Seven Sexy Sins by Serenity Woods Page B

her lips again. “Want a bit of chocolate?”

Chapter Nine
    On Tuesday, Faith turned up at Rusty’s high school, carrying two trim lattes in takeaway cardboard cups. She knew he had a free period just before lunch, and she hoped to catch him in his classroom.
    She hadn’t spoken to him since Sunday morning. After their intense exploration of oral sex on the Saturday evening, he’d curled up around her and they’d watched the moths play outside around the lamp and the moon rise slowly in the night sky, yellow and heavy, like a bowl of cream. He hadn’t said much. She’d tried to lighten his mood, but he’d been unresponsive and monosyllabic, and eventually she’d let him pull her tightly to him, content to drift off to sleep in his arms.
    The following morning he’d been pleasant and affectionate, kissing her deeply before he left, but still quiet, and she’d puzzled about his frame of mind for the next couple of days. He’d never been a particularly moody man, and she was unsure what had made him so reserved. To be honest, she was worried she’d shocked him. She knew he found it difficult to think of her as anything other than Dan’s little sister, whatever he said to the contrary. Was it possible he really had been helping her out of a kind of twisted, familial desire to look after her? Perhaps her dirty talk had made him realise she thought about sex with him in a different way from, for example, him giving her driving lessons or teaching her how to play the guitar. If he thought of himself as an alternative big brother, she could only imagine how much she’d freaked him out. Surely, that couldn’t be the case, though? It would be pretty warped if it were.
    After two days of worrying about it, she’d decided to confront him, and that was why she was bringing coffee to his classroom. She’d been to the school before, and she’d popped into the reception to pick up her visitor’s sticker before circling the edge of the main buildings. His room was right at the end of a new block, the classrooms still smelling of fresh paint and carpet glue, which Rusty worried would make the kids high as kites if they spent too long with the windows shut. The new rooms had air conditioning and data projectors fixed into the ceilings, and she knew he loved the muted blue carpets and light blue walls, and the way he could see through the glass partition to make faces at his colleague in the next classroom when the students had their backs turned.
    She ran lightly up the steps and along the pathway, opened the door to his room and walked in. She stopped abruptly. Crap . He was in there, but so were half a dozen students. “Oh I’m sorry, I thought you were on a free.”
    “I am.” He was sitting back in his swivel chair, his feet on his desk, amused at her horrified face. “These nuisances won’t leave me alone.”
    The six girls looked over at her, interested in seeing Mr. Thorne’s guest. They weren’t wearing uniform, which put them in year thirteen. “Hello,” said one cheekily, and the others giggled.
    “Hi.” Faith backed toward the door. “I’ll come back later.”
    “No, come in.” He beckoned her forward and sat up. “Actually you’re the perfect person. Andrea here was just talking about taking journalism at uni.” He indicated the girl nearest to him, a pretty, earnest-looking blonde, and then pointed at Faith. “Miss Hillman’s a journalist.”
    “Oh?” Andrea’s eyes widened.
    Faith hesitated before walking into the room. She twisted one of the cups out of the cardboard carry tray and handed it to him. He met her eyes briefly, smiling. “Thanks.”
    “You’re welcome.” She took out her own cup and perched on the edge of his desk, facing the girls. “So you fancy it as a profession?”
    Andrea shrugged, tucking her hair behind her ears. “Maybe. I write for the school magazine, and Miss Chapman lets me help out with the press releases. And I’ve had a couple of pieces in the local