Forbidden Fruit: Volume 1 (17 page)

Chapter
Eight

Marcus

I stared at a contract for a hotel McMillan Holdings was purchasing from a competitor in New York for four hours. Work was where I excelled. Law school got me through my break up with Emma and my anger with her for taking my dad’s money to have an abortion. Work got me through my mother’s suicide and revelation of my dad’s philandering ways. Work got me through the days when I re-appeared back in Emma’s life and found out I had a son and my dad was the biggest prick in the world for lying to me and Emma.

Work was not getting me through the memory of watching Tabby walk away from me. Her pained eyes and face full of fear that appeared as soon as we saw the dipshit Principal. Every time I blinked, her pale face and doe-like, scared eyes flashed in front of me. I hadn’t slept in days. The pain in my chest refused to disappear no matter how hard I rubbed it. I couldn’t wrap my head around my intense feelings for Tabby. She was gorgeous and amazing in bed, but I wasn’t thinking about that while I sat at my desk staring over contracts I could prepare in my sleep, yet now unable to think of a single word.

It was her smile. It was the eyes that lit up when she laughed and the little lines that appeared at the edges of her eyes that told me she laughed often. It was the way her fingers could reach over and wipe a trail down my arm, chest, and cheek, or run through my hair. And every single time, it felt like it was the first time I was ever being touched by a woman.

It was her sass. Her humor. Her ability to take blow jobs – shots – without hands and drink down every last drop. It was the purple shade she turned when embarrassed, and the way her cheeks flushed pink after an orgasm. It was the way she always smiled and laughed when talking about her students, as if being a kindergarten teacher was the most amazing profession in the history of professions.

It was simply all of it. Every thought, every moment, spent with Tabby over the last six weeks was firmly ingrained in my memory like it’d been carved in stone.

I loved her. And in the three days since I had let her walk away from me, I hadn’t heard a single word from her. She was gone. And somehow I knew, if I continued to wait for her, I would never see her again.

Which would not do.

“Margaret,” I spoke into the speaker leading out to one of the assistant’s desk. “Will you please call Emma and tell her I’ll pick Logan up from school today?”

“Mr. Whitmore? You’re going to get Logan?”

I scowled into the intercom at her shocked voice. So it wasn’t like me to take a half day off work. This was more important.

Tabby was more important.

After Logan, she was everything. I would do anything for her. And the last thing I was going to let her do was stay working for that leering greasy principal, Mr. Morgenson.

“Phone call, Margaret.”

“As you wish,” she sighed through the phone. I made a mental note to find a secretary in the near future who wasn’t either calcifying at the desk in our lobby or reciting
The Princess Bride
lines every time she spoke.

~*~*~*~

My pulse thumped wildly in my chest when I pulled into Logan’s school parking lot thirty minutes before school ended for the day. I could see my future, see Tabby with me and Logan on pizza and game nights, laughing with us, curled up next to me on my couch while I swung an arm around her shoulder and laughed as Logan went ballistic over his Lego people video games. It was just out of my grasp. I felt if I reached far enough, I could grab it. I could grab Tabby and plant her in my apartment and never let her leave. If that happened, the pain in my chest might finally settle.

Seeing the future I wanted, I climbed out of my Lexus SUV and rubbed my clammy palms together.
I was sweating more than I did when I asked Sally Decker to the eighth grade Valentine’s Day dance. I stood outside Logan’s school, waiting for the secretary to buzz me into the secured building before heading straight for the front office.

“I’m here to see Jerry Morgenson,” I told the older woman politely.

“I’m sorry, he’s gone for the day.” Her head tilted to the side and she smiled. I noticed a slight gap in her teeth before she continued. “Is there something I can help you with?”

“No,” I told her, pulling the visitor sign-in sheet in front of me and scribbling my information down. I smacked a white sticker on my chest that had ‘visitor’ printed in bold block letters on it. “I’m here to pick up my son, Logan, from Miss Malloy’s class.”

“Oh,” she said, and looked visibly nervous. Or terrified. Perhaps it was the angry scowl etched on my face that scared her. “Miss Malloy is no longer a teacher here. Her position was terminated Monday, effective immediately. We sent notes home with the students…”

I was out the door while she was still talking. This was bad. Fucking horrible. How had I screwed this up for Tabby? No wonder why I hadn’t heard from her. She probably never wanted to see me again. Halfway down the hall to Logan’s classroom, I dialed Emma on my phone and growled into the speaker as soon as I heard her voice.

“What are you doing with Logan?” she asked, her voice a mixture of shock and confusion.

“Why didn’t you tell me Tabby wasn’t his teacher anymore?” I snapped back.

“I….Tabby…” she gasped into the phone. If I was in the room, I would see her playing with her blonde hair. I knew the instant her smirk appeared. “Tell me you didn’t screw the teacher, Marcus.”

Yes, of course I did! “Shit,” I grumbled into the phone, and pushed my hair back with my free hand. I fell against a wall of lockers outside Logan’s classroom. “Fuck Emma, I totally messed this up.”

She laughed. I was freaking out, and Emma, the mother of my child, had the audacity to laugh – loudly - at me.

“You’re not helping,” I growled, and closed my eyes. Now what in the hell was I supposed to do?

“I’m sorry, Marcus. I’m totally pissed at you for this. Logan loves Miss Malloy and he’s been talking all week long about the smelly old teacher he has now. And it’s all your fault, isn’t it?”

“Probably, I just….haven’t met anyone like her.” I smacked my hand against my head as soon as I said that. I was talking to my ex-girlfriend, the woman I had loved for years, for crying out loud. I expected awkward silence. I didn’t get it. Of course I wouldn’t. Not from Emma. Her heart is four sizes larger than any other person I had met in my life.

“You really like her.” A statement, not a question.

“I love her, Emma. I know it’s…shit, I know it’s quick. I know we barely know each other -”

“I get it,” she said softly. I could imagine her slightly crooked smile through the phone. “Fix it.”

I nodded. “I will. I’ll get Logan to you soon.”

We said our good-bye’s, and right as the buzzer sounded, indicating the school day was over, I was hanging up with Dean, securing Tabby’s address. What a prick I’d been for the last few weeks. I hadn’t even been to her house to pick her up. She always came to mine so her roommate didn’t see us. But now I wished we’d started things differently from the beginning. Taken the time to date. Taken the time to truly figure out if her contract was legal or if there was a way we could be together and not have it be some secret that was bound to blow up in our faces.

Chapter
Nine

Tabby

“Mom.” My hands tightened around my phone. If I held it any tighter I was afraid it would snap. But my mom could be completely exasperating. “I told you, I’ll figure it out.”

I looked around the small bedroom that looked like a hurricane had arrived and I’d forgotten to board up the windows. Stuff was thrown everywhere.

“It’s just a job, I’ll find a new one.”

“I think you should move home. Chicago isn’t a proper city for someone like you.” If I was standing in front of her, she’d be peering down her nose at me, looking at me through her designer bifocals. “Chuck misses you, he told me the other day when I ran into him at the market.”

I rolled my eyes and bit back my groan. I already knew what was coming next. “Come home, Tabitha, and find a nice young man to marry.”

I had one, I thought, and not for the first time that week a pain sliced through my chest. I was walking away from him again. Everything had gotten so screwed up, so muddled in hiding Marcus from everyone, that I had never taken the time to realize what the fallout from our relationship would be. Walking away from my kids on Monday when the school got a substitute teacher lined up in record timing was hard enough. Hugging them good-bye was painful. Seeing Logan with tears in his eyes as he kissed my cheek almost broke me.

I loved Logan. If a teacher was allowed to play favorites, he would be mine. Even before I met Marcus, I loved Logan. My mum wouldn’t understand any of it. She assumed I followed Chuck to the States for an incredible opportunity and he was going to care for me forever. If I wanted to live in the slums and be supported by a part-time pot dealer, part-time freeloader, Chuck was the perfect guy. If only my mum could see past his parents, who totally kicked ass, they’d see him for who he was. A complete and utter loser that I was happy to be free of.

“I need to go, Mum,” I told her again. She sighed, exasperated with the daughter she didn’t understand. My mum was the world’s best homemaker. She simply thought it was what all women wanted and never understood my desire – my need – to have my own career.

I clicked my phone shut and tossed it onto my bed, taking in the mess. I don’t know how long I stared at the pile of clothes and mess of books all over my bed when I jumped at the sound of a large thumping on my apartment door, followed by the voice of someone shouting my name.

“Tabby!” Came the yell again as I walked to the door, recognizing the voice immediately.

I took a deep breath, steeling myself for what I knew stood behind my thin wooden door with three different locks on them. As I undid each lock, each click forced the feeling of tension and nervousness to the surface.

“Hey.” I sounded lame when I slowly opened the door. Marcus had one arm braced high on the doorframe. His large, lean frame towered over me, and without the advantage of high heels, I had to tilt my head up to see him. He dipped his head and his blonde, wavy hair fell in front of his cheeks. I wanted to reach out and smooth his hair back, and I felt my fingers twitching at my sides.

“Did you think I wouldn’t find out?” he snapped. He was angry with me? I startled at his serious tone and took a step back, surprised. The move allowed him to enter my apartment easily and he slammed the door shut behind him.

“Did you think I wouldn’t find out you were fired?”

What? “I wasn’t-” I started, but he didn’t let me finish.

“I’ll fix this for you, Tabby. I won’t have you losing your job over me.”

“Marcus -”

He walked toward me, still talking and not giving me a chance to explain. “I’ve been going crazy without you, Tabby. I went to the school today to talk to your principal to figure out a way for us to be together, and was told you were no longer employed. Logan is heartbroken and watching his eyes get teary-eyed when he told me how much he missed you almost broke my heart.”

“Marcus -” I said, softer this time. He kept walking until he closed the space between us.

“Hearing that you got fired over
me
almost broke my heart.” His lifted his hand and cupped my cheek, but he kept on talking. My body warmed at his touch, but I was so confused. He had it all wrong. “We’ll hire whatever attorneys we need to fight your contract, to get you back to doing what I know you love to do, but we’ll do it with me at your side this time, not with you running from me like you did this week.” He rested his head on my forehead. I felt like my head was spinning again. I couldn’t open my mouth to speak except to say his name again.

Which he ignored, again.

“This is going to sound insane, and I know this. I’ve only known you a couple of months. I’ve been with you even less, but I’m falling in love with you Tabby, and whatever you need, whatever we need to do to be together, I’ll do it.”

Oh my god. He didn’t say that. Did he just say what I think he did?

“I…”

“I should have done this right the first time. I shouldn’t have pushed you into a relationship with me knowing it would cost you your job.” He wrapped his other hand around the back of my neck and tilted my head to see him. I was inches from him, and he smelled delicious. “I’m so sorry I did that to you, but I’ll do whatever I can to make this right for you. I’ll wait. I’ll wait until the end of the year when Logan is no longer your student if I have to. Just say you’ll be mine.”

“I wasn’t fired,” I spit it out quickly so I wouldn’t be interrupted again. It rolled off my lips like iwasn’tfired.

Marcus narrowed his eyes and then he frowned. “What? I went to your school and they said you were no longer a teacher.”

“I wasn’t fired. I quit.”

His hands fell. My skin cooled from the loss of contact with him. “Why?” I couldn’t read him. Was he angry with me again? “Why would you quit and walk away from your job? You loved it, didn’t you?”

I nodded. “I did. But I hated Jerry.” I took a deep breath. This was embarrassing. Humiliating. The entire experience with my meeting with Jerry on Monday had left me rattled and questioning everything about myself. Everything about how people – men – saw me. But Marcus’s words spun in circles through my mind.
I’m falling in love with you.
So I took another deep breath, felt myself grow brave as I looked into the blue eyes of the man who had just admitted he was falling in love with me, and realized he would protect me. He would keep me safe, and he wouldn’t think what happened on Monday was my fault. He wouldn’t believe that about me. For the first time in my life, I trusted someone.

I moved away from Marcus and walked further into my small living room. Marcus stood straight up, shoving his hands in his coat pockets.

“Jerry hit on me,” I paused, rubbing the back of my neck. I watched Marcus’s eyes flash. “That’s not exactly true. He propositioned me. Told me that if I ended my relationship with you, and um…..pleased him….he wouldn’t take our relationship in front of the board for my dismissal.”

Marcus growled. I had never heard such a feral sound in my life, except for maybe the National Geographic channel when they showed lions ripping their prey to shreds. “He did what?”

“It wasn’t the first time.”

“He’s dead.”

“He’s no longer my boss. I allowed it before because this was my first teaching job in the States, and I have yet to get a permanent Visa. I was worried if I lost my job I’d have to leave, and I don’t want to go back to England. But on Monday, he was more…persistent than before.”

“Did he touch you?” Marcus snapped as he wrapped his hands around my biceps. His strong hands gripped my arms powerfully, almost painfully. I wasn’t afraid of him, though. He was protecting me and knowing that made a warmth spread in my lower belly. I raised my hands to his chest, wishing I could feel his muscles and heated skin through his winter coat.

“He tried,” I whispered. “But he didn’t. I punched him in the face.”

“You…you punched him?” If I wasn’t mistaken, he sounded slightly amused.

“In the nose. I think I broke it. And I quit.”

“You…? How?”

I needed to feel him more than I could through his thick winter coat. This was what I wanted. Marcus. Logan. I wanted it all. And as I watched his face in pure shock at what I’d done, I also saw what I imagined was pride. I couldn’t stop myself. I unbuttoned his coat and pulled out of Marcus’s grip on my arms so I could push the sleeves down his arms.

“Why didn’t you call me?” he asked as I began undoing the buttons on his shirt. I pulled it up and out of his black dress pants.

“I needed some time to figure out my next step. Figure out what I was going to do about a job.” I shook the dark thoughts out of my head. “I’ve never had someone believe in me. Not when I needed it. No one has ever stood beside me, and I was afraid. Afraid you wouldn’t believe me…”

“Listen to me.” His deep voice rumbled over me. He gripped my chin with his fingers and thumb and pulled me to face him. “I will always believe you.”

“I know,” I whispered. “I can tell. I’m sorry I didn’t go to you first, I wanted to.” I pushed his dress shirt off his shoulders. My eyes fell to his chest and his skin and his toned stomach muscles with the faint line of blond hair that I knew dipped down into his dress pants. I trailed the line of soft hair with a fingertip and watched Marcus’s abs tighten and release.  I felt my own body grow warm and needy just staring at the incredibly sexy man in front of me. I pressed my thighs together to quell the urge building inside of me. “I just needed to get my head on straight first. I was going to call.”

“Is it straight yet?”

“What?” I asked, right as he slid his hands to my cheek and pulled my body against him.

“Is your head on straight yet?”

I nodded. “I think so.”

“Thank fuck,” he whispered, right before his lips crashed into mine. His fingertips dug into my scalp like he couldn’t get me close enough. I grabbed his waist and I
knew
I couldn’t get close enough to him.

“Marcus,” I moaned against his lips when he pulled away from me, pushing me backward toward my furniture. “You said….you said -”

“I know what I said. I haven’t ever felt this way.” His hands dug into the back of my scalp, pulling on my hair. “Do you feel it?”

I nodded, then I turned and pushed him down onto the couch and watched his grin widen. “I feel it,” I whispered, and knelt in front of him, undoing his belt, and gripped his hard and heavy cock in my hand. He watched me from half-closed eyes, lips parted, and his breathing was short and unsteady. “I feel the same way,” I said quietly, before I pulled him into my mouth.

My lips closed around his head and my tongue swirled around the sensitive flesh. I loved the way he tasted. Salty, masculine, and completely mine. I knew it immediately. I knew it the moment he walked into my apartment, filling the space with his confidence and everything that made Marcus, Marcus.

I dipped my head down, taking him further, when suddenly he gripped me under my arms and pulled me onto his lap.

“I need to be in you, feeling you. I’m not coming in your mouth.”

Sounded just fine to me. I let him quickly shove my yoga pants down to my hips. His strong fingers went to my lace underwear and he ripped it at the crotch. I felt myself grow wet, soaking wet, at the uncontrolled move. And then his hands went to my hips. He raised me above his erection and I reached down, fitting him inside me.

“Yes,” he moaned.

I moved slowly down the length of him, teasing him. I grinned when he opened his eyes to watch me. Both of us watched my body move slowly down him, and then I pulled up until just the tip was pressing into me. His fingers tensed against my hip, but he didn’t do anything when I rolled my hips against the tip of his erection. I gripped his shoulders and pushed myself down on him as hard as I could.

We both swore. It hurt, but felt oh so damn good at the same time.

“Harder,” he groaned, so I did. Then Marcus took control. He pulled me up and pressed me down at the same time his hips bucked underneath me. It was fast and hard and powerful. And it didn’t last long. My orgasm began boiling in my spine, moved to my stomach, and then my body heated and began trembling as we rocked against my roommate’s nasty leather couch, which had probably seen way too many nights like this, but I didn’t care.

“Marcus-”

“Tab-”

We shouted each other’s names at the same time, and I opened my eyes just enough to see Marcus’s jaw pulled tight. He pressed his lips to my breasts, sucking my nipple into his mouth while he played with my other nipple with his fingers. He tugged and nipped and when he twisted a nipple in his hand and bit down on my other, I released everything I felt for him. I screamed and watched him pound his hard dick inside me before he pulled me down on him.

My head fell to his forehead, and we sat there panting, his arms holding me safely around my waist and my back, until our breathing settled.

“Tell me you love me.” His lips ran along my shoulder. Not kissing me, just light grazing my skin.

“I love you,” I whispered against his temple, breathing in his ear at the same time. His hands on my back tightened and he pulled me completely against him. My eyes closed in a sleepy, post orgasmic daze.