Chapter 22
MICAH
Stop chasing her, Micah.
Everyone is looking.
However, my dick and about a quarter of my brain have the willpower to keep my feet moving because I’m currently on Sienna’s heels as she purposely speed walks away from me because I won’t let her be free of me.
It’s a dick move.
One of my worst, actually.
I’m making a story just by following her. However, I’m a good enough bullshitter in this town to make it look like we were going to speak about Heath in private rather than what’s really going on.
Which is her being pissed off that I won’t give her my blessing to be with Tad.
I allow Sienna to escape the main event area until we get to the foyer, and I gently grab her arm.
She spins on me without my having to move her, and the fire in her eyes is enough to make me stand there and just let her unleash.
Except, she doesn’t.
I know there are a lot of things on her mind and probably a lot of opinions, but I’m a legendary prick when it comes to something I want.
And I want her.
I’m always going to want Sienna Vesper.
“Speak or forever hold your peace, sweetheart,” I mutter low enough for no one to hear. “We don’t have—”
“Why won’t you just leave me alone?” she spits out with a heated glare. “I’m tired of you.”
“And I’m in love with you. Can’t.”
Shit.
That just escaped from the confines of my brain—again—and just openly freed itself like a traitorous asshole.
But what’s the use?
It was bound to come out. It almost did the other week at her house before she kicked me to my ass.
I feel things for her—violently quick and stubborn—that will not cease or disappear.
Sienna isn’t someone I’ve known my whole life.
She was a surprise, one night of pleasure and absolute bliss that could’ve been kept as just that.
However, my body and brain were hooked.
Sienna opened up something in me that I believed to be dead and gone. Buried and burned alive by past transgressions and betrayal.
She makes me want to be better.
For her.
For my son.
For a future.
But I fucked that up, and I fucked it hard. I broke her heart and offered no solace or reason right away because I thought her hating me would be for the best.
It would get her to get over me like I did Laura.
It may not have been the healthiest way, but it was the only way I knew how to get past my ex.
Regardless, it didn’t work.
Sienna’s golden brown eyes widen in surprise, but it only takes about five more seconds for her to paint that glare back on, and she’s back on her shit.
“Are you being for real right now, Micah? Because, if you’re bored, I can name a few things that Heath is doing in school that you can work on.”
I frown. “What do you mean?”
“He’s distancing himself from you. In his pictures. You’re always in another room, and he’s sad.”
Now I’m glaring at her.
“Why didn’t you tell me that?” I grind out. “Are you—”
“I was hoping it’d pass. And I had a task to send you an email out—”
“This is something you call the parent about.”
“If you don’t like my teaching abilities, Mr. Wolfe, you’re more than welcome to have him transferred to another classroom.”
He’d hate that.
My son likes Sienna and speaks about how kind and fun she is when I ask him about his day.
However, he’s never shown any signs of what she’s claiming here.
“Maybe I should,” I agree evenly. “Then I can fuck you whenever I want and openly have a relationship—”
“Moving Heath out of my classroom doesn’t give you a hall pass to date me,” she leers through her clenched jaw. “I’m not interested in anything with you.”
“That’s a fuckin’ lie.”
She scoffs haughtily at me. “I knew you were cocky, but I didn’t think you were incapable of reading a room.”
“I’m reading it just fine. You’ve been picking the most basic men in town to keep you occupied. Tad isn’t going to keep your interest. And, speaking of basic, where is Jonah?”
“Probably saving an old lady or cat from a house fire.”
I love how quickly she is coming back at me with stupid shit. I was already jealous about her hanging out with any potential love interest other than me.
And, even though Jonah isn’t around and Tad is a shot in hell to win her over, I still want to make myself on her in some way, shape, or form.
“I’m starting to get tired of these rules, Miss Vesper.”
“And I’m getting tired of you, Mr. Wolfe, and trying to keep a professional space.”
“Now, where’s the fun in that?”
Her little nostrils flare. “I’m glad you’re having fun at my expense while I’m attempting—”
“I want a parent-teacher conference to go over my son’s behavior. When can we set that up?”
Sienna remains frozen as she stares back at me like I’m bipolar and can’t keep to one subject at a time.
I’m not, and I can.
I just know how far to push her, and the moment I start talking about school, she gets back into teacher mode.
Which proves to me that leaving her behind was for her own benefit and the best decision to make.
However, it does me zero favors when the school year is over, and she’s no longer Heath’s teacher to get her back.
She’s as stubborn as a barn door in a windstorm.
“Whenever you’re free,” she finally says. “After school.”
“Monday work?”
“Monday’s fine.”
“Would you like me to take you home?”
“No.”
I cock my head to the side. “You were just on your way out the door. Don’t tell me Tad made you drive here.” She opens her mouth, but I blurt, “Better yet, I don’t want him at your house. So, tell me he had.”
“He drove me.”
My eyes narrow. “He come inside?”
“Yes.”
“How long?”
“Micah…”
“Sienna.”
She moves, attempting to get around me, but I’m privy to the game of evading and not meeting me head-on.
Not that I deserve any of her time or her forgiveness. I broke us before we even got started. I allowed no explanation or insight into what was going on in my head.
Just that I needed her well.
“Don’t get upset, sweetheart,” I coo evenly. “I know I fucked up—”
“I just want to be left alone by you, Micah,” she quakes, sounding as if my being near here is as torturous as it is for me. “We don’t have to keep doing this. In a few months, you’ll be rid of me for good—”
“I don’t want to be rid of you, Sienna. I wanted to protect you—”
“Protect me?” she leers with a scowl. “You hurt me, happy? I opened myself up totally to you and then your ex—you know what”—she throws her hands in the air and takes a well-needed step back—“I can’t. I’m moving on. Let me.”
No.
That’s immediately what my brain says.
It’s cruel to keep chasing her like this, but I’ve never been a man to throw in the towel so quickly and call it quits.
I didn’t do it with Laura.
I don’t want to do it with her either.
However, for her mental sanity, it’d be merciful.
For her, not for me.
The thought of Sienna dating and possibly marrying someone in this town makes me furious. I’d spend every day, for the rest of my life, making it up to her, but I cut deeper than I thought I did.
I’m cognizant that I hurt her.
I just…I thought I had some breathing room to squeeze back and eventually obtain her forgiveness.
That’s a pipe dream.
“And, if I don’t?” I ask because I’m a dick and I want to put some doubt in her head that she’d be able to like said dick.
“Then I’m going to embarrass you and get a restraining order.”
“That’d be impressive. You’d be the first person in town to do that.”
The death stare on her face doesn’t soften because she’s serious about my fucking off.
Like I said, it’d be the right thing to do.
“I’ll do my best, Miss Vesper,” I manage to get out. “However, before this conversation ends, I want to warn you that Tad might not be leaving here in a good mood.”
Her brows furrow. “What?”
“He dated Zoe, and she broke up with him. Now, she’s pissed because, when she tried to move on, he broke up a relationship that she wanted to have grow.”
Her gold irises flick back to me. “Why?”
“Dunno. But it’s made Zoe…standoffish, since then. And, I needed a date to come here…so she thought it’d be the perfect opportunity to watch him squirm.”
“So, you’re doing what he did to her?”
“You aren’t dating Tad.”
She looks heavenward. “Who said?”
“Me,” I reply matter-of-factly. “You couldn’t look more bored at his side. And, we both know you’ve been thinking about what I said.”
She rolls her eyes. “He’s fine.”
“See? Bored already.”
“You’re overly confident, Micah Wolfe.”
“I am because I know I’m going to get you back. I have to.”
“You don’t.”
“Let’s break it down, sweetheart. I broke shit off between us because of my ex. She wanted custody of Heath, and I couldn’t deal with her dragging you down along with me. I didn’t want you to worry about your job, so I figured, if I cut it off, you’d be able to move on fine.”
“I have.”
Lies.
“Now, you’re mad at me because what I’m saying makes sense, minus the not telling you part.”
“You should’ve told me.”
“Why? So you could’ve tried to help? So you could sneak over to my house and try to console me? So Laura could use more of her little spies around town to get information on how I look at you at the Maple & Main diner?”
“Yet, here you are at the Sweetheart Ball blowing your cover.”
True.
I don’t know who Laura has in town that tipped her off to Sienna in the first place, but I still don’t want to mess things up for her.
Even though I’m standing here.
“Can’t seem to help myself,” I answer honestly. “Watching you with any man that isn’t me drives me insane.”
“I think you lost that right when you broke it off. And it’s my choice to decide if I want to continue on the dangerous road of being with you while still teaching your kid at school, or call it quits for good.”
“This is a small town, sweetheart,” I remind her. “Any other relationship here that you took seriously would be sticky and stressful.”
“Because of you.”
“Because of me, and it’s a small town.”
Sienna bristles in annoyance but then says, “So, you don’t want me to tell you that Thaddeus is coming over later for dinner and a movie?”
Now, I’m sending a menacing look her way because she better be fucking kidding me right now.
“That’s funny,” I deadpan. “You have jokes now.”
“It would be,” she claims. “If I were joking.”
“You are.”
“I’m not.”
“You are,” I argue. “Because you wouldn’t be caught dead in a room with that man again.”
She smiles at me, but it doesn’t reach her eyes. “Have a good rest of your evening, Mr. Wolfe. I need to get back inside to my date.” She begins back inside, abandoning her attempt to leave altogether. “Monday after school?”
I don’t answer her.
She knows I’ll be there regardless, if she’s fucking around with me or not.
Whether she is or isn’t, tonight is going to land the way I planned it anyway.
Tad Delacroix isn’t leaving in a good mood.
Especially when Zoe is done with him.