Breakaway (8 page)

Two kids hung around after class, Ryan and Jessie.

Ryan started talking about hockey, while Jessie stood there
smiling worshipfully up at Jason.

“You ever come to any Wolves games?” Jason asked Ryan.

“No,” he said glumly. “My mom says tickets are too
expensive.”

Jason’s smile disappeared. “Yeah. I guess they are pretty
expensive.”

“Well, I guess I better go,” Ryan said.

When he’d gone, Jessie looked up at him. “Are you married?”
she asked.

He grinned. “Nope.”

She nodded and gave a smile that looked way too mature for a
twelve-year-old. “When’s your next game?”

“Friday night,” he answered, folding his arms across his
wide chest. “You like hockey?”

“I love hockey,” she said breathlessly.

Remi sighed. The pre-teen clearly had a huge crush on Jason.

“Cool,” Jason said.

Jessie made no move to leave.

“Jason.” Remi spoke up. “I need a word with you before you
go.”

Jessie dragged her feet out of the classroom with a wistful
wave at Jason.

Jason turned to face Remi and her stomach went fluttery. His
expression turned wooden. “Yes, ma’am, what is it?” he asked.

Remi glared at him. “You know, if you’re not into this
anymore, we can probably find someone else.”

“Do you know how many people are in Ryan’s family?”

She blinked at the completely unrelated question. “Um…why?”
She frowned at him.

“Just curious.”

“He has a brother, I taught him two years ago. And his mom,
she’s a single parent.”

He nodded. “Okay.”

“So as I was saying…”

“You don’t need to find someone else,” he said. “I’m still
into it.”

“Well, it didn’t seem like it,” she snapped back. “You kept
drifting off somewhere. You weren’t even paying attention.”

He stared back at her, his mouth tight, eyes narrowed. “I’m
sorry. It won’t happen again. Ma’am.”

“Why are you calling me that?” she demanded. She set her
hands on her hips. “It sounds ridiculous.”

“You’re the teacher, right? You’re in charge.”

“I’m not…” She blew out a breath. What was with him? “Okay,
we all have days where we have a lot on our minds. I’m sure that’s what was
happening today for you. But you have to be able to hold the kids’ attention.”

“I know that.”

They stared at each other, the air crackling between them.

“This was supposed to be fun,” he muttered.

Her lips parted. Fun? Oh yeah, sure. Fun. His main goal in
life.

Oh, why was she thinking like such a stick in the mud? Of
course
it was supposed to be fun. What better way for kids to learn than by having
fun? “I’m sorry if you’re not enjoying it,” she said stiffly.

“Whatever.” He grabbed his leather jacket and headed for the
door. “See you next week.”

She stared after him, stomach churning, heart thumping. What
had she said that had made him so angry? She covered her eyes with one hand and
stood there for a moment. Damn, having him in her classroom every week was
becoming torture. She still felt unreasonably attracted to him, going hot every
time she saw him and hotter every time their eyes met. Which happened a lot,
because she kept catching him staring at her. With a frown on his face that
totally confused her.
He
totally confused her. Dammit.

Chapter Five

Jason made a call from his cell phone once he got to the
car, then headed home to his downtown apartment. He knew he’d been having a
hard time paying attention with the kids, but he couldn’t exactly tell her it
was because he was distracted by her. By her pretty face, sexy mouth, shiny
blonde hair and her breasts so soft and full beneath the silk blouse she wore.
He’d had those breasts in his hands, had tasted those sweet, little pink
nipples…

Damn, he was getting a hard-on again. He hadn’t been so nuts
over a girl since high school, for Chrissakes. But he kept thinking about her,
fantasizing about all the things they hadn’t had a chance to do in that one
night. And the worst thing was, the more time he spent with her, the more he
actually…liked her. She was gentle but firm with the kids, knew when she could
act silly and make them laugh, knew when she had to rope them all in and get
serious. They all spoke to her respectfully but with a warmth that told him
they liked her. And hey, respect was important too. He knew how important it
was to respect your leader. He’d had coaches that had been the guys’ best
buddy, but couldn’t get shit out of them when it came to performance. He’d had
coaches who’d been assholes on a power trip that had the same result. It was
the coaches who earned his respect that he’d go the distance for, the distance
and beyond.

And to have a teacher like that…those kids were damn lucky.

He’d acted like a jerk and he hated it, but when she’d asked
for “a word with him” he’d been sent back through time to his own middle school
years and one of the eighty gazillion times he’d been in trouble with one of
his teachers. All those old feelings of incompetence, inferiority and anger had
surged inside him and he’d taken them out on Remi.

Even though he could see she was a really great teacher.

His fingers tightened on the wheel of his Jeep as he drove
home, the sun low in the sky now. But she was still a teacher. Christ. Maybe he
should find someone to take his place. Or switch classes with one of the other
guys. He’d been confident that working with Remi wouldn’t be a problem after
their one night, but clearly he’d been wrong. Maybe that was what was causing
that tension snapping between them like a rubber band. Maybe she was pissed
because of that. But that was giving himself way too much credit and she’d said
herself one night of fun was all she wanted.

Agh. He knew enough about women to know that what they said
wasn’t always what they meant. Why the fuck couldn’t they just say what they
meant? It would make the world a lot simpler.

He drove into the underground parking garage beneath the
high-rise building in which he lived, navigating the concrete pillars and
parked vehicles until he arrived at his spot.

He couldn’t give up. He was determined to get past this and
deal with the old crap that kept surfacing. He was going back to that classroom
next week, even if it killed him.

His cell phone rang as he rode the elevator up to his
apartment and he thunked his head back against the wall, recognizing the ring
tone. It was Brianne. He still had his phone programmed with that Sexy Chick
ring tone for her.

He looked at the phone, closed his eyes and let it go to
voice mail.

Why did she keep calling him? This was the fourth time since
they’d broken up. He hated to hurt someone’s feelings, but how much clearer
could he make it? They were done. The phone beeped to indicate a voice mail.
Gritting his teeth, his listened to it as he let himself into his apartment. “It’s
me,” her breathy voice began. “Please, Jase. Please call me back. I miss you so
much. I need to talk to you.”

Hell.

* * * * *

“Are you sure you want to work on this committee?”

A week later, Remi was in the principal’s office, talking to
her boss about a joint parent-teacher fundraising project to support the school’s
music program. “Of course,” she said to Jennifer.

“You’ve taken on a lot of extra projects lately. Stars for
Reading, the anti-bullying task force and now this…”

Remi gave her boss a bright smile. “I like to be busy.” She’d
been spending even more time after school with some of the kids who liked to
hang around too, trying to keep herself from missing her sister and brother and
harassing her friends.

Jennifer nodded slowly. “Okay.” Then Jennifer’s gaze went
past Remi’s shoulder and a smile broke across her face. “Ling! Hi!”

Remi turned to see Ling, the school’s administrative
assistant, standing there holding her new baby. She’d been off on maternity
leave since having her son two months earlier.

“Did you bring that sweet baby in to visit us?” Jennifer
said, moving from behind her desk and hurrying over to Ling.

Ling smiled. Her cheeks glowed from the cold outside and her
silky, dark hair swung forward as she set the baby carrier on the floor. “We
sure did come for a visit. Josh fell asleep in the car on the way here, though.”
She quickly unbuckled him and dug him out of layers of padding and blankets.

Remi smiled at the baby, snuggled into the seat, with his
little thatch of dark hair like his mom’s and chubby rosy cheeks. Then his eyes
flickered and he blinked at them, and gave a mighty yawn.

“Oh, you’re awake,” Ling said. “Let’s get you out of there
so you can say hello to everyone.” She lifted him out and stood up.

“He’s beautiful,” Remi said softly, unable to take her eyes
off the sweet, little face. She touched his hair, then his cheek, so smooth and
soft.

“Here, you want to hold him?”

“Oh yes!” Remi eagerly accepted the little bundle and held
him to her, letting his small weight sink into her arms. “Hello, Josh, you
handsome man, you.” He smelled like baby powder and she closed her eyes and
breathed him in. She felt an ache of longing that went all the way from her
heart to her womb, and she opened her eyes to smile down at him, then looked at
Ling, who regarded her with a knowing smile.

“You need one of your own,” she said.

Remi laughed, although she felt a little stab at how
unlikely that was. Someday. Maybe. “Is he a good baby?” she asked instead.

“He’s so good! He hardly ever cries. And he’s slept through
the night the last four nights in a row.”

“That’s awesome.”

“He wants to eat all the time, though.” Ling grimaced. “He’s
growing so fast!”

“He’ll be big like his dad.”

Ling smiled. “I hope so.”

“I have to go,” Remi said, regretfully. “I have the Stars
for Reading program starting in a few minutes.” She handed Josh back to his
mother reluctantly and her arms felt empty. She sighed, but smiled as she left
Jennifer and Ling chatting.

Babies were so sweet and precious and she’d never admitted
it to anyone, but she wanted one of her own. A crazy thing to want when she
wasn’t married and didn’t even have a boyfriend. Probably she just wanted to
replace her brother and sister with someone else to look after. She rolled her
eyes at herself as she hurried down the hall toward her classroom. Except…she’d
always loved babies and kids. Hell, that was why she’d become a teacher. She
sighed.

Jason was in her classroom when she arrived and she went
from soft longing to tingling awareness in the blink of an eye. As he worked
with the kids, he seemed more focused this week, though very tense. Which was
exactly how Remi felt. Damn. She plastered on a smile for the kids and made it
through the reading session. Once again, Jason hung back until they were alone.

Her heart tapped in her chest as she gathered up some papers
she was going to take home and looked up at him inquiringly.

He stood there, putting his jacket on, blinking, his mouth
tight. She’d kissed that mouth. And he was such a good kisser…

With a mental shake, she tried to refocus.

“Was it better today?” Jason asked, almost sounding…nervous.

“Was what better?”

“Ah…me. I know I’ve been kind of distracted. But the truth
is…Remi, you distract me.”

Her heart missed a beat and her mouth fell open. “Me.”

“Yeah.” He rubbed his face, then blurted out, “I can’t stop
thinking about you!”

She stared at him, her lungs refusing to expand and take in
oxygen. Funny he should say that, since she couldn’t stop thinking about him.

“Would you like to go get some dinner?”

She still stared at him. From the pained expression on his
face, she wasn’t entirely sure he’d actually meant to issue that invitation. “Dinner?”

“Yeah.” He lifted a shoulder. “You know. In a restaurant.”

Now she almost smiled. “Why?”

“Uh…why not?” He smiled too, that sexy, boyish smile that
was enough to melt her panties. And she did begin to feel a little warm and her
tummy did a little flip.

“I don’t think so,” she said, breaking eye contact and
picking up the folder she planned to take home.

“Why not? C’mon, Remi. We had fun that night.”

Was that was this was about? He wanted more sex? She
frowned. “I think if you’re looking for ‘fun’,” and she emphasized the word for
effect, “you’d be better off with one of your supermodel girlfriends.”

He drew back and his smile disappeared. “What’s that
supposed to mean?”

“I mean, I’m not really made for fun. Apparently. After what
happened the last time.” Add to that the fact that he’d said he was going to
call her when he clearly had no intention of ever doing that, having dinner
with him would be a big mistake.

He laughed. “I told you. That was funny. Maybe not at that
moment. I think it’s nice that your friend cares that much about you.”

And it also showed how out of character it was for her to do
something like that, but she didn’t want to point that out to Mr. Fun.

“Come on, Remi.” His voice was deep and velvety soft. “It’s
just dinner.”

The suggestive and silky tone of his voice made her shiver,
made her nipples tingle, made her insides clench.

He reached out and stroked a hand down her bare forearm,
lingering at her wrist, his thumb stroking over her pulse there.

“How about the fact that you said you were going to call me
and you never did?”

He pursed his lips. “I meant to call you. Really.”

She lifted one skeptical eyebrow.

“Really. But then I came here and found out who you are and…”
His words trailed off and she regarded him with confusion.

“You found out who I am? How about, I found out who you are!”

He waved a hand. “That doesn’t matter.”

He apparently really believed that. She gave her head a
shake. “You’re a famous pro athlete. I’m a teacher. That doesn’t exactly seem
like…” She waved a hand back and forth between them.