I didn’t reply. My jaw tightened and I scowled down at her as I waited her out, giving her a look which let her know in no uncertain terms that there wasn’t going to be a free pass here.
Kudos to her though, she made it longer than a minute in silence before she cracked. Most of the kids couldn’t go beyond ten seconds of that shit.
“Do you seriously need to know?” she asked, her gaze slipping from my face for a moment and landing on my crotch before she flipped it back up quickly. This time the colour in her cheeks really was a blush.
“Enlighten me,” I demanded, but I was pretty sure I had the gist of it from that look.
When I’d taken this job I hadn’t given much consideration to the fact that I’d be put in a position of power over a bunch of girls who were only a few years younger than me. I’d had my own reasons for wanting this position. For needing it. And my goal didn’t have anything to do with school girl crushes and horny teenagers. But they had certainly caused me more than a few headaches since my arrival.
“Well, I was just commenting on how you don’t look like your average teacher,” she said, keeping her features straight as she forced her tongue around the words.
“And?” That wasn’t all of it, not by half and I was more than happy to mortify her with the goal of earning the respect I needed from her. Besides, it didn’t exactly hurt my ego to have a beautiful girl talking about me like that and I wasn’t beyond enjoying the words even if I’d never act on them.
“And…someone might have mentioned that they wouldn’t mind…dating you…”
“Dating me?” I asked scathingly. “The truth, princess, or you’ll be earning detention for being late to your next class too.”
“Fine,” she growled, raising her chin as fire flared in her eyes. This answer would be the truth. “We said we wouldn’t mind fucking you.”
My pulse spiked at that sentence coming out of her pink lips. I’d guessed Little Miss Innocent was more than used to getting dirty with the commoners from that look in her eye and now I had my answer.
“Is that so?” I deadpanned. “Well, sorry to burst your bubble, princess, but I have no interest in screwing little school girls.”
Her nostrils flared with rage at my insult and I swiped a hand over my mouth to hide my smirk.
“Don’t worry, I have no interest in screwing assholes, either,” she ground out.
I snorted a laugh and leaned back against my desk. I should have chewed her out for it, but I was quietly impressed that she hadn’t just flushed beetroot and dissolved into tears of embarrassment.
“Good.”
“Is that all?” she demanded, pushing herself to her feet as she prepared to leave.
“Almost.”
She ground her teeth as she was forced to wait for what else I had to say and I let the moment drag as I drank it in. Maybe I was a power junkie, but I didn’t care. I couldn’t help but get off on knocking these rich little assholes down a peg or two.
“You laughed twice,” I said in a low voice.
For a moment, confusion warred in her gaze before she realised that I wasn’t going to let her leave without the full story.
Now that she was on her feet she was eye to eye with me where I perched on my desk and the depths of her blush rose up beneath the freckles which dusted her cheeks. But she fought the embarrassment away with tooth and nail, her gaze hardening as she looked right into my eyes.
“It was a joke about what it might be like to have you on your knees with your tongue between my thighs. But on second thought, that was a terrible joke. Everyone knows that arrogant assholes like you don’t know a G-spot from their elbow and you wouldn’t be able to find my clit with a map and GPS.”
My eyes widened at the balls on her and I was left momentarily speechless by her little display. The cocky asshole in me was tempted to grab her by her hips, toss her over my desk, hitch that little skirt up and prove her wrong…but that was definitely crossing the teacher/student barrier and I had zero desire to go to prison for the sake of proving to a girl that I could make her come so hard she forgot her fucking name. No map required.
“Is that all, sir?” she demanded haughtily and I pushed my tongue into my cheek to stop myself from grinning.
It was damn nice to find a worthy adversary to go to bat against and if that was the way she wanted it, it was fine by me. Game on, princess.
“That’s all,” I agreed easily. “I’ll see you in class tomorrow.”
She whirled toward the door and her long hair flicked around her, but I was ready for it this time and I leaned back before she could slap me in the face with it.
She stalked towards the door, her posture rigid with rage and I waited until she stepped through it before I called out to halt her.
“Oh, and, princess?”
“Yes, sir?” she practically snarled.
“Don’t forget about your detention.”
“Can’t wait,” she muttered before striding away and I finally let myself grin.
I was looking forward to next Monday already. Better bring your A game, princess, because I’ve barely even begun with you.
***
My phone buzzed in my pocket as I ran up the hill towards Maple Lodge where the staff lived on site. We each had our own apartment within the enormous building which was big and lavish enough to be fit for a prince, but there was also a huge rec room where some of the staff liked to hang out together in the evenings. And that was also where Headmaster Brown liked to host the staff meetings. In the evenings. After dinner. Because who didn’t want to spend their free time discussing work matters? Fucking asshat.
My phone buzzed again and I broke into a sprint. That would be Miss Pontus warning me that I was cutting it fine. But I knew that. I thrived under pressure so I’d set out on my evening run an hour before the meeting was due to begin and I’d taken a route that usually took me an hour and twenty.
I felt half dead, sweat was pouring off of me and my muscles were burning in that way which promised me all kinds of aches come morning. But I’d done it. Fucking smashed it. Just like every goal I set myself.
I pounded my way to the front door and fell forwards, bracing my hands on my knees as I fought to catch my breath.
It was cold out, especially now that the sun was down and my breath rose before me as I started my cool down routine.
Maple Lodge stood at the top of the hill overlooking the valley which contained the rest of the school grounds. It was set back by the perimeter wall to give us some privacy from the students and there was only one path that led up here so we were pretty well away from them.
I took a few minutes to catch my breath, admitting to myself that I was a bit late for the meeting now, while not really giving a damn. I was the school P.E. teacher, it was practically in my job description that I stay in shape. And I ran at this time every evening. The Headmaster could bite me if he had a problem with that.
Music floated to me over the trees which surrounded campus and I huffed out an irritated breath as I realised the students were having a much better night than me already. It was half tempting to sneak down and join in with their initiation party. Aside from the fact that they’d clearly recognise me and either want me to fuck off or socialise with them and I wasn’t sure which of those options were worse.