Finding Eva (Highland Creek Series) (8 page)

“No one likes to be lied to,” he defended her. “You were hurting too. It’s not fair to take all their pain on as your own. Plus, I am sure there was a healthy dose of guilt tied in with all their hurt feelings, because they kept the information from you for all these years. Regardless, you will work everything out, especially if you and your parents are as close as you say you are.”

“I know, I just can’t stop thinking about everything. It is always crazy at the end of the year, and then I had to deal with stuff about my mom too.”

“You teach, right?”

“Yeah.”

“What made you decide to be a teacher?”

“Huh?” She looked bewildered, totally taken aback by the question. “You want to know about teaching?”

“Well, yeah …” Although, he didn’t really care. The real purpose was more selfish; he wanted to wipe that “my puppy has just been kicked” look from her face that she seemed to take on whenever she thought of her mother.

“Ok,” she said with a shake of her head. “Teaching.” She paused as though thinking about it. “Remember your worst teacher?”

“Of course, Mrs. Woodson, in third grade. That woman was a terror.”

“And I am sure you were an angel.” She smirked, thinking of the little hellion he probably was.

“I may…” he held up a finger “…and I am saying this very loosely, have been a bit of a pain. But that woman was a terror.”

She rubbed her hand down his arm in sympathy. “Awww, poor baby. She must have done a number on you.”

“You have no idea,” he said with a mock shudder.

“Whatever,” she said, laughing. He was struck then by her beauty, wanting to get closer, and involuntarily moved his chair so he was positioned next to her. “The reason why I asked was not to bring you down a bad trip down memory lane, but to prove a point. I love English. I always have. And though I briefly thought of being a doctor, I couldn’t take the blood but I wanted to take my love of history to the next level. Well, I had this teacher during high school. I will never forget Mrs. Spark, and I was always struck by how boring she made English and literature. I hated it, not because I hated the subject, but because I
knew
that I could teach better than she could.”

Aaron raised his eyebrow. “Humble much?”

She smiled broadly, knowing exactly what she sounded like, enjoying the easy banter. “Shut up. When you know, you know, and I knew. So I decided that I was going to do that, I was going to teach children English in a fun hands-on environment where literature comes alive. I went to school on a scholarship and the rest is history.” Her eyes lit up, hands continuously moving as she talked about teaching English.

He nodded, encouraging her to continue. “That’s great.”

She sat up straighter, inordinately pleased. “Well, it’s not an award winning story, but it’s mine. And I love what I do.”

“It’s always amazing when passion meets your career.”

“Yeah.” She thought pensively as she took a sip of wine.

Eva looked over at Aaron to see him staring intently, desire clearly shining in his eyes. She chewed on her lips nervously, which only served to draw his eyes to her lips. He reached out, pulling her bottom lip from between her teeth.

“There we go,” he whispered and looked into her eyes, waiting for her to agree.

He saw the silent acquiescence in her eyes before he leaned across the table, moving to cup her cheek in the palm of his hand while bringing the other hand to her other cheek and slowly met her lips.
Amazing
, was all he thought, and after a brief hesitation, she began to kiss him back, opening her lips as he slowly thrust his tongue inside, deepening the kiss. She was even better than yesterday, and that was really saying something. But what started off slow and sweet quickly escalated when his hand moved from her face to her neck, cupping the back of it. His other hand slowly sliding down her body, grazing the side of her breast before it stopped at her stomach. She moved forward, her hands gripping his shoulder as she tried to get closer. Inside his head screamed yes, suddenly interrupted by “Rapper’s Delight” sounding loudly from his left. He pulled back, trying to determine the source of that damn noise, when he heard Eva cursing.

“Damn it, my phone. Ignore it. It’s my best friend. She’ll call back,” she rambled after she reached down to silence it, and as much as he wanted to finish exactly what he started, he could tell the mood had been ruined. Plus, he didn’t just want a one night stand, and despite her assurances of the contrary, she was hurting and needed time to decompress. He took in her half-hooded eyes, that seemed to glow an unnatural green, her bruised lips, and cursed his honor.

“As much as I would love to continue this, maybe we should call it a night.” He gave her a kiss, belying what he said about wanting to continue this.

“Well, don’t say I didn’t offer.”

“And she hits me with a zinger,” he stood up and clearly adjusted himself, his once comfortable pants now straining against his aching dick. “How about we take a rain check? Tomorrow night? I will take you to dinner this time.”

“Ok.” She moved to put her dish in the sink, casually rubbing her hand against his dick in a way he knew was not an accident. He jumped slightly, his dick still straining to be free while he cursed his manners yet again. “Dinner it is. Thanks for the pizza,” she continued as she walked him to the door after they cleaned their mess. She stared at him expectedly, and he knew she wanted him to continue what they’d started.

“No problem.” He kissed her quickly before heading out the door. “See you at seven.”

“Bye.” She waved as he turned and jogged down the steps to his car. He slammed the car door, adjusting himself for the third damn time, knowing the only form of relief in his future was either his hand or a very long, cold shower. But there was tomorrow, and he laughed aloud, thinking that he couldn’t wait to get the little spitfire to bed.

K
iss was too tame a word for what the hell just happened
, Eva thought as she put her fingers to her lips. Earth-shattering, moving, and semi-orgasmic were a few things that came to mind. If the kiss was that good, then damn, she didn’t want to think about what he would be like in bed. And it was coming—she knew as well as she was breathing that they would have sex despite her misgivings. Feeling like a bit of a slut, she wasn’t one to jump into bed with guys she just met, she couldn’t help but smile. Still thinking of the kiss, she turned to go upstairs when she heard her phone beeping in the kitchen.
Damn, Gwen
, she thought about the earlier interruption and grabbed the phone to silence it as she went up to bed.

Rolling over bright and early the next morning, Eva tried to ignore the sun streaming through the blinds by pulling the pillow over her head. She wished for more sleep, but her body was still adjusting to summer hours, and unfortunately 6:30 was her norm. Eva faced the sad reality she would not be getting any more sleep when she heard the annoying beep of her phone. She looked and realized she had another missed call from Gwen at 11:30. What the hell? Gwen was never that needy so something must have been wrong. Concerned when she got her voicemail, she called her back and hoped nothing was going on. Leaving a voicemail for Gwen to call her, she put it out of her mind as she thought about that kiss. Again. She couldn’t help it, it had been too long between lovers, and she only hoped to get some after dinner tonight.

She hurried through her morning routine, knowing Conner was coming this morning to start the bathroom remodel. Within the hour she had showered, eaten, and was cleaning the dishes when the doorbell rang. More excited than she was willing to admit—who didn’t love a new bathroom?—she answered the door to Conner. Recognition came quickly; he looked so much like Aaron they could be twins. The only difference was coloring. Whereas Aaron had dark brown hair and chocolate brown eyes Conner had sandy blond hair with tawny brown eyes.

“Hey, you must be Conner,” she said, reaching forward to shake his hand before letting him in the house.

“That’s me,” he said, revealing a set of perfect white teeth. He was a hottie and she could appreciate a good looking guy despite her outrageous attraction to his brother. “I am here about the bathroom.”

“Yeah, Aaron was telling me about the bathroom renovations. What are you doing exactly? He didn’t really seem like he knew what would be going on.”

“I am not surprised the suit didn’t really know,” he referred to his brother affectionately, “seeing as how he can barely change his own light bulbs. Your mom came to me about a month ago and wanted a full bathroom remodel, which should take about three weeks. We’d pretty much finalized the plans; she had everything picked out and I was supposed to start the week after everything happened. I am just going to continue with what she wanted if you don’t mind. I was really sorry to hear about your mom by the way. She was a great person.”

She barely avoided cringing, having to hear another compliment about her mother. “So I’ve been told.”

“Yeah, about that …” He scratched the side of his hair above his ear. “I am sorry to hear about that.”

“You know?” She was surprised but thought about all the things that seemed to be kept from her. Continuing, she said, “I mean, of course you know. Why wouldn’t you know? Everyone knows but me.” She knew she was rambling, but she couldn’t help it; it was what she did when she was upset.

“Well in my defense, it is a small town. Plus, I was there the other day when my mom laid into Aaron.”

Her eyes widened as she tried to reconcile the sweet Susan that she met the other night with what Conner was telling her. “Your mom yelled at Aaron?”

“Yeah, I was there at the dinner the other night. I guess after you yelled at him on Saturday he stormed into my parents’ house talking about you.”

She narrowed her eyes at Conner. “What did he say?”

“He was really mad …” Conner started off diplomatically, quickly trying to find something to say to stop that gleam he saw in her eyes—the one that said his next words would determine whether she was going to kill his brother. And she would kill him if she found out Aaron was being an asshole about it.

He shifted his weight, shoving his hands in his pants. “So he may have said some unpleasant comments about you being a brat and only wanting your mom’s money. But my mom set him straight real quick.” He rushed on after seeing her eyes darken as he talked about his brother. He clearly didn’t want to deal with any confrontation so he tried to quickly change the subject.

“My brother was mad, but you must have known that because you just got through arguing. My mother set him straight, you set him straight, and now everything is great.” She didn’t look convinced, but Conner figured if she had a problem with Aaron he could fight his own battles. “I am going to go get started if that’s ok with you.” He was obviously looking for an escape, and as much as she wanted to mess with him, she had stuff to do.

“That’s fine.”

“Good. I do want to warn you, it may be a little noisy but we will try to stay out of your hair.”

“Ok, thanks.”

Eva actually had a pretty good morning working off her earlier irritation about Aaron telling his family about her by doing everything but what she was actually supposed to do. She couldn’t control her mother, and didn’t really want to dwell on her, so her morning activities did not include going through Elizabeth’s stuff. She called Gwen again, leaving a second voicemail telling Gwen to call her ASAP. Her worry was made worse by the fact that when she listened to Gwen’s voicemail she could hear the tears in her voice as she told Eva to call her back.

Realizing there was nothing she could do for Gwen, she worked out, started to read the book she had brought with her, and tried to ignore the fact that men traipsed in and out of the house ruining her quiet sanctuary.
Thankfully it was only for a couple of weeks
, she thought when she heard another suspicious bang and a curse from the upstairs bathroom.

She went in the kitchen, her goal to make lunch for herself and Conner, a peace offering from her earlier irritation at his brother. After creating a sandwich she hoped he would like, she went upstairs to call him down while subtly viewing the progress. Damn, that place was a mess. Half the fixtures had already been taken out, and there was enough dust and dirt to give her slight heart palpitations just thinking about having to clean the mess.
This is my life
, she thought warily, surveying the mess around her and the cutie bending to pick up some tile.