Separation Anxiety (11 page)

Mmm. Sleeping with Jesse Drake. I loved the way that sounded coming out of his mouth. Except he literally meant “sleeping,” which was kind of disappointing.

“I didn’t want to just barge in,” I said, lying about the fact that I’d done exactly that and watched him sleep for a few moments. “I’m going to stop at Starbucks. Want anything?”

He stopped taking stock of the contents of his refrigerator, and then he closed the door and turned to look at me.

“Have you ever had their oatmeal?” he asked.

I shook my head.

“World’s best oatmeal. Grab yourself one, too. Get all the goodies with it. Wait,” he said, and he headed to his bedroom for a moment and then came back. He handed me a card, and I felt an electrical spark when his fingers brushed mine. “Use this.”

I glanced down at it and saw he’d given me a Starbucks gift card.

“I’ll cover it, Jesse,” I said. “It’s the least I can do since you’re allowing me to crash here.”

He shook his head. “Use it. Besides, I kind of like your company,” he said, his eyes flicking down to my breasts for just a moment and then back up to my eyes. He tried to play it off like he hadn’t just checked me out, but he
totally
had just checked me out.

“Coffee?” I asked.

“Venti nonfat white chocolate mocha.”

“
Hot or iced?

“
Hot.”

“And oatmeal?
” I asked.

“With the goodies.”

“With the goodies,” I repeated, and then I mock saluted him. “It’ll be on your desk waiting for you when you arrive at work, sir.”

His eyes
smoldered as he gazed at me, and then I smiled and headed out the door, the wonderful image of Jesse without a shirt burned into my mind.

What a way to start the day.

CHAPTER 7

Jesse’s house was about ten minutes further from work than I was used to traveling, and with the additional stop at Starbucks, it was almost 7:15 when I arrived at work. I headed toward Jesse’s office to drop off his breakfast, and he was, surprisingly, already in there, looking rather suave in a suit and tie. He always wore a shirt and tie, but it wasn’t often that he paired it with a suit jacket.

“How the hell did you beat me here?” I asked in a loud whisper.

“The advantages of being a dude. I even got a shower in.”

“Thanks for that image,” I said, relishing it as I noticed that he hadn’t shaved.

He grinned as I set down his coffee and oatmeal.

“Thanks,” he said. “Hey, can you close the door for a second?”

I nodded and followed his request. He nodded to the chair where the students usually sat when they visited his office, and I sat in it.

“Are we, uh¸ telling people?”

I shook my head. “Let’s not. I told Quinn, but she won’t tell anybody.”

He nodded.

“I just don’t want things to get weird, you know?” I said.

“Agreed. So t
his is between us. For now. And apparently Quinn.”

I nodded. “Thanks, Jesse.”

“You’re welcome, Veronica.” God. My name. Those lips. Wow.

“Why the suit?” I asked, trying once again not to drool.

“Presenting at the staff meeting after school.”

“Fuck.”

“You forgot?”

I nodded. “I always forget about our last Monday of the month meeting. What are you presenting?”

He shrugged. “Some shit about scholarships for seniors and letters of recommendation.”

“Sounds exciting. Can’t wait.”

He grinned. “Fuck off,” he said with a mock glare.

“I promise to pay attention, Mr. Drake,” I said in the most flirtatious, breathy voice I could muster. All the female teachers paid attention when he spoke. Shit, even some of the male teachers perked up when he started talking.

There was a knock at the door, and I opened it. “Good morning, Bill,” I said to the man infamous for the Friday afternoon meetings.

“Good morning,” he boomed, clearly caffeinated and ready to start the day.

“Have an outstanding day, Ms. Thomas,” Jesse said.

“You, too,
Mr. Drake,” I smiled, and then I took my coffee and oatmeal and headed to my classroom.

It was a normal Monday, but I found myself distracted. I’d been distracted a lot lately, but it had mostly been because I was thinking about my separation from Richard and how to find extra things to do so I wouldn’t have to go home. But now I was distracted
by all thoughts of Jesse. I heard my seniors talking about how hot Mr. Drake was, and I found myself jumping into their conversation, letting the girls know that he was much too old for them, where before I might’ve just ignored it. I found myself thinking about him all day, about his mood the night before when he’d come home and about who Carly was and who Allison was. I thought about his arm wrapped around me and the firm softness that perfect nook had provided as my pillow the night before.

I realized that I was in much deeper than some crush on a hot coworker. This had suddenly gotten much more serious.

And he was right. That damn Starbucks oatmeal was delicious.

The day passed quickly, and before I knew it,
the last bell of the day rang and it was time to head to our staff meeting. I sat with Quinn, who I’d spoken to privately just before lunch and told her not to tell anybody about my current living situation. We were always two of the first teachers to arrive at staff meetings, and Jesse was up front in his delicious suit, fussing with the computer and pulling up his presentation. He didn’t look nervous; I knew it was stupid because I spoke in front of people all day long, but for some reason I still got nervous when I had to speak in front of my peers. I didn’t get nervous to talk in front of high school students, but presenting to my colleagues was nerve-wracking. But Jesse looked calm, confident, and professional. I knew I was staring, but I just couldn’t help it. My eyes had been waiting all day to feast themselves on him, and now that he was presenting, I had the perfect opportunity to stare unabashedly at him.

“Stop staring,” Quinn poked me, breaking into my thoughts.

I blushed. “I wasn’t staring.”

“Your pink cheeks say otherwise, sister,” she teased.

“Shut up,” I mumbled immaturely.

“How’s the roommate situation?” she asked.

I glanced around and found that no one was in close hearing distance. “He’s tempting me,” I said in the tone of a tattletale.

“Oh?” she asked.

I lowered my voice. “We may or may not have shared a bed last night.”

“Veronica!” she scolded, a bit louder than I would have preferred.

“What?” I grinned.
I glanced up and locked eyes with Jesse for just a moment. I saw something change in his eyes as they heated over while he gazed at me, and then he turned back to the computer. I took a deep breath, affected as always by just one simple look from him.

“Did you?”

I nodded. “Not like you’re thinking, though.”

“Oh? What am I thinking?”

“I know you. You’re always assuming the worst.”

She shrugged. “Yep. You know me. So what happened?”

I lowered to a whisper. He wasn’t that far away, and I didn’t want him to know I was confessing all of this to my best friend. “He came in late, and I’d fallen asleep on the couch. He, um, helped me get to bed, and then he sat with me for a minute, and we both just sort of fell asleep.”

“Morning wood?” she asked.

“Jesus, Quinn,” I giggled, and she looked at me innocently. Other teachers started to arrive and the chairs next to us were suddenly occupied, effectively ending our conversation.

“This conversation isn’t over,” she warned.

I allowed my gaze to land back on Jesse, and I was completely drawn to and enamored by his easy confidence and his command of the room as he surveyed the teachers who were gathering and talking. I’d always been drawn to him, and I’d always appreciated his friendship. He’d always been the kind of person to make everyone around him feel special just because he was gracing them with the tiniest bit of his attention. But after the night before, I really felt like we shared something. I felt like I knew him better than anyone else at work did, and something about that warmed my heart.

Our principal
, Clark Edwards, walked over to Jesse, and the two of them chatted a moment, presumably about when Jesse would take over the meeting. Mr. Edwards settled down the crowd of teachers and led us in celebrations followed by announcements. Then he handed it over to Jesse. Before he started, Jesse’s eyes met mine, and I automatically winked. I saw his mouth curl into a smile, and then he launched into his presentation.

He was a great public speaker, peppering in jokes to keep his audience captivated and delivering the information we needed with a charm that made us want to hear it. I couldn’t remember a meeting where I’d been more engrossed in what the speaker had to say, except maybe the last time Jesse had presented at a faculty meeting.

But that was back when I just had a crush on him. This was very, very different, and the tingles that wouldn’t stop racing up and down my spine as I listened to him speak were very evident proof of that.

After we were dismissed, I
said goodbye to Quinn and my other friends in my department and then headed back to my classroom to get my plans written on the board for the next day. I heard my door open just as I was writing the daily warm-up.

I glanced up and my eyes met those dark and mysterious ones that had
become such a comfort to me over the past three days.

“Wonderful presentation, Mr. Drake,” I said.

He smirked. “Thank you, Ms. Thomas.”

“I’d love it i
f you could start calling me Ms. Freemont again. Get used to the maiden name again, you know?”

“Sounds great, M
s. Freemont.”

I smiled as I turned back to my board. I reached up toward the top of the board to continue writing, and I could feel his eyes on my ass. I tried to act like I couldn’t tell.

“What can I do for you?” I asked as I wrote.

“Just wanted to see if my roommate needed any help getting her shit.”

“Thanks, Jesse. You don’t have to do that.”

“I’ve got a truck, and you said you wanted to stop back when he wasn’t home. I can swing by with you if you want some help.”

I thought about it for all of a nanosecond. “Actually, I’d love some help. I don’t care about the big stuff for now; we can divide that later. I just want my clothes and shoes and that kind of stuff. I didn’t even realize that this was the shirt I’d packed until it was too late.”

“What’s wrong with the shirt?” he asked, smiling lasciviously at me as he allowed his eyes to travel down once again to my cleavage. I saw his tongue dart out to wet his
bottom lip and it was like a direct call straight to my vagina.

My hand went automatically to my throat. “It’s just lower cut than I usually wear to work,” I said, trying to block the view of my breasts begging for release from my shirt.

“I like it,” he whispered.

Did my classroom just get about ten thousand degrees hotter?

“You ready?” he asked, his eyes moving up to meet mine again.

Fuck yes I was ready, but I was pretty sure he wasn’t talking about sex.

“Just about.”

Why did the sudden image of me sprawled across my desk with my skirt hiked up to my hips and my panties around my ankles and Jesse hovering over me just flash through my mind?

“I’ll wait,” he said, and I
took a deep breath before I finished writing up what I needed to. I checked my email once more and set out my handouts for the following day before leading him out the door, flipping off the light switch, and locking up behind us.

We walked out to the parking lot, chatting about our days, and then he followed me to the house I shared with Richard, a place that I no longer considered “home.”

When we arrived, I was relieved to find that Richard wasn’t there.

I found some boxes in the garage along with my luggage, and we went to work.
I changed into sweats, and when I met Jesse in the kitchen, he had taken off his tie and suit jacket and rolled up his sleeves. He took all of my clothes on hangers and put them in the backseat of his truck while I packed my delicates and socks and t-shirts into my suitcase. Every time he came in, I had something else for him to bring out to the cars.

I went to work on my jewelry,
placing it in a box gently without really looking at any of it. Then I packed up everything in my bathroom by tossing it all into a box, all of the old lotions and body washes and hair sprays and curling irons. I’d go through it later; I just wanted to get it the hell out of the house.

We headed to the office next, and he helped me pack up my books. This was not an easy task; I was an English teacher, which meant I had quite the collection of books – both for school and for my own reading pleasure.

I blushed when he found my not-so-secret stash of romance novels.

“Figures you’d be a closet romantic,” he said with a grin.

I (predictably) blushed and said with mock exasperation, “Just shut up and pack.”

I only had one more thing that I really wanted to bring, and it was a cedar chest. It had been my grandmother’s, and it was the one
keepsake I had of her. She’d kept her mementos in it, and I didn’t keep anything in it except the wonderful memories I had of her.

Richard hadn’t liked it, so he made me store it in the garage.
My grandma had painted it white, and it was distressed with age and wear. It was just a really cool looking piece of antique furniture. I had always loved it for its beauty and its meaning to me, and I was taking it with me.

“I have one more thing, and it’ll probably need to go in the bed of the truck,” I said.

He followed me out to the garage, and I pointed to the chest.

“It’s beautiful,” he said, grazing the top of it with his fingertips.

“It was my grandmother’s,” I whispered.

He looked up at me. “Were you close to her?” he asked.

I nodded. “She was the best. I miss her every day.”

He sent me a tight smile. “Sorry you lost her,” he said.

“Besides the memories, this is all I have left of her.”

“Why’s it in the garage?”

“Richard doesn’t like it.”

“Fucking asshole,” he whispered. He bent to move it, but it was a pretty solid piece of furniture.

“Need some help?” I asked.

“Like a girl can handle this?” he shot back.

I rolled my eyes. This wasn’t the first time I’d moved this particular piece of furniture. “Oh yeah, tough guy?”

He chuckled. “Fine. Help me.”