Page 8

Shoulders hunched, I slowly dragged my gaze to the source of the voice. “Well, good morning, Mr. Reed.”

“Thought I’d find you here.” The offensive wig and nose were already cradled in his arm, and my English teacher’s smile rivaled my worst nightmare. “After you...”

Shit on a stick. I was going to be a GIF by the end of the day, and it was all Nigel’s fault.

*

“WHO IS THAT?!” SOMEONEwhispered as a gorgeous man in an expensive suit, likely beyond what a teacher’s salary could afford, strode into the room.

His thick, dark hair was swept back into a smart look and his piercing light eyes landed on me the minute he strolled into the classroom, trailing our principal.

Even in a suit, it was apparent the dude spent a fair amount of time at the gym. The way he walked, his eyes taking in the room in several short pans, also indicated some sort of military training.

Maybe he was ex-army or marines?

The way he checked for all the exits and swept his eyes across the corners of the room suggested some sort of tactical training, and it intrigued me.

When my gaze wandered, I caught sight of tattoos along his neck and hands. That stalled me for a second. Tattoos in those areas almost always meant there were others. Lots of others.

Tattooed neck and hands? If not some kind of ex-military man, he’d be something else entirely.

So, what was this dude, an ex-convict?

“This is Mr. Smith,” our nearly bald, extra love around the middle principal introduced. “He’ll be taking over Mrs. Johnson’s classes for the rest of the year.”

I’d never seen a man look so dangerous and delicious at the same time.

Honestly, I didn’t want to feel the twist and echo of my girly regions responding to the sexy new teacher on campus, but here we were. I wasn’t impervious to hot guys, especially not the ones that looked all bad and mystery. And when his eyes didn’t leave mine for what felt like hours, I couldn’t even pretend not to be entranced by the air he put out.

That was one dark and handsome bad idea.

My phone vibrated in my pocket, forcing me to break the uncomfortable eye contact so I could slyly drag it out. Then guilt settled like the weight of a cheating girlfriend in my stomach when Nigel’s message came up, nothing but sweet and concerned about how I was feeling.

Well, Nigel, I’m a terrible girlfriend.

The guilt might actually feel worse than the huge bruise on my side from the night before when I took a sucker-punch to the hip.

“Vivienne.”

My head jerked up and I did a poor job of hiding my phone, my cohorts immediately laughing at my expense. “Sir?!”

“Mr. Smith has requested for you stay back to show him around. I have a few things to do. Since you were tardy this morning, I figured you must have plenty of time to tour the school after class.”

Mad burn, Principal Ricardson.

“Yep! Sure thing. That’s me, the goodly little student.”

Kate gave a very unsubtle fist-pump. “Way to go, V.”

Her dirty blonde hair was mussed up into a little ponytail, and she sported her favorite local band t-shirt over some denims.

Since I could remember, she had been a friend. Granted, I barely paid attention to anyone who wasn’t a vampire, but Kate worked her way into my heart one weird conversation after another. Soon, it was a much-too-empty day when she wasn’t rambling off about cute guys from bands she found in obscure haunts around town.

But I couldn’t gather the enthusiasm to fist-pump back at my friend in victory. The shame and guilt of drooling over a new hot teacher when I had a super hot, super sweet boyfriend concerned about my well-being smothered out the joy and excitement of a bad boy fantasy.

“How is that a punishment?” Cici, the hottest girl in that class, complained to her group of equally attractive friends. “He’s like, so hot.”

“Something you want to add, Cecilia?”