Crazy in Love (Lovestruck Series) (5 page)

I don’t recognize the local number but answer anyway. “Hello?”

“Hi, old man. This is Bailey calling for Reagan.”

Fuck it all to hell.

“Sure, hold on,” I say before offering the phone to Reagan, who went back to standing against the cabinet. “It’s for you.”

“Oh,” she replies with a wrinkle of confusion between her eyebrows. “Ohhh,” she repeats when she takes the phone, apparently remembering the asshole from earlier.

“Hi, Bailey,” she says into the phone with a smile on her face. My heart sinks in my chest because however much I hate the dickhead, he’s not her teacher that’s obsessed with her. He’s just a normal guy that she deserves to make her happy.  Besides, I’m still technically a married man with baggage.

“Okay, I’ll see you then,” she says before hanging up and reaching out to give me my phone back. “Thanks.”

“Plans later?” I can’t help but ask.

“Yeah. I mean, usually I wouldn’t, but it’s one of those days where I feel like I should say yes to everything, you know?” she asks.

Fuck. I’ve missed my opening.

“Right. Well, have fun.”

“Thanks. Are you sure you’ll be okay here?” she asks.

“Of course. They should discharge me soon,” I tell her while my inner douchebag is angry that I didn’t insist that she stay. Two weeks is all that’s left of the semester and then she’ll be gone. “See you Tuesday, unless you decide to come by my office tomorrow morning.”

“Depends on how late my night runs,” Reagan says before slapping a hand over her mouth. I don’t know who is more surprised by her statement, me or her since I didn’t take her for the kind of girl who puts out on the first date. And I don’t like it.

“Right,” I reply, clearing my throat before I beg her to stay. “Have a good night.”   

Reagan

I take a deep breath as I clear the curtain and walk away from my professor, who I nearly attacked. Even now my feet don’t want to leave him. I have to force their movements to the exit where a very cute guy is waiting for me; one who saves lives for a living and looks like he lifts cars in his free time to beef up his biceps.

“Hey, beautiful,” Bailey says as soon as I step through the automatic doors. I spin around looking for him, finally spotting him sitting on a bench to my right. His legs are spread wide, arms stretched over the backrest. He looks scrumptious in his uniform with the top few buttons undone. Yet, I don’t feel the same impulse to jump on him and shove my tongue in his mouth or his cock in my…

“Hey, Bailey,” I reply, sounding out of breath from the ridiculous thoughts taking over the rational thinking of my brain.

He gets to his feet and holds out his hand for me to take. When my skin touches his, there are no sparks either. Jeez, so maybe he
isn’t
the man of my dreams. How depressing is that? A whole day gone, and I’m still a lonely virgin.

“So, do you want to grab some dinner, or we could pick up a movie and head back to my place?” he asks as we walk toward the side of the building where the sign says, “Employee Only Parking.”

What the hell do I do now? Turn him down? Go with him and see if sparks suddenly appear? I need to talk to Josie.

“Actually, do you mind if I use your phone to call my roommate? She’s probably waiting for my call to come pick me up, and I don’t want her to worry,” I tell him when the excuse comes to me. And, yeah, it’s a little white lie since Josie doesn’t live with me and has probably been too busy with her boyfriend to worry about me and my professor’s near death experience.

“Yeah, no problem, babe,” Bailey replies with a smile before slipping his phone from his pocket and handing it to me. “I’ll just wait by my truck. It’s the big red one,” he tells me before he walks away.

Stepping over to the side of the building, I dial up Josie whose number I know by heart. It rings so many times that I figure it’s getting ready to click over to voicemail when she answers, sounding like she’s running on a treadmill.

“Reagan? Can I…call you back…in like…ten minutes?” she asks, and then I hear Lawson in the background shout, “Thirty!”
             

“No, this can’t wait,” I tell her. “Quit playing hide the sausage with your boy and answer a few questions.”

“Are you still at the hospital?” she asks, sounding less distracted.

“Uh-huh. So tell me quickly, how did you know Lawson was the one? Did a light shine down from the heavens or…or did the angels sing?”

Josie laughs in my ear. “Well, Lawson was sort of an asshole to me at first,” she says, which causes the man in question to scoff in the background. “But as soon as I saw him, I thought he was the hottest man on the face of the Earth.”

“Damn right,” Lawson adds.

“Okay, so you only had eyes for him. Got it. Anything else?”

“Hmmm. Let me think. Lawson, what did you think when you first saw me that day in your garage?”

“That I wanted to fuck you,” I hear him say, making Josie laugh.

“I’m serious,” she tells him.

“I am too. I
really
wanted to fuck you. Oh, and my dick was so hard I forgot I even had a girlfriend or her name.”

Josie laughs again. “Did you hear that? He’s so helpful,” she says to me.

“Yeah, so you thought he was crazy hot, and he was super horny. Got it.”

“Pretty much. If he hadn’t eventually remembered he had a girlfriend and told me about her, I probably would’ve fucked him right there in the garage those first five minutes. I mean, my panties went up in flames!”

“So you had fire crotch going on?” I ask with a giggle.

“Uh-huh. Oh, how’s Professor McHottie doing? Still breathing?” she asks.

“Yeah, he should be able to go home soon. And do you remember the hot EMT? Well, he wants me to go home with him. What should I do?”

“Ooh. He was nice and buff –” she starts, and Lawson interrupts with, “Who was buff?”

“I’m just not sure if he’s the one, you know?”

“Hmm,” she mutters. “Well, if you have any doubts about going back to his place and your instant reaction wasn’t to jump his bones, then he may not be the one.”

“Nope, pretty much all afternoon I’ve been thinking about jumping my professor –” I gasp as the realization hits me.

No way.

It can’t be.

He’s my teacher and way out of my league…but the craving for pineapple, our collision, the psychic saying I would find true love as I turn a new corner in my life all add up to him.

“Oh my God, Josie! He’s the one!”

“Who? Your professor?” she asks. “You think
he’s
your soulmate?”

“Think about it. The whole clusterfuck of earlier could clearly rival yours with losing the car door,” I tell her. “And how many times this semester have I told you how freakin’ hot he is?”

“Sheesh. I think you may be right,” she replies before she starts laughing. “Hey, Lawson. Remember the professor I told you Reagan almost killed? Now she’s gotta try to fuck him within a week!”

“That’s helpful,” I grumble as I try to figure out what to say to Bailey. The more I think about it, the more I’m certain that the man I’m supposed to be with tonight is Professor Daughton.
Gage
. Hell, even his name is so sexy it makes me nearly come via spontaneous orgasm. At least it’s dark in my little corner so no one can see my nipples that have put on the high beams since I’m not wearing a bra. I hate those bastards and refuse to smoosh my girls into such a painful contraption.

“Okay, well, I guess I have my answer, so let me go break the news to Bailey.”

“Who’s Bailey?”

“Oh, the buff EMT.”

“Right. So do you need a ride?” she asks.

…

Gage

After I’m finally given the all clear, it’s pitch black outside when I walk out the front entrance. Other than ambulances, there are no other cars or taxis, for that matter. Just a great big parking lot. Wonderful.

I’ve just set up the ride on my Uber app when I hear her voice.

Reagan
.

I’ve maybe only heard her say a handful of things before today, but I would recognize her soft-spoken, sweet words anywhere.

“Okay, well, I guess I have my answer, so let me go break the news to Bailey…Oh, the buff EMT.”

What is she still doing here?

I’m powerless to stop my legs from carrying me around the side of the building, closer to her voice. And there she is, standing in the darkness on a cell phone. Hold on, I thought she didn’t have a phone.

“Gotta go, Josie. Yeah, I’ll call you back,” Reagan says into the phone while her eyes stay locked on mine.

“You shouldn’t be out here alone,” I tell her.

“Oh. Well, I’m not,” she says. “Bailey let me use his phone. He’s waiting for me…”

I don’t know what possesses me to do it. Anger. Jealousy. Desperation. Whatever it is, I close the space between us and jerk the phone from her hand. Hoping I’m right, I scroll quickly through the douche’s camera roll, and yep…there they are. Thank you, asshole!

I turn the screen around and hold it up for Reagan to see. The backlight illuminates the surprise on her face.

“Is that…”

“Dick pics,” I confirm. Looking at the screen, I swipe through several more, showing each unimpressive one to Reagan before going to the next. Oh, and then we get to his titty shot collection, which I also show her. They’re all fake tits that could be my ex-wife’s for all I know, and none of the dozen or so turn me on like the covered ones standing in front of me.

“You deserve better than this, Reagan,” I tell her.

“Is that really what men like?” she asks, holding her hands out in front of her chest to demonstrate the large, fake breasts.

“Not all men,” I reply. “I actually prefer smaller, perkier natural ones that look spectacular after the rain soaks through the fabric covering them.”

I hear Reagan’s gasp of surprise and know she must be thinking of one of the many occasions she’s sat in the courtyard when the sky’s opened up on her. 

“Let me give you a ride home,” I offer.

“Okay,” she responds right away with no hesitation. “I’ll, um, be right back,” she says before she brushes her hair behind her right ear, a nervous habit she also does in class whenever I call on her.

While she walks toward the parked cars, I rest my back against the brick wall and ask myself what the hell I’m doing. I mean, I know what I’m doing --- pursuing the woman I’ve fantasized about for nearly a year. It’s certainly not smart, and I have to make sure no one sees us together. But in two weeks, she’ll no longer be my student; and then I’ll be free to indulge. Until then, I’ll just have to keep my hands off of her. How hard can it be?

…

“Do you…I mean…would you like to come up?” Reagan asks me softly when the Uber driver pulls up to her apartment complex, the one right across from the soccer stadium and all the students milling about on campus.

Fuck it all…

“Prof –”

I slap my hand over her mouth when she starts to call me Professor Daughton in front of a strange man who picks up random people for a living.

“Gage. Just Gage,” I tell her after I remove my hand. “And I would love to come.”
Wait.
“Come up,” I quickly correct, scrubbing my palm down my embarrassed face. “But I can’t tonight, Reagan.”

“Oh,” she says, lowering her eyes and nervously pushing back her hair.

Waiting to talk to her out of earshot of the guy in the front of the car, I open my car door and walk around to help her out and shut her door. What I wasn’t expecting was for Reagan to launch herself at me, winding her arms around my neck while her lips greedily find their way to mine. And then every other thought in my head flees at the simple swipe of her tongue over my own. I groan into her mouth at the same time I flatten her against the side of the car so that I can feel every inch of the soft curves of her body underneath me. And it’s even better than all the times I imagined this particular scenario.

Realizing my hands are stupidly plastered against the side panel of the car and not the woman who is pulling me closer, I quickly remedy that by molding one of my palms to her hips. With my free hand, I thread my fingers through the side of her hair to keep her mouth to mine, showing her just how much I like kissing her. It doesn’t take long for the thrusting of our warm wet tongues in and out of each other’s mouths, simulating a certain sex act, to get me excited below the belt. Reagan doesn’t seem offended at all, not based on the moan she releases in my mouth.

“Beeeep! Beeeep!”

The honking horn pierces through my skull reminding me I’m standing across from the campus I teach at, kissing a student in front of at least one witness, causing me to take a reluctant step back and cease all contact with Reagan. The urge to throw her over my shoulder and haul her to whichever apartment is hers to strip her naked and fuck her is…intense, to say the least.

“I-I’m sorry,” Reagan says, her eyes lowered. I clench my fists tighter to keep from reaching out to raise her chin to make her look at me just so I can see her beautiful eyes looking into mine while filled with lust. 

“I’m not sorry,” I tell her, accomplishing the same goal when her head whips up, and her surprised caramel eyes meet mine.

“Really?” she asks softly.

“Yeah. As long as I can trust you to be discrete…”

“Of course,” she immediately responds. And hearing the sincerity in her voice has me exhaling in relief.

“Come by my office tomorrow morning,” I tell her. “Around nine?”

“Okay, my first class is at eight,” she agrees with a nod while fidgeting with her fingers. Knowing what she’s about to do out of nervousness, I make the move first, brushing her beautiful, long hair behind her right ear. 

“See you then. Goodnight, Reagan.”

“Goodnight…
Gage
,” she says before she scurries quickly away and into her first-floor apartment.

I am so fucked.

Not only do I know where she lives, but now I know how soft her lips are, the delicious way they taste and the way my name sounds leaving them. Sweeter than a prayer while at the same time naughtier than a curse, letting me know without a doubt that she wants me too.