It’s not like I’m a total asshole who fucks and runs, but I certainly don’t stay. If I need to get laid, I go out or meet up with some friends, and then find someone to share a night with. By morning, I’m not keen on the hopeful look in their eyes.

I just want them gone.

Because if you stupidly give your heart to just anyone, they might break it. Jamie destroyed mine. It hurt worse because the man she was fucking behind my back was my own goddamn father. Maybe if they’d had this affair and then broken up, I’d have gotten over it. Since they married and had children together, it’s been a constant reminder for the past eighteen years.

Willa is different.

I don’t know why, but she is.

I can feel it. It’s like I know she won’t fuck with my feelings. She’s too sweet for that.

Jamie was sweet too once…

Shoving that thought from my mind, I reply to Willa’s newest text.

Me: Stay after class. I need to see you alone for a minute. It’s driving me crazy not being able to touch you.

The bell finally rings. She’ll be in my classroom soon. I’ll have to put up with her annoying shit of a stepbrother too, but it’ll all be worth it seeing her again. I don’t have to wait long. She’s one of the first students to arrive.

“Hi, Mr. Park,” Willa greets, a wide, silly grin on her face.

I can’t help but match it. “Hello, Miss Reyes. I take it you had time to look over your notes from yesterday.”

Her face turns bright red and she darts her stare to her feet. “Uh, yeah. Looked at them late last night.”

“Why so late?” I can’t help but taunt her, even as more students file into the room.

She jerks her chin up, eyes round like saucers. “I was busy.”

“I see.” I smirk at her. “I hope it was worth it.’“

“Absolutely.”

I discreetly check out her ass as she makes her way over to her desk. Once she’s seated, she sits up straight, eagerly awaiting the lesson. Her obedient nature makes my dick super fucking hard. Which, naturally, is a problem considering I’m sitting at my desk with a near-full classroom of teenagers.

My phone buzzes on the desk with an incoming text.

Willa: I wish this class were over already.

Me: Me too, sweetheart. You’re fucking hot today and it’s doing my head in.

She squirms in her seat, shooting me a small smile.

Willa: You think I’m hot?

Me: Is that a rhetorical question? Of course I do.

Willa: I think you’re hot too.

Me: Hotter than Spencer and Dempsey?

She smothers a laugh, which douses my spike of jealousy.