The Headmaster (10 page)

Her lips still tingled with the memory of that incredible kiss.

He exhaled heavily, a little shudder in his breath. She knew how he felt.

“I’m pleased to hear it affected you as much as it affected me. I haven’t stopped thinking about it since Monday evening. Gwendolyn, you must understand that it’s not in my nature to behave rakishly with you. I respect you far too much.”

“Then respect me enough to trust that I’m old enough and wise enough to make the decision to be with you and to live with the consequences. I’m twenty-five years old, Edwin. I’m not a virgin. I’m on birth control. I’m an adult. Please treat me accordingly.”

Edwin raised his hand and caressed her cheek.

“If only it were that simple,” he said and lowered his hand.

Gwen saw something in his eyes, a look she didn’t quite understand but desperately wanted to. It wasn’t shyness so much as reticence. He had a secret he wanted to tell her but didn’t know how.

“Your wife was the only woman you’ve ever been with, wasn’t she?”

“A gentleman should not discuss such personal matters with a lady.”

“What if that lady is his lover?”

“Then that’s a different matter entirely,” he said.

“How long has it been since you’ve been with someone?”

“A very long time,” he confessed almost sheepishly.

“Then you should come upstairs and make love to me. I insist,” said, as she took his hand and placed it on her thigh.

“You insist?”

“Yes, and it would be rude of you to say no to such a humble request.”

“It would, wouldn’t it?”

“Quite,” Gwen said as Edwin slid his hand up her thigh. Gwen shivered from the heat of his touch.

“Ungentlemanly even.”

“First, do I have the job?” she asked. “We should probably decide that now. Might not be a good idea to make a hiring decision in bed.”

“Yes, you are hired. Thirteen boys stood in my office today to tell me they would mutiny if you weren’t hired.”

“Only thirteen?” she teased.

“That’s all that could fit in my office. The rest stood in the hallway.”

“I never want to leave this place,” Gwen said, looking Edwin into his dark green eyes.

“If you truly feel that way, then you’ll never have to.”

Their lips met again and just like the first time they kissed, Gwen felt a shock of electricity traveling through her entire body. She’d never known desire like what she felt for Edwin. He seemed equally enamored of her. She quickly found herself on his lap, his arms around her as his mouth poured kisses onto her lips. She pushed Edwin’s jacket down his arms as he assaulted her neck with bites and licks. The heat from his tongue penetrated her skin. As soon as his jacket was off, he lifted her up with shockingly strong arms. He carried her up the stairs to the bedroom and laid her carefully on the soft white sheets. She sat up and unbuttoned his vest while he kissed her again. She ran her hands up and down his chest, feeling its hardness under the silky cotton of his perfectly pressed shirt.

As much as she wanted to tear Edwin’s clothes off, she held back and let him take the lead. She wanted him to take the lead, wanted him to do whatever he wished to her as hard and as often as he wished to do it. For all his earlier apprehension, he now seemed entirely collected, in charge, and determined to make love to her. His mouth traced a path from her lips to the center of her chest and back again. He gently pushed her onto her back and unbuttoned her blouse with adroit and purposeful fingers. She couldn’t wait to be naked for him. Such a man deserved to have a woman in his bed giving him pleasure every single night of his life. She wanted to be that woman.

He unbuttoned her blouse and pushed it apart. He kissed the tops of her breasts as his fingers caressed the lacy edges of her bra. For what felt like eons he gently tortured her with his mouth and his hands, touching every part of her except the parts that most wished to be touched. She thought he was teasing her at first by making her wait so long, but then she realized he was simply being gentlemanly even now.

“Edwin,” she whispered, laying a hand on his cheek. She felt the slightest hint of stubble on his face, so sturdy and masculine. “I want you. You don’t have to be afraid to do to me anything and everything you want to do.”

“You say that now,” he said with a roguish smile. She smiled back.

“I’ll say it after, too. Promise.”

Her words had the desired effect. Edwin pushed her skirt up her thighs all the way to her stomach. He wrenched her panties down her legs and tossed them onto the floor. She opened her legs for him, eager for him to see her. With one hand he loosened his tie and pulled it off. With his other hand he pressed one and then two fingers into her wetness. She gasped at the first penetration. Pleasure exploded from the core of her and reverberated through her entire body as he touched her inside.

“More,” she begged and he pulled his fingers out of her and opened his pants. She couldn’t get him inside her fast enough. He parted her inner lips with his fingers opening her up. She felt the tip at the entrance of her body. Slowly and deeply he pushed into her. The pleasure was beyond anything she could have imagined as his thick inches spread her wide open. He embedded himself in her with one quick hard thrust, and Gwen gasped his name.

Edwin covered her mouth with his hand and Gwen froze. Then she heard the sound of boys’ voices just outside her cottage. Edwin smiled down at her and whispered a quiet, “Shhh….” She nodded her head and he started to move inside her with long, slow, deep strokes, his hand still over her mouth. She didn’t mind it. She loved his forcefulness, his control of her and his own body. They were still dressed, both of them. Only the parts of them joined together were naked. But she loved this, loved feeling sealed to him, naked hip to naked hip.

Slowly he let his hand slide from her mouth down her neck. Gwen struggled to keep herself silent. It was torture not to sigh, not to moan as Edwin pulled the strap of her lacy bra down her arm and bared her right breast. He latched on to it and sucked, his tongue swirling around her nipple. She was burning, burning alive from the touch of his hands on her, his mouth on her breast, his length filling her up more than any man ever had in her life. She pushed her hips up against him. She would die underneath him if she didn’t come soon. The pleasure built up in her like a bullet in a chamber desperate to fire.

They made love in near-total silence. Only a few hushed grunts and gasped escaped their throats. The students playing right outside her cottage might overhear any sound they made. The silence intensified the pleasure as she had to hold everything inside when all she wanted to do was moan and gasp and let it all out. They felt like conspirators, she and Edwin, as they moved together in necessary silence. She clutched at his shoulders and wrapped her legs over the back of his thighs. He teased her nipple again and again while the hardness of him inside her pushed into her with slow but brutal thrusts.

His mouth found hers and she kissed him hungrily. Yes, she wanted this for eternity, wanted to give him this pleasure until the end of time, wanted to be the woman in his bed who spread her legs for him, welcomed him inside her, and gave him a safe place to be the powerful, strong, erotic man he was born to be.

His hands scored her back as the speed of his thrusts increased. She felt the pounding in the pit of her stomach, felt her inner muscles tensing around him…wetness poured out of her and onto the sheet beneath her. Never had she felt so wanton or so primal in her life. It was as if this man were more than human, and he made her something more simply by entering her body with his.

He placed his hands on either side of her shoulders and pushed himself up so that their hips alone met. She lay beneath him, a being of surrender and submission. He closed her eyes and lost herself in his thrusts. The need mounted in her, the knot in her stomach tightened. When she came, it was with his hand once again over her mouth to stifle her gasps. Her shoulders flinched off the bed as her climax burst through her, every muscle inside her furiously fluttering around him. Once she’d ridden out her own orgasm, he finally came. He looked down at her and met her eyes for one perfect moment before shutting them tight. His entire body went still as he came inside her, filling her with his heat.

Gwen wrapped her arms and legs around him as he collapsed on top of her. She couldn’t get enough of the warmth of his body and the feel of his rapidly racing heart against her naked chest.

He kissed her as he gently pulled out of her.

“Now that,” she whispered, “was gentlemanly.”

Chapter Nine

For a few beautiful minutes Gwen lay in Edwin’s arms doing nothing but breathing and relishing the way her body reverberated with the aftershocks of the sex.

“I can’t stay in your bed tonight,” he whispered. “I have a duty to set a good example for the boys.”

“If those boys grow up to be half as good in bed as you are, then their future wives and girlfriends will owe you a debt of gratitude.”

“Don’t even mention wives and girlfriends to those boys. They already beg me to let girls into the school enough as it is. No matter how often I tell them the school’s charter specifically states the endowment will be revoked—”

“Now that does sound terrible. I’d never want your endowments revoked.” Gwen curled up on Edwin’s chest and gave him a wink.

“I’ll revoke my endowment if you don’t behave yourself, young lady.”

Gwen only laughed. How beautiful to see Edwin so relaxed, so at peace. Tomorrow they would return to publicly declaring how much they disliked each other but tonight she knew they both felt the rightness of their union.

“Speaking of endowment, do I not get to see you naked?” she teased. He’d already straightened his clothes and combed his fingers through his hair. Her disheveled appearance and his wetness inside her were the only proofs that just minutes before Edwin had been buried inside her and thrusting wildly. She adored both Edwins—the civilized headmaster and the primal lover. But tonight she wanted the lover, not the headmaster.

“See me naked? Miss Ashby, I have to wonder if you’ve ever seen an unclothed man before. We aren’t nearly as aesthetically pleasing as women.”

“I beg to differ. I’d far rather see you naked than see myself naked. I see myself naked all the time.”

“Then I envy you.”

“Would you like to see me naked?” she asked. She still had her skirt on, her shoes, her bra that she’d pulled back up. Even her blouse was still on if unbuttoned.

“Without a doubt. But there will be time for that.”

“Is now the time?” she asked, tossing her shirt aside.

He kissed her quick and smiled.

“No. But soon. Alas, duty calls. It’s Friday evening, my turn to monitor the dining hall.”

Gwen glanced at the clock on the wall—6:30. Dinner every night was served at seven o’clock on the dot. She’d asked two days ago who did all the cooking, and she’d been stunned to learn the boys cooked their own meals. It was an innovation Edwin had implemented. The students needed to learn basic culinary skills. A man should not rely on his wife or mother to take care of him his whole life, was the reasoning. The boys might join the military or delay marriage for years to finish their schooling. Knowing how to take care of themselves was part of being true gentlemen. Also it fostered a sense of community, Mr. Price had told her. The boys served each other, learned to plan, learned teamwork. And no one had gotten food poisoning yet. Still, a kitchen full of teenage boys could turn to chaos in an instant so the teachers took turns monitoring the dining hall.

“I can’t keep you from your duty,” Gwen said as Edwin pulled away from her arms. He picked his vest up and pulled it on. “Or dinner.”

“Rest assured, I’ll be doing everything in my power not to think of you the entire time.”

“That’s fine. I’ll be here in bed thinking of you making love to me enough for both of us.” She laid back on the pillows and stretched out, luxuriating on the sheets. She unhooked her bra behind her back and started to pull it off.

“I’m suddenly reminded why I dislike you so much, Miss Ashby. You’re vicious.”

“You’re luscious.”

“I’m leaving is what I am,” Edwin said before kissing her one more time. “You can’t be trusted.”

“I know. I’m awful, aren’t I?” she asked as Edwin tried and failed twice to knot his tie. She dropped her bra on the floor and knelt in front of him. Naked from waist up she took his tie and pressed her breasts against his chest. “Absolutely horrible.”

“And unrepentant, as well,” Edwin said, narrowing his eyes at her.

She tied his tie for him even as his left hand sneaked up to caress her breast. He’d been in her just moments ago, but she already wanted him inside her again.

“Entirely. Have a good dinner, Headmaster Yorke. I’ll stay in tonight. If I go to the dining hall with you, I might do something terrible—like kiss you in front of the boys.” She kissed him on the mouth, and he kissed her back with undisguised need.

“You wouldn’t dare.”

“Try me,” she said.

“I’m glad I hired you,” Edwin said from the door. “Now I can fire you.”

“Fire me all you want. I’m not going anywhere.”

“I was afraid of that,” he said and left her alone on the bed. She listened to his footsteps on the stairs. He would find his jacket in the living room. No doubt he would pause by the mirror and check his appearance for any telltale signs that he’d been engaging in ungentlemanly behavior with one of his teachers only minutes earlier. At last she heard the door to her cottage open and close. He was gone.

Feeling weightless and lazy, Gwen did nothing but lie back in bed and bask in the afterglow. Her body still buzzed with the memories of Edwin. But as much as she tried to focus on the physical pleasure he’d just given her, she couldn’t stop herself from dreaming of a future with him. She adored him. No question. She couldn’t deny it even if she wanted to. Chance had brought her to this school—a random stop at a diner and here she was, now, literature teacher at the prestigious William Marshal Academy and lover of the headmaster. Lover…she loved being his lover. But was it just that? Was there more? Gwen knew she wanted to stay at this school the rest of her life. But was it because of the school? The students? Or the headmaster?