She practically jogged to get to the library, her cheeks burning with embarrassment and desire. She still couldn’t believe what had just happened. It all felt like a dream, like she was someone else.
But if it was a dream, she didn’t want to wake up.
The cool of the library hit her skin, making goosebumps rise up along her bare legs and stomach, but it felt refreshing instead of jarring, and she made her way to the reference desk.
Maybe there was something in here about who her father might’ve really been.
She had to just force herself to focus on the task at hand, and not think about Trevor’s body, and the things he’d done to her.
With her.
The library was almost entirely empty, even the librarian was away, with a sign on her desk that said ‘out to lunch’. She only saw her old teacher, Ted, or rather Mr. Templeton, there. And he looked to her curiously, the dashing older man quietly inspecting her so… deeply. Did he know? Could he tell that something had changed about her?
“Are you okay, Brittany?” he asked, his voice deep and so firm, the very epitome of a teacher’s voice.
She patted her cheek a little, trying to see if something was different about her skin or her expression. She should have used the bathroom and looked in the mirror at Trevor’s motel room. As it was, she had no idea. And she was feeling awfully flushed, even in the air conditioned library.
“Oh, hey Mr. Templeton. Just... Just was going to look up a book,” she said, but now she realized she couldn’t look up what she intended. She didn’t want all the town to know about her search, after all.
He put the book back he had in hand onto the shelf, then walked over to her.
He had a way of making her feel like a little girl again, there to take her tests and be judged. But once he stood before her, towering over her, he cracked a friendly smile.
“Anything I can help you find?” he asked, reaching out to rest a large, smooth hand on her slender shoulder.
Her mind went blank again.
She wasn’t sure if it was just that she felt like a deer in headlights, fumbling to come up with a quick lie, or if it was the sensation of flesh on hers once more.
It was like a switch had been flicked within her, and now touches weren’t just innocent things. They were promises of things to come. She inhaled deeply, trying to center herself, and instead found the masculine scent of his cologne teasing her senses.
“I just... was looking for something to read. For summer.”
He squeezed her shoulder and his smile widened, seeming quite overjoyed that she was there for reading material.
“Well I can definitely help you with that,” he said, sliding his hand from her shoulder… down, around to her lower back. Not quite so low as Trevor had done, but he guided her along nonetheless, describing the various sections to her, that seemed to be lost in the drone of heat she felt internally.
“...And here we have romance. A popular one with the ladies, and some guys too,” he said with a playful little tinge to his smile. “Lots of tales of wholesome love and desire.”
Hearing her high school teacher talk about love and desires was definitely not what she needed just then. Instantly she felt years younger, and that flush of heat spread from her stomach, out towards her limbs.
“Mom’d kill me if she found that under my pillow.”
He looked amused and stroked his hand along her back.
“You’re a grown woman now, Brittany,” he said, reassuringly. But with a tinge of… something else to it. “You can do as you like.”
She thought, for just a second, he said ‘you can do who you like’. Her breath caught in her throat. He couldn’t know. Surely she wasn’t that obvious. Was she?
“Here,” he said, pulling a book from the shelf, “maybe just try one.”
“Isn’t it... sinful?” she said, her voice low, as if even just speaking the words would draw unwanted attention in the empty library.
“It’s just reading,” he says, before she notices the cover of the book. And the young woman on the cover, dressed in a school uniform, making doe-eyes at her older teacher. Once he sees it, Mr. Templeton laughs briefly. “Ah well… this is a common fantasy for girls such as yourself, Brittany.”
Her heart started pounding so loud in her chest, the sound so loud she could barely hear his words.
Her lips dropped open, silent murmurs trying to work their way past her tongue without luck.