His hands grasped my waist and I was helpless but to drift closer to him and kiss him back. His tongue swiped over the seam of my lips, and I allowed him access. I let him touch me, I let him pull the strap to my tank down, and I let him press his tongue against mine.
It was wrong. More wrong than anything, but I couldn’t help remembering his words in my classroom. He’d been talking about the novel I’d assigned to read in class, but it made me wonder if he thought the same. Who was anyone to say what was right or wrong? Who decided what was acceptable or not? Because right then, with my lips pressed against his and his rough palm tracing the skin of my shoulder and the side of my neck, I didn’t think it was wrong.
I was his aunt. He was my nephew, and—
I pushed him away, my eyes widening. “No!” I wasn’t sure what he was going to do, so I darted up and over the back of the sofa, needing to put more space between us. “We shouldn’t have done that.” I wiped my arm over my lips and stared at him. “That won’t happen again.”
“Why?” Carter asked, standing up slowly. “You know you wanted it as much as I did.”
“I don’t care.” I shook my head and backed away, my back colliding with the wall. “I’m your aunt, it’s...it’s not right.”
He stared at me, his eyes narrowing, but he didn’t say a word, not that I gave him a chance because I twirled around and ran into my room, scared if I stayed any longer of what I’d do.
Chapter Seven
The kiss had branded my lips and still burned days later. I couldn’t get the feel of Carter’s lips off mine, no matter how much I scrubbed at them. Maybe it was my body’s way of making sure I didn’t forget how wrong it was, or maybe it was something else. Some higher power warning me against—
“Skylar?”
I squealed at the voice and spun around, nearly knocking myself off-kilter with how fast I’d turned. I’d been pacing the front of my classroom, knowing I’d have to teach Carter again today. I’d managed to avoid him for four days, only having to sit in the car with him to and from school. I’d not acknowledged him when he’d turned up to my Monday class and paid more attention than anyone else.
But today...there was something different about today. I wanted to see his face. I craved to know if he was looking at me. I wondered if he still thought about the illicit kiss, or whether he was unfazed by it, because I knew I wasn’t. It was all I could think about, which was the only excuse I had for agreeing to go to dinner with my mom tonight. At least it would get me out of the house and away from Carter for a few hours.
“Hey, Guy.” My lips twitched when I thought about Carter laughing at his name, but I managed to keep my features schooled. “Sorry, my mind was a million miles away.”
He chuckled easily, but there was something about the casual way he leaned against my open door that didn’t seem so casual. “I was just coming by to apologize for my behavior last week.” He cleared his throat and darted his eyes around the room. “It was wrong of me to judge Carter so harshly, and I’d...I’d like to make it up to you. How does Saturday night sound?”
I’d blown him off last weekend, but this was the perfect excuse to be out of the house and to also get my mind off Carter. Guy and I were dating, which meant it was him I should have been kissing, not my nephew. Damn, I couldn’t believe that thought was an actual thought.
“I’d like that,” I told him, smiling gently and skirting my eyes away from him as the bell rang out in the halls. “Pick me up at seven?”
Students started to trickle into the classroom and Guy moved farther into the room, his shoulders relaxed and his lips were pulled up into a smile, but it dropped the second Carter entered the room. Gone was his relaxed demeanor, and in its place one I’d never seen from him before.
I frowned, wondering whether I was seeing things, but it was gone after a couple of seconds as Guy said, “See you then.” He shot a wink my way, but it didn’t have the same effect Carter’s had. It didn’t make my stomach drop and my hands shake. It made me feel...nothing.
My gaze flicked to Carter as Guy walked out of the classroom, and his stare was directly on mine. I wasn’t sure what he was thinking from this far away, but the tilt of his head and the smirk he gave me told me I was doing the right thing. Butterflies took flight in my stomach, and I knew I couldn’t be alone with Carter, not unless I wanted to cross a line I’d never be able to come back from.
Chapter Eight
One rule I always had was to never set an alarm for Saturday. It was the day I allowed myself to sleep in, to have a few more hours of the thing I loved most in this world: sleep. Every day of the week, I woke early, but this one day was my reward for all of those mornings.
I rolled over and groaned at the sunlight streaming into the room. It was harsh and brought the promise of a beautiful day, but it was not what I wanted to see when I first opened my eyes.
Instead of lying in bed for another hour and thinking and doing nothing, I pushed myself up and shuffled out of my bedroom door and into the kitchen. I needed coffee, a strong one at that. I blinked several times and rubbed at my eyes, needing to actually see to make the coffee, but I’d left my glasses on my bedside table and I couldn’t be bothered to take the twenty steps back to my bedroom.
“Mornin’,” a gruff voice said.
“Coffee,” I managed to groan out. It was too early to think about the man standing in my kitchen, and definitely too early to stop myself staring at his exposed chest. What kind of eighteen-year-old was ripped like that anyway? Did he take steroids to look like that? Or was it natural?
“It’s natural, baby,” Carter said, and I reared my head back. Did I just— “Say that out loud?” He leaned against the counter, a bowl of cereal balanced on one palm of his hand, and his spoon halfway to his mouth. “Yep, you did.”
“Ugh, it’s too early to even think about this conversation right now.” I shuffled over to the coffee machine my mother had bought me for my birthday and squinted my eyes at it. Maybe I should have gone back for my glasses after all. Several huffs and puffs later, and I still couldn’t make out the words.
“Need some help there?” Carter asked, only now he was much, much closer. His cologne drifted around me, wrapping me up in a cozy blanket, just like the one on the sofa did. His front pressed against my back and I shivered at the contact. I was blaming my lack of coffee for not pulling away. That was the only reason I leaned slightly into him.
“I left my glasses on the bedside table,” I whispered, afraid to talk too loud with him so close by.
“What do you want?” he asked, his voice also lower. His hand cupped my exposed shoulder and then he trailed it down my arm and to my hand where he gripped it and held it up to the touchscreen of the machine.