He did.
He made her take the examination, naked, and work through every single question. The man knew how to torture.
****
“How is she doing?” Bethany asked on Monday after school.
Jaxson had given Teal’s mother his number when she toldhim she’d be out of town. Glancing around his empty classroom, he felt the anger in his gut. Not at himself, but at Bethany.
Her daughter was home and very clearly fucking struggling with what her parents were doing. Let alone the fact she had just entered into some kind of arrangement with himself, one that so far hadn’t resulted in sex, but had crossed so many lines.
She was legal. He wasn’t pushing this on Teal. They just … connected.
He didn’t see her as forbidden fruit, but as his.
There was no other word for it. The way he felt about Teal, he knew it was wrong on every single level, but how could something that felt so fucking right be wrong?
It was impossible.
“I’m taking care of Teal.”
“I hope she’s not too much trouble.”
“She’s not.”
“No, of course not. She has always been a good girl. I don’t even know why I’m worrying. She’s amazing.” Bethany laughed.
He didn’t find any of this entertaining. From what he could tell, Teal had gotten used to taking care of herself as her parents were always in some kind of drama with each other.
“How are things?” he asked.
“Oh, you know, we’re, er, we’re working through it. I think we’ll come back from this. We have to.”
“Well, I wish you both luck.”
“Thank you, Mr. Rebel. You are a lifesaver. Take care.”
She hung up, and he stared down at his cell phone and blew out a breath.
“Is everything okay?”
He looked up to see Mr. Hitchcock, the principal.
“Yeah, everything is fine.” He shoved his phone intohis pocket and checked the time. Teal would have already left school. She had mentioned to him that morning she needed to go to the library to do some studying. He still had a few assignments to read up on, and also to make a decision about heading back to his old job after this year was complete.
The school was great, and the kids were fine, but he did miss his old classroom and his old students. Not that the students didn’t change year to year, they did.
“I wanted to see how everything is settling in, and how you’re handling the class.”
“Have you had any complaints?” he asked.
“No, no, none at all. I just, you know how it all is. New class. New year. New teacher.”
He forced a smile to his lips. Yes, he did know how it all was. “I’ve got a few things to catch up on and then I’m heading home.”
“Ah, yes, I’m so sorry to bore you, but I was curious about your, er, your living arrangements.”
Jaxson paused. “My living arrangements?”