Kaylee’s First Crush Read Free

felt
herself flush. “I can’t call you Hugo. You were always Mr. Valtree,” she said,
uncomfortable. “The girls’ favorite teacher,” she added impulsively. Inside she
wanted to smack herself upside the head. You sound like a twelve-year-old!
    He laughed.
“You’re not in high school anymore, are you?”
    She shook her
head, lips pressed together so nothing else stupid could come out of her mouth.
    “Well, neither
am I,” he added. “Not for years. Every time you call me Mr. Valtree, it reminds
me of my father.” A dark expression passed over his face, so fast Kaylee
wondered if she’d imagined it. “My name is Hugo.”
    She cleared her
throat. “Mr. Valtree—”
    He glared at
her.
    “Hugo,” she
tried, forcing her lips to move around the sounds of his first name. “Thank you
for the ride.”
    “That wasn’t so
hard, now, was it? It’s not a difficult name to say.” Hugo grinned. “And you’re
welcome. For the ride,” he added when she looked at him blankly.
    Kaylee was
still reeling from the sheer force of his grin. She cleared her throat again,
hoping she wasn’t getting sick. “My flight was cancelled.”
    He nodded.
“Mine too. The weather took a nasty turn. Where were you headed?”
    Now’s your chance to act like an intelligent person , she told herself. “New York. I have a job waiting for me in the
city. Marketing.”
    His eyebrows
lifted. “That’s where I work now. I like the city, but sometimes I still miss
teaching.”
    She glanced
around the car. There was a large “V” inscribed in the back of the seat.
Suddenly, all the little clues that had been knocking on her skull coalesced
into an impossible realization. “Wait,” she muttered. “Valtree…” she trailed
off.
    Hugo was
nodding. “Just so.”
    She swallowed,
hard. “Valtree Enterprises is huge.”
    “Yes.” He
didn’t elaborate. He didn’t have to.
    “I don’t
understand,” she said, trying to put the pieces together. “You taught high
school English?”
    He ran a hand
through his hair, ruffling it. “My father was pretty angry with me for doing
that.”
    Kaylee traced a
finger down the butter-soft leather of her seat. “Your father worked in the
company?”
    He aimed a
sardonic look her way. “He owned the company.” He looked away, the lights from
the street illuminating the stark expression on his face. “And then he died.”
    Kaylee stopped
breathing. She knew what that meant. She’d heard the news when the head of
Valtree Enterprises died three years ago, but she’d been way too busy with
school to read about it or watch the news. She’d never seen a picture of Herman
Valtree’s son, as impossible as that seemed, and now her lack of knowledge had
come out of nowhere to bite her in the ass. She blinked, trying to wrap her
brain around the information.
    Her high school
crush, her favorite English teacher, Mr. Hugo Valtree, was the richest man on
three continents.

 
    Chapter Two
     
    Hugo looked at
the woman sitting across from him. Her wavy brown hair was windblown and her
cheeks were slightly chapped from the cold, but in all honesty, none of that mattered.
She was stunning. The hint of prettiness he’d seen peeking out of her girlish
face five years ago had blossomed into a rare beauty.
    She’d always
been lovely, though he was certain she hadn’t thought so when she’d been in his
high school English class. The thick glasses she’d sported were gone and so
were her ill-fitting clothes. Instead, she wore fashionable dress slacks with a
soft sweater, just the sort of thing to make her look attractive without being
overdone. Her baby fat had mutated into a gorgeous, curvy body, just the kind
he liked. And he could tell that her sense of humor had survived the rigors of
college intact. But what struck him most was the sparkle of intelligence
lurking in her gaze every time she turned her whiskey-colored eyes on him.
    “I’m sorry
about your father,” she said quietly.
    The look