Chapter 27 #2
He didn’t want to talk. Hell, he didn’t even want to look at her, but he had no choice in the matter. Until his house sold, he was stuck working here and seeing her every day.
“Jason, we really need to talk.”
“No.”
She somehow managed to catch up with him and jump in front of him just as he reached his classroom.
He pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. “Move.”
“No,” Haley bit out stubbornly.
He didn’t have the patience for this shit. “Move out of the way, Haley.”
She shook her head.
“Fine,” Jason said, stepping away from her and heading for her classroom, intending on cutting through her room.
“Fifteen people have looked at your house and not one offer. That’s kind of funny, isn’t it?” Haley asked in an offhand tone, stopping him dead in his tracks. It was the gist of what his realtor had told him last night over the phone when he got in.
“What the hell are you talking about?” he demanded, turning around to glare at her.
Haley made a show of examining her fingernails. “Just that it’s kind of funny that no one has made an offer on your house, especially after all the work you’ve put into it over the past few months.” She looked up from her nails, giving him a smug little smile.
“And how exactly do you know that no one has made me an offer?” Jason asked, narrowing his eyes on her as he took several steps towards her.
Her brows arched up adorably. “A little birdie told me?”
“Uh-huh,” he said, tilting his head to the side to study her. “And what else did this little birdie tell you?’
“That you won’t get one offer on your house until you give me what I want,” she said firmly. There was no doubt in his mind what she wanted.
Friendship.
As much as he would love to be able to stay in Haley’s life and make sure that whatever lucky bastard that ended up with her took care of her, he couldn’t. Not when he knew that it should have been him.
She was his little grasshopper.
“I can’t give that to you, Haley,” he said hoarsely. “I wish I could, but...but I just can’t. I’m sorry.”
“Then you’re never going to sell your house,” Haley simply said, shrugging it off.
“I’m sorry, Haley,” Jason said as he walked away.
“Last chance, Jason!” Haley yelled through the front door.
Great, Jason thought, sitting back down on the kitchen chair. This was just what he needed. It was bad enough that he was forced to cut Haley out of his life, something that was going to take him a long time to get over, but he didn’t need her going psycho on him.
Haley was smart and levelheaded. He’d never really expected her to land on his doorstep at eleven o’clock at night, demanding to talk to him like so many women before her. At least, she didn’t sound drunk and wasn’t screaming a bunch of bullshit for his neighbors to hear.
“About time,” he mumbled, rubbing his hands down his face when he didn’t hear anything after a while.
Although, he was glad that Haley had given up, he couldn’t help but feel a little insulted.
Women he’d only fucked once or twice were a lot more persistent and demanding than a woman who claimed she loved him.
Then again, she only loved him as a friend, one that she’d apparently wanted to screw around with for a little while, but a friend, nonetheless. He’d known the entire time they were together that he wasn’t good enough for her, he just never expected Haley to agree.
It figures, Jason thought acidly, tossing his red pen down on the stack of essays he was grading, that the only woman that he’d wanted only wanted him as a fuck buddy.
A year ago, he probably would have been flattered that his shy little neighbor saw him as a stud.
Now, he just wanted to put his fist through a wall.
He fought back a yawn as he picked his pen back up, wondering what had possessed him to assign an essay on the first day of school.
The answer was easy. Haley, and of course, the new biology teacher, Mark Armstrong, who hadn’t left her alone all fucking day, was responsible for this simple act of stupidity.
Jason had been forced to watch as Mark flirted with his little grasshopper.
When Haley dropped her notebook in the hallway before first period and bent over to pick it up it had taken every last ounce of control to stop himself from ripping apart the bastard as he hungrily licked his lips while he’d watched Haley’s pert little bottom wiggle.
Since Jason still needed this job, he’d refrained from killing the bastard and took it out on his students, who now hated him, instead.
He didn’t give a shit.
The only thing he cared about was getting the hell out of here with his sanity still intact.
He doubted that was going to happen if he was forced to see Haley every day and watch as other men drooled over her.
He’d have to find out from his realtor tomorrow what Haley was doing to scare people away.
Right now, he was too damn tired to think of the possibilities. He hadn’t been able to sleep much over the past couple of weeks, another thing that he was going to have to fix. He felt himself starting to doze off as his head dropped forward. This time, he didn’t fight it.
“Wake up, Jason,” Haley’s sweet voice had him groaning as his eyes slowly opened.
“Good boy,” she said, pressing a kiss to his forehead.
“Haley?” Jason asked groggily as his eyes slowly focused on her adorable face.
“Mmmhmm,” Haley answered absently as she slowly walked around him, letting her fingers glide over his shoulders.
He went to cover a yawn with his hand only to frown when he realized that his hands were pulled back behind him and...yup, handcuffed. He tried to move his feet and sighed when he realized that his legs were bound to the chair. Great. She really had gone off the deep end.
“Untie me,” Jason said, sighing.
“Nope,” was Haley’s reply.
“Haley,” he warned through clenched teeth. “Let me go right now.”
“Sorry, I just can’t do that,” she said, stopping in front of him and leaned back against the table, smiling sweetly at him.
Jason tried to yank his arms and legs free, but the handcuffs wouldn’t give.
“Un-fucking-cuff me! Now!” he roared.
“Sorry. I can’t do that,” Haley simply said, pushing her glasses back up her nose.
“Haley, I swear to god, if you don’t let me go-”
“Why don’t we get started?” she asked brightly, cutting him off.
He closed his eyes, praying for patience he sure as hell didn’t have.
“Haley, it’s over. You need to accept it and let me go.
Please,” he all but begged. She was killing him.
Losing her was the hardest thing he’d ever gone through.
He needed her to let go so that he could find some way to cope with the loss without losing his sanity or what was left of his heart.
“No, it’s not.”
“Yes, it is,” Jason said, opening his eyes to find Haley studying him with her head tilted to the side.
“You know,” she said, pushing away from the table, “you don’t look very comfortable.”
“That’s because I’m not. Untie me, Haley,” he snapped, yanking on his handcuffs again.
With a sigh, she knelt down in front of him, ignoring the glare he was sending her and laid her hands on his knees. Jason watched as she licked her lips and smiled sweetly up at him.
“Did you miss me?” Haley asked as she gently caressed his knees.
“No,” he lied.
He’d missed her so goddamn much. Those two weeks away from her had been a living hell and one that he knew he’d be reliving again very soon.
“Well, I missed you,” Haley mumbled softly, running her hands over his thighs slowly.
Jason shook his head in regret. “Haley, we can’t be friends.”
She shrugged it off. “I know,” Haley said as she ran her hands down the inside of his thighs, letting her nails lightly scratch him. He sucked in a breath as she ran her nails all the way back to his knees and then, back up his thighs.
“I don’t want to be friends,” Haley said, running her hands over his stomach and chest. He had to force himself to focus on their conversation and not on just how good her hands felt on him.
“I’m not going to be your fuck buddy,” Jason bit out angrily. Even though he knew that he should happily accept anything she was willing to give him, he couldn’t. He wanted all of her and wasn’t willing to settle for anything less.
“That’s not going to work for me either,” Haley said, slowly loosening his tie and pulling it away from him. She met his eyes as her nimble little fingers unbuttoned his shirt.
“Then, what the hell do you want?” Jason asked, trying not to lick his lips in pleasure as she ran her nails teasingly down his chest and stomach.
When she reached his navel, she flattened her hands against him and slid them back up until she was pushing his shirt away, exposing his chest to her greedy eyes.
She ignored his question and traced her fingers softly over his muscles instead. When she ran her thumbs over his flat nipples, he had to bite back a hiss. Haley gave him a knowing smile as she leaned forward.
“Have I ever told you how much I love your body?” Haley asked softly against his stomach as she pressed a kiss against his skin. He watched as she licked a trail from his navel to his left peck. He hissed as she ran her warm, wet tongue over his nipple.
His head dropped back with a loud groan as she licked her way to the right side and teased his other nipple. When she flicked her wicked little tongue over the flat nipple, his dick went from half-mast to steel in seconds.
He licked his lips as he shifted to make some room in his suddenly tight pants. Haley’s hands slid back to his thighs as she kissed and licked her way to his neck. When she pulled his earlobe between her teeth, he couldn’t help but moan.
“Did you miss me?” Haley asked as she teased his ear. “Even a little?”
Christ, he couldn’t think, never mind answer her.
“Hmm, why don’t we see what else we can do to make you more comfortable, shall we?” Haley asked, smiling against his neck.
He raised his head when he felt her move away from him. Panting, he watched her sit back as she ran her hands over his thighs. Every time she ran her hands closer to where he needed her, he groaned in frustration.
“Fuck!” he gasped when Haley leaned forward and pressed a kiss against the bulge in his pants.
“Tell me that you missed me,” Haley said quietly as she leaned back and ran her hand over the bulge between his legs, lightly gripping it before reaching for his belt.
He stubbornly shook his head. As much as his body screamed for her touch, Jason couldn’t do this. Haley deserved to be with someone she loved, someone who made her happy and as much as it pained him to admit it, it wasn’t him.
“Stop.”