down at his crotch like a grinning idiot, and I knew he was texting on his phone. “Mr. Hemsworth, please bring your phone to the front of the classroom,” I said in a booming voice, practically feeling giddy at the prospect of crushing him in my fist.
Max rolled his eyes as he walked to the front of the room. He handed over his iPhone with a huff, and I started reading from the screen. My teeth gritted in frustration when I realized that he was writing a text to Blakely.
“From Max: You look pretty today, Bae. How about I take you out again?”
I rolled my eyes as the class snickered. Maximillian looked like he wanted to pummel me but masked his expression into a calm facade before spinning around to face the girl I was pretty sure I’d be willing to lose this job for. “What do you say, Bae? Wanna do dinner again?” he asked while walking over to her, swagger eminent in his steps. I wanted to bust his fucking kneecaps. “I’m not above begging,” he added before sinking down to his goddamn knees.
The asshole was getting an F in my class.
I was quickly losing control of the classroom and knew that if I didn’t reign it in soon, we’d never get anything done. Blakely looked at me for a millisecond before bringing her attention back to Max. “I don’t think my boyfriend would like that very much,” she replied with a smile.
The class erupted into “ooooh burn” and cackles. Max picked himself up off the floor, and I had to fight back a pleased smile. That’s right, fucker.
“Who’s the boyfriend?” he asked with a frown, though he was trying to mask his hurt. I almost felt sorry for him—almost. I too would be devastated to have missed out on Blakely.
I tried to salvage the distraction with a stern frown. “We’re not here to discuss love lives, Mr. Hemsworth,” I growled.
Blakely ignored me and quickly answered Max. “An ex from Texas. We got back together and are going to make the long-distance thing work.” She gave him a convincing smile before scribbling something on her notebook.
I had to forcibly remind myself that this was a lie and that there wasn’t some bumfuck in Texas trying to take what was mine. “Fair enough,” Max said. “I’ll settle for friendship.” He then turned around to face me and grabbed the phone from my palm with a wink. “And if this Texas boyfriend fucks up, I’ll be waiting.”
You’ll be waiting a long time, Maximillian Fucking Hemsworth.
She broke the rules and stayed after class. I didn’t mind. Once the door was shut, I pulled her out of view from the window and picked her up to sit on her desk. Parting her legs, Blakely grabbed my tie and yanked me between her thighs. It was a compromising position, but my resolve was weak. “It’s kinda hot when you’re jealous,” she whispered, though her eyes were fixed on the door. We wouldn’t stay like this for long, but I was willing to saturate my skin with her presence for every available second.
“Boyfriend in Texas, huh? Is he as smart and good looking as I am, or should I be worried?”
I could tell by her grin and the way her eyes moved from the door and to my lips that she wanted to kiss me. “He’s really hot,” she whispered. “He’s nice. Kind. Smart. I think…” Her voice trailed off as a locker slammed shut outside. Our little bubble was one bad move from bursting. One casual onlooker. One random pop in from a coworker.
“You think what?”
“I think I’m falling for him,” she admitted before touching her lips with the tips of her fingers.
I sucked in a breath and once again hated this secrecy. It was so stifling and made me clench my teeth. I wondered fleetingly if the allure had something to do with how forbidden this all was, and even though it made it fun, it wasn’t worth the pain of not being able to touch her when I wanted to.
I wanted to kiss her on my desk and make her come on the stack of papers I needed to grade. I wanted to hold her hand in public. Wrap my arm around her shoulders in front of her brother and joke about our relationship with Rose. She didn’t deserve to be hidden.
Right now, she deserved to be rewarded for that admission. I knew it didn’t come easy to her. “I don’t