Barely by Madison Faye

The fire roars through me as my lips sear to hers, and I groan as my hands slide over her hips to hold her tight to me, like she belongs right here on my lap, with her lips seared to mine.

She moans into me, and fuck if the savage inside of me doesn’t surge to meet that passion. I groan, kissing her harder, and deeper. Her mouth tastes like candy, her lips so fucking pillow soft and her tight little body grinding against me. My blood burns like diesel through my veins, my cock throbbing hard beneath her, and I’m about to just keep on kissing her until, well, forever, when a voice suddenly pipes inside of me.

She’s a fucking student.

I freeze, my heart racing.

The fuck am I doing?

This is fucked. This is very, very fucked, and suddenly, I’m pulling away, my face hard and my eyes blazing into hers. She meets my gaze, her cheeks burning, and her lips swollen from the kiss. And when she lets her tongue dart out to wet them, I groan.

“Brynn—”

“I’m so sorry!” she gushes, her eyes looking like they’re about to start crying again. “I—I don’t know what I…” She cringes, looking down, and something melts inside of me as I take a deep breath and reach up to touch her chin with one of my fingers.

“You’re scared.”

She swallows, nodding but not saying a word or looking at me.

“Brynn.”

“Principal Kane, I’m so, so fucking sorry I—”

“Just look at me, beautiful.”

She stiffens at my use of the word, but when she looks up at me, I can see the smile hiding in the blush on her face.

“What happened,” I say quietly, still holding her there on my lap. She frowns, looking down.

“They…” she swallows. “They came to talk to me.”

The fire roars inside of me, my jaw clenching tight as my arms flex.

“What?” I hiss through grinding teeth. “Where? Here?”

She nods. “They were waiting for me on campus after swim practice.”

I swear viciously, snarling as my eyes narrow. And I make a note to ream the fuck out of the campus security office about unknown people prowling our fucking campus after dark.

“The guys from the club?”

She nods, and I growl lowly. “What’d he say to you?”

“Just that…” she shivers. “I owe them a lot of money, Colton.”

“The hell you do,” I snarl. “Your father does.”

“Yeah, well,” she says softly, shaking her head.

“Well, you’re staying here.” I say without even a sliver of question behind it. “And we need to call the police, now.”

“No, we—”

“Brynn, we have—”

“Please, Principal Kane,” she says quietly, pleadingly, her hands moving to my shirt and gripping it tight. “Please. I know how messed up this is, but I’d never forgive myself if this led to my dad getting in deeper trouble than he already is.”

She smiles wryly.

“Look, I know it looks like he’s this—” she shakes her head. “Okay, he is a big scumbag, but he’s still my dad.”

I suck on my teeth, my brow furrowing. I don’t like it. Not one fucking bit. But I know it’s not my place to move on this. Not when she’s asking me like this. And so, against my better judgement, I nod.

“Fine,” I growl quietly. “But you’re staying here. No fucking questions.”

She smiles quietly, her eyes sparking as she nods.

“Okay,” she says quietly, and I can’t even try to stop the grin that spreads over my jaw.

“C’mon,” I help her stand and follow suit, towering above her small frame and looking down into her eyes. “I’ll grab some fresh sheets for the guest room and get you set up.”

“Oh, you don’t have to do that. I mean I just slept in them last night.”

“Nah, it’s no problem.”

Upstairs, she starts to help, but I just grin and shrug her off, nodding at the big chair by the window. “Sit. Relax. I got this.”

I strip the sheets, very aware of her eyes on me, and her lip catching between her teeth as she does.

I just kissed her.

Well, maybe she technically just kissed me, but I sure as shit wasn’t an unwilling participant. We’re not saying anything, and we’re not talking about it, and it’s definitely this giant elephant in the room, but I just let it hang there. Because as fucked up as it is, and as fucking wrong as it was?

Kissing Brynn Henley felt fucking good.

Kissing her felt like a breath of air—the first one I’ve had in years. Kissing her sparked something inside of me I was pretty sure was cold and dead forever after the shit I saw in war. After the people I lost and the hell I fought my way through. Teaching brought me back to humanity a little, but that kiss?

…That kiss is the first taste of a real life I’ve had since I went to war. And now, God help me, I want more.

I finish making the guest room bed, and when I turn, I grin as I bust her quickly looking away from staring at me.

“Okay,” I growl. “You’re good.”

She swallows as she stands, smiling quietly at me as her eyes dart over my face.

“Thank you,” she says softly. “I don’t know how to repay—”

“You don’t. Now stop saying that,” I shake my head, flashing a small smile. “Look, I’m going to go downstairs and start some dinner. Feel free to stay in here, come down and join me… whatever you want. You’re gonna be safe here though, okay?”

She wets her lips as she nods.

“Okay.”

I smile, and I go to move past her for the door to the room when I brush against her. And suddenly, her hand darts out and catches mine, and when our fingers lace together, I freeze, my pulse racing.

“Brynn,” I growl lowly, not trusting myself to turn back to look at her as my pulse thunders and my muscles clench tight.

“Colton…” she breathes, and my name on her lips crumbles my defenses as I turn to let my eyes blaze into hers.

“Thank you,” she whispers.

“Brynn,” I growl quietly, shaking my head. “You don’t owe me for—”

“Is that what you…” She frowns, dropping my hand. “Do you think downstairs I was, like, paying you back?”

No. I don’t for a second, but I also know some very, very cold, hard facts. She’s eighteen. I’m thirty-fucking-eight. She’s a fucking student, and I’m her principal. And that is all this can be. It doesn’t matter what the hunger inside of me demands or wants. It doesn’t matter that all I want to do is pull her into me again and crush my lips to hers and kiss her until we can’t breathe anymore.

It doesn’t matter because there is no fucking away this can be a thing, and there’s no goddamn way I can kiss her again.

“Weren’t you?”

And there I go, torpedoing this whole thing before it blows up in our faces. Before she temps me into doing something she’ll regret. Before I do something to ruin my career.

Her face darkens when I say it, her eyes narrowing and her sweet, soft, candy lips pursing together.

“No, actually,” she hisses out, her cheeks reddening. “I wasn’t.” She shakes her head, her mouth twisting.

“Jesus, who do you think I am?”

My jaw tightens.

“My student,” I growl. “That’s who I think you are, Brynn.”

She glares at me, her eyes still wild and her cheeks still red before she looks away.

“I’m making scallops and—”

“I’m not hungry.”

This isn’t the road I want to walk down, but I know damn well it’s the only path we have. It’s the only road that isn’t littered with landmines and bear traps.

“Well, if you’re hungry—”

“I’m not.”

I turn, pissed at myself and hating that I’m not scooping her into my arms again and kissing her with every fucking fiber of my being.

…But that can’t happen. It just can’t.

“Goodnight, Brynn.”

She says nothing as I close the door and head downstairs to pour myself a heavy drink.

Hours later, after my drink, and dinner, and then another drink or two, I’m back in my room trying to sleep. And it is not happening. I growl, tossing and turning, my mind whirling and my every damn thought dwelling on the gorgeous, scared, tempting little tease sleeping right down the hall. I groan, and before I can stop myself, I start to wonder things I should not be wondering about.

Things like “what does she sleep in.”

Or worse, what doesn’t she sleep in.

I groan at the image of Brynn curled up naked in that guest bed, and I swear as I sit up and swing my legs out of bed.

Fuck. Sleep is not coming.

I stand and pad out of my room in my boxers and t-shirt. I glance at her doorway down the hall, but it’s closed, the light off under it. I shake my head, growling to myself a I head downstairs to the kitchen. I stare at the kettle, a frown of frustration on my face as I watch the water boil before I pour myself a cup of something calming and decaf. I sit on one of the kitchen stools and take a sip, sighing heavily before I glare at the tea.

…If I’m going to actually sleep tonight, this needs some Irish in it.

The whiskey’s in my office on the bar cart, and I stand with my mug and whirl to go grab it. I stride from the kitchen, and I make it all of one step into the dark hallway before suddenly, I go crashing into something.

…Something that shrieks as hot tea goes splashing all over it and me. Or rather, her and me.

I hiss, the mug shattering to the ground as we both jump back from each other. My hands yank at my t-shirt, wincing as I whip it and the scalding hot tea soaking into it from my body and tossing it aside. Brynn hisses, and when I glance up, in the pale light of the moonlight coming in through the window, I see her doing the same thing.

And suddenly, we freeze, both of us looking up at each other—both of us shirtless, both of us panting, both of us wild-eyed.

…And both of us knowing there’s no power on Earth that’s going to stop this right now.

I growl as I close the distance between us, and she moans as I pull her into my arms and against my bare chest. My lips crush to hers, she moans into my mouth, and when I scoop her up and slam her into the wall behind her, and kiss her with everything I have and everything I am, I know things like “thinking clearly” and “making good decisions” have officially left the building.

And I know something else too: that she’s mine, and I’m not letting anyone hurt her or take her away from me.

…I’m pretty sure that makes me fucked, and I don’t care.