Everything: A Singed Wings Novel (10 page)

A knock on the door interrupted my wayward thoughts, and as I whirled around, mostly expecting to see the ever-attentive Liam checking on me yet again, I hissed in a sharp breath at the sight of a disgruntled-looking Everett looming in the doorway. Wearing his standard tattered jeans that hung just right off his hips with a navy thermal that clung to his strapping shoulders and chest, he looked like he’d jumped out of the shower and came straight here with his damp, disheveled hair and the dark stubble lining his jaw.

“We need to talk,” he demanded, as he entered the classroom, the door automatically closing behind him. “Now.”

“I, uh, I don’t…” My words dissipated into thin air as he grew incredibly near, stopping less than a foot in front of me. The clean, mountain-fresh scent of his soap filled my nostrils and I squeezed my eyes closed, mustering up all of the willpower I had so I could say what needed to be said.
Why is this so hard?

A gentle stroke from his thumb over my cheek triggered my lids to fly open, and when I saw the same yearning I felt reflecting in his dark brown eyes, I instinctively leaned into his touch. Sweeping his soft lips across mine once, twice, three times, he whispered against my mouth, “So much better than good, beautiful Belle.”

It wasn’t until he murmured my name did my self-control kick in and deliver a forceful roundhouse to the gut.

Stumbling backward in my ballet flats, I caught myself on a nearby desk before twisting my ankle again and tumbling to the ground.
What is my problem all of a sudden with staying upright on my feet around attractive males?
Everett reached forward to help steady me, but I held my hands up in the air and shook my head, not allowing him to get close again.

“N-no, I-I’m fine,” I stammered, while shuffling over behind my desk to put my messenger bag down and put some distance between us. “And you’re right, we do need to talk. Please sit down, Mr. Templeton. Maybe over there, where you and your girlfriend sat yesterday.”
God, I sound like a jealous freak.

“Belle, don’t,” he warned, as if he knew exactly what I was going to say. “It’s not what you think. Let me explain.”

“It’s Ms. Sloan to you, and you have nothing to explain. I think Jayla took care of that yesterday,” I snapped, the anger from his deceit resurfacing.
A real fucking jealous freak.

Instead of sitting down like I’d instructed, he stalked up to my desk and leaned forward, resting his fists on top of the wooden surface. “It’s
Belle
,” he gritted out, “and
yes
, I do. Fuck Jayla.”

“I’m sure you do that plenty,” I seethed, crossing my arms over my chest. “Now, let’s just chalk up what happened Friday night to an error of judgment on both of our parts. I understandably had no clue you were still in high school, seeing that you were at a bar and all, and you obviously forgot that you had a girlfriend, seeing that… well, I guess because you’re just a lying, cheating
teenager
. But that’s totally irrelevant at this point. As long as neither of us says a word to anyone, I can go on keeping this job that I really need, and you can continue screwing other chicks behind Jayla’s back without her finding out about it. It’s a win-win for both of us.”

“She’s not my girlfriend!” he fumed, furiously slamming his palms down against my desk. The loud
boom
startled me, but I was more taken aback by the conviction in his tone, and wondered if I’d read the situation wrong. “Never has been, never will be. I’m not a liar or a cheater, and what happened last weekend wasn’t an error of judgment either. I know you felt the same draw I did.” His heated gaze fell to my boobs that were perfectly framed with my angry crossed arms and he smirked as I dropped them to my sides, then peered back up at me. “I know your body did too, Belle.”

The moment my name left his mouth, there was another knock at the door. Apparently, I’d forgotten to unlock it from the inside with my key when I first came in, so it remained locked on the outside. Both of our heads snapped to the small rectangular window in the door to find Liam’s friendly smile waiting to greet us. My nerves went on the fritz as I scurried around my desk, completely ignoring Everett’s comments, to let him inside.
Oh, my God! What did he see? Could he hear us? How long has he been out there?

I swung open the door with an overly cheerful smile on my face. “Good morning, Mr. Carroll!” I exclaimed, my voice teetering on the borderline of unnatural as I ushered him inside.

“Good morning indeed, Ms. Sloan,” he greeted, as he took in the cream cashmere sweater I wore along with the gray slacks and matching flats. Luckily, he was too busy checking me out to notice my awkwardness. “It’ll take you a while to get used to locking and unlocking the door,” he continued, with his focus directed straight at me. “I still forget sometimes. They say it makes us safer, but it’s just a pain in the arse if you ask me.”

“Hey, Mr. Carroll.” Everett strolled up next to us appearing casual as ever, exchanging some guy handshake thing with Liam. I glowered over at him, silently warning him to keep his mouth shut.

“Everett! Already at tutoring on the second day of the semester?” he teased, playfully jabbing his elbow into Everett’s arm.

Everett grinned his charming grin and shook his head. “Nah, just clearing up a misunderstanding from yesterday.” He cut his eyes over to me and chuckled softly. “But all’s good now. We worked it out. Right, Ms. Sloan?”

“Yep, sure did. Everything is A-Okay,” I agreed, making a mental note if I ever did see his dick again to cut it off.

“Perfect,” Everett said, then shifted his attention from me to Liam. “Mr. Carroll, I also planned to stop by and ask you something about the Poetry syllabus. Do you mind walking with me down to your class so I can pull it out?”

Liam glanced over at me and offered an apologetic smile. “We’ll catch up later, okay? If you need me, you know where my room is.”

“Yeah, sure,” I replied with a stunned nod as the two of them strolled out of my classroom, Everett asking Liam some bullshit question just to get him away from me. I wasn’t stupid. I knew exactly what he was doing. And if he continued to do it, Liam would catch on too. Which was exactly why nothing else could happen between us, even if he wasn’t the unfaithful piece of shit I’d thought he was. Or that he’d admitted that he felt that same pull when we met.

That just made it harder. At least the other way I could hate him. Now, I’d just have to be strong.

And be the adult I was supposed to be.

THE TALK HADN’T
gone as planned. But it wasn’t necessarily a failure either. We’d cleared up the Jayla-issue
— well, sort of —
and I managed to steal a quick kiss from her pink pouty lips. It wasn’t the toe-curling, dick-swelling kind of kiss from Friday night, but it served as a reminder to her of what we’d shared. And for a fleeting moment, she’d done just that
— remembered
. A fleeting moment that told me I still had a chance.

In all honesty, I didn’t know what the fuck I was doing. Belle Sloan was so far out of my league it wasn’t even funny, but for whatever reason, I just couldn’t let it go. I didn’t know much about her other than her name, the car she drove, where she worked, and how her body fit perfectly pressed up against mine, despite the vast height difference. But she did something to me, stirred up emotions I wasn’t used to, feelings I refused to ignore.

A firm believer that everything happened for a reason, I wouldn’t accept our first meeting at Empty’s and then her turning out to be my teacher as pure coincidence. She showed up in my life for a reason, and I was determined to figure out what it was. Hopefully, it involved her being naked. A lot.

“Hey, man, you off the rag yet or what?” Billy laughed as he caught up with me in the lunch line. “I thought for sure you were gonna pop Scott in the face yesterday. What in the hell happened?”

I shrugged, paid for my cheeseburger and fries, and then strode across the cafeteria to the table I always sat at by the windows, all with Billy hot on my heels. Claiming my usual seat on the end, Billy did the same and plopped down across from me, still waiting for my answer.

“Just had a shitty afternoon yesterday dealing with Jayla’s typical drama, acting like we’re together and pouting if I’m not up her ass, and I wasn’t in the mood to listen to him spout off a bunch of bullshit,” I finally replied.

“Yeah, but that’s just Scott.” He snickered. “You know that. He’s always been that way, just like his dad.”

I scoffed, shoving a fry in my mouth. “Yeah, and his dad’s known for being a conniving, deviant, slimeball attorney. He’s the biggest fucking tool I’ve ever met.”

Billy considered me for a minute then went back to inhaling his two pieces of pizza. “Yeah, I guess. It’s just the only other times I’ve seen you that pissed is when Ashlynn’s involved, so I didn’t know if something had happened with her to set you off.”

Shaking my head, I paused briefly when I thought I saw Belle across the room, but it turned out to be a false alarm. “Nah, I’m just ready to graduate and get the fuck out of here. Tired of all the immature crap and self-absorbed assholes.”

“Dude, you’re gonna be in the music business. You’ll be surrounded with a bunch of self-absorbed assholes,” he contended with a snort. “The only difference will be they’ve got years of practice at it and the money in their bank account to support their behavior.”

“Is my dad one?” I argued, raising my eyebrows.

“Is your dad a what?” Jayla purred, as she slid onto the chair next to me, kissing me on the cheek in the process. “A hot-ass piece of man-meat? Abso-fucking-lutely.”

Billy rolled his eyes and stood up with his already-empty tray. “No, he’s not, but your dad’s a rare cat. He gave it all up because he loved his family more than he loved himself,” he answered my original question, then quickly glanced over at Jayla before pinning me with his icy blue stare. “And you need to take care of that shit before it gets out of hand. Don’t spend your last semester of high school always pissed off over something you can control.”

I pondered his words as he walked away, especially the part about what I could control. And as if on cue, Jayla scooted her chair closer to mine and wrapped her arms around my neck as she laid her head on my shoulder.

“I told Ashlynn this morning I wanted to come over and hang out tonight,” she whispered in my ear. “You’re gonna be home, right? I’ve missed you, babe.”

Time to control this shit, Everett.

Ducking my head to slip out of her grasp, I pushed up to standing and shook my head resolutely. “I’m not your babe or your baby or anything else, Jayla,” I ground out in a low, menacing voice, careful not to make a scene. “Stop acting like we’re in some kind of relationship and stop using my sister to get to me. If I’d been interested in pursuing anything with you, it would’ve happened a long time ago. I wasn’t fucking joking with you when I told you it wasn’t gonna happen. You and me will never be a
we
. Not ever.”

Her glossy red lips opened and closed several times as her beady black eyes narrowed on me. “B-b-but what about all those nights I snuck in your room?” she asked, finally finding her voice. “And what about this whole time I’ve been faithful to you, waiting for you to be ready? That doesn’t mean anything to you?”

“I never asked you to be faithful or to wait for me,” I retorted, my irritation building rapidly. “I told you flat out where I stood from the very beginning, yet you continued to show up in my room. What, did you think if you made me come enough, I’d change my mind?”

“Well, yeah!” she exclaimed, as she leapt to her feet, garnering the attention of people at the tables close by. “You didn’t seem to mind when you had your cock shoved down my throat and I rode your face every night last summer and each weekend since then. Sorry, I don’t read mixed signals very well!”

Groaning, I scrubbed my hands over my face. I could not fucking believe she was doing this. Actually, scratch that; I could totally believe she was doing this. Which was exactly why I had to put a stop to it.
Now
.

“Jayla,” I spit out her name like a bad taste in my mouth, “you’re embarrassing yourself. Whatever happened between us in the past is the past. It’s over and I’m not interested. Go find someone else to sink your greedy claws into and leave me the fuck alone. Is that a clear enough signal for you?”