Teach Me a Lesson (31 page)

Lola dipped her head to his shoulder. She didn’t seem to mind the circumstances at all.

“Group hug,” Charlotte said, afraid she’d actually start crying.

In the end, it was a hug for Gray, an even tighter one for Lola. Charlotte went on her tiptoes, since Lola wasn’t petite like Charlotte.

“If I’d had time to plan,” Lola said softly, “I would have had you there. I swear.” She pulled back. “We’re talking about doing another ceremony here. Or maybe just a big reception. I don’t know. What do you think?”

“I think the ceremony at the courthouse after the prisoner sentencing will always be a sweet memory.” Charlotte smiled. “So just do the reception.”

Lola glanced at Gray, her eyes shining. “Is that a good game plan, Coach?”

He smiled. The guy was definitely a hunk, and his adoration for Lola gleamed in his gaze. “Perfect game plan. We need a honeymoon, too.”

They began arguing about locations. Gray suggested Honolulu; Lola said there were too many tourists. Charlotte listened, tossing out a couple of ideas. The fact that Lola had gotten married without her in attendance didn’t bother her. After all, she’d been in the wedding party the first time, and that had been no guarantee of success. She was delighted for her best friend, and the tiny ache beneath her rib cage had nothing to do with their happiness. It was the thought that popped into her head and simply wouldn’t pop back out. The thought that Lola had finally found her coach. And maybe Charlotte wanted to be more than just a submissive to the principal’s dom. Maybe she wanted to feel the way Lola did.

“How about a sleeper train across the Canadian Rockies?” Gray offered.

Lola rolled her eyes. “If we take a sleeper car, we’ll never even get to see the Rockies.”

Gray eyed her. “My point exactly.

Lola actually blushed.

Charlotte felt the tiny ache under her rib cage grow in size, sort of like how the Grinch’s heart grew when he saw the Whos down in Whoville on Christmas morning.

“If the Rockies don’t work, how about the Carlsbad Caverns?” Gray planted a kiss on Lola’s forehead.

She wrinkled her nose. “Bat guano is supposed to be romantic on a honeymoon?”

The doorbell rang while they were still far from any agreement.

“Ah, he made it.” Gray pointed to a corner cabinet in the dining area adjacent to the living room. “Sweetheart, would you get another champagne glass?”

“Sure, honey.”

As they went in separate directions, Charlotte didn’t get a chance to ask who
he
was. She’d been to a couple of parties Gray had, but she couldn’t have said any of those people would be someone exclusive that Gray would invite to toast his wedding day.

Yet with the murmur of male voices in the foyer, goose pimples rose along her arms.

Oh God. It couldn’t be. Lola wouldn’t.

But Lola had.

25

GOD, SHE WAS GORGEOUS. LANCE’S HEART THUMPED IN HIS CHEST.
Her dress was cinched tight beneath her breasts, plumping them. The fitted waist flared out over her shapely hips, falling in soft folds to her knees. Tasteful, elegant, and sexy as hell, hinting at the promise of sweetly scented skin beneath. How deliciously easy it would be to lift the skirt over her delectable ass and have his way with her. Or give her a good spanking.

“Principal Hutton, so good of you to come.” Lola Cook held out her hand while Gray filled a champagne flute and began topping off the others.

“Congratulations.” Her hand was warm in his. She was a pretty woman, long and lithe, with a silky mane of dark hair. “You can call me Lance.”

“Oh no,” she said, fluttering her eyelashes with a sidelong glance at Charlotte. “You’re the principal and he’s”—she pointed at Gray—“the coach.” She smiled. “Right, Charlotte?”

“Of course, Lola.”

His knees felt weak at the sound of Charlotte’s sultry voice. He’d known she’d be here. He’d realized Lola and Gray were matchmaking when Gray had called little over an hour ago and asked him round for a drink to celebrate their nuptials. While he was on friendly terms with Gray Barnett, respected him, and had attended a few parties and faculty functions with the man, he would never have expected to be invited for this particular occasion.

They’d brought him here for Charlotte.

Maybe Gray and Lola thought he needed a kick in the pants to get him to see the light. But Lance had seen it the moment he’d found Charlotte searching for her apple under the desk. When she’d held it up, he was as hooked on her as Adam had been on Eve.

Of course, after the apple incident, they’d been kicked out of the Garden of Eden.

He held up his champagne. “To the two of you and many happy years ahead.”

All four glasses clinked in the middle of their circle.

“We’re discussing the honeymoon.” Gray arched an eyebrow, his gaze on Lance. “I’m voting for a sleeper train over the Canadian Rockies.”

“It would be gorgeous in the snow,” he mused. “And Lake Louise is beautiful.” The things he could do to Charlotte in a secluded compartment. Parts down below stirred with the thought of it.

He didn’t realize his gaze rested on her until her face bloomed with color. As if she could see every one of those images playing like movies in his eyes.

“I told you, Lola,” Gray said dryly. “There are definite possibilities.

“What do you think, Miss Moore?” No one said a word about Lance’s formal address.

She parted her lips, licked them, swallowed, then finally said, “I vote for the Rockies, too.”

“I’m outnumbered,” he heard Lola say. “Wouldn’t it be fun to take the trip together?”

His heart stilled. She was pairing him with Charlotte. She was taking his side, if indeed there were sides in this.

“But we’re not even dating,” his dear Miss Moore said.

“What if the principal asked you out on a date?” Lola urged, while her newly minted husband looked on indulgently.

Lance was sure the woman knew every detail of every moment he’d spent with Charlotte, all the things he’d done to her, how she’d felt about every single one.

There were so many things he needed to tell Charlotte, so many things she needed to hear, things he couldn’t say in front of the Barnetts.

“Say yes,” he murmured. “One date.” Maybe it was an order. Maybe he was begging. Maybe it was both.

“I recall my first real date with Lola,” Gray said, thoughtfully at first, a smile growing.

Lola glared at him. “I remember it, too.” Then something passed between them, and the glare morphed to a smile. The heat between them was palpable, almost embarrassingly so.

Or it would have been if he didn’t feel the same and more for Charlotte.

She was staring at the newlyweds. “Miss Moore,” he said softly, “one date. If it doesn’t meet your expectations, you’re free.”

Charlotte would know he meant that she wasn’t his slave or his submissive. That he wasn’t issuing an order. He was begging.

He could read nothing in the jewel-bright green of her gaze as she asked, “When?”

“Whenever you like.”

“Where will we go?”

“Dinner. A movie. The theater. Your choice.”

“Bungee jumping,” she said.

“Bungee jumping?” He could only repeat her words.

“So you can jump together, feet first,” Lola supplied.

“Eyes closed,” Charlotte added.

“Nose pinched,” Gray concluded.

It didn’t make a lick of sense. “All right, bungee jumping it is.”

“Or maybe zip-lining.” Charlotte tipped her head. “Are you too old for that?”

“Hell, no,” he answered quickly. “Just try me.”

She gave him a long look, and he couldn’t say he knew exactly what was going through her mind. Bungee jumping, zip-lining. It wasn’t a regular date, but Charlotte Moore wasn’t a regular kind of woman. With her, he would always have his work cut out for him.

“I most certainly intend to try you,” she answered softly.

They weren’t done. There was a hell of a lot more to say. But this time, unlike that day on the quad steps when they’d vanquished Smith, she was willing to listen.

* * *

IT WAS THE LONGEST HOUR OF HER LIFE. OKAY, THERE’D BEEN LONGER, LIKE WAITING IN HER OFFICE WITH ALICE SLOAN BEFORE THAT
parent conference with the Wrights and Smiths the day before Thanksgiving. But the length of this hour was way up there.

Not that she wasn’t completely over-the-top happy for Lola and Gray. But she was dying to know what Lance’s talk about a date really meant.

Would they come out of the closet, so to speak, at school? Would she still be Miss Moore to his Principal Hutton? Or were they more? Hell, they could even be less. How much more did she want versus how much he wanted? God, yes, she wanted those feelings that Gray and Lola shared. But how could she ever have that kind of relationship with Lance and still retain her autonomy? He just wasn’t built that way. Would dating mean he’d expected her to confer about every decision she made? Would she have to ask for permission if she wanted an evening out with Lola? And what about . . .

Honestly, Lola was right. Charlotte overanalyzed everything. Give her an hour to think, and she’d come up with umpteen ideas—which was equivalent to one new idea every five seconds, and she certainly wasn’t going to calculate that in her head. It was simple. She wanted whatever he offered, she couldn’t let him go, and she’d just have to figure out a way to manage the relationship. Yes,
relationship
. Not just casual sex.

“In the car, Miss Moore.” Okay, she was Miss Moore, so it was the principal who opened the passenger side door of his car. She felt completely comfortable with that. This was good. Maybe
dating
didn’t mean that everything had to change.

“What about my car?” If they left it here, Lola would know they were going to . . . Lola would know that anyway.

“Can I trust you to drive exactly where I tell you to?”

“Yes, Principal Hutton,” she said dutifully, her pulse jumping with his nearness. God, she really did love his mastery when they were in the sexual arena. She’d do just about anything he wanted in order to keep it.

“All right.” He closed the door. “Don’t move. And don’t say anything until I’m done.”

She remained on the sidewalk beside his car, not backing up a single step as he moved in on her. Could he hear her breathe? Feel her heart racing?

“First,” he enumerated, “the reason I felt compelled to handle Smith myself is that I was the one who got us into the mess and I felt obligated to get us both out.”

She opened her mouth to say that wasn’t true at all. Jeanine had gotten them into it. And Lance wasn’t even a part of that.

He put a finger to her lips. She wanted to lick him, taste him. And she forgot everything she’d been about to say.

“Second, I didn’t save you. Your students did it because they love you.”

The street darkened slightly as Gray’s front-porch light winked out. Then the lights in the living room. And finally all the lights along the front rooms of the house.

“Thank you,” she whispered. He understood how important her students were to her. “You always want them to love you, but you’re never really sure.”

“I don’t want them to love me,” he answered softly. “I want them to respect me enough to listen to what I have to say. It’s the only way I can help them. People don’t always listen to the ones they love.”

This was true.

“I didn’t listen to you, Charlotte.”

Surely he could hear her heart pounding now. She could read between the lines. Hell, yes, she could. It thrilled her; it scared the heck out of her. She wanted the emotion, she just wasn’t sure she could handle everything else. “Can I say something?”

“Yes, you may.”

Just as he’d admitted what he’d done wrong, she had to take responsibility for her issues. “When the problems with Mr. Smith started, I wanted to make everything your fault. I took my feelings out on you. I just wanted to think of you as the dictatorial boss so I didn’t have to face my inadequacies.” Or her fears.

He put a palm to her cheek. “You’re certainly not inadequate.”

She smiled. “I actually figured that out on my own. But for a little while there, I was doubting myself.” Turning her face into his hand, she kissed his palm. “Now we can go back to the way it was. Before David Smith and the Wrights.” She looked at him with everything she felt in her gaze. “Like that day in detention hall. When you gave me my first naughty lesson.”

He dropped his forehead to hers, closed his eyes a moment before pulling back. “I don’t want to be your principal, Charlotte. I want to be your lover.” He put his hands on her shoulders, stroked down her arms until he clasped her fingers in his. “I love you.”

She rocked into him, wanting, needing, and laid her head against his chest, breathing in the overwhelmingly sexy male scent of him. It was more intoxicating than the champagne with which they’d toasted Lola and Gray. Love. Desire. That sweetness she’d seen pass between them. Her heart ached for it. Hadn’t she searched for this feeling in her previous failed relationships? Only to have everything fall apart, a different reason every time.

But she felt it now. There was no way she was letting him go. She could make things work this time. She wouldn’t try to control every little thing, and if she ceded control in the bedroom, maybe he wouldn’t notice the places she did keep it.

Oh God, yes. She wanted him, needed him. Principal Hutton. Lance. Her boss. Her lover. “I love you, too.” She went up on her tiptoes, winding her arms around his neck. “I don’t mind if you want to be my dom, too.”

* * *

SHE LOVED HIM. DEFINITELY A GOOD THING. LANCE COULD ALMOST
say it was everything he’d been waiting to hear from her. But she still wanted him to be her dom, not a bad thing on the face of it. He just wasn’t sure they were on the same page.

She wanted to go back to the way things had been. He was her dom. She was his sub. That meant they were still role playing. He didn’t want the same thing they’d had before. He wanted to expand it.

He glanced in the rearview mirror as he rolled to a stop at the light. She was still following him. Still obeying orders. The light changed and when he pulled away, putting more distance between them, her headlights came up to obscure his view of her in the mirror. She was nothing more than an outline.