Only You (Adair Family #5)(41)

Jealousy licked up my spine as I glared at the guy. He was staring after Monroe with determined satisfaction.

Not thinking straight, I excused myself. Walker was too busy listening to Callie to notice me leave, but I could feel Regan’s watchful gaze on me. Ignoring her, I hurried through the crowds, hearing my name murmured among them and not even bothering to offer them a friendly Hollywood smile.

It was like I was possessed.

My boots echoed off the shiny corridor floors as I turned left at reception and hurried through the double doors toward the classrooms. I ducked my head into every doorway until I found her in her classroom, halfway up the corridor.

Monroe stood at her desk, staring out the window, as if in a daze.

Because of the fuckwit dad who just practically licked a crumb off her lip? Was something going on between them?

I’d meant to discuss Lewis.

To promise to be more professional, so he would go back to treating Monroe with respect.

But it was like a devil took over my body and my mouth.

“You know you’ve got some cheek slapping me on the wrist for flirting with a music teacher when it looks like you’re fucking a pupil’s parent.”

Monroe whirled on me.

I saw my words sink in.

“Excuse me?” she seethed, her eyes narrowed.

“Everybody caught the show,” I drawled, strolling with a casualness I did not feel toward her.

To my astonishment, Monroe retreated physically.

That pissed me off, her acting like she had something to fear from me.

My devil made me keep moving and she suddenly registered she was backing up and stopped.

“What do you want, Mr. Adair?” She tilted her chin defiantly.

I huffed at her formality. “I want you not to be my nephew’s self-righteous, pain-in-the-arse teacher. But here you are.”

“Self-righteous?”

“Sticking your nose in the air.” I searched her face, fully looking at her, and realizing there were more freckles on her forehead than there used to be. There was a new one at the corner of her right eye too. “Admonishing me and Ava for harmless flirting, while you let your pupil’s father practically lick your mouth.” Said mouth drew my attention, and a perverse heat flickered through me. Roe had a full, pouty mouth that had driven me mad as a teenager and made me feel guilty as hell anytime I fantasized about doing something sexual to it.

I could still remember how well she kissed. How soft her lips were.

Goddamn it.

My eyes flew to hers to find her glowering at me. “Step back, Mr. Adair.”

See? There it was again. The insinuation I’d hurt her.

“Afraid to be too close to me? Too tempting?”

Monroe sneered, and I felt her disdain like a slice across my gut. “I’d sooner fuck a cactus.”

Ironically, her words pricked my vanity. “Quite the potty mouth for a primary school teacher.”

“I think you need to stop obsessing over my mouth and leave me alone, Brodan. I preferred it when you were ignoring me.”

I didn’t move away. I moved closer, determined to see that heat in her eyes she used to give me when we were teens. Don’t ask me why. Call it a masochistic need to play with fire. “I didn’t come here to argue with you, Ms. Sinclair. I came to let you know that from now on, I will be professional and acknowledge you during rehearsals, for Lewis’s sake. But I don’t want you mistaking it for me being interested in forgiveness or friendship.”

Her gray eyes searched mine. Then she curled her upper lip. “I would never mistake it for that, Mr. Adair. You can choke on your bitterness for all I care, as long as it doesn’t interfere with my relationship with Lewis. You’re nothing to me anymore.”

Fury and other feelings I couldn’t quite admit to churned in my gut as I pushed my face into hers, making her gasp. “You should never have come back here. No one wants you here.”

True torment flashed in her eyes, and suddenly I remembered her parents.

All the pain they’d caused.

All the hurt they probably still inflicted upon her.

My thoughtless jibe suddenly took on a monstrous quality. What the fuck was wrong with me?

Self-hatred slammed through me, but before I could say anything, take back the words, a familiar deep voice whipped into the room. “Brodan.”

I looked over my shoulder to find Walker glaring at me. “What?”

“Out here. Now.”

I raised an eyebrow at his demand but turned back to Monroe. Her gaze had dropped to the floor, the color drained from her cheeks.

What did I care, though, right?

My gut wasn’t in knots because of her.

I opened my mouth to speak—

“Brodan, now.”

At Walker’s clipped tone, I muttered a curse under my breath and pushed off the wall.

I waited for Monroe to look at me, but she just kept staring at the floor. My eyes dropped to her fisted hands. Her knuckles were white with strain.

Anguish filled me. A thousand apologies and a thousand accusations swirled inside. I turned and stalked out of the room, glowering at Walker as I stormed past him. “What the fuck is it?”

He caught up with me quickly, but remained silent until we neared the cafeteria doors and the noise of the bake sale beyond. “Brodan.”

I stopped and looked at him. Something in his expression rendered me silent. There was a menacing air around my friend that I’d only ever witnessed when fans were getting too close to me.