Her Teacher's Temptation (6 page)

Chapter Nine

“Wow,” I
commented to Ollie when the man lecturing us finally finished talking. “You
weren’t kidding, huh? Damn. If this is what uni is going to be like then maybe
I'll just not go at all.”

Ollie smirked.
“Don't worry, they're not all this terrible.”

The lecture
felt like it had been going on forever, even though the clock told me it had
been an hour. His monotonous voice had been enough to send anyone to sleep and if
it hadn’t been for the fact there were only about twenty of us in the hall, I
probably would have drifted off. What astounded me more was how everyone else
seemed completely absorbed in him. Maybe I was just misreading their boredom.

“I'm assuming
you brought something to entertain yourself with in that ridiculous suitcase. Because
I really did bring loads of marking to do. You should probably rehearse your
reading or something.”

“Yeah, I
brought some work to do.” I figured we were probably going to eat dinner first,
though. “So what, do we have tea like just us or with the whole group?” We were
all filtering out of the hall now to go to the hotel. We wouldn't be really
doing much else with the university until tomorrow.

“I think we
have to eat as a group,” he complained, keeping his voice low as we hung around
the back of the group of people. “I'm not sure if there's like a students’ and
teachers’ table, though. I really hope that's not the case. We have to be at
the restaurant for six, according to this email,” he read the document he’d
printed off before coming. “So that gives us like half an hour to do whatever.”

“We don't have
to dress up for dinner, do we?” I really couldn't be bothered with that. Plus,
I'd only brought two nice outfits and I didn't want to wear the same thing for
dinner and the reading – the first outfit wasn’t appropriate for anything other
than a club. Ollie probably could have done a better job of explaining exactly
what was happening this weekend before we came.

“I don't think
so.”

Mine and
Ollie's rooms were next to each other, as I presumed all the teachers and
students were, along one long corridor. I supposed it was a good idea to
practice my reading until it was time for dinner. It wasn't necessary to know
my piece off by heart, but the judges would think it was better if I wasn't
staring at my notes the whole time. Plus 2,000 words really wasn't that many
and I'd practised it plenty over the last week.

When it came to
dinner, I pouted as I realised that it was indeed separate teacher and student
tables. The people sat around the other table were all sat in silence, looking
a bit awkward, and I wasn’t going to be able to deal with that.

These weren’t
going to be my kind of people, I could already tell. I was being horribly
judgmental, but their groomed appearances and branded clothes had me feeling
uneasy. I wasn’t one of them. I was never going to be one of that group.

Another reason
Oxbridge hadn’t been in my considerations for university.

Mr. Wright and
I shared a look of distaste. I suspected it'd be particularly bad for him since
all the other teachers I'd seen looked at least twice as old as him.

Our tables were
just out of earshot of each other and we all introduced ourselves and said
where we were from. Five girls and one boy; everyone except for a Scottish girl
sporting accents similar to Ollie’s that were somehow nowhere near as
attractive.

After we'd
picked from the limited options for food, everyone leant forward slightly as
the girl beside me asked a question they apparently all wanted the answer to.
“That guy is your teacher?” Brenna, she'd said her name was, inquired not even
bothering to hide her surprise.

I nodded. I
supposed at the private schools these people went to there were no teachers
under the age of 40 since they probably required lots of experience. “Yeah,” I
admitted. “He was new this year.”

“I wished we
had teachers that handsome at our school.” Another sighed wistfully from the
corner of the table. “Is he as nice as he looks?”

I almost
snorted. Yes, Ollie was nice, but I doubted they'd expect a lot of the things I
seemed to know about him. “He's pretty nice,” I assured them, my eyes flicking
to his bored expression for a second. “And he's a good teacher too. He
graduated from Oxford.” I wasn't sure why I felt the need to big him up in
front of these people, but whether it was for my benefit or Ollie's, it still
made me pretty smug when they were impressed.

“So unfair,”
Rebecca whined. “What's your piece about?” She inquired as everyone broke into
their own conversations with the people next to them.

“Tripping on
acid.” May as well be blunt about it. I wasn't really bothered whether she
judged me or not, I still thought it was a pretty clever interpretation of the
prompt, like Ollie had said, and I'd done it more for my own benefit than
thinking I'd get anywhere in the competition.

The girl raised
a surprised eyebrow. I'd already gathered from her accent that she was Scottish
and it was kind of hard to tell whether she had a posh or common Scottish
accent. “Did you do loads of research, or did you like, actually do it?” She
inquired, glancing away to stare intensely at her glass of water.

“I did it
before the competition came up. Then when I saw the prompt the idea just came
to me.” Her eyes widened at that. “What's yours about?”

“Someone coming
back from war,” she explained, causing me to hold back a smile. It really was
just that I'd picked an idea for the prompt that wasn't completely generic as
to why they'd put me through to the final.

Thankfully the
meals came fairly quickly, which meant I was given an excuse to not make uncomfortable
conversation. Unless I was drunk or high, I found it really hard to make conversation
with people who I didn't know; especially people in groups. I didn't really
have anything interesting to say most of the time, at least, not things I
didn't think people were going to judge me for.

I'd always
hated the sound of people eating and now was no exception. It just had to be
that Rebecca was one of those people that ate with their mouth open. I had to
really bite the inside of my cheek to prevent me snapping at her to have some
basic manners.

Luckily we were
given the option of whether we wanted dessert or not and I'd already decided
that I was leaving this table as soon as I could when Ollie appeared behind me.
"You don't want dessert, right?" He checked.

I shook my
head. "Absolutely not," I assured him, not really caring whether the
people at my table took that as an offence or not.

"Thank
God, because if I have to hear another word about Downton Abbey I think I'll
scream." Ollie had been the only male on a table of middle-aged women.

"Not your
thing?" I teased as I stood up from my chair. "I imagine Jemma being
really into it." Just from the way she acted and from what I'd seen of
her, I couldn't pretend to actually know anything about her.

"Don't
even joke about it." He grimaced as I said goodbye to the other
contestants, who were gawking slightly at our interaction. I wasn't sure
whether to be smug or worried that I was so casual around him. "She tries
every week to put it on. That's when I do my marking."

I chuckled and
followed him out of the restaurant. We were the only ones who hadn't stayed,
but I didn't think it really mattered. It may not have been entirely polite,
but we weren't ever going to see them again.

"You're
doing work now?" He inquired. "I hope you're going to work on the
essay I set." He hinted with a small smile.

"Actually,
I've already finished it," I replied smugly. When it came to writing
essays, I either finished them almost instantly, or left them until the
absolute last minute, depending on what the topic was.

He raised an
eyebrow. "Really?" He checked. "What did you think? It wasn't
too easy, was it?"

It was almost
cute how he wanted to be really good at his job. "No, it was a good
question. I thought, anyway. I've only finished it this quickly because I had
loads to write, so you must be doing a pretty good job of teaching it." I
told him with a small chuckle.

I grinned when
his cheeks turned slightly pink. "Okay, thanks."

"I have
got some maths work to do now, though." Which was true, it just wouldn't
take me that long. It was around half seven now, and I wanted to go out around
ten, so that town would be in full swing. "I'll probably just do that and
go to bed early so I don't end up falling asleep through everyone else's
readings tomorrow."

I wasn't
decided whether I was just going to attempt to sneak out and go to town by
myself, or to try and persuade Ollie to come with me. It was obvious the other
contestants weren’t up for my wild night. It would be more fun going with Mr.
Wright, but there was a chance he'd stop me altogether. I'd decide later,
though I was already pretty sure which one I'd end up going with. So much for
resisting temptation.

We said our
goodbyes and I entered my room. I was surprised that there was a double bed,
but I supposed we were just on a corridor where all the rooms were doubles.

Collapsing down
on it, I was almost tempted to just have a nap. It was incredibly comfortable.

I resisted,
though, and dug through my suitcase to find my homework.

When it came to
half eight, I decided it was time to start getting ready. It wouldn't take me
long, since I'd already had a shower today, but I did need to curl my hair and
re-apply my make-up.

I poured myself
a glass of vodka and coke in one that I found in the bathroom and set to work
making myself look presentable.

Checking myself
in the mirror, I grinned. My high-waisted short shorts and blouse were just
sophisticated enough to not look completely slutty and that was complimented by
my strappy black sandals, which were surprisingly comfy considering how high they
were. My hair was curled and sprayed enough so that I knew it wouldn't go flat
as the night went on, and my smoky eyes did a pretty good job of being
seductive.

During the time
I'd spent getting ready, I'd downed two glasses and so I had a steady buzz
which spurred me on to what I did next.

It was only half
past nine, but I figured if I was going to persuade Ollie to come out with me,
then I'd have to offer him some of my vodka.

I hoped my
appearance would be enough to sway him, since I'd made a special effort, but I
doubted it would work. Especially after the last time we drank together.

Biting my lip
and checking the mirror once more, I decided I'd better just get it over and
done with. It was worth a try and I could probably sneak out and party if he
wasn't coming with me anyway.

I knocked on
his door and was surprised when he opened it wearing only his pyjama bottoms. I
had to really stop myself from staring at his chest, but I knew my face had
heated up.

He grimaced
when he saw my appearance. "What are you doing?" He demanded, opening
his door and gesturing for me to come in. It probably wouldn't be good if
anyone else saw this.

"I'm going
out," I told him seriously, leaning against his now shut door and
appraising his physique as subtly as I could. There were several essays spread
across a desk in the corner and I realised he actually had been marking. I
wasn’t sure what else I thought he might be doing.

"No,
you're not," he corrected me. "We're at a school thing. You're
under-age. And why are you even telling me you're going out?"

I bit my lip
and glanced up at him hopefully with my smoky eyes.

"No,"
he denied. "No way."

"Oh come
on, you know you want to," I tried to coerce him. Ollie wasn’t meant to
sit inside being boring. He was a rule-breaker, I was sure. "Marking
essays surely isn't your ideal Friday night."

"Maddie,
you know I can't go out with you, no matter how much I want to." I was
surprised he'd even admitted that, but it just assured me that I had a real
chance of convincing him. "I'm supposed to be professional, don't you
think you've jeopardised that enough already?"

I frowned, my
bubble bursting. He was right, of course. It was completely selfish of me to go
out at all, never mind to actually try and get Ollie to come with me, but I’d
been too busy imagining our fun night together to really think about the
consequences. Mr. Wright, I reminded myself. He was my teacher, not my friend,
and certainly not anything more than that.

"Right,"
I agreed, my excitement waning. "Yeah, I know, I'm sorry. I just wanted to
see what it'd be like round Newcastle, I know it was a stupid idea. You'd
probably get into trouble if anyone found out I'd gone anywhere."

Ollie ran a
hand through his hair. "Sorry to be a joy kill," he apologised. I
decided it was probably worth having dressed up just because I got to see him
stretch with no shirt on. He must have noticed my widened eyes because he
smirked slightly.

"I'll go
and do some work," I told him, trying not to flush in embarrassment. It
irritated me that he knew what an effect he had on me.