Forbidden Fruit: Volume 1 (14 page)

And then I high-tailed it out of there as fast as I could, hailed a cab, which wasn’t easy on New Year Eve, and quietly snuck into my apartment ten blocks away from Marcus without waking my roommate.

Chapter Four

Three Weeks Later

Marcus

“Hey.” I leaned in and gave Emma a kiss on the cheek in Logan’s elementary school’s office. “How are you?”

Emma pulled back and smiled. Her blonde hair was loosely fixed into a pile on the top of her head and she looked as beautiful as always. Her cheeks were still pink from the cold. It wasn’t her natural beauty that gave me a jolt of surprise as she answered me and we began walking down the hall toward Logan’s classroom for his parent teacher conferences.

It was the fact that for the last three weeks, I had been able to look at her and be the friend she wanted to be to me. Ever since I woke up in an empty bed, pissed that Tabby had given me a more memorable night than I’d ever had before, I was no longer jealous when I saw Emma. I hadn’t had to grind my teeth around Jack when he talked about Logan or Emma while we were at work.

I hadn’t even gotten pissed when I saw a ring on Emma’s finger that was the size of Chicago and so sparkly you could see it from a mile away.

In fact, I’d thought little to none of either of them. What had consumed my thoughts was the brown haired, pale skinned goddess who had left me without a phone number or a good-bye. It was true, apparently. The best way to get over a woman was to get another one under you.

It worked. Connecting with Tabby had forced me to realize that if I could have
that
amount of passion with her, perhaps Emma had been right months ago when she said we’d be better off as friends. I had agreed with her at the time while silently cursing the friend-zone she had placed me in.

What hadn’t worked was my ability to get my mind off Tabby. I could still smell the British bombshell in my bed, feel the soft skin I couldn’t wipe from my memory, and hear the way she had screamed my name in her sexy as fuck English accent. I dreamed of it every night, waking up with my dick hard as a rock. The memories didn’t disappear until I’d jacked myself off like a tosser.

I could have called Dean or gotten her number from Harper, but I wasn’t about to chase after someone who clearly meant it when she had told me she only wanted one night. I had wanted that night too. I just didn’t know it’d be so damned difficult to forget her the next day.

“Hey.” I jerked at the sound of Emma’s voice and the tug on my sleeve. She was frowning when I looked down at her. “You okay?”

I noticed we were standing outside the doorway to Logan’s classroom. “I’m fine. Lots on my mind.”

“You’ve been weird lately.”

Lately being the last three weeks. Probably because drop-offs and pick-ups with Logan and all scheduling came with me having a better attitude that was no longer accompanied with a quiet, but noticeably, jealous tension.

“I’m good, Em. Let’s go in, shall we?” I reached for the door and gently led Emma in front of me with my hand on her lower back. She gave me a funny, suspicious look the entire time.

I sensed her before I saw her. I trailed my eyes from the skin tight jeans to the pale pink blouse to the brown hair that was clipped together at the base of her neck. She was searching through papers on her desk with her back to us, but I knew it was Tabby.

I closed the door behind us, shutting it harder than necessary. Tabby jumped and spun around. My fingers tensed on Emma’s lower back and Tabby froze. Her mouth dropped open and her pale skin turned ashen white.

“Hi, Miss Malloy,” Emma said, completely unaware of the shock we’d – I’d – just given Tabby. I followed her lead, walking toward Tabby with a grin.

Tabby. I got to see her again. And damn if she didn’t look even better in jeans than she did in a silver, shiny, skin-tight dress. Her eyes darted from my face to Emma’s, back to mine, and then down to Emma’s hand that she was holding out, ready to shake.

“Hey…” She stopped and cleared her throat. “Emma, nice to see you again.”

She finally smiled and shook Emma’s hand and faced me, quickly slipping a professional mask in place. I didn’t like it. “I’m Miss Malloy, Logan’s teacher.”

I gripped her hand and squeezed firmly. It was as warm and soft as I remembered and coupled with the pink cheeks, pink soft blouse, and ass-hugging jeans, I was suddenly really pissed that Emma was in the same room with me and Tabby – whose hand was trembling in mine. I let go of it slowly, grazing my fingers against the soft skin on her wrist while I released her hand, and dipped my chin. “Marcus Whitmore. Nice to meet you.” Again. I left it unsaid.

“Yes, well, okay.”

I grinned, amused that my presence had her so muddled. Gone was the confident and sexy woman I’d met at the bar. I was looking at someone completely different. Someone easily shaken. Someone easily embarrassed. I didn’t know which one I found more appealing.

Perhaps if she didn’t want to be embarrassed to see me, she shouldn’t have left my bed in the middle of the night. I opened my mouth to say that to her but quickly remembered where I was and the purpose for the meeting.

When I turned to Emma to lead her further inside the room, she was frowning at me, again, but I flashed her a small smile and followed Tabby – Miss Malloy – to a crescent shaped table.

“So,” Tabby began. Her hands fidgeted with what I assumed was Logan’s student file. She tapped a red file folder against the table and smoothed it out. And then did it again. And a third time. The entire time, she didn’t once look at me. Her professional, and slightly unfriendly, smile was glued on Emma. “Logan is a great boy to have in class.”

I felt Emma’s pride in our son sweep across the room. And then I stopped listening. Mostly because she was telling me things I already knew. Logan was smart. Emma had done an incredible job of raising him on her own. He was a grade ahead in math, reading at a second grade level even though he was only in Kindergarten, and was an all-around great kid. I also tuned out because all I could hear was the British accent that had captivated me three weeks ago, the same British accent I heard in my dreams and jerked off to each morning, and the same British accent that was giving me the same reaction now.

It was marvelous and torturous. Mostly because the entire time she spoke, Tabby didn’t look at me. Not once.

But then she gasped. It was so loud and her face turned a putrid shade of green, I couldn’t help but tune in to what she was saying. I saw her staring at Emma’s hand. Emma was asking about one of the marks he’d received on a reading test and the index finger of her left hand was tapping on the file.

Tabby’s eye grew larger with each millisecond before she made a choking sound and looked at Emma. “You’re engaged?”

She choked the words out, her face still green, and then her teeth clamped together. For the first time, she swung her eyes to mine and glared at me.

“Yes,” Emma began. Her voice was as cheery as ever, completely oblivious to the sudden tension in the room. She droned on, and the entire time, I sat in the tiny student sized plastic chair, grinning at Tabby. She thought I was a complete dick. I watched her green skin turn to white. And then to red.

She was furious.

I simply grinned. And that was because, at one point, Emma said the name that changed everything. Tabby’s head snapped back so hard to Emma’s I thought her neck might break.

“….Jack was really very sweet about the whole thing. Marcus even brought Logan back to our condo early in the morning….”

“Jack?”

“Jack,” I confirmed quickly. “Emma’s fiancé. He’s also my boss. We’re one big happy family.”

I didn’t take my eyes off Tabby. Her cheeks were turning purple again. I smelled victory. I loved that one night with me could affect her so much. It told me that she was not only affected by my presence, but that she felt it strongly. I had just witnessed six different emotions dance across her cheeks and eyes. Not all of them were good. But the relief and embarrassment she was showing right now? That was good.

“I’m completely missing something, aren’t I?” Emma muttered. It was then I noticed she was looking strangely at Tabby and giving me an even stranger look. Emma was smart. How she hadn’t noticed the tension and awkwardness before that moment, I didn’t know. But I saw something close to suspicion flicker across her eyes. She glared at me and pursed her lips like she was debating about whether or not to say anything. Wisely, based on the fear that was written all over Tabby’s face, she didn’t.

“No.” The two letter word came out of Tabby’s mouth so tightly clipped that both of us watched her. She pulled her lips into a tight line and I watched her rub her trembling fingers. She wasn’t nervous. Based on the way her eyes kept glancing to the door like she was two hours late from a high school curfew and the trembling hands, she was worried. Scared, possibly.

I wanted to push her. I wanted to tell Emma that yes, she was missing something. And that something was that I had spent an incredible night alone with another woman and that was why I was no longer jealous when I saw Emma in Jack’s home. That while we had spent that night together, there had been no sleeping. But there had been a lot of fucking, a lot of screaming, and a handful of orgasms between the two of us.

But that could cross the line of too much information that you should never discuss with an ex, so I mirrored Tabby’s pressed lips look and glanced at the forgotten file.

From across the table, I heard a shaky exhale come from Tabby. Within seconds, the awkward silence and suspicious glances were cast aside and we finished Logan’s conference, learning nothing knew: Logan was smart, perfect, and overall an amazing kid. I wanted to puff out my chest and proclaim my awesomeness as a dad. Unfortunately, it was all of Emma’s hard work seeing as I hadn’t known I’d had a kid until six months ago. Didn’t make me any less proud of him though.

As Emma and I gathered our coats, and I watched her tie her scarf around her neck, I pressed a kiss to her cheek and leaned in closer. “I’ll see you later, I need to talk to Logan’s teacher for a minute.”

She shot me another one of her what-the-hell looks, and I shrugged.

“Boy stuff.”

Emma’s nose wrinkled and I saw her look over my shoulder, probably to Tabby. “What are you doing, Marcus? You’re acting strange.”

I had hot sex with our kid’s teacher and I want more. I didn’t say it. Instead, I shoved my hands in my jeans. “I just need a minute with her. Tell Logan I love him and I’ll see him Friday, okay?”

I didn’t give her a chance to respond before I opened the door and gently coaxed her out. Once I knew she was gone, I turned on my heels and rested against the closed door.

“I woke up and you were gone,” I said quietly. It got Tabby’s attention. I stayed against the door, letting her have the advantage of space and a sense of control over the situation.

Her eyes searched every surface of the room before landing back on me. Even then she looked away, looking over my shoulder instead of at me. “I told you it was just for the night.”

“Tabby, no one has that sort of connection, that sort of chemistry, and keeps it contained to only one night.”

She made a strange choking sound. I watched her eyes glaze over and her cheeks turn pink. Then I wasn’t staying still anymore. I was on my feet and moving toward her, and I kept moving slowly until her back was against her whiteboard and I was only inches away.

“I can’t,” she said softly, tripping over the two small words.

“I’ve heard you say that before,” I told her. I lowered my head. There was distance between us that I wanted erased, but I didn’t want to push her too far, not in her own classroom. “And I also remember proving to you that you can.”

“I didn’t know you had a son. Had I known I was his teacher, that night never would have happened.”

“You didn’t ask, Tabby,” I said, leaning forward. I was inches from her and could smell her. Could remember the taste of her skin. I felt my hardening erection pressing against my zipper. “Had you asked me what I did for a living, had you told me what you did for a living, I would have gladly told you. If Dean or Harper would have said anything, then maybe we would have talked about our jobs and my son when we were introduced.”

I watched her pulse pick up in her neck. The same neck I had licked and sucked and tasted. Sweet. A bit salty from dancing. I wanted my lips there again. I would have my lips there again. I kept talking. “As I remember it, there were a lot of noises….just not a lot of words. In fact, unless we were talking about blow jobs, there wasn’t much talking going on at all.”

She cleared her throat, opened her mouth to say something, and closed it again. “I have a contract with the school. Even if I wanted to see you again,” she held a hand up and looked directly into my eyes, “which I don’t - I couldn’t. It’s not right for me to date a student’s parent.”

“Let me see it.”

“See what?”

“The contract. I want to see it.”

Her eyes narrowed. “Why?”

“Because it’s what I do. I’m a lawyer. Getting people out of contracts without repercussions hitting them is what I do best.”

“You’re a lawyer.” It was part question, part statement, and I smiled at her trepidation. It was adorable. She was adorable. Sexy. Professional. British Accent. She had it all.

I wanted it all from her. I didn’t care that in reality, I dealt with mergers and acquisitions and not union contracts. My gut told me winning Tabby’s heart could be the greatest acquisition I ever made.