Seeing the hot teacher who crept into her dreams last night, she couldn’t help herself not to wave bye at the lunch money goblin with a smile. “Have a nice day!”
Thank God. She really needed to start praying again, considering the way things were perfectly working out. She thought she was going to have to manage to find a way to bump into him again.
Grinning, he seemed to be pleasantly surprised. “What are you doing here?”
“I forgot to add money to Leo’s account yesterday.” Lying effortlessly was something she made into a personality trait. She then raised an eyebrow curiously. “How did you manage to find me so fast?”
“I was going for my lunch break when I heard a group of boys talking about a gorgeous blonde in the cafeteria.”
A slow smile came back to her lips. “Are those your words, Mr. Evans, or theirs?”
“Well, I thought I’d spare you from the exact vocabulary they used.” Kayne laughed. “But, don’t worry; the students who were mine, now have to write me a thousand-word essay on what feminism actually means.”
“Wow.” Well, shit, I knew I liked him. “Does writing papers usually work on your students?”
“Unfortunately, not as much as I’d like. But it did work on your brother, Nero.”
“It did?”
“Yes.” He nodded. “The point of my essays aren’t to judge how well a writer you are, but rather that you learned or gained something from writing it. I was pleasantly surprised when he wrote a paper about falling in love with Elle.”
“Nero?” Her brother who had practically banged his way through the whole school?
Pure laughter escaped her throat. Jeez, my brothers really are fucking cursed.
“I am going to give him so much crap when I get home.” Wiping away a half-fallen tear, she thought about how she would give her entire shoe collection to her worst enemy to read that paper.
“I suppose that’s why I was pleasantly surprised myself,” he told her, as if he could read her mind. “How is Elle doing, by the way?”
“She’s really good, actually, taking as many writing classes as the university will give her.”
“Glad to hear it. She’s very gifted.” Kayne turned to look at her from where they were walking. “Are you in college, Maria?”
“Yes. I graduate in May with a Bachelor’s in Business.” She supposed she should feel bad for skipping a class at the moment but staring into the molten gold of his eyes, she didn’t regret a thing.
“Any plans once you graduate?”
She had plans, but they were unattainable. “I don’t know yet, but I’ll figure it out.”
“I’m sure you will,” he agreed with a smile. “Your father owns the casino hotel downtown, correct?”
“Yes ….” Knowing where he was going with that, she continued, “But I don’t think he wants me working for him.”
Kayne nodded after a moment. “Well, I’m sure your father has his reasonings.”
Yeah, I don’t have a peni—
“Listen, I’m curious if you’d be interested in volunteering for the homecoming dance next Saturday. We’re short on volunteer—”
“Yes!” Maria blurted, probably a bit too quick on the draw. “I’d love to.”
“Great.” Kayne was clearly amused by her response.
Checking the time on his watch, the gleam in his eyes slowly vanished. “Well, I better let you go. See you soon, Ms. Caruso.”
Christ. It was everything Maria could do not to ask for his number in front of the whole school. She’d had men tell her they would drink her bath water, for fuck’s sake, yet she wasn’t asking out a man with a possible girlfriend under any circumstances.
Is this what girls feel like on a regular basis around guys who don’t take the fucking hint? She didn’t know what dying felt like, but this had to be pretty freakin’ close.
“Have a good day, Kayne.”
“You, too. And Maria?” He waited for her heels to stop clicking from her walking away—the gleam in his eyes slowly returned. “Go easy on Nero. Men can do crazy things when they’re in love.”
Managing a nod and not asking if they were going to fuck already after that comment, she left with a gleam of her own. “No promises.”
Maria made her way through the halls quickly, wanting to leave and not trusting the fact that she wouldn’t go back and make a fool of herself.
“Are you trying to get me fucking killed, Maria?” a furious but sweet and also unfortunately dumb as rocks Todd asked once she exited the pretentious building.
“Of course not.” It’d be like training a new puppy all over again.
Walking over to the bench, she lightly grazed the back of her fingers over his rough cheek from his five o’clock shadow that appeared to have grown while she was in there. “I’ve told you: what Lucca doesn’t know won’t hurt you.”
Dropping her fingers as quickly as she placed them upon him, she flipped her infamous switch. “Come on.”