CHAPTER SIX

I watched him stand there, in the front of the class, teaching without hearing a word of what he was saying.

I was remembering the feel of that powerful rock hard body against my soft one the night I stayed at his place.

After the incident with Ethan and having Rick find me passed out in the bathroom, I had spaced out during dinner at his place and somehow started reliving the day all over again.

Rick had come over to my side, held me, talked me through it.

He'd calmed me down and made it all go away.

I vaguely remember him carrying me back to the room I'd woken up in earlier and making me lay down.

The guest room I guess.

I had clutched his hand and begged him not to leave me alone.

He'd sat on the bed, and held my hand.

He must have fallen asleep sitting with me and somehow we'd ended up sharing the bed because when I woke up, my head was pillowed on his hard chest and his hand was slung over my waist.

My curves were molded perfectly to his nicely sculpted gorgeous body like we were made for each other.

I had wanted him then like I have never wanted anything in my whole life.

He looked so calm lying there with me, his face relaxed in sleep and all that anger and frown that usually marred his face were gone.

He'd looked dangerously handsome and in a brief moment of insanity I had almost covered his lips with mine in a helpless passionate kiss.

But I had caught myself in time from taking his full,  sensuous lip with the predominant slit into my mouth and kissing him senseless.

I knew that if I didn't walk out of his door then, I would wake him with my mouth on his and beg him to take me in which ever way he would have me.

That would have embarrassed the both of us and definitely make him hate me more than he already did.

That realization made me get off that bed as quietly as I could.

I found a piece of paper and scribbled,

Thank you very much for helping me out today. I am in your debt and I hope to repay you someday

I snuck out of the room with my shoe and purse and then I ran.

I ran away from him, from his house and from his life as quickly as I could.

First time I like a guy, really like him and it is the one person that hates just as much.

Such cruel jokes fate plays on us.

As I look at him now I realize he looks just as deliciously sexy.

Gorgeous and sexy were his signature look anyway.

And the other girls says looking at him alone can give an orgasm and I guess it's true.

Just imagining his mouth on my skin was getting me hot and bothered.

I had that look on my face when his eyes landed and stayed trained on me.

His anger was obvious in his glare and the frown was back on his face.

I nervously bit my lip and looked down at my book, breaking off our eye contact.

I tried very hard not to look at him again till he was finished and you can't imagine how hard that was.

Faded, the Connor Maynard version, rang out from my phone indicating I had a call from Janice and interrupting him.

"Fuck me!" I groaned inside.

How in the seven heavens did I forget to put my phone on silent mode.

And in this class of all classes.

I cursed myself over and over again as I hurriedly switched it off.

Unlike Mr Sherman, Rick wasn't letting it slide and he stared at me pointedly, those piercing eyes angry as all hell let loose.

I colored with embarrassment and mumbled a quick, "I'm sorry."

For the rest of the class, I was wishing I could sink into the ground and never have to face him again.

After the class, he asked to see me in his office and I knew I was in for it.

My heart jumped into my throat as I considered his reason for the invite and as the different scenario that could play out in there flew through my head I wished I hadn't come to school with my goddamn phone in the first place.

Why would he want to see me for that simple slide anyway?

Maybe to give me a verbal tongue lashing for letting my phone distract his class.

But it's not like he called every single person whose phone rang in his class into his office for that.

Seeing the way he usually is with me, maybe I bruised his ego by leaving first that night, depriving him the pleasure of asking me to get lost himself.

I face palmed and tried to get rid of all these questions with it.

In as much as I didn't want to face him yet, I got my stuffs and found my way to his office.

Might as well get it over with.

Unlike other teacher's assistants, he didn't share the main teacher's office but had a seperate room all to himself.

That in itself was odd but I didn't dwell on it.

I wish this is going to be brief and simple and I was the right amount of brave.

Story of my life.

I stood outside his door for a while trying to muster up all the courage I could.

I puffed out a breath, raised my hand and knocked softly. Finally!

The voice that asked me to come in was fierce, deep and more than a little pissed.

All my bravery and courage left me and I was scared shitless as I pushed open the door and went in.

As I had expected, whatever it was that had made him soften and be less antagonistic towards me had vanished just as quickly as it had come and in its place was his usual coldness.

His face was as expressionless as his eyes were cold.

And he was scary like this.

As usual I tried to avoid every possible eye contact with him so I look at everything other thing in the room but him.

It was odd, again, how most of his stuffs here looked expensive and hardly like something that could be afforded on a teacher's assistant salary only.

His stuffs stood out, like they didn't belong in here.

I have been in my fair share of other teacher's offices and even though the rooms were same, none of them bore any semblance to this one in decor.

And I could swear that that watch adorning his left wrist was  worth my weight in gold.

Now that I think about it, his apartment had looked like it had cost a small fortune in interior decoration.

I wondered where he was getting his dig from and the thought of him having his fingers in some illegal pie gave me a slight shudder.

"Does it always have to be you?" he asked.

"Maybe I should write a book on how to act in my class and make you read it."

That deep baritone shot me out of my thoughts and I finally let me eyes rest on him.

His brow was raised questioningly and when I said nothing, he shot at me again.

"So now you are as dumb as you are stupid too, huh?"

It hurt hearing him say that.

For all the times I've been unfortunate to rub him the wrong way, he's never resorted to verbal abuse.

Never!

His eyes were blazing now as he lashed out at me, taking bites like he was punishing me for more than the incident in his class.

"Next time you break another one of my rules you won't just be standing here and looking like I just ran your puppy over!"

"There won't be a next time. I'm sorry." I muttered out loud enough for him to hear, looking everywhere else but at him.

Somehow I'd moved from being hurt to being pissed.

All I wanted was to get out of here and never have to see him again.

"It won't happen again."

He pushed his fingers through his hair, like he was frustrated or something.

It was like he wasn't getting the satisfaction he'd expected from humiliating me.

Good to know that, douche, good to know.

I was about to make good on the need to not be in his presence and never to see him again when I remembered that I have not thanked him for that leap he took for me after Ethan happened.

Not everyone would do that you know.

I might have made a scribbled note, which he might not even have seen, but this was something I should say to him.

He's being a total jerk alright, but he was good to me once and therefore deserved a proper thank you from me.

I hesitated, took a deep breath and then said,

"About that other time, thank you very much taking care of me. You know, I kind of didn't expect it from you seeing as you always are with me but I'm glad you did what you did. I appreciate it and I wouldn't hesitate to pay it back when I can."

He looked kind of surprised, like he didn't expect me to be thanking him right after he'd just called me dumb and stupid.

He didn't interrupt me though and allowed me to get through it all.

"You said the same thing on your note,"

So he did see it.

"I'll pay you back, I'm in your debt. You repeat it like it is some kind of mantra of yours. Maybe one day I'll take you up on that offer and let you pay me back. My way."

The corner of his lips lifted in a smirk and his voice was gentle and low now. Its deep velvet richness almost like a caress and a turn on.

"Why did you run out on me, Kayla? "

I didn't say anything to defend my action.

But my face must have given something away because in a flash the gentleness from seconds ago was gone and those green orbs began glowing with anger again, and in the most venomous voice I have ever heard he spat,

"Did you think I'd wake in the middle of the night and unable to control my raging desire for you, ravish you till you can't even walk?"

He scoffed.

"You should have saved yourself the stress because that would never happen. I have any use for girls with body so thin they could pass for a boy's."

I'm not even that thin,  I cried inside.

Before now, I didn't believe something could hurt so much till it felt like someone ripped your heart out of your chest and continuously stomped very hard on it before throwing it back in.

A roller coaster of emotions ran through me.

I was hurt, angry, pained

I wanted to hate him. In that moment I wanted to look at him and feel nothing but hatred. Deep rooted hatred.

He sat there behind his desk, probably feeling so smug and watching my miserable self.

I didn't even know I was crying until I tasted the unmistakable salty wetness in my mouth.

I angrily swiped it off, not wanting him to see how much he was hurting me.

With one last look at him, I turned and went out the door of his office without giving him the pleasure of asking me to get lost himself.

This office definitely is my current most hated place in this college.

I didn't look back as I walked as fast was possible to the parking lot while trying to hold back the tears clouding my eyes and blurring my vision.

It was a miracle that I made it to my car without crashing into anything.

I don't know how long I sat in there crying.

When I could finally draw in a breath without feeling like my heart was going to explode out of my chest, I wiped my face clean and tried not to look like I've spent hours bawling my eyes out.

All red and puffy, my eyes were still a dead give away but not half as bad.

I looked in the mirror and the face that stared back at me looked better than I felt.

I looked at my wrist to check the time on my watch only to find it gone.

"No, no, no, no!"

Can this day get anymore nightmarish?

I searched frantically in my car, even in places it had no way of getting into, but it wasn't here.

"No, God no!" I groaned.

I can't lose that.

That watch was the last birthday gift I received from uncle Jamie before he passed.

I hadn't really liked it when he gave it to me but after he'd passed, I wore it for the first time and I couldn't remove it.

I've worn it every other day since then.

It reminded me of him and made it feel like he was still here, with me.

God please not the watch.

I got out of my car and searched all around it.

Still not here.

I followed my trail back into the school building.

I was too busy looking for it and not looking where I was going and it wasn't until I bumped into a wall of solid muscles did I stop.

I fell a few steps back before I caught myself.

"Oh my, I'm so sorry. I'm looking for something I lost around here and I wasn't looking where I was going. It was my fault and I'm sorry." I rushed through my apology while still keeping my eyes on the floor and trying to see around him.

"Must be very important if you are this desperate to find it."

"Yes it is very important to me."

I squeezed my way past him and continued my search.

"mmmm, the thing you are searching for, could it be a wrist watch."

"Yes it..... " My voice trailed of as I realized he had no way of knowing that.

I spun around and there it was, hanging from his fingers.

"Oh my God, where did you find that? I've been searching for it."

For the first time, I really looked at him. Not my watch but him holding it and wow.

A little over six feet, handsome with a really cute smile to booth.

"Found it lying outside Rick's office."

He pointed somewhere behind me and the realization of where I was hit me.

A few meters from the devil's door.

"I almost stepped on it on my way out from dropping off a file with him."

I was half listening as my eyes darted towards the said door and my goddamn overly expressive face gave me away again.

"I see the tiger clawed you already." He asked his signature smile still on display.

"More like chewed and spat me out." I said with disgust at the memory.

"Yeah yeah I get your drift. I've been there myself. He's always scary to deal with."

He said the last part in a mock whisper, his face all scrunched up in a million dollar expression.

I've never laughed so much.

"So, can I have my watch back. To make me feel better from my 'scary' ordeal."

"In a rush now are we? You don't seem the sort to get on his bad side though."

"But I somehow do that all the time, coupled with the fact that he hates me." I answered, my hand held out palm up.

"Are you sure about that? I don't think anyone can hate a pretty thing like yourself."

He smirked, turning on the charm.

My face colored.

Yes, I blush easily.

"Thank you?"

"Since I found this this for you," he twirled the watch, "you owe me."

"Hmmm, so what does your kind self want?" I asked.

He leaned down, "A cup of steaming coffee and maybe a slice of lemon cake. I know a nice place down town." He whispered it conspiratorially.

He smelled good too.

"Okay, maybe tomorrow?"

"Sounds fine to me."

He handed me his phone.

"Contact? So that I will know where to come pick you up tomorrow."

"You just text me the address and I'll meet you there." I said while typing in my number on his phone before handing it back to him.

He stared hard at me before saving it with what only he knows.

"You didn't even ask my name." I throw.

"I don't need to know that, pretty thing. I'm Alex, in case you were wondering."

"I wasn't." I denied.

Yes you were, my subconscious snared.

“Of course you were not.” It was obvious in his voice that he didn't believe that one bit.

"My watch now?" I asked, holding out my hand again.

"I'll give it back after I get my coffee tomorrow."

"What?"

"I don't want you weaseling your way out of it." He shrugged.

I groaned and he reached out and rubbed cheek with his free hand. His touch so soft it felt almost like a caress.

"I'll see you tomorrow, pr...... "

The rest of his words were lost to the very audible scoff from behind me.

I turned and Rick was standing there staring at us.

How long have he been standing there?

The only thing with any expression were his angry blazing eyes.

And now my mere presence annoys him too,  I thought.

Just peachy.

"Hey Rick," Alex greeted casually.

"Leaving already?"

"No." He returned.

"I needed your attention and I thought I heard you voice out here but you seem pretty busy."

"What can I say, helping a damsel in distress."

He did a half shrug thing.

"I need you in my office now or you'll be the one in distress soon." Mr taciturn said before turning away.

"I'll see you tomorrow." Alex told me.

He turned away like Rick had and two steps away he turned back and whispered,

"Told you he was scary."

He smiled and I smiled back before he disappeared behind Rick's door.

I went back out the way I had come in and got inside my car.

My phone was lying on my seat so I picked it up and put it on.

So many texts and voice messages flooded my screen. My missed calls too.

Most of them were from Janice and the other few from my mum.

I opened one of Janice's text and it read.

"Answer your damn phone. Mum said you should come home for dinner today. Damien is back, a day early, and so is family dinner. "

I smiled as I dropped my phone on the passenger seat.

Time to take a break from the drama I call my life and go enjoy watching others.

Janice and Damien's to be precise.