Trouble Me: A Rosewood Novel (19 page)

But it looked like she wasn’t going to get the opportunity. Hearing Rob Cooper say he intended to yank Hayley out of her class, away from what he doubtless considered her corrupting presence, hurt her. And it galled that he was behaving as if everything were her fault, as if she’d bewitched him into being her sex slave.

If memory served, it had been he who cupped her ass and pulled her flush against the very solid evidence of his desire. It had been his roughly whispered “Do you have a room?” that had turned her brain to mush. No matter how much he wanted to pretend otherwise, he’d been every inch the eager participant.

Although she was sorely tempted to spit in his perfectly sculpted face, she told herself to behave maturely. Professionally.

She raised her chin and summoned her most even and detached tone. “Hayley’s a lovely little girl, and I think that we’ve already formed a nice bond. I’m sorry to hear that you feel that I can’t teach Hayley. But as her father, you have to do what you feel is best.”

A clever response, Rob acknowledged. Phrased to maximize his sense of guilt and remind him of what he knew perfectly well: Hayley adored Jade Radcliffe. He’d have a devil of a time explaining to her why she was being switched to Mrs. Creighton’s class. Just thinking of how unhappy she’d be made his gut twist.

He felt pretty damned rotten about the flash of hurt he’d seen in Jade’s eyes when he announced his intention to pull Hayley from her class. He didn’t understand why
it should bother him that he’d hurt Jade or why he felt such guilt—where she was concerned, he didn’t want to feel anything except anger.

What was it about her? She was unquestionably the wrong type of woman for him, yet he couldn’t stop looking at her. Nor could he stop remembering how it had been between them.

Jesus
, he thought, struggling to absorb it all. It had been hard enough to come to terms with the fact that his young daughter’s teacher was also a former juvie, that the first time he’d run into her she was passed out and reeking to high heaven, the charming aftereffects of a house party he’d helped bust. That she’d also snuck into the Den with a fake ID, been the cause of a fistfight, and was the reason he’d been tied up in the station booking all concerned while Becky lay dying
—No
. He pulled his thoughts up short. He couldn’t link those incidents or his mind would friggin’ explode.

But if that history was hard enough to accept, what was he supposed to do with the uncomfortable fact that Jade Radcliffe also happened to be the green-eyed wildcat he’d fucked almost every way he could imagine? And that even now, when he knew who and what she was, she still made his pulse run wild—and his body harden with need?

How could she stand there, only inches away from him, with such self-possession? He wanted to see that cool composure slip and know that she was as off balance as he.

He angled his head and gave her a long hard stare. It was a look that had a proven track record of intimidating the hell out of people. “Yeah, I’d say it’s definitely my prerogative to do what I believe is in Hayley’s best interest. So, now that I’ve determined she won’t be your pupil, you might as well ’fess up. You
did
recognize me in Norfolk and decided it would be fun to pull the wool
over my eyes and sleep with me, didn’t you?” Sure, he was harping on the issue, but it was important for him to know Jade had intentionally seduced him that night. For them to have been caught up in some intense mutual attraction was too disturbing a notion.

What a megajerk, Jade thought, as the hold on her temper snapped. For a brief moment she was actually happy Hayley wasn’t going to be in her class, because now she was free to tell this oaf exactly what she thought.

“If you had half a brain, you’d realize what a stupid idea that is. You’re the last person I’d want to do
anything
with. I’d have beat the world record sprinting out of that bar if I’d known that in addition to being the cop who busted me twice, you’re a hypocritical prig—”

“Who are you calling a hypocritical prig?” he snarled softly.

She was too angry to care that his expression had turned thunderous. Shooting him a contemptuous glare, she said, “The truth hurts, doesn’t it? Fact check:
You’re
the one who asked
me
to dance, the one who asked if I had a room in the hotel, the one who used every condom I had and would have probably gone through more of them if there’d been any. So don’t attempt to rewrite history and pretend I lured you to the hotel room to have my wicked way with you. We were two consenting adults. No laws were broken. While I’ll certainly miss having Hayley in my class, the upside is that I won’t have to deal with you and be reminded of the lousy mistake I made sleeping with you.” Her fury growing with each point she made, she began to jab his chest with her index finger for emphasis. But when she finished with a damning “So I’d appreciate it, Officer Cooper, if you’d take a really long hike off a really short pier—” he caught her wrist, holding it between their bodies.

“That night we spent together was a lousy mistake, was it?”

Ignoring the firestorm sweeping through her simply because his hand was encircling her wrist, she thrust her chin out mutinously and glared at him. Her pulse was hammering against the pads of his long fingers. It galled her that he doubtless felt it. “Absolutely. A colossal mistake. One of my worst.”

“Liar.”

They stared at each other as the whispered word hung in the air between them.

And as the seconds slipped by, she was filled with a rising sense of despair. Because not only was he right—this time she
was
lying—but also because it was happening again.
It
being the strange, electrifying sense of connection between them. Only now it was a thousand times more unsettling. How could she feel this out-of-control attraction to
Rob Cooper
?

“I really don’t care what you think,” she enunciated through gritted teeth, afraid that if she opened her mouth, her voice would come out all breathy and weak from the need raging inside her.

“Well, I’m going to share anyway. I don’t believe you think the night we spent together was a mistake at all. I don’t believe you’ve forgotten the things we did together or how I made you feel. But I
do
believe that you’d like me to do all those things again.” His voice was low and rough. It, along with the heated words and the featherlight stroke of his thumb on the inside of her wrist, sent sensual shivers racing through her. Her nipples tightened into aching buds against the fabric of her bra, while heat pooled inside, melting her.

Desperate, determined, she struggled against the want. Blast him for making her feel this way.

“Again, so sorry, but I don’t care. Now, you’ll forgive me if I refuse to indulge your bloated ego. I need to get
home.” Intending to usher him out, she turned toward the door, only to let out a growl of frustration when he kept his hold of her wrist. “Mind unshackling me?”

“I’ll let you go after you’ve proved just how indifferent you are.”

“What? Are you nuts? I don’t have to prove anything to you—though anybody else would recognize that I
am
proving my complete disinterest by asking you to leave my classroom. Do I honestly look like I want to throw myself at you?”

Rob didn’t need a second invitation. He let his eyes travel slowly over Jade, taking in her flushed cheeks, her heaving breasts, and the brilliant radiance of her wide green eyes. She was as beautiful as he remembered, and right now just as aroused as he. “Yeah, you do.”

Jade managed only a strangled “arggh!” of outrage before Rob, with a tug on her wrist, pulled her off balance. As she teetered, her free hand landed against his chest. He captured it too.

“Looks like I’ve caught you.” Succumbing to the hunger inside him that had been craving a taste of her for the past hour, Rob kissed her.

His kiss was fierce. It took, it plundered, and it demanded she respond in kind.

The touch of his firm lips, the bold sweep of his tongue against hers, rocked her, triggering an explosion of desire within her. Jade succumbed. With a desperate moan, she bit down on his lower lip. Flinging her suddenly liberated arms about his neck, she arched into him.

It shouldn’t be like this, this maddened stampede of need tearing through her the moment they embraced. No sexy music was driving their bodies together, no half-lit room with a king-size bed was awaiting them as their tongues dueled and their hands grasped and stroked. Her second-grade classroom was the un-sexiest
room imaginable. And now that she and Rob knew each other’s identity, they should both be repelled, not fused together by raw passion and sweeping desire.

Unable to resist the aching pleasure his knowing caresses aroused, she pulled his dark head closer, kissing him feverishly.

Jade’s kiss, as hungry and carnal as he remembered, pushed him to the brink. Rob no longer cared who she was or wasn’t, he only wanted her. Time and place lost meaning. All that mattered was the need to feel her melting around him, to have her shudder and cry out in exquisite pleasure as she climaxed in his arms. Mindless, his hands streaked down, one circling her waist while the other grabbed fistfuls of her skirt, bunching and hiking it up to touch skin as soft as sun-kissed satin.

Her legs were trembling and, as his hand moved toward her panties, she moaned, the sweetest sound. When his fingers slid under the elastic band, her moan turned into a broken, desperate whimper.

She was as close to the edge as he, he thought with fierce satisfaction.

Then he touched her, brushing her curls, then slipping down her cleft and into her slick heat, and she felt as incredibly, mind-blowingly good as he remembered.

Her body was clenching convulsively around his fingers. The sensation drove him wild. He needed to be deeper inside her, replacing his fingers with his cock, thrusting into her and rocketing them both to a shattering climax. His craving for Jade obliterated all else.

“Do you have a condom?” He barely registered his own roughly whispered words. It took Jade’s forceful shove, sending him stumbling backward in surprise, to make him fully comprehend what he’d said and for sanity to return.

But it was too late.

“Get out!”

Jade’s agonized expression was a swift kick to the gut. “I—Jade—I’m—” he stammered.

Oh, God!
she wailed silently. Did he think she was going to talk to him after what he’d just said? She’d never been so mortified in her life, and she’d lived through more than her fair share of embarrassments. Did Rob actually think she went to parents’ night with condoms packed in her laptop case? Maybe he believed she stored Trojans in her desk so she could have quickies during snack time?

He thought she was a slut.
Just like your mom was
, a cruel voice taunted her.

Rob still hadn’t moved. “I told you to get out, damn it,” she said, aware that tears were beginning to fall down her cheeks but unable to stop them. She was equally unable to control the shrill note in her voice as she demanded, “Just leave.”

Wordlessly, Rob opened the door, and Jade gave silent thanks to the Powells for having shut it after them. Otherwise, any passerby could have seen Rob and her.

“Jade—” Just over the threshold, Rob had turned back. “I’m really—”

He got no further.

With an anguished snarl, Jade slammed the door in his face, sank to the carpeted floor, and wept.

H
E’D GONE
and screwed up. Royally.

The thought drummed in his head even as Rob reached his car in the school’s lot. His cellphone was in hand, his thumb had already scrolled down to Ted Guerra’s number—he’d seen the school principal through the open door of his office talking to the Harrisons, so Rob figured there was a good chance he’d pick up—to make what was fast disintegrating into a halfhearted attempt to switch Hayley into Mrs. Creighton’s class. Hayley belonged in Jade Radcliffe’s class, no matter what his personal feelings were. No matter how he’d just managed to make Jade loathe him.

But the phone was already ringing and, what the hell, Tricia Creighton was a good teacher. Of course, if Rob’s brain had been functioning, he would have guessed what Guerra’s response to his request would be.

Ted squashed the idea flatter than a bug. “Sorry, Rob, but I’m unwilling to transfer Hayley to Tricia Creighton’s class. Tricia’s a veteran teacher, so I’ve placed a couple of students with her who were disruptive with their first-grade teachers. Even if Tricia didn’t have some behavioral problems in her class to contend with, Hayley is a very sensitive little girl. It would be hard for her to switch classes, and switching into a class where some of the kids are acting out would be especially difficult. I don’t want to put Hayley in a situation that might have a negative impact on her emotionally and academically.
There’s no point. Jade Radcliffe and Hayley are a good match, Rob. I’ve been dropping in to observe Jade’s class and see how things are going. Hayley’s flourishing. She participates and she’s clearly comfortable with the class dynamics. Moreover, she already has a number of friends in the class. I hope you’ll soon come to recognize what a good experience she’s having with Jade Radcliffe.”