To make matters worse, her gaze shifted down my bare chest too and she looked for a moment too long for it to be a cursory glance.
“I, umm…I’m just washing a few of the guys’ jerseys for them,” she said, batting her eyelashes innocently.
“Cut the innocent act, Rivers,” I growled at her. “I don’t know who you manage to fool with that shit, but I know trouble when I see it and everything about you screams trouble.”
Her long, blonde hair was tied in pigtails as if she’d been working the innocent angle all day and the sigh that escaped her told me she wasn’t done, despite my warning. But I was the kind of kid who had pulled the girls’ pigtails at school then dragged them behind the bike shed for a make out session, so she’d gone for the wrong look to get away with anything around me.
“I’m sorry, sir. I was just finishing up though, I promise to be gone in five more minutes, if you’d just-”
I strode around her, nudging her aside so that I could look down into the soapy water where three jerseys had been submerged. She was up to something alright.
I hooked the closest jersey out, holding it wide so that the name Memphis was visible in dark green against the white background. Except it wasn’t a white background: it was pink.
“Last chance to give me the truth. If you’re meant to be doing such a great job of cleaning these jerseys then explain to me exactly why you’re attempting to ruin them?”
Tatum’s lips popped open in a perfect little O as her gaze flickered uncertainly. “Whoops…I must have accidentally dropped my lipstick in there, somehow…”
“Mmmhmm.” I reached forward to drain the water from the basin and hooked the other two jerseys out so that I could see the names on the back of them too. Roscoe and Bowman. “Well you’ve either got a death wish or you seriously think you’re clever enough to get away with this shit.”
“I-”
“Let’s cut the bullshit, I’ll be having the truth from you one way or another. And just so you know, lipstick isn’t gonna be much of a problem for laundry to remove so this master plan of yours sucks ass. It will literally do nothing to those boys aside from aim their anger at you.”
Tatum’s jaw was locked tight and it was clear she had no intention of saying anything else. I released a frustrated sigh.
“My office, now.” I pointed her towards the door and she strode away from me, swaying her hips in a way that forced me to look at her ass in the short black dress she’d chosen to wear.
For the love of fuck, why did she have to come strutting around here tonight of all nights?
Tatum headed to my office and I took a detour to toss the jerseys in the laundry shoot. By the time the Night Keepers saw them again they’d be as good as new and Tatum Rivers could thank me for saving her ass. Though I got the feeling that wasn’t what was about to happen.
I headed into my office and fell still as I entered, finding her in my chair, slowly spinning it around in a circle.
“What are you doing?” I growled.
“You said to come and wait here,” she replied, that innocent bullshit act right back in place. “I didn’t know how long you’d be and I’m tired.”
I closed in on her slowly as she remained sitting in my chair. There was something going on here. Something she was trying to distract me from.
I flattened my palms on the desk and leaned forward slowly, my gaze roaming over her features as I tried to pick out what she was trying to hide.
“Why were you in there with the Night Keepers’ jerseys?” I asked in a low tone.
Her lips parted on a lie and my scowl deepened as I forced her to reconsider. Tatum blew out a breath, fingering one of the pigtails as she made the right choice and offered me the truth instead.
“Blake told me to wash them.”
“Why? We have laundry service, there’s no need for anyone to be hand washing anything. And if you were doing him some great favour then why were you making such a fucking mess of it?”
A frown furrowed her brow and something hopeless flared in her eyes for a moment before she hid it away again.
“I thought you were friendly with those boys?” I asked slowly, watching her reaction carefully. She wrinkled her nose at that suggestion and I frowned because she’d definitely been pitch side during practice, cheering their names like she was hoping to be their latest groupie.
“Look, I’m not asking you for your input in my social life, okay?” she said. “It was just a joke, a terrible one apparently. If you’re going to punish me for it, can we just get on with that? Why don’t you just give me detention with you tomorrow, and we can call it quits?” She’d spent her last one with me running laps of the sports hall until she damn near busted a lung so I had no idea why she’d be looking for another one, but it made me even surer she was trying to hide something.
“What the fuck makes you think you can dictate your own punishments?” I snarled.
“Well, I’m sitting in the teacher’s chair so I thought that gave me some authority,” she deadpanned.
A breath of surprised laughter escaped me and her lips twitched too. “You’re a real piece of work, Rivers.”
“So I’ve been told.”
“Tatum?!” Saint Memphis’s voice echoed down the corridor outside and the colour drained from her face in a heartbeat. “Come out, come out, wherever you are!”
“Don’t tell him I’m here,” she gasped, dropping beneath my desk without waiting for me to agree.
Fuck that.
I rounded my desk and glared down at her as she curled into the gap beneath it and looked up at me with a plea in her eyes.
“Get out of there,” I snarled.
“Please, just tell him you sent me back to my dorm,” she hissed.
“Tatum! Where the fuck are you?” Saint yelled, the anger in his tone clear that time.
I glanced between the girl hiding beneath my desk and the open door which led to the corridor where Saint was hunting for her. I didn’t know what the hell was going on here, but I did know that if given a choice between throwing Tatum to the wolves and fucking up Saint Memphis’s plans, there really wasn’t much choice to be made.
“You’ll be giving me the full truth of this when he’s gone,” I growled in a low voice as I dropped into my chair and rolled it forward to conceal her.
I left my legs wide and she huddled in the space between my thighs as I made an effort not to think about how close her face was to my dick right now. Honestly, it was like the fucking universe was conspiring to get me fired tonight or something.
“Memphis!” I bellowed. “What the fuck are you doing roaming my corridors and screaming at the top of your lungs?”
Heavy footsteps sounded in the corridor and a moment later Saint himself shadowed my door. Seriously, the kid was huge, all three of the Night Keepers were. They were thick with muscle and nearly as tall as me which at six foot four was saying something. I didn’t know if they were given protein shakes instead of breastmilk as babies or if drinking from solid gold chalices their whole lives were the reason for it but whatever it was, these boys had become men before their time. And they had the anger of men in them too.