrugged. I didn’t mean to play coy – I just couldn’t speak. His chest was pressed against mine and I had his hands not too far from where I wanted to be touched. If I opened my mouth, a moan would come out. And so I stayed silent, watching his eyes close as I pressed his hands harder against me, which he gladly let me do. “Christ, Nina.” His fingers curled when he said my name, grabbing handfuls of my backside and easily drawing that suppressed moan out of me. He rumbled something deep and full of lust when the sound escaped my lips. It made him tighten his grip on my ass and jerk my body hard into his, as if trying to shake the sound out again. He succeeded. I moaned right into his ear this time, my need for his touch now panging hard between my legs. My eyes were closed again but I was sure that I felt the flicker of his tongue on my neck.
But suddenly, with a bump from a passing stranger, I was let go.
My eyes flew open, flitting with panic when I saw Daniel looking awake again, running a hand through his hair while slowly backing away from me.
“What are you doing?” I panted, reaching for him by his shirt. I pulled him closer and though he let me, it was too late. His body wasn’t responding. His face had fallen solemn, sober. He blinked at the ground.
“I’m asking myself the same question.”
“Don’t,” I protested. When he kept his silence, I searched hard for some sort of argument, something to convince him that it was okay. “You’re not my teacher anymore,” I blurted.