Slow Seduction (3 page)

“Unless you want it to be,”
Clinton
teased, breaking the tension that surrounded them.

“Sure, it was just a kiss between old friends,” she muttered, still dazed from the kiss. She wiped the side of her mouth with two fingers and prayed no one had seen her foolish behavior in the hallway.

“Good, now which classroom is yours?” He looked down the hallway at two closed doors.
Clinton
needed some kind of distraction to get his mind off his mouth making love to Jenisha’s again. A third time might not be the charm for him.

Hurriedly, she moved away from
Clinton
before his grin made her body and mind betray her again. As she waked down the hall, she felt his presence behind her so warm and strong. The anger from forty-five minutes ago evaporated from her body as she neared her classroom. Before they went in, she needed to set a few things straight with him. Placing her hand over her heart, she willed it to slow down.

“This is my classroom.” She smiled, nodding toward the door.

“Well, let’s go in so I can see you in action.”
Clinton
reached for the handle, but she stopped him by easing in front of it.

“Wait, we can’t go in there yet,” she uttered, holding
Clinton
at bay. “Do I look okay? There isn’t anything out of place, is there? I can’t go back inside with my clothes and hair all messed up.” She didn’t want her class to see her any differently than it usually did.

Clinton
’s gaze traveled from the top of Jenisha’s silky, smooth, brownish-black hair, down her perky breasts and narrow waist, taking in her hips with the long, lithe thighs that he was counting the days until he got to touch. She looked incredible. “You look gorgeous.”

Believing him, she pushed the door, and
Clinton
noticed the light came that came into Jenisha’s eyes when she looked at her students.

“The class thought you were never coming back,” Becky told her then second she stepped through the door.

“I’m sorry, everyone, but I had to make a quick trip to the principal’s office.”

“Are you in trouble, Miss Roman?” a dark-haired little boy asked from the back row. “Is he going to call your parents?”

Jenisha laughed at Christopher Falk. He was the most inquisitive little boy, and she didn’t mind answering any of his questions. But before she could reply,
Clinton
answered for her.

“No, Miss Roman was called to the principal’s office to meet me.”

Clinton
’s deep voice sounded even sexier in her small classroom. Jenisha enjoyed watching him interact with her students. He handled their questions and comments like a pro.

“Who are you?” The class asked in unison.

“My name is Clinton Campbell,” he said “I’m going to be working on remodeling your school.”

She noticed how her class studied him intensely without breaking their stare. She could tell it was making
Clinton
a little uncomfortable. He wasn’t used to being around this many small children at one time.

“Are you going to date our teacher?” Christopher questioned from the back of the classroom. “I think she’s really pretty and needs to go out on a date.”

“Christopher, will you stop asking so many questions? Mr. Campbell isn’t here to date me,” Jenisha said, giving
Clinton
a quick look. She didn’t need him to get any ideas that their relationship would involve anything but business.

“Christopher, I would love to date your teacher, but every time I ask her out she turns me down.”
Clinton
caught her eye and winked.

Coughing, Jenisha moved closer to
Clinton
. Holding her hand in front of her mouth, she whispered, “Stop it.”

Becky stood at the side and watched the scene take place, shocked beyond words. She couldn’t believe how ruffled Jenisha was by
Clinton
. She had never seen Jenisha thrown off by anything, not even when Principal Kimball made an unexpected visit to their classroom two weeks ago.

But
Clinton
had her friend dazed and confused with just a few flirtatious words. After class was over she definitely needed to find out what was going on between the two of them. Noticing Jenisha needed a break from her too inquisitive class, she finally spoke up. “Class, let’s clear off our desks and we can go to the gym for a few minutes.”

The loud sound of seventeen individual chairs being shoved underneath the small desks echoed in the classroom. After the chairs were out of the way, the children raced to the door to see who would be the first one in line.

“Everyone needs to calm down or we won’t go anywhere,” Becky warned. The class quickly folded their hand behind them and didn’t make a sound as Becky went past them. She opened the door shuffling the second graders into the hallway. Pausing in the doorway, she glanced back at Jenisha and smiled when they eyes connected.

Looking at her, Jenisha mouthed the words
t
hank
you
.

Becky smiled. “Don’t worry about it. We’ll be back in about thirty minutes.” She went out the door, closing it behind her.

Resting her lower back on the desk’s edge, Jenisha folded her arms under her breasts and stared at the man who was ruining her well-organized life by his unexpected appearance.
This wasn’t going to do at all.

“Why did you tell my class that?” she mumbled. “Now for the rest of the year they’re going to ask me about our date. Do you know there are some things you don’t discuss with a group of second graders?”

Pushing her body away from the massive redwood desk, Jenisha stormed around it. “You know we aren’t dating, so why say we are?” She unlocked and pushed open the two windows in the back of the room so fresh air could fill the room. “I don’t want you lying to them.”

“Are you finished?” He chuckled. “I didn’t want to interrupt your rant.”

She narrowed her eyes at him and frowned. “You aren’t funny.”

“Don’t do that. You’ll mess up your gorgeous face.”

Jenisha shook her head at
Clinton
. How could she stay made at him when he made everything into a compliment or joke? “You don’t take anything I say seriously, do you?”

Clinton
eased around the desk and stood in front of her. The musky scent of his cologne that radiated from his body filled her mind with so many fantasies of things to come. “When are you going to realize that I’m attracted to the whole Jenisha package? There isn’t one thing I don’t find stimulating about you.”

He brushed the back of his hand across her cheek sending tiny currents through her lonely body. “You have so much more going on than any other woman I’ve dated. I love your outspoken ways. You don’t say things to please me or inflate my ego and that turns me on.”

Moving his hand down her face, he raised her chin with the tip of his blunt finger. “For me, that is more of a turn-on than a sexy piece of lingerie.”

“Oh really?” Jenisha smirked. Now, why didn’t she believe him?

“Okay, maybe I overdid it with that one.”
Clinton
laughed. “But the gorgeous smile on your face was worth it.”
Clinton
stroked one finger down the side of her neck. A tingling sensation started in the middle of her stomach and worked it’s way to every nerve ending inside her body. She loved how his strong fingers evoked that feeling in her body.

“If I promise not to push you while I’m here will you at least think about going out on several dates with me?”

Jenisha wanted to refuse
Clinton
’s offer with everything inside of her. It wouldn’t do either of them any good if they mixed business with pleasure. One of them would end up hurt in the end, and it wouldn’t be
Clinton
. She opened her mouth to say “no,” but changed her mind after his moss green eyes captured hers. They pleaded with her to give him a chance. Besides, when was the last time she let herself go and truly enjoyed herself with a man?

“All right, I think we could go out on a couple of dates,” Jenisha could give him that much.

Grasping her by the elbow,
Clinton
pulled her across the floor until their bodies touched. “I want more than two dates with you while I’m here.”

She laid her hands against
Clinton
’s chest to shove him away, but her thoughts filtered back to the first day she’d met him. He didn’t take no for an answer back then either. “You’re persistent aren’t you?”

Clinton
cocked an eyebrow at her. “What red-blooded man isn’t when it comes to something he wants?”

She couldn’t help but smile at his answer. Easing away from him, she moved around her desk. Tearing off the top sheet from the
Betty Boop
stationery, she wrote down her personal information and handed it to him.

“What’s with the Betty Boop stationery?” He grinned, waving it under her nose.

Jenisha shrugged. “I’ve loved her since I was a little girl.”

Clinton
folded the piece of paper and then shoved it into the front of his pant pocket. “When would be the best time for me to come over, so we can discuss what Principal Kimball told me the committee wanted done?”

Jenisha wanted to spend every free moment she had with
Clinton
, but she knew that wasn’t possible. Instead of confessing her thoughts, Jenisha found another distraction by looking down at her desk calendar and noticed school wouldn’t be in session for the next two weeks because of Spring Break. “Tomorrow at
ten o’clock
is fine with me. I usually get up around
eight o’clock
to work out.”

“I wondered how you got a body like that.”
Clinton
muttered, eyeing her legs.

“Goodbye,
Clinton
.” She laughed, waving her finger at the door. She never remembered laughing this much with any other man from her past.

Clinton
strolled over to the closed. “I hope we can discuss more than just work next week, gorgeous.” He opened the door and walked out without looking back.

With his mind filled with thoughts about Jenisha,
Clinton
didn’t see the woman coming toward him with the sneaky look on her face. He ran straight into her before he knew what had happened.

“Oh, I’m sorry, Robin, I didn’t see you in front of me,” he apologized, grabbing her by the arms so she wouldn’t fall backwards. Looking down into her face, he noticed her resemblance to the dark-haired prosecutor from the television show ‘
The Practice.’

“Don’t worry about it,” she muttered, smiling up at him.

“Well, I’m glad you’re okay,”
Clinton
said. He moved around her and continued on down the hallway.

“Shit,” Robin cursed to herself, staring at
Clinton
’s back in the distance. “I wanted to get him into a conversation, but he didn’t let me.”

Steamed at her plan didn’t work, Robin stormed back toward the office. She had to think of another way to get
Clinton
away from Jenisha. Opening the office door with a jerk, she stomped over to the desk and flung her body down into the plush chair.