Veiled Innocence Read Free Page A

Sam? Language, please.”
    “Sorry, sir,” he mumbled, his cheeks turning a ruddy color as if embarrassed, but I’d already moved on and was thinking about…Addy?No, that didn’t fit her at all. Not the girl who’d given me that look…that inappropriate look from the day before.
    Addy was a little girl’s name. It didn’t fit, but Addison? Addison was a name that belonged to those deceptive eyes.
    “It’s okay, just don’t do it again. So let’s read chapter one, then we’ll—”
    That was when the banging on my classroom door began. I turned toward it and saw her through the narrow pane of glass. The room fell into complete silence as her fellow classmates waited to see what I would do. They had all sat through the same speech she’d been given, so now was the time I’d have to assert my authority over the situation. Something I really didn’t want to do on the second day of the school year.
    I walked over to the door and saw her looking directly at me. I should have sent her to the principal’s office immediately. I should have left her standing out in the hall. There were a lot of things I should have done, but instead, I unlocked and opened the door.
    “Sorry I’m late. I got…held up. But it was for a good reason,” she tried explaining, as she stepped into the room.
    Not believing her for a second, I gestured to the hall. “Outside. Now, Miss Lancaster.”
    I watched her closely as her expression changed, and she gave a cocky grin to the other kids. “But I really did get held up.”
    I ground my teeth in frustration. She was impertinent, she was brazen, and right now, she was pushing every single one of my buttons. Lowering my voice, I once again gestured to the hall.
    “Outside. Now .”
    With an exaggerated sigh, she stepped out into the empty hall and I followed close behind. As the door clicked shut, I noticed the way she dropped the cutesy schoolgirl act and morphed into a much more threatening creature.
    I wondered at that moment what I’d done to deserve this. Surely, this was some kind of fucked-up karma because the girl in front of me had the face of a woman that would bring men to their knees.
    Men just like me.
     
    * * *
     
    “I really was held—”
    “Stop talking.”
    The smile that crept onto my lips was sly as Mr. McKendrick cut me off.
    I wondered for a brief moment what he thought of the skintight jeans that clung to my hips or the black lace tank that had ridden up over my stomach. I also wore a black vinyl jacket with zippers all over it because my mother had made me.
    All the better to keep my secrets covered.
    “Listen to me very carefully, Addison, because I only plan to say this once.”
    He didn’t have to worry. I was listening. So much so that I was lip reading as I memorized his mouth. The same mouth that had become a new fascination of mine.
    “I will not put up with this kind of behavior from you or anyone else in my class. Do you understand?”
    “You don’t look like a teacher.”
    “Excuse me?”
    He seemed bewildered, and I liked that, so I continued. “A teacher. You don’t look or dress like one.”
    As if I hadn’t spoken at all, he resumed his previous line of conversation.
    “I expect you to be in my classroom early or on time. Not one minute after the bell and certainly not ten. It’s not only rude, it disrupts the class that’s already in session. Do I make myself clear?”
    His hair wasn’t tied back today but was pushed behind his ears so it hit his shoulders. Dressed in black jeans and a matching long-sleeved, button-down shirt, the picture he made was that of some kind of rocker sex god, not a history teacher.
    “Do you like what I’m wearing?”
    “Addison, stop trying so hard. No one is out here to see.”
    I pouted, thinking over his statement before I shrugged. I was trying hard—to get his attention. “You’re here.”
    “Get inside. If you’re late again, I’m not unlocking the door, and you can explain why you are