DrawnTogether Read Free Page A

these
depressing movies.” She plopped down at one of the mahogany tables. Dennis gave
a speech about bomb threat safety and popped the DVD into the machine.
    Graig gave paying attention his best shot. He did. Except
every other thought revolved around the woman on his left. The school put no
prohibitions on dating other staff members. But would she actually take him up
on the offer to go out? The film ended and the lights filled the room.
Instruction sheets made the rounds of the room, followed by another lecture
from Dennis, then the meeting disbanded.
    Tessa elbowed Graig. “My seventh period cannot get enough of
you.”
    “Really?” And what about you? Damn. Better not say
that. Yet. He escorted her back down the hallway to their corridor. “Like
what?”
    “I don’t even have to leave my room to know what you’re
wearing, what direction you’ve combed your hair or if you were in the hallway
greeting them. Apparently you love the color blue, have a penchant for holding
your pen while you talk, and walk around the room a lot. You really have a
following in the freshman class too.”
    “Penchant? I didn’t think they knew that word.” Heat crept
up his neck. The tips of his ears burned and for a moment he forgot where he
was. “Hush. We’re supposed to be watching a movie.”
    “The movie ended about five minutes ago. We’re in our
hallway. School’s out and we’re all alone.” Tessa snorted. She leaned on the
wall and her voice dropped to a whisper. “But I forgot. You do love to watch.”
    He stared at his classroom door. “I should nab you for
sexual harassment, but I was thinking the same thing. I do like to watch.” He
paused a moment to turn her words over in his mind. “Wait, how do you know?”
The synapses in his brain misfired. Did she know he watched someone? And holy
hell, there was no way the chick across the courtyard was her. Couldn’t be.
Could she? Or did he really want her to be? Part of him didn’t. Most of him
did. “Tessa, what aren’t you telling me?”
    Tessa shrugged and unlocked her classroom door. “How’s
Lila?”
    Hell. She wanted to talk about his ex. Great. “Beats me.” He
hadn’t gotten past the whole watching business. He nudged her into the art room
where they had a bit more privacy. “How do you know I like to watch?”
    “Lila beats you? I’ve got to figure out what brand of
concealer you use. I’ve never seen the welts.” Tessa’s eyes widened and her
mouth fell open. She’d totally ignored his question. “I never figured her for a
Domme.”
    “Smart-ass. I have no idea how she is because she left me
back in August. She caught me watching my own private show and took offense.
She keeps trying to come back, but I can’t handle her kind of crazy. She made a
key to my apartment. Every time I put distance between us, she comes back. It’s
nuts.” He cornered her between two enormous stacks of drawing paper, caging her
between his arms. “But you knew about Lila. Why do I think you know more about me
than you’re letting on?”
    “No reason.” Tessa ducked under his arm and escaped his
confinement. “Just a guess.” The shyness returned. She fluttered her hands and
didn’t look in his direction. “Forget I said anything.”
    Like hell. A thick lock of her hair slipped free of the
pencil holding it in a bun. For fuck’s sake. If she wasn’t his dancer… “She
caught me watching the woman across the courtyard.” Come on, Tessa. Tell me
the truth. He sat down on the nearest tabletop. “Do you know who she is?” Say
it. Be honest with me.
    “Me.”
    The kernel of information made so many things easier and
harder at the same time. No wonder he recognized her. He wasn’t overlaying her
image on his fantasy girl. She was his fantasy girl. “We shouldn’t be
talking about this.” He’d given her an out, but he didn’t want to walk away.
Not yet. “Not here anyway.”
    “Why? I’m the one you watch. I told you the truth.