Discipline (4 page)

I immediately recognized the voice, as well
as the muscled forearms steadying me by my waist — my bare waist.
They quickly retracted and I looked up to see a somewhat jolted Mr.
Cole shoving his hands into his pockets.

“I’m fine,” I answered, feeling the edges of
my lips curling up. I did a decent job of disguising my excitement.
“Hi, Mr. Cole.”

He smiled, slightly awkward. “Hello, Nina,”
he said –
in his teacher voice
. What was he doing? We were
already at a bar. There was no need for pretense. I dared to flash
a sassy look to ridicule him for it. My eyes got the point across
because he immediately broke into a laugh – one that acknowledged
our strange little situation.
God, that laugh
. My cheeks
flushed at the mere sound and I was thankful for how dark it was in
our particular area. Though as it quickly got crowded, I backed
into another spot along the wall, watching with pleasure as Mr.
Cole wordlessly followed me. When I stepped into the light, his
eyes went wide and instinctively scanned my body, trying to be
quick but getting caught on my exposed midriff. He swallowed,
blinking a few times before forcing his gaze elsewhere. But it was
too late — he’d given me the confidence to be brazen with my next
words.

“I’m surprised you came considering you have
class to teach in nine hours.”
Damn, Nina, you didn’t even drink
yet
. Mr. Cole raised his eyebrows with amusement at me.

“That makes two of us then.”

It was my turn to arch an eyebrow. “What
made you decide to come?”

“I didn’t,” he answered, prompting my
confusion. “I said I wouldn’t. I just couldn’t stop myself.”
Oh
. I was both flattered and clueless as to how to respond.
But I didn’t have to, because he spoke again. “I’m already
regretting it.”

“Why?” I couldn’t hide my immediate
hurt.

“Uh,” he gave a short laugh as he ran his
hand across his tight jaw. “Because you look better than I know how
to handle right now, Nina.” His smile was sheepish but so damned
sexy. “I tried preparing myself for tonight. I guess I didn’t do a
very good job.”

Oh my God. What. Okay. Breathe
. I
tried to stay cool despite my racing heart. “Listen, Mr. Cole –
”

“You can call me Daniel,” he interrupted.
“I’d prefer that, actually. Since I haven’t told Mike yet… about
having had you as a student.” There. He said it. Something about
the way “student” rolled off his tongue gave me a thrill.

“Why not?”

My heart pounded as his eyes lowered. I
didn’t even realize that I was playing with the hem of my top until
Mr. Cole –
Daniel
– let his gaze drop and return to that
strip of bare skin. This time, he gave himself a much longer
look.

“Because what I’m doing right now is
extremely inappropriate,” he said flat out. “And so was the way I
spoke about you the other night.”

I froze. “How did you speak about me?”

“Nina…” There was a hint of shame in his
laugh. “I know we’ve already crossed that student-teacher boundary,
but I’m not going to tell you what I said.”

Damn it
. Of course not. I opened my
mouth to protest but right then, a voice bellowed from behind
him.

“
There
they are!”

Mike draped a heavy arm around Daniel’s
shoulder, shoving a drink into his hands. He had his other arm
around Linh, who presented me with a glass of my consolidated
shots. I knocked back a third of it while flashing her a look,
playful despite my true frustration.
Damn it, you two, why did
you have to show up?
Though once I noticed how extremely
intoxicated Mike was, an idea sprung to mind. There must have been
mischief in my eyes because Linh narrowed hers at me as I suggested
brightly that we all sit down. But being a little imp herself, she
said nothing.

Only when we approached the booth in the
back corner did she murmur to me. “Explain.”

I gave her an innocent smile. “We’re going
to exchange boys for a second.”

“Because?”

“You love me? Come on, I just need you to
distract him for ten minutes.”

Linh sniffed. “Easy,” she said, and off she
went.

I watched confusion take over Daniel’s face
as he slid into the booth after Adriana, Em and their guys, only to
see Linh sidle up next to him instead of me. His eyes darted across
the long table, growing immediately wary when they met mine as I
took the seat next to Mike. He opened his mouth to protest but Linh
asked him something or another and being a gentleman, he answered.
Once they were engaged in conversation, I tapped Mike on the
knee.

“Oh, hey there. You’re not Linh.”

“Nope. Nina, actually.”

“Ah,
Nina
,” he repeated with a sly
grin, immediately glancing at Daniel. To my relief, he wasn’t
looking our way. He was courteously obliging as Linh made him
finish his drink so she could make him taste another. Thank God for
her. She was giving me time to get the dirt from Mike. He had to be
drunk enough to reveal what Daniel had said about me the other
night.

“What’s that face for?” I asked
teasingly.

“Ah, well… you know. It’s just good to know
your name.” Mike scratched his stubble. “It’s less syllables for me
to say than ‘The Fucking Gorgeous One.’”

“You were calling me that?”

“
He
was calling you that.” Mike
pointed his beer bottle across the table at Daniel. I raised my
eyebrows, breaking into a big grin as Daniel looked over at us,
tense in both his posture and expression. He knew what I was doing
and it was making him panic. I couldn’t help but love every minute
of it.

“Daniel
curses
?” I asked as he stared
at me, reading his name on my lips, his eyes darting back and forth
between me and Mike as he no doubt wondered what was being
said.

“Not normally,” Mike admitted. “He’s a
polite dude. Usually. But that night it was like fucking Jekyll and
Hyde. That thing you were wearing… it got his imagination all
worked up.”

“How do you know?”

He laughed. “He was trying to hold in all
his dirty thoughts but I got them out of him after a few
drinks.”

“
Dirty thoughts
?” I couldn’t help
staring at Daniel as I said this. At this point, he was anxiously
trying to get out of the booth, perhaps to physically shut Mike up.
Unfortunately for him, Linh’s five-foot-two frame stayed put,
knowing well that he wouldn’t climb over her. He was stuck. Once he
realized it, his eyes locked on me. “What kind of dirty thoughts?”
I asked, my late-girl vodka giving me the gall to torment Daniel,
keeping my eyes on his as I grilled Mike about his apparently
filthy imagination. When Mike hesitated, I decided to make an
offer. “If you tell me what he said that night, I’ll tell you
everything you want to know about Linh.”
Maybe
.

He held a hand out. “Deal.”

I shook it with a glance towards Daniel. His
jaw was flexing. There was hard disapproval in his eyes as he
watched me, but just when I feared that I’d pissed him off, he
shook his head with disbelief and broke into a grin – a defeated
one that said
damn
it
because there was nothing else
he could do but watch. Looking skyward, he took a long swig of his
drink.

“As his friend, let me preface all this by
saying that he’s usually a complete gentleman, doesn’t curse or
smoke or drink more than a couple beers,” Mike said. “He’s a
disciplined motherfucker. Some shit about where he teaches. It’s
like this conservative-as-shit gossip town with one of the top ten
best school districts in the country, so he never says or does
anything wrong, and he never will as long as he teaches in that
stupid, goddamned hellhole. It’s just a bunch of bored, rich people
with sticks up their asses, who’ll ruin you for doing anything even
a little out of their ordinary.”

Trust me, I know.

Mike laughed. “That’s why it was good seeing
him do a one-eighty last week. You were like a miracle worker in
that little crocheted thing. You made the guy vulgar for once.”

Really
. I blushed hard. “How so?” I
asked as Daniel took another drink, Linh in his ear but his eyes
fixed on me. His head began to shake again as Mike sucked a breath
in between his big grin, giving him a look of apology before he
spoke.

“All those little holes in your dress made
him want to just… rip it the fuck in half, apparently.”

My eyes widened.
Really now, Mr.
Cole?

“From the front.”

My mouth dropped open. Off my reaction,
Daniel promptly stood up, trying once again to get out of the booth
but eventually letting Linh pull him back into his seat. He ran an
anxious hand over his lips while eyeing me. The hot intensity of
his expression made me squirm in my seat.

“You screwed him up that night,” Mike
hooted. “The second he saw you through the window, he just stared
and said, ‘
Shit
, she looks good.’ Something like that.”

“Seriously?” Had he caught my face at all or
had he only seen me from the back? I was suddenly struck with the
possibility that he’d been attracted to me before that day – back
in Woodhill.
But that would be so wrong.

Mike gave me a look. “You’re surprised? I
get the sense that you have this effect on most guys considering
you turned my mild-mannered friend into a fuckin’ dirty bastard
that night. He was hating himself.”

I frowned. “That’s a little intense. Why
would he hate himself?”

“I don’t know. Because he’s really not the
kind of guy who thinks about like, what kind of panties a girl is
wearing. Not aloud, at least. But he did that night. We already
knew you weren’t, uh… wearing a bra.”

My eyebrows shot up.
I totally flashed
Mr. Cole headlights that night. Maybe that was why he looked for so
long.
“Oh God,” I exhaled, knowing I should be embarrassed. But
for some reason, I wasn’t. I was too distracted by the heat rushing
my body for different reasons. Reasons more to do with the fact
that I’d turned Mr. Cole on, and so hard. It was supposed to be an
impossible task.

Legs suddenly crossing, I bit my lower lip.
“Go on,” I prodded Mike, glad that he didn’t notice my visible
lust. He was entirely too drunk.

Unfortunately, Daniel wasn’t.

He squinted just briefly before one end of
his mouth curled up at me.
Shit
. I was hot and bothered and
he could tell. Suddenly, there was a different glint in his eye as
he watched me. His tension was melting and becoming something else
entirely. Enjoyment
. Smug
enjoyment.
Oh God
. I shook
my hair into my face, feeling suddenly naked. But despite blushing
with mortification, I couldn’t help noticing that the unfamiliar
look on Daniel was incredibly sexy. His body was slack, relaxed as
he studied me.
Okay, breathe, really, breathe
, I reminded
myself as Mike continued.

“Well, we went to another bar afterward
because he said he needed a drink. And me, the bartender, all these
girls – we were trying to talk to him but he was all distracted and
thinking about something else.”

“What?” My curiosity forced me to
practically bounce in my seat. Across the table, Daniel
half-jokingly thumped the table with his fist. He took in a deep
breath, shaking his head as he mouthed something at me – with a
little smirk, too.
You’re gonna get it
, he said. I blinked
with surprise.

“What was he thinking about?” Mike laughed,
biting his fist. “That school girl outfit of yours and, uh… well.
Yeah, that was it.” He peered at me from the corner of his eye,
blatant in his lie.

“Mike, tell me the rest!”

He heaved a guilty sigh, grimacing at
himself. “Let’s just say Daniel wants to throw your legs over his
shoulders and give you what your shitty ex couldn’t.”

“What!” My jaw dropped hard, prompting
Daniel to pound the last of his drink and leap up in his seat. Linh
popped up from hers with a surprised yelp.

“Shit – run!” Mike laughed.

And though he was joking, I did just that,
giggling nervously as my heels took me through the crowd of
button-ups and slinky dresses, and surprisingly quickly too. I
didn’t stop until I reached the wall at the other end of the room,
having nowhere else to go.

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 because 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.