Chapter 8
Blake
“Was that a shooting star?” I lean toward the windshield as if that will allow me to find where the streak of light went.
Lennox leans into the steering wheel and studies the skyline. “Yeah. I forgot how many you can see out here.”
“Aren’t you supposed to make wishes on them?”
“I might have when I was little.” Lennox’s answer isn’t a surprise.
I shift my attention to the dark storefront we have under surveillance. Nothing but an old barbershop in a town that rolls up its sidewalks by eight o’clock. The blackness of the sky dotted with thousands of stars is far more interesting. “Is that really the Milky Way?”
“It is.”
“When I was a kid and teachers talked about it in science classes, I thought you had to have a telescope to see it.”
“Nope, it’s one of the easiest parts of the sky to pick out when you get away from the light pollution. Same for the shooting stars. They happen all the time.”
As Lennox rambles on, my incidental mention of teachers brings the simmering thoughts of Cecilia to a full boil. First she calls me a good boy, then agrees to Daddy… is she just playing with us? I pull out my phone and bring up her name for a text message.
Me: Those baseball players leave yet?
How many of those guys try to flirt with her? Grab her ass? How freely does she give out her number?
“What’s got you riled up?” Lennox is staring at me.
My breaths are heavy. My knuckles are blanched on my phone. My jaw is clenched. I check myself and calm down. “I don’t like Cecilia waiting tables for all of those guys.”
“Those guys? You mean the middle school baseball players who are there with their parents?”
Middle school? I stretch my fingers and roll my neck side-to-side. Damn, in the hour since we left the diner my brain aged them. Cecilia’s got me messed up. “Seventh graders are the worst.”
“I think she can handle them. I’d be more worried about the dads.” Lennox shifts, looks like he’s about to say something, but the text alert from my phone stops him. He leans so he can see my screen.
Cecilia: Just sorted out their checks.
Cecilia again: Can I stop by for my first lesson?
Lennox straightens, gives me a look, then shakes his head. “We can’t ditch surveillance. Besides, how is this going to work?”
I motion to the entire street of darkened storefronts. “Are you trying to get out of teaching?”
“We have all the case information out at the house.”
“We can put it away.”
“Too risky. Our vests and guns.”
Cecilia: You fall asleep?
“Fuck! She asked if I fell asleep. Is that a joke about how old we are?”
Lennox’s laugh is tinged with darkness. “Sensitive about your age?”
Me: Very funny
Cecilia: If you’re not up for being my teachers, I’ll just go to the club and find a tutor.
Me: A club?
Cecilia: There’s one in the city.
Me: Do not go to a club.
Cecilia: Then give me your address.
Me: We’ll come to you.
Cecilia: I live with my parents.
I explain the text thread to Lennox. “We can’t let her go to a club unless we’re with her.”
Lennox pauses, presumably sorting logistics. “We can’t go out with her and we can’t have her over.”
Cecilia: My shift ends at midnight.
A second later: A good boy won’t be late.
Good boy. I need her to stop calling me that. It makes me feel things I’d rather deny. The temptation to go straight to the diner and bend her over one of the tables has my balls ready to blow.
“What’d she say?”
I show her text to Lennox and wait. Watching the agony cross his expression settles the question of whether he already fell for her. The squirm makes it clear that he also feels things when she calls us good boys.
He opens his mouth, clenches his jaw, then opens again, exhaling hard before saying, “She can’t just fuck the first willing stranger at a club.”
Playfully punching his shoulder, I say, “Midnight it is.”
An unstated question lingers between us. Are we just convenient to her?
I’m not about to let her use us and walk away.
“You sure we’re making the right decision, abandoning the surveillance?” Lennox asks.
“The informant said their schedule is loose. The local courier is a one-man-show, somebody more interested in making money than asking questions. We can try again tomorrow.”
The next hour is boring, yet torturous hell except for the anticipation of being with Cecilia.
We get to the diner a few minutes before midnight. The door’s still open. She locks it behind us and sends us to the corner booth, sliding in between us.
Her citrusy scent makes my cock hard. The twinkle in her eye makes my cock hard.
The softness of her skin pressing into my side makes my cock hard.
I might have called Lennox out for falling for her quickly, but I beat him to it.
I want her in ways I’ve never wanted anyone before. I want to be her everything.
Lennox leaves an inch of space between himself and Cecilia. I can respect the remnants of his struggle, but we’re in a tough position now, seeing how determined she is to find someone to teach her.
She sets her notepad and pen on the table. “Do I need to take notes?”
“No notes.” I kiss the side of her head. It takes all of my willpower to pull my lips from her hair. “We’ll go with whatever’s right in the moment.”
“Okay.” She turns to Lennox. “In this moment, it would feel right for you to kiss me the way he just did.” She looks forward and taps the side of her head.
“Cecilia.” Stress laces Lennox’s use of her name. He sounds more like a father than a naughty tutor. “We need to take this slowly.”
“Yeah, just a peck.”
If it hadn’t been so obvious that he’s obsessed with her, I wouldn’t push. But he is. That’s our dynamic—he overthinks, I push. And now is one of those times he needs a nudge. “Just a little one on the side of her head. If it does nothing for you, no harm done for opting out.”
Lennox asks, “Are we alone?”
She nods. “Yeah, and no one can see this booth from outside.”
Lennox moves an arm onto the back of the booth, turns to her, and closes his eyes. I’m shocked by how hot it is watching him kiss her. I’d expected to be focused on her, and I am, but I love seeing him please her.
He’s letting go. It might seem like a small move to an outsider, but this is huge.
Cecilia’s eyes flutter shut and her mouth falls slack. Lennox takes his time, moving his lips back and forth the tiniest bit. “Cecilia…”
I don’t know who’s more curious what he was going to say, but he pulls away, removes his arm from the back of the booth, puts it on the table, and clears his throat.
“Wow,” she says breathlessly.
“Exactly,” I say, expecting Lennox to chime in, but he just grumbles.
Cecilia’s voice wavers with desire. “We should get out of here for the rest of the lesson.”
Lennox taps both hands on the table. “That’s all for tonight.”
“That wasn’t even on the lips.” Cecilia looks between the two of us. She and I clearly aren’t on the same page as Lennox.
His tone grows irritated. “What did you expect? Sex for lesson number one?”
“Actually.” Cecilia raises her hands then flops against the padded backrest. “Unless you’re not into it.”
“You have no idea,” Lennox practically growls.
“Then educate me. I only have a week.” Frustration ripples through her words.
A week? She can’t possibly know our timeline. I can’t stand to see her like this. I grab her hand and lower it into my lap. “This is for you, Firecracker.”
Maintaining eye contact, she squeezes her fingers around my incredibly uncomfortable jeans-covered cock.
“Blake,” Lennox chastises. “We’re not having sex for a first date—not that this is a date. We need to get to know each other first.”
Squeeze. Release. She’s toying with me. I’m about to ask Lennox to define ‘sex’ when the first undeniable pull of release threatens.
I can’t come like this.
Yanking her hand out of my lap, I press it onto the table while making a choked sound.
Her pout makes me want to put her hand back. To unzip my pants. To let her put those pouty lips to work. Anything but stopping.
She says, “Anyone bring a syllabus? Seems like there’s a lot to learn between sweet kisses and sex. I might need to adjust my schedule to accommodate more study time.”
“I’d like that.”
She slides her other hand onto Lennox’s lap, but he cups both hands around it and sets it on the table. “Are you using us to get back at Henry?”
“Does it matter?” She looks at him from under her lashes.
I wasn’t ready for Lennox to ask that, but I was less prepared for her response.
“Nothing could change the way I feel about you.”
Shoulda known that when Lennox fell, he’d fall hard and fast. Now my biggest fear is that he’ll scare her off with a marriage proposal. Not that it hasn’t crossed my mind already. Marriage, babies… I want her in every way.
I run my fingers through her silky hair and tangle my fingers just enough to turn her face back to me. My eyes drift to her parted lips. I want to kiss her. I want her to call me a good boy again.
I need to knock that shit off. She’s the student. She doesn’t get to call us good boys.
Slowly pulling her into me, I slant my lips over hers.
The sweetness of the kiss is overrun with hunger.
Our tongues explore. If we weren’t in such a damn confined space, I’d lift her onto the table and trace her body with my tongue, feast on her pussy, then shove my cock in her and fill her with cum.
“No sex tonight.” Lennox cock-blocks me like a seasoned professor who knows exactly what his students are thinking.
Cecilia and I break for a breath. Lennox is as stern-faced as I’ve ever seen him. “This isn’t just about a quick thrill. We want it to be right for you. That’s why we’re all going home and you’re going to think about this before we go any further.”
“Don’t make me go home, Daddy,” she pleads. Better coming from her than me.
The look on Lennox’s face is hysterical. She’s going to break us.
“What she said, minus the daddy part.” I try to lighten the mood. “We’d all just go home and jack off.”
Ever the eager student, she says, “That’s the perfect lesson. Let me watch.”
“This isn’t about us getting off,” Lennox says.
“And yet… how else will you teach me what guys like?”
She had me going until she used the generic term of ‘what guys like’, not what we like. Is she using us?
I refuse to accept any version of the multiverse where she walks away from us. Taking her hand, I slide out of the booth and she follows.
“Where are you going?” Lennox stands and shoots me a look. “Our place is a mess. Unpacking… boxes…”
Ceci looks around, her gaze landing on the booth where Lennox remains. “We could stay here.”
She returns to the seat, pulls napkins from the plastic dispenser, and sets a wad in front of each of us. “Don’t make a mess.”
It’s a little bit of an effort to get my jeans down enough to get my thickened cock out, but once I shove the table out, I’m able to fit myself into the booth.
“Is this a two-fer?” She looks up at Lennox.
He grumbles, adjusts his jeans. “This is your workplace. The kitchen staff—”
“Already went home. No one here but us.”
Come on, Lennox, just do it. He hasn’t given a definitive no, but I can’t read him.
I stroke my cock slowly, enjoying the desire in her expression as she turns to me for guidance.
“Lesson number one. You always come first, Firecracker.”
Her brow furrows and she takes a second to meet my gaze. “You mean… you want me to…”