Ella Frank - Veiled Innocence

“Yeah,” Helene confirmed. “After that, Addy was never the same. Her mother told me the doctors think she suffered a psychotic break from witnessing what we all saw that day. The clocks help her to stay focused, which explains the constant time check. But honestly, Addison’s behavior did a one-eighty. It’s as if she’s a completely different person.”

It was obvious that Helene was upset, so I moved closer to her and reached out. Intending to offer a comforting squeeze to her shoulder, I was shocked when she wrapped her arms around my waist instead.

Shit, this was not what I wanted.

With my hands hovering in the air, I had no other choice but to pat her gently on the back. As I touched her jacket I heard the door to my classroom open. Looking behind me, my eyes collided with cobalt blue and the emotions swirling in them gutted me more effectively than the emotional woman in my arms.

Addison’s eyes moved to my lower back and then came back to mine.

Betrayal. Jealousy. Anger.

No words were needed, and no words could be said as Addison turned on her heel and fled.

As I stood in the silence of my classroom with Helene’s arms around me, all I could think about was how to comfort her enough to release me from her emotional burden—so I could go and add to my own.

How fucked up was that?

* * *

I raced down the empty hall and stopped at the end of the lockers, pressing my back against the cool metal. I took several breaths and closed my eyes.

One, two, three. One, two three.

I didn’t want to think about what I’d seen when I walked into the classroom. Her with him—the rightness of that moment.

I wasn’t stupid. I knew that she was who he was supposed to be with, not me. But it didn’t matter. I couldn’t let her have him; I needed him. He stopped the chaos.

I pulled my fingers through the long strands of my hair and tightened them as I listened to the watch at my wrist keeping time of my torment.

Tick, tick, tock.

“Addison?”

My eyes snapped open at the deep voice calling out my name.

No! No, I couldn’t let him see me like this.

I was strong, confident. I was—

“Addison?”

Found.

Grayson stopped in front of me. His face was troubled, and his eyes held something new, something I hadn’t seen before—pity.

What exactly had they been discussing in there?

“It’s not what you think.”

“Move,” I demanded, feeling the need for distance.

Grayson put his hands on his hips as one of his eyebrows rose. “Excuse me?”

“Move out of my way.”

Instead of stepping aside, he remained unmoving, his body large and impenetrable. I may as well have been trying to get past a brick wall. “I think you’re forgetting who you’re talking to.”

At that moment, any anxiety I’d been feeling left and in its place was anger. He’d been talking to her about me. “Oh, I know exactly who I’m talking to. Do you?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Pushing off the locker, I walked forward until my shirt brushed his. He should have moved away but he didn’t.

“Who do you see in front of you right now? Your student or the person you were inside of yesterday?”

He swallowed before he answered, and I was mesmerized by the way his throat moved. I wanted to reach out to him.

“I see both,” he admitted. “You’re all I see.”

I silently fumed as I concentrated on the mouth that, despite my anger, I wanted on mine.

“But now you see something else. What did she tell you?” I asked.

He looked caught off-guard. “What?”

“She said something to you. You’re looking at me like they all do.”

“And how is that?”

“Like you feel sorry for me,” I spat out. “I want you to fuck me. Not pity me.”

With no warning at all, Grayson seized my shoulders and firmly directed me back against the lockers. He crowded in with no regard to our surroundings as he promised in a voice that sounded distinctly like a threat.

“That’s all you want, is it? A quick fuck? You could have gotten that from Brandon. But you want more from me, just like I want more from you.”

His mouth was close, so close that if I leaned in…

“Don’t.”

“No?” I whispered as his breath floated over my lips.

“No. Not here.”

“I need you,” I admitted breathlessly. “I ache for you.”

Grayson moved away so fast it was as if he’d been electrocuted. “After school,” he promised.

“Yes?”

“Follow me…my truck.”

His eyes left a scorching trail down my body as he backed away, and I checked my watch to see how much longer I had to wait. I wasn’t surprised at all that the second hand was silently making its way around to twelve.

Once again, he’d silenced the madness.

* * *

Three thirty and the final bell for the day rang. I grabbed my bag and followed the last student out the door, turning the lights off as I exited.

I locked up and made my way out to the parking lot, knowing that what I was about to do was wrong. I had also known it yesterday, but as I made my way to my truck, I spotted Addison leaning back against her car, and I couldn’t find it in me to care.

She was laughing at something Brandon must have said. Her head was tipped back, the sun shone on her face, and the smile on her lips made me want to punch him for putting it there.

Nice. Now I was jealous of a fucking teenager.

As I stepped onto the road, Brandon saw me and waved.

“See you tomorrow, Mr. McKendrick.”

I returned the gesture and shoved my other hand in my pocket.

“Yes, you will,” I replied as my eyes met Addison’s, and I couldn’t help but add, “Make sure you do your homework tonight. Only a few days left, and I want that report on my desk Friday.”

“I know, I know. The Boleyn chick.”

“That’d be her.”

Brandon grabbed his bag, which was resting by Addison on the hood of her car, and kissed her cheek. My teeth clenched as I unlocked my door and climbed inside.

I started the truck and looked out my windshield to see Brandon driving away. That’s when I let my eyes find Addison’s.

She was sitting in her car and when I pulled out of my spot, I heard her car turn over.

Yes, I thought as I drove out on to the street.

This time you follow me.

* * *

I made sure to let several other cars leave ahead of me before I turned and followed.

After navigating the streets and weaving through traffic, he entered the highway. I was curious where he was taking us. I knew it had to be somewhere private since there was no way we could be out in public. He exited the off ramp and I followed closer now that we were away from the school.

Around fifteen minutes later, we turned down a dirt road and drove in a mile or so before he stopped at an old gate. Opening the truck door, he jumped down and came for me. Running a hand through his hair, he began striding my way as the wind caught his shirt, molding it to all of his muscles.

The man was hotter than hell, and nowhere in sight was my history teacher.

This was all Grayson.

His eyes stayed on me as he braced a hand on the roof of my car and indicated I should wind my window down. Once it was lowered, he rested his forearms on the door so our faces were only inches apart.

“Park the car, Addison.”

“Park it?”

“Yes,” he replied, his voice velvety and commanding. “Do you remember what I found you doing the first time you parked in front of my house?”

He was driving me crazy, and he knew it.

“Yes.”

“I want you do that again, here. Just for me.”

It shouldn’t have been any different than the time I’d done this in front of him in the classroom, but as he leaned in the window and his tongue tasted my bottom lip, I suddenly felt nervous.

This was different.

Unlike those other times, here he held the upper hand, and he knew it.

“Right hand on the steering wheel, left hand inside your panties, and your eyes, those beautiful fucking eyes—keep them on me the entire time.”

I pulled the keys from the ignition. Bringing them up between us, I dangled them on my finger and when he took them, the side of my mouth curved.

“I don’t want them back until I’m so satisfied I can barely walk.”

As I unzipped my jeans and placed my hand on the steering wheel, something primal flashed in his eyes as he promised, “By the time I’m done with you, you’ll be lucky if you have the strength to crawl.”

Reaching for me, he took my chin and turned my face to him.

“Are you ready for that?”

I brought my left hand to his mouth so he could suck my fingers, and I felt my core clench and throb as I lowered them down into my jeans.

My lips parted on a sigh as my fingers slipped inside me, and I asked, “Are you?”

He looked to where my hand disappeared into my jeans and uttered two words that signaled the time for talking was over. “Fuck yes.”

With that, he opened the driver’s side door to my car.

Past…

As I pulled open the car door, I caught the way Addison’s chest heaved with every breath she took, and my cock stiffened. I was sick and tired of worrying about every fucking move I made, and right now I ordered myself to stop.

She was seated in her car with the belt still fastened. Her hand clasped the steering wheel and the other was down her jeans. As she turned her head on the headrest and her eyes found mine, she looked exactly like I pictured she would—a fucking bad girl.

“You like this, don’t you? Me watching you?”

“Yes,” she replied. “You do too.”

“I definitely have no complaints.”

It was clear she knew exactly how to touch herself as a throaty moan emerged. I couldn’t help what I did next any more than I could help the need to breathe.

I unbuttoned and unzipped my pants then shoved my hand inside and wrapped it around my hard cock.

“Show me,” she said in a voice laced with arousal.

“A little demanding, aren’t we?”

“You want to show me as much as I want to see.”

I stroked her chin, needing to touch her in some way. Addison seemed to have a gravitational force surrounding her, and she continued to pull me in with her curvy fucking body and brazenly dirty mouth.

In the back of my mind, I’d known this would happen when I opened her car door, but for her to want it too? That I hadn’t expected.

Knowing how shaky my resolve was, I firmly told her, “No touching.”

Her eyes locked with mine and the question screaming from them was, why? Instead of answering, because I didn’t have a reason that made sense, I swooped down inside the car, placed my own hand on the wheel and took her mouth with mine. I speared my tongue between her lips, and when she moaned into my mouth, I felt her entire body arch forward.

I tore my lips from hers and reiterated, “No touching.”

She continued writhing in her seat. “Okay, no touching. Show me.”

I brushed my thumb along her wet bottom lip and pushed my pants apart to release my stiff cock. Her eyes focused on my erection and I dipped my index finger into her mouth. As she began to suck me, her hips lifted, and she fucked herself harder.

Her knuckles were white as she held the wheel, and when I pushed a second finger between her lips she took to it as if she knew exactly what I wanted. Finally, when I had to touch myself or fucking die, I pulled my fingers free from her mouth and smeared the pearly drop of pre-come down my impatient cock.

I braced myself against the side of her car as I began to stroke my erection only inches away from her. While she watched me, her fingers slid in and out of her body, and it didn’t take me long. I could feel my climax clawing at me as my balls tightened, and my muscles tensed.

However, it wasn’t until she whispered, “I want to taste,” that I moved like lightning, leaning into the car to unbuckle her.

She was breathtaking. She was beautiful. I was in so fucking deep with her that no one could save me now.