What He Never Knew (What He Doesn't Know, #3)(79)

At that, he lowered his lips to my fingers again, kissing them with promise. “I would never tell anyone. It’s not my story to tell. And I respect you too much to ever do that.”

I nodded. “Thank you.”

The silence stretched between us, the sun warming the bed as much as Rojo did. She was still sprawled out beside us, snoring lightly, little hind legs twitching a bit.

“Reese?”

“Mm?” he answered, shifting his weight to the opposite elbow. He still seemed lost in thought from our last conversation.

I chewed the inside of my cheek, debating my next words. “Did you and Jennifer… have you ever… you know… with her?”

He smirked. “Have I ever what?”

“Please don’t make me say it.”

Reese chuckled as my cheeks burned. “No. We didn’t. Do you really think I’d fool around with her and then come home and do what I did to you?”

I shrugged, picking at the blanket wrapped around us. “I don’t know. When you first got home, there was lipstick on your mouth. I just assumed…”

“She kissed me when I dropped her off,” he said bluntly. “But I didn’t kiss her back. I stopped her, and asked her to get out of my car.”

“Why?” I breathed. “She’s beautiful. She’s…”

“Not you,” he said. My next breath stalled in my chest, and the corner of Reese’s mouth quirked to one side as he pulled my fingertips to his lips again, kissing them lightly. “She’s not you, Sarah. That’s why I didn’t kiss her back.”

I wanted to trust it, the way my heart soared at his words. But it didn’t seem possible. It didn’t feel real, that he could want me, too. That a young, damaged girl like me could be anywhere near what he wanted or needed.

But the way he looked at me…

I swallowed, tapping his lips. “So… what do we do now?”

Reese sat up a little more, that familiar crease showing between his brows. “What do you mean?”

“I mean… I’m your student. Your boss is my uncle. And…”

“I’m an old man?”

I chuckled, running a hand back through his hair before I rested it at the nape of his neck. “Thirty-seven is not old.”

“It’s a hell of a lot older than twenty-one.”

I frowned, twirling the strands of his hair between my fingers. “So… does that mean… can we not…” I couldn’t figure out how to ask what I wanted to, what I needed to. My eyes fell to his chest, a thick, sticky knot in my throat as I tried to swallow past it. “Was last night it?”

Reese watched me for a long moment before he dipped down, forcing me to look him in the eye. “Do you want it to be?”

I shook my head immediately.

“What do you want?”

I almost laughed, like it was easy to say, to achieve. “I want you,” I answered simply. “I want… us. But, I’m scared. I don’t want you to get fired, and I don’t know how my uncle will react. Or what people will say, how they’ll see us. What about The Kinky Starfish? And the parents at Westchester, will they worry about their kids? And what about…” I sighed, biting my lower lip. “I don’t know if I… I don’t know if I’m enough for you. I’m young, and inexperienced, and—”

“Hey,” Reese interrupted me, tilting my chin with his knuckles until my eyes met his once more. “Do you remember what I said to you that night we adopted Rojo?”

I loved the way he said we, like we were a unit, a team, a thing.

I nodded.

“What did I say?” he probed.

“You said I was enough,” I whispered.

Reese’s eyes danced between mine. “I did. And I meant it. Then, and now. You are enough, Sarah. And I want you, too.”

My eyes widened. “You do?”

He chuckled at that, leaning in to press his lips tenderly to mine. “I love how you act so surprised, like you’re anything less than the most beautiful, most incredible, strongest woman I’ve ever known.”

I beamed, pressing up to kiss him again before my head fell back into the pillows. I shook it, staring up at the most beautiful, most incredible, strongest man I’d ever known — wondering how in the hell he saw the same in me.

But none of that mattered to anyone outside of these walls.

All they would see is a teacher abusing his power, a student feeling like she was in love when she was just enamored by an older man. They’d see perversion, not beauty.

“What do we do, then?” I asked him. “How do we…”

“We’ll figure it out,” he said, kissing my fingertips. “I will figure it out. Okay? But we don’t have to have all the answers right now.” With that, he rolled, rubbing Rojo’s belly before popping up out of bed. His hair was a disheveled mess, but all I could stare at were the muscles that lined his rib cage, his abdomen, leading all the way down to the sharp V above his belt. “Right now,” he said, reaching a hand back for me. “We both need a shower. And then you need to figure out a story for why you stayed out all night.”

I laughed, letting him pull me up. “Yeah… that will be a fun conversation.”