The Not Gate (Tom and Alice #1) Read Free Page B

lesson and instead of the marking he should be catching up on, he kept wandering over to this window every few minutes. Pretending to himself he needed to stretch his legs, grab some air or tidy a bookshelf. Basically whatever bullshit he could convince himself of.
    He would glance out at the day which was overcast, grey and depressing. He’d then try his very best not to look towards the students playing hockey on the pitch below him. But he lost the battle every time and he would cast his eyes over at them, guiltily they would fix, like a homing device onto the small blonde.
    This was absolutely insane. His body was on flipping autopilot. It had to stop. Never in his whole teaching career had this happened. You were warned at length at university about student crushes and how to deal with them, but they didn’t really go into much depth on pervert teachers. He imagined it wasn’t something anyone felt comfortable talking about and it was definitely not something he was comfortable feeling.
    He had spent two weeks trying to rationalise this strange attraction that had seemed pretty instant in its arrival and grew ever stronger with every graceful swish of her wheat coloured locks.
    He wasn’t even technically single. He with someone, dating for about a month and he really liked her. If it wasn’t for this weird attraction he’d be pretty happy. Worse though last night he thought about Alice whilst having sex, it made him feel sick thinking about it afterwards, but at the time it had charged him with testosterone so strong that he hadn’t felt since he was a teenager.
    Alice had the hockey ball now. She ran energetically up the wing, her small body agile. The curve of her breasts were more visible with the wind blowing against her thin white polo shirt.
    He moved closer to the window.
    She ran forwards a few more steps and launched it at the goal, it travelled the short distance but was defended away by the goalkeeper at the last second. Alice spun around towards her friends, laughing at herself and lifting her hands in the air.
    Tom smiled.
    She pulled the hair band from her hair and started to retie the ponytail, her fingers moving skilfully and quickly at her practised task.
    She looked up suddenly then straight at his window. He froze but couldn’t back away. Their eyes locked for a second… then a friend shouted something stealing her attention and he bolted out of sight as quickly as he could.
    Holy Mary…
    Tom slammed back into his chair. A slow anger boiled just below the surface of his skin. This was stopping now he’d let it play out for too fucking long already.
    She’s your student.
    Tom grabbed the next book from the pile to mark, clicked the top of his pen and continued.
    What’s the matter with you?
    He did not get up again. He would not get up again.

A MASTERCLASS IN SEDUCTION
    Thursday 19 th October
    F ive weeks had gone by and Mr Chambers, Tom, as she’d found out had uttered no more than ten words to her. He was always detached and never wanted to make eye contact or any kind of bloody contact with her.
    Alice was heartbroken.
    She felt that he hated her. Or worse, that she just didn’t figure on his radar at all. You’d think this would be enough to put her off, but alas the feelings that it seemed she had no control over, ruled and they firmly dictated that he was everything.
    Alice, now a slave to her sexuality found herself listening to love songs over and over again, lounging on her bed on a Sunday afternoon, the butterflies growing because she would see him in the morning.
    She had started to take forever to do her hair in the mornings. She made sure her clothes were ironed perfectly and her lashes always carried a little mascara. She even withdrew £30 from her TSB savings account and in 1995 that was a lot for a teenage girl. She hadn’t touched that money in three years, squirreling away her wages from her Saturday job at ‘Just for You’ the high street florist. It was her