Always You (7 page)

Wrenn

There were no words strong enough to explain how I was feeling as I
approached the theater. He stood against the wall, staring at me, his hands
shoved into the pockets of his jeans, his knee bent, foot propped up against
the wall.

I’d thought long and hard about what to wear tonight, and seeing his eyes
widen and his body tense, I knew the low-cut black dress and cream heels had
been a great choice, even if I was freezing my ass off. I
wanted
to make him squirm inside. We both knew what he was going to
say, and I was planning on testing his resolve tonight. That kiss had felt so incredible
that I wasn’t ready to give up on him yet.

“Wow, you look stunning,” he murmured, his eyes roaming over me.

I smiled and tilted my head. I had scrubbed up pretty well. “We should go
in,” I replied.

He held up two tickets, and I grinned.

“I was hoping you had gotten them.” I’d noticed the same young guy in the
ticket booth, and the last thing I wanted was to deal with him again after the
embarrassment of last night.

We walked inside. The theater was filling up. Without thinking, I grabbed
his hand and led him toward the far corner of the back of the room. He jumped
at my touch, but didn’t resist. We sat down, his hand not letting mine go.

 
“Just in case someone we know
is here, I thought the back corner made sense,” I explained, my face flushing.

He nodded, his fingers entwining in mine, his skin so soft. “Makes
sense.”

I barely heard him; I was too busy focused on the way his finger was
gently stroking mine. God, how was it possible that the tiniest touch was
arousing me right now?

As the movie went on, I did my best to watch it, but really, all my
attention was on him. It took me fifteen minutes to work up the courage to
reposition my hand so mine was on top, our fingers laced. He glanced at me with
a small smile.

This made me feel more confused. Was he going to end this? And if he was
going to stop us before we had even really begun, why hold my hand?

I wish I had the balls to
kiss him right now.

This was the perfect arrangement: a dark theater, sitting alone in the
corner, holding hands—but I couldn’t do it. No matter how much I ached to
feel those lips against mine, I was too scared of being rejected.

Too quickly, the movie was over. We were the first people up and out of
our seats, nervous about being spotted. We walked quickly to his car. He
unlocked the passenger door and waited until I was safely inside before closing
it.

We sat in his car in silence as I waited for him to
talk. He was preparing a big speech in his head, I just
knew
it. I needed to say something now, or I’d lose my chance.

I couldn’t make a bigger fool of myself, so why not go
all out?

“I want to say something.” I blurted it out before he
could begin.

He glanced at me in surprise, but nodded.

“I like you. A lot. I understand your reservations
about getting into a relationship with me, but I’m eighteen. I’m an adult, and
we both have less than six weeks of school left. You’re not that much older
than me, and I think you like me, too. I don’t expect—or even
want
—you
to risk your job for me, so I’m willing to wait until school is over for the
both of us before we start anything.”

I took a breath, waiting for him to respond. He was
staring at me with those gorgeous blue eyes, and I was melting into him.

“You’re right,” he finally said. “I
do
like you, Wrenn. But regardless of
the fact that you’re eighteen, this will always have started with you being my
student. There is a balance of power thing to consider, and the ethical issues
of me dating a student, or even suggesting I’d be interested in doing so when
they’ve finished school.”

I snorted. “You’re worried that I’m feeling pressured
by your being my teacher?” I unbuckled my seatbelt and turned to face him.
Leaning over, I snaked my arm around the curve of his neck, pulling him closer
to me. “Does this look like I’m feeling pressured, Dalton?”

He didn’t resist, not even as my lips met his. He
kissed me back, his tongue slipping inside my mouth, wrestling against my own.
I jumped as I felt his hand on my hip, running down my thigh and stopping on my
exposed skin.

Kissing him felt so right, like we were a perfect fit.
His lips were so soft, much softer than I’d expected them to be. I ran my
fingers over the soft stubble on his jaw, the feeling making my skin tingle.

“I have no idea how this can work, Wrenn. It’s hard
enough that I’m your teacher, but we both live on campus. That makes things
nearly impossible.”

“I like a challenge,” I said with a smile as I
caressed his face. “But if you want to wait until I graduate, I’m fine with
that. I don’t want you getting into trouble, nor do I want you to feel like I’m
pressuring you into anything,” I added, relaying his own words back to him with
a hint of sarcasm.

“You act all innocent, but you’re a little devil,
Wrenn,” he chuckled.

Grinning, I leaned over and kissed him again.

Finally, I felt like something was starting to go
right in my life again.

Wrenn

“If you could change
one thing about yourself, what would it be?”

We were lying on a
blanket down at the bank of the river, staring up at the sky. It was a clear
night, clear enough to make out all the twinkling stars above us. I shivered
and he wrapped his arms around me, pulling the thick woolen blanket that
covered us up to my chin. I giggled as he kissed me.

“Change about myself
or my life?” I asked.

“Yourself. I know
what you’d change about your life, Wrenn.” He said it so softly I could barely
hear him, but I knew he meant my family.

I sighed, and
thought about his question. “I don’t know. I think everything we do, we learn
from, so saying I’d change one aspect of myself could potentially have changed
who I am today.” I shrugged, gazing up at him. “I know I’m not perfect, but I’m
happy with the person I am. I think I offer a lot as a person, and I know I
still have so much to learn, but everything that happens to me, everything I
am, I live and learn from.”

His arms tightened
around me as he kissed my forehead. “Your strength amazes me, Wrenn. Every
second we spend together, you find a new way to surprise me.” He kissed me, his
lips in sync with mine as his fingers ran underneath my sweater. I sighed as
they grazed over my breasts, my nipples instantly hardening. I wanted him so
badly. These past few weeks had been nothing short of perfection. I found
myself wanting to be with him more and more, and finding it harder to control
my emotions went we weren’t alone.

I glanced down at my
phone, my heart dropping. Almost curfew. I hated leaving him.

“I have to go,” I
said glumly, kissing his lips one more time before I struggled to my feet.

He stood up too, his
arms curling around my waist as he kissed my neck. “I wish you didn’t have to
go,” he mumbled.

“Me too. I’ll see
you tomorrow.” I blew him a kiss as I walked to my car, my heart heavy with
sadness at leaving him. I was falling for him, there was no doubt in my mind.

I was falling hard.

***

Kass was talking in
my ear about something, but I couldn’t focus. All I could see was Dalton, over
on the other side of the classroom, helping out another student. He laughed at
something Emma had said, and my stomach churned.

Why was this getting
to me so much? He was a teacher in an all-girl school, of course he had to
interact with members of the opposite sex. I just didn’t like having to see it.

“Wrenn? What the
hell is wrong with you today?”

I jumped and turned
back to Kass, who was staring at me. “Nothing,” I mumbled. “What were you
saying?”

“I was saying I
don’t know what I’m going to do for the rest of the year without you here. I’m
going to miss you when you graduate.”

“I’m going to miss
you too. You’ll be finished before know it, and we’ll still see each other like
all the time,” I said, smiling.

She nodded and
sniffed. I reached over and squeezed her hand. Kass was such a good friend, and
I was so lucky to have her in my life.

***

After the final bell
rang, Kass and I walked out of class, past Dalton’s desk. I could feel him
staring at me. Sure enough, when I turned, his eyes were on me
—
all over me. I
smiled, and winked at him, which made him chuckle. He turned back to his desk,
a smile still on his lips, and I knew he was thinking about me.

The longer this went
on, the harder it was getting for both of us. When you feel so strongly for
someone, you don’t want to keep it a secret. You want to shout it from the
rooftops. You want everyone to know what you’re feeling. Hiding it feels so
wrong. How can falling in love ever be a bad thing?

But it was. At
least, that’s what society wanted us to think. We could have the most
exceptional circumstances in the world and it wouldn’t make a damn difference.

He would always be
my teacher, and me, his student. I just prayed he could get past that.

Dalton

The more time I spent with
Wrenn, the more I liked her the more I liked her. Every moment I spent with
her, she cemented herself a little bit more in my life. Slowly, she was
beginning to unravel the walls I’d built around myself.

And that made me nervous.

I laughed to myself. The funny
thing was that she could sense my anxiety about our relationship, and she
thought it was all to do with the fact that I was her teacher. That couldn’t be
further from the truth. Honestly? The risk of losing my job—I’d risk it
all in a second for her. How bad was that?

No, this ran much deeper. It
killed me that it was always in the back of my mind. One test, and I’d know.
One way or the other I’d know for sure. But I didn’t want to know. Hell, I was
angry at my own mother. Why couldn’t she have lied to me? I wouldn’t have known
the difference. I could have lived my life not caring.

Sometimes it was best not
knowing.

***

The realization hit me late one
afternoon after Mom texted me, reminding me it was coming up to the anniversary
of Dad’s death. I couldn’t do this. It
had
to stop. I had to think of Wrenn before this went any further. I could end it
now. I wasn’t sure I’d have the strength if I left it much longer.

Picking up my phone, I texted
her, asking her to meet me down by the river. A deserted space, the river was a
favorite place for us to meet, because it was so far out of the way there was
no chance of us getting caught.

Sure. Give me twenty minutes xx

I grabbed my jacket and headed
to my car. I couldn’t think straight. All I wanted was to take her in my arms,
and feel her skin against mine, and taste those sweet little lips. Fuck, she
was intoxicating. Even the thought of her being close to me got me hard. Hell,
thinking about her in class last week had gotten me aroused.

That’s
a good look.

How the hell was I going to end
this and still be around her for the next few weeks? And then what? She’d made
it clear she would wait for me. What excuse would I have when she was no longer
my student?

I thought about telling her
everything, but I didn’t want pity. I didn’t want her to confuse her feelings
of sympathy with desire for me. Yet I hated the thought of her not wanting me at
all.

The thought of her kissing some
teenage boy who knew nothing about pleasing her made me want to punch the shit
out of someone. The kinds of emotions I was feeling were completely new to me,
and honestly, they scared me.

The drive to the river was ten
minutes. She was there already. Waiting for me. Her face lit up when she saw
me, her lips parting into a smile that reached those stunning green eyes. I
breathed in hard as she stepped out of her car. She looked so fucking sexy. Her
boots came up to her mid-calf over her tight jeans, which showed all her
curves. She wore a fitted blue sweater under her jacket.

My heart raced as I stepped out
of my car. She leaned in to kiss me, and I let her. I was here to break up with
her, yet all I wanted to do was explore every inch of that body with my hands,
my mouth, and my tongue. I laughed.
Oh,
the irony.

God, all I could smell was the
sweet floral scent of her perfume. And the freshness of her skin. She waited
for me to say something, her brow furrowing as she studied my face. She knew
something was wrong.

“Wrenn. I can’t do this to you.
We need to stop this before it goes any further.” There, I said it. Did I feel
any better?

No. I felt like shit.

She stepped back, crossing her
arms over her chest, her eyes widening. She hadn’t been expecting me to say
that.

“What do you mean, we can’t?”
she said evenly. “You didn’t seem to have any problem with it the last few
weeks.” She was hurt. I could see it in her eyes. And I didn’t blame her. It
had come out of nowhere.
 

“I’m sorry. This . .
. I can’t do this.” I so badly wanted to elaborate, but I couldn’t.

What could I tell
her? That I was so close to falling in love with her? That the last thing on my
mind was the fact she was my student? I was hiding something, something so
potentially life-changing
—
for both of us. Something she deserved to know.

But how could I tell
her? How could I be responsible for breaking her heart like that? I’d rather
end this now and have her think I was a weak piece of shit.

“I don’t care that you’re my
teacher, Dalton. I don’t give a damn about that.” She was angry now. Her green
eyes flashed as she stared me down. So much fire and passion for such a quiet
girl. She knew what she wanted, and she wasn’t going to give up without a fight.

“But I do,” I fibbed. “My
career, Wrenn. I’ve worked too hard to get where I am to ruin it all on . . . ”
My voice trailed off. The only way to do this was to convince her my career
meant more to me than she did.

“On me?” she supplied. Her face
hardened. “I get it. You don’t want to throw your career away on some fling,
right? I was just some cheap entertainment to get you through the year?” She
glared at me, demanding an answer that I wouldn’t give her. She nodded. “I’m
surprised you didn’t fuck me while you had the chance,” she taunted.

I looked away. I hated seeing
her this angry. “Wrenn—”

“Don’t bother,” she
interrupted. “Obviously we’re not on the same page. We never were.”

She ran to her car and jumped
in, roaring out of the parking lot. I threw my arms back behind my head, angry
with myself. Angry with my father. Angry at the whole fucking useless world.

Wrenn was unlike any woman I’d
ever met
—
so
feisty and sure of herself. But she wasn’t a woman, she was still a girl. Her
being eighteen didn’t make this right. She’d been through more heartache than
most people go through in their whole lives, and she’d dealt with it with such
maturity and dignity. But none of that changed the fact that I couldn’t be with
her—if anything, it magnified that fact.

It just wasn’t right, and it
wasn’t fair to her.

She was angry now, but I knew
that would melt away. And once it did, she wouldn’t give in without a fight.
Today I had won. But if she pushed me, I’d break; and when that happened,
nothing would keep me from her.

God, I hope she respects my decision.