Page 34 of Tempt Me

It was a chant in my blood every time she was near me.

I’d acted carelessly today. Any one of the students could have spotted me, yet the temptation to tease my watchful Little Voyeur was too great to fucking care.

I wanted her to burnfor me.

Making my way over to the back of the room, I found her seat. It was shining with her arousal. I swiped my finger over the metal and brought it to my lips.

“Mmm…Little Voyeur. Your taste brands me like a sin.”

I saw a shadow by the door, and when I walked over to investigate, I caught a stream of reddish-blonde hair. Fallon was headed to her little lunch date with her friend like she did every class day, so why would she still be lingering?

The sandwich…

Moving faster now, I snagged my bag and was out the door, cruising down the hall at a fast clip. I couldn’t help myself. I wanted a front-row seat when she took a bite of her homemade sandwich.

The walk to the cafeteria wasn’t too far, but I made a quick stop first. I softly knocked on the little door, and Gardenia’s silver-haired head greeted me.

“What trouble are you getting into now, Pharaoh?” She chortled, ushering me into her tiny office.

She was the head of the custodial department and was as tough as the hard-tiled floors she worked on. Her old age hadn’tmade her fragile, and I would bet on her in a fight against any number of punk-ass kids in this shit hole.

She used to own a bar, and her biker mentality for that place had never left her. It reminded me of Quinn and his army friend, whom he spoke about a few times.

“Trouble? Me?” I feigned hurt, holding my heart. “You wound me, Nia. Why would you think I would be causing trouble?”

She raised an eyebrow, her short stature not lessening her disapproving gaze up at me one bit.

“I have met lots of boys like you, sweet cheeks.” She giggled and poked me in the stomach. “And none of them were for good conversations.”

Her wink made me snort, turning into a full-blown laugh.

“The promise of that smile alone is dangerous, kid,” she said, her smoker’s tone making her raspy voice husky.

I flashed her the smile in question, leaning down to her, and she shoved me, backing up and laughing with her hands up in surrender.

“Oh, you know your trouble, Professor Masters.” She cackled in her twangy accent. “The only question is…” She narrowed her gaze at me. “What kind of trouble are you getting me into?”

I crossed my arms. She was as no-nonsense as a person could get, and I debated how much truth to tell her.

I started to speak, but she cut me off, wagging her bony finger at me. “When are you going to find a Miss Masters? You know my old bones can’t handle ya’, sadly.”

I laughed, and she frowned. “I am serious, Pharaoh.”

My smile fell, and it was like being scolded by my mother.

“Women are a damn distraction I don’t need,” I said curtly, the irony of my visit hanging heavy on my tongue.

She shook her head at me. “You can’t hide behind that mask forever. You need to trust someone again to give that good heart of yours some love. You are worth it, kid. I don’t care what thesestuck-up pricks say about you. My old ass knows a good one when I see one, and you’re as good as they get.”

My eyes stung with tears, and I blinked them back, not wanting to look weak in front of the one person I could call a friend in this place.

Ever since I had got here a year ago, Gardenia and the custodial staff under her were the only genuine faces I had met. All the other professors and my damn boss just gave me fake smiles and bullshit lines while gossiping about my damn life behind my back.

I had spent hours sitting on the concrete bench in the courtyard, shooting the shit with Nia about her and her life before this place.

She’d outlived her kid. Her daughter had cancer, died at the age of twenty. She’d left her bar and her home to work in this college and sadly was treated like dirt.

She said it was okay because she wanted to be as close to her daughter, Dalia, as possible.