“I love you,” I whispered. “It feels so wrong not to be able to touch you.”
He took a step forward and I took a step back, until I was pressed to the wall, wedged tight between the paint racks. He took my hands in his and placed them on his chest, and I moved them, slipped them under his jacket with a moan. I could feel his skin, hot through his shirt, the familiar bulk of him, every ripple of his body, and mine came alive, wanting and needing and fluttering until my legs had parted for his and the heat of him was against me.
He pressed his hands to the wall over my head like a barrier. “We can’t,” he said, and his breath was ragged. “It’s too risky.”
But I couldn’t stop, my hands snaked around his waist, down to his ass, where I pulled him closer, and my mouth was at his neck, breathing him in.
“Helen… we can’t.” But his eyes didn’t match his words, and with a groan his lips met mine, and opened. His tongue pushed deep, and his heart was pounding against mine. His fingers slid between me and the wall, and cupped my ass, before snaking under the hem of my skirt. I moaned when he hit bare skin, and his palms ghosted up my thighs. His thumbs hooked inside my knickers and I sucked in breath.
And then there was noise, the familiar creak of the door.
“Mark? Mark, are you in here?”
Heels clacking on tiles, and I was reeling, awkward, adjusting my clothes as the footsteps came nearer. Mark, too, smoothing his skirt back down and pulling his jacket closed to hide the swell in his crotch. He turned around, but his elbow caught the fixant cans and they went tumbling. I shrieked as they clattered to the floor, and Mark stepped away from me, stepping over them and catching one with his heel.
Miss Monkton’s voice was loud. “Mark?”
And then she saw me. Her eyes met mine and moved right the way up and down, taking in the scene. My cheeks were on fire. Burning me alive.
“Miss Monkton.” Mark’s voice was cheerful, but his breath was short. “I wasn’t expecting you. Helen and I were just looking for the paint thinner. I thought I’d grabbed the pesky thing, but seemingly I’d grabbed everything but.”
His garbled words didn’t help my self-consciousness.
“I wanted a word with you,” she said. “In private.”
That was my cue, and I took it, slipping past Mark with my blazer hugged tight. I shot Miss Monkton a smile but didn’t dare meet her eyes, then bundled up my things and headed the crap out of there.
“I’ll see you later, Mr Roberts.”
“Yes, Helen, indeed.”
***
Mark
The horrible fear was teetering on the edge, threatening to consume me, but I kept my head.
“How can I help, Jenny?”
She was pulling a face, a puzzled face, and she was troubled. Her stance made it obvious, the fold of her arms, too. She took a couple of steps forward and looked to the door as it creaked shut behind Helen.
“Mark, what was going on there?”
My blood ran cold. “Going on?”
She sighed. “You know the girl has… feelings for you. You’re putting yourself in danger being that close to her.”
I could feel the pulse in my temples. “We were trying to find paint thinner, Jenny, like I said. Things toppled.”
“It was more than that,” she hissed. “Mark, I’m your friend, I don’t want to see your career suffer because of some silly schoolgirl crush. She likes you, she’ll be looking for any sign, any sign at all that this is more. Don’t give her any. Hell, Mark, she’ll be the ruin of you if you’re not more careful.”
Oh the irony. It made my stomach flip.
“Helen understands our professional relationship. She’s never crossed any lines.”
“Yet, Mark, yet. Her whole demeanour was provocative, she was burning up.”
“She’s always flushed.”
She raised her eyebrows. “Always?”
I shrugged. “Jenny I appreciate your concern…”
“Jesus, Mark, the girl’s not as innocent as she looks, open your bloody eyes, man!”
Her outburst took both of us aback, and she pressed a hand over her mouth as I startled. I stooped to the floor, picking up the toppled cans with my heart in my throat.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I just don’t want to see this happen to you, you’re a good teacher. A good man.”
“Nothing’s going to happen to me, Jenny,” I said. “Helen’s got her feet on the ground, she knows the boundaries.”
I felt like such a horrible bastard for denying everything, but all my thoughts were for Helen.
Jenny was shaking her head. “I can’t let this happen to you, Mark. I’m going to have to speak with Kenneth, let him know we need to put some precautions in place around that girl.”
“Precautions?!”
“She’s unstable, Mark. After the winter ball, that scene with Harry Sawbridge, and now this… You shouldn’t be alone with her. For your own sake. It’s not professional.”