Tangled: Emerson Falls, Book 1 Read online

  Chapter 11

  Kane

  “I knew I shouldn’t have washed my truck,” I grumble as I hit yet another puddle from the rain last night, water shooting up and over the fender to pelt my windshield.

  I swear, it’s Murphy’s law. As soon as you wash your vehicle, the rain Gods do a happy dance and literally, rain all over your parade. I guess that’s what I get for not checking the weather before I turned the hose on.

  It’s Monday morning and still pitch black outside as I make my thirty-minute drive into town for work. The home I bought three years ago lies on the outskirts of town, deep in the trees, fulfilling my craving for isolation. I get privacy and land, but it makes for a slightly longer commute to Emerson Falls High School.

  I’m an early riser by nature, so I tend to arrive at the school long before my colleagues, which also gives me ample time to prepare my lessons and necessary supplies for the day. Most people don’t realize all the extra time that goes into teaching outside of the hours when the students are actually in the chairs. My colleagues and I spend way more time beyond our seven-to-two contract day to ensure our lessons are worthwhile and the students get the support that they need.

  It’s a little after six in the morning when I pull into the parking lot, securing my parking space and grabbing my thermos and lunch box before locking my truck and heading into campus. The smell of last night’s rain still hangs in the air as I take in a deep breath and savor the aroma. I missed this while overseas—and even though it’s been three years now since I’ve been home—I still remind myself to bask in the moments that make me feel grateful again. I swear, it’s the little things you fail to appreciate until you can’t experience them anymore.

  I’ve spent a lot of time being angry and losing my happiness in reliving my failures and the ways in which other people have let me down. But over the past year particularly, I’ve tried really hard to focus on the positive, find the joy in the small pleasures that life brings us, and let go of the pain that weighs heavily on my mind and heart. At the suggestion of my parents, I started seeing a therapist three years ago to deal with the array of emotions I had trouble identifying and why. Therapy, along with having people like Tony and Drew, has helped me regain some control in my life. I’m a soldier who suffers from PTSD sporadically and whose life changed drastically when I came home—therapy was a necessary evil I’m not ashamed to admit that I needed.

  Cracking a smile, I continue my trek onto campus. Mature trees line the sidewalks between buildings, the grey stucco with red accents paying homage to our school colors. My classroom is located in one of the two two-story buildings in the center of campus, which comprise the main offices in one of them and the English and History classes in the other. Beyond those are a few single-story pods that house the science, elective, and math classes. Our school grouped teachers from the same discipline in close proximity to maximize collaboration and support.

  I also can’t help but smile a bit as I replay my weekend while walking up to my classroom, the soft splash of water beneath my feet providing background noise in the eerie quiet of the morning. A hellish storm rolled through our town last night and the remnants of its torrential downpour will make for an interesting day as our students try to avoid getting wet. The change in the seasons is coming, and I can already see the wet footprints smeared across the tile floor in my classroom.

  Ashamed to admit this out loud, I mentally chastise myself for how many times my thoughts veered to the redhead who blew my mind Friday night. I can’t stop seeing her curves beneath my hands. I can’t stop hearing her moans and cries of pleasure as I made her come three times that night (yes, I kept count). And I can’t stop wishing that our sexual rendezvous could be a repeat. Not only had it been almost a year since I’d basked in the company of a woman, but I don’t think I ever encountered a female who made me as sexually hungry and left me as sexually satisfied as she did.

  However, I know that it’s better this way. I got what I needed and so did she. I don’t want complications in my life. I don’t need a woman to rip my heart to shreds again. I’m finally starting to feel like me again and entertaining the thoughts of more with a woman will only set me back. All I needed was that release, and the fact that I got it with one of the sexiest women I’ve ever met makes me feel like I’m walking on air right now.

  I arrive at my classroom, fiddling with my keys to unlock my door when I hear the most blood-curdling shriek I’ve ever heard in my entire life.

  “EEEEEEKKKKKKK!”

  My head twists so fast, I lose my balance and brace myself for the fall I know is coming. Luckily, I regain my footing before I hit the concrete and fall face-first into the behemoth of a puddle in front of my building.

  “OH MY GOD!”

  The voice squeals again as I drop my things, the clatter of my steel thermos rocking against the concrete and my lunch box slamming to the ground echoes behind me as I take off in the direction of the voice.

  My heart is pounding in my chest, my feet slamming into the pavement and soaking up water from the puddles, my mind infiltrated with memories of women and children screaming after an explosive detonated in their village, the dust clouds powered red from blood spatter wafting through the air.

  I feel my body react to danger, even though I have no idea what I’m running towards, but I’m preparing for the worst.

  I feel the wetness of my shoes from soaking up the water under my feet and I hear the swish of my legs pumping fiercely as I run like a bullet shot from the barrel of a gun. My head twists and turns as I search for the person who sounds like they’re about to die, just as I pummel into a warm body in front of me, my hands reaching to enclose the person in my arms as I fight for balance so we don’t hit the wet pavement.

  “Ahhhh!” She screams as we stumble and trip, her heels catching on the grass next to the sidewalk and my feet tiptoeing around, holding her to me as I bring us to a stop.

  My eyes pop open and the shock registers instantly as I observe the person encased in my arms—and when I take in the red hair that’s been taunting me for the past seventy-two hours, the sudden panic I felt is magnified and then quickly replaced with utter confusion.

  “Red?”

  Those hazel eyes pop up and lock with mine as the same shock I’m feeling is written all over her face.

  “Garrison?” She asks before pushing herself out of my arms, shaking and breathing frantically, smoothing her hair down before continuing the motion over her sleek black dress that hugs every curve I’ve already committed to memory.

  “What the fuck are you doing here?” I say a little too harshly, warranting a taken aback reaction from her.

  “What do you mean? I work here!” She shouts at me, backing away and peering over her shoulder as if she was looking for someone.

  “You work here?” I question, instantly running my fingers through my styled hair and then dragging my hands down my face and into my beard, absorbing the information that is quickly making the elation I felt just moments ago buried under a gut-wrenching reality.

  Holy shit! She works here?

  “What do you mean you work here?” I ask again, staring down at her while fury builds beneath my pulse.

  “I start today. I’m replacing Mr. Kirk, the math teacher that left. What are you doing here?” She counters, still fighting to get her breathing under control.

  Of course, this would happen! I finally let go, give myself permission to fuck a woman senseless after almost a year, and thoroughly enjoy myself, might I add—and the woman turns out to be my new co-worker.

  I sigh while pinching the bridge of my nose, admitting defeat and cursing karma for rearing its ugly head. “I work here too.”

  “Oh shit,” she whispers.

  “What were you screaming about that made me think I was going to have to kill someone?”

  She glances down at the ground before a shudder racks her body. “Ugh! There are a ton of crickets in my classroom right inside of th
e door. I got here early to finish up a few things before the kids arrive, and when I opened the door, they scattered everywhere! I HATE crickets, Garrison!”

  “Are you fucking kidding me? You screamed like you were about to die because there are crickets in your classroom?”

  She scowls at me and then turns on her heels, headed back in the direction she came from, I assume. The clack of her shoes against the wet cement ticks like a timer on a bomb—the bomb that just dropped between the two of us. This woman is now my colleague and I know what she looks like naked and what she sounds like when an orgasm racks her body.

  “Where are you going, Red? The crickets might get you,” I tease, enjoying how ridiculous she looks right now as I follow her and thoroughly appreciate the view of her ass swaying in front of me.

  “Screw you, Garrison,” she spouts, as a rush of need glides through me. Like a freight train, the memory of what it’s like to screw her slams into me and then blood rushes to my dick.

  “It’s Kane, actually,” I offer as she leads me around the corner of the building while I discretely rearrange my junk, headed in the direction of the math classrooms.

  A quick turn of her head over her shoulder tells me she does not find this as amusing as I do.

  “Olivia,” she says as we arrive at her classroom door, holding her hand out to me to shake while straightening her spine. Sure as shit, we’re right at Mr. Kirk’s old classroom.

  Olivia. The name suits her and I let it swirl around in my brain and then roll off of my tongue. Classy, yet still fiery enough to match her personality.

  “Olivia… I guess this makes sense why you kicked my ass in pool,” I say while I study her now in better lighting, reaching for her hand and remembering what her skin felt like against mine, the tingles spreading down to my crotch as my erection grows harder. The sun is starting to come up from behind the mountains and the overhead light in the eaves of the building brightens the area around us.

  “Are you going to help me, or not?” She fires back, releasing my hand and crossing her arms over her chest while avoiding my comment about her pool skills.

  “Your cricket killer is ready to take down the enemy.”

  She rolls her eyes and then cautiously opens her door where I’m greeted with no less than fifty crickets, at least.

  “Holy shit,” I say louder than I intended.

  “I told you! This is disgusting,” she shudders before backing up.

  “The rain must have brought them in. Is there a broom or something?”

  “Oh yeah. Let me just grab the one I rode in on.”

  “No need for the attitude, Olivia,” I snap back at her as I step over the crickets and into her room. Pushing them out with the inside of my foot, the bugs begin to scatter and jump.

  “Oh, God!” She squeals, running away from the door as they hop out of the opening and scurry on their way down the sidewalk, her hair flying up around her as she twists and turns amid her shrieks.

  I joyfully laugh, relishing in the fact that this collected and fierce woman I fucked a few nights ago is losing her shit over a few bugs.

  Once the bugs have been safely relocated—give or take a few that succumbed to my size thirteen shoes—I turn my focus back on Olivia, still reeling with how my casual one-night-stand is now my new co-worker.

  “So… uh, thank you, Kane,” she offers slightly less tormented now that the crickets are gone.

  “You’re welcome. This sure is a surprise, huh?” I say, trying to ease the tension.

  “No shit,” she says with a roll of her eyes, and then looks up at me beneath dark lashes.

  Most of our interactions occurred in the dark the other night and the muted light in the bar. Absorbing her now as the overhead lights emphasize her face, I can see every fleck of color in her forest-colored eyes. Soft freckles dance across the bridge of her nose and those lips are painted a deep shade of red that makes her look even more powerful and strong than I sense she is. Her chest is completely covered by her dress, but I can still see her gorgeous tits beneath the fabric as if I have x-ray vision. My eyes travel down the length of her body to the tips of her heel-covered toes and back up before I register the look in her eyes.

  There’s a hint of fear there—what she’s scared about I’m not sure. And it irritates me that suddenly, I want to know what that fear is.

  I shake off the thought as she stands up tall and then speaks up more confidently. “Well, we can either let this be weird, or we can act like two consenting adults who happened to sleep together and now plan to move on with their lives.”

  “Oh, I’m fine with that. I’m more worried about you,” I point in her direction.

  “Me? Why me?”

  “Well, you’re a woman. As a whole, you all tend to be the emotional ones. I can move past our little rendezvous, no problem. I’m just not sure you’ll be able to contain yourself now that we know we work together.”

  Her jaw drops and then she scowls at me. “Excuse me? You don’t think I can accept the fact that we had a one-night-stand without making it out to be more than what it was?”

  I shrug. “In my experience, that’s rarely the case.”

  “Well, Kane Garrison,” she spits out my name like it’s leaving a bad taste in her mouth. “Consider yourself lucky that your one-night-stand was with me. I know how to be professional and accept the consequences of my actions. It certainly was a surprise finding you here today, but rest assured, I’m not the one you should be worried about. Maybe you should look in the mirror on this one, and ask yourself if you’ll be able to handle seeing me every day, given how you’ve been eye-fucking me since you eliminated my cricket infestation.”

  I chuckle and look away, wondering how my initial encounter with this woman has turned so sour in a matter of minutes. But I can’t deny that watching her lose her cool is one hell of a turn on.

  Giving her a sideways glance, I start to retreat to my classroom, aware of how much work I still have to do to be ready for the day. “Don’t you worry, Olivia. You won’t have to worry about me wanting to get to close to you. We’re colleagues now, and I never sleep with my co-workers—well, with the exception of our little surprise. And if I ever get the feeling that you’re overstepping your boundaries, I know that getting rid of you won’t require more than a few crickets now, won’t it?”

  “Ugh! You’re infuriating! Just… just do me a favor and stay far away from me, Garrison. I wouldn’t want you to catch any of my emotions rubbing off on you!” She shouts while waving her hands up and down her body, a body that I’m having a hard time forgetting what it looks like naked.

  I tip my head back in a laugh as I turn around, striding back to my classroom while shaking my head at how my morning has started—how in a matter of days, my quiet and uneventful life has been flipped upside down by a redhead with a body that is made to be worshipped and a mouth that doesn’t have a filter.

  And now I have to see this woman, day in and day out. I’ll have to act like nothing happened between us, even though our mind-blowing sex has been on repeat in my brain far more often than I’ll ever admit.

  It’s alright, I try to convince myself when I reach my door and gather my thermos and lunch box from the ground.

  No one has to know, I remind myself as I open the door and flip on the lights.

  Olivia is just another woman you work with, my thoughts travel as the vision of her in that sleek black dress bent over my desk infiltrates my mind the second I stop in front of my desk in my classroom.

  Jesus, I’m so fucked.

  Chapter 12

  Kane

  “Come on, Bob. Level with me here?”

  I coax the copy machine in front of me, smoothly rubbing the door that I just closed after clearing yet another paper jam.

  “Is Bob jammin’ this morning?” Drew comes up behind me, assessing the screen as I program the 175 copies I need, silently praying that the machine will work for me this time.

  “You know Marle
y… always jammin’,” I throw back at him as the machine fires up and starts spitting out papers.

  “How was your weekend?” Drew asks as he collects his papers from his mailbox and strides over to the coffee machine, refilling his cup.

  The teacher lounge in our building is our little cove of reprieve from answering emails and phone calls or dealing with brooding teenagers. A few copy machines line the far wall, cases of paper are stacked from floor to ceiling in one corner, and two round tables surrounded by chairs sit in front of a long counter to the left of the door, framing a refrigerator and housing our coffee pot and teacher-purchased supply of liquid caffeine.

  “Uh, it was good. Uneventful,” I shrug, feigning innocence as I avoid making eye contact. “How about you?”

  “Man, I finally caught up on some sleep. Tammy let me sleep in until almost noon on Saturday, then I graded some papers and took her out to dinner.”

  “Sounds nice, man.”

  “It was. So…”

  Drew pauses mid-sentence as the clash of high heels on the tile floors pulls his attention to the doorway. As I turn, the air is sucked from my lungs when I see Olivia in a lavender dress, her vibrant hair pulled up off of her neck in a ponytail, and a soft pink dusts her lips.

  Fuck me.

  How on Earth are the teenage boys in her class able to learn anything when she looks like a walking teenage dream?

  “Oh. Hi, there,” she acknowledges us while making her way into the room, her hands filled with reams of paper and a file folder.

  “Here, let me help you,” Drew rises from his chair, looking back at me with intense eyes as I stay frozen to the ground in front of the copy machine, my back turned again to her and my best friend.