Leigh Dean knows what she wants in a man. The list of requirements she keeps in her bedside table is very specific. Unfortunately, she wasn't specific enough. She never dreamed age would be a factor, never dreamed her unusual requirements would be met. But then Dan Jefferson walks into her English Composition class. Eight years younger, the former kid and now to-die-for NCIS special agent, used to do yardwork all those years ago. This Dan's sexy as sin and definitely off-limits, but oh-so tempting.
All Dan Jefferson was looking for was a chance to brush up on his fiction writing skills. He never expected that the woman of his dreams would be his teacher. This is chance to tell her how much their friendship meant to him all those years ago, a chance to tell her too that sometime over those years he realized he didn't just want a woman like her, he wanted her. A chance to show her that he's the man who can give her everything she's always wanted...everything.
Now that Fate seems to have reunited them on an equal playing field, Dan's not about to let this opportunity pass.
EXCERPT
She wasn't his first wet dream...or his last. But she was
definitely his best.
Dan Jefferson nursed the hard-on from hell beneath the
postage stamp-sized wood that served as a desk. He'd barely been able to fit
into the student desks when he was in high school. He sure as hell couldn't do
it now at age twenty-eight and bulked up from years serving in the Naval
Criminal Investigative Service, especially with an elephantine erection
swelling his jeans.
Using his worn three-ring binder as a shield, Dan tried making
some adjustments. The gum-smacking blonde to his right shot him a glance, then
smiled. She probably thought the hard-on was for her. He winced at the thought.
The gum cracking was bad enough, but the multiple piercings, shaved eyebrows,
and necklace that said “Fuck You” made even being in her vicinity difficult.
The complete opposite of the classic beauty who'd walked into the classroom
less than a minute before.
Dan had to blink at the time to make sure he wasn't
hallucinating. But there she was--Leigh Miller in all her exquisite glory.
Actually, she was Leigh Dean now...or rather, L.E. Dean, according to the class
schedule. He'd never learned what the “E” stood for. She'd taken her birth name
back, probably after her divorce from that jerk-face son of a bitch she'd been
married to.
She'd be thirty-six now, though you couldn't tell from
looking at her. She'd pass for ten years younger. Her smile lit up the
classroom. Heat basked in his groin. In the short space of time she and her
good-for-nothing husband lived next door to Dan's family, Dan had rarely seen
her smile like this--bright and open. Maybe that's what divorce had done for
her--made her happy. Unless she'd remarried and was so in love with her husband
the feeling transmuted everything she did. Maybe she had children, too.
Dan's erection deflated at the thought. Please don't let her be married. He glanced at her left hand--no
wedding ring in sight. A woman like Leigh would wear a wedding ring...right? As
for children... Dan shook his head, then dashed a quick look from the corners of
his eyes to make sure no one had seen him do it.
As far as he knew, Leigh hadn't been pregnant when she and
Jerk-face separated. But there were a lot of years between then and now. She
could have been married and divorced again with kids on top of it all. That
might put a crimp in his rapidly forming grand plan.
Screw it. Dan
didn't care if she had twenty kids. He was going to go for it. One thing
serving in a war zone had taught him--you only live once; don't live it with
regret. And if he didn't go after Leigh Dean, Dan would regret it the rest of
his life. What's the worst that could happen? That she'd shoot him down? Well,
he'd been shot at a lot over the last several years and had survived. He could
survive a blow to hopes and dreams that had actually helped make him the man he
was today.
Dan had learned a lot from watching Leigh's marriage
disintegrate. There were right ways to treat the woman you cherished. Jerk-face
didn't know any of them--not that he even remotely cherished his wife. He knew
how to humiliate his spouse and how to fuck the neighbor across the street.
That marriage hadn't lasted long either.
Dan's heart had broken a thousand times over at the
devastation on Leigh's face when she'd found Jerk-face and what Dan guessed was
his latest conquest writhing in her bed. But damn if she didn't go after them
good. The two hadn't even seen her coming until the riding crop cut into
Jerk-face's buttocks. She whipped them both good and proper, even drawing blood
on her errant spouse's bubble butt.
In the aftermath, Leigh had turned her tear-stained face
toward her bedroom window. Those big green eyes caught Dan watching the whole
scene. Her chin came up in defiance, and Dan did the only thing an almost
sixteen-year-old boy could do. He gave her a thumbs-up, pumped his fist in the
air, and gave her a high-five she couldn't return. And Leigh had smiled.
Nodded. Then closed the curtains, ending his brief stint as a voyeur. He hadn't
seen her since. He'd returned from school a couple of days later to find a
moving van in the driveway. She'd left Jerk-face to deal with the neighborhood
repercussions of his wandering dick. More sweet justice.
Dan was sorry she hadn't stuck around to watch the
fireworks. Sorrier still he couldn't see her anymore, wouldn't be able to talk
with her as he did so often. He wanted to help her deal with all the hurt and
pain Jerk-face had caused, just as Leigh had helped Dan through the grief he'd
suffered months before. In truth, she'd been his strength, his greatest
confidante, able to sort through the jumble of emotions life brought and
understand everything.
Yeah, Dan had missed her something fierce after she left,
but he supported her decision one hundred percent. If only he'd gotten the
chance to say...a thousand things he'd wanted to say to her. Things Dan didn't
realize needed saying until years later, things he hadn't realized, things he
lacked the skill to express at the time.
But that was then, and this was now. Fate had brought them
together once more. The chance he'd wanted was here. The playing field was
clear--he hoped--and they were both adults. Granted there was still the minor
issue of eight years between them, but it was just that--minor. He was a man now
and she a woman of certain needs; that much he'd figured out for himself over
the years. And Dan knew how to take care of those needs very, very well. His
cock agreed.
Dan squirmed in his seat, trying to find a comfortable
position. His jeans weren't cooperating.
“Wanna skip out during break?” the blonde whispered,
unleashing a fog of ashes on her cigarette-tainted breath.
Dan leaned away. “No, thanks.”
“Are ya sure? Only take a sec.”
Yeah...if he was still fifteen and didn't have standards or
the notion of what good sex really was. “I'm positive.”
She shrugged, plucked her gum from her mouth, and aimed for
the underside of her desk.
Dan grabbed her arm. “Whoa there. What do you think you're
doing?”
“I was about to ask the same question,” Leigh said from the
front.
Dan released the girl and eased back in his seat. The power
in Leigh's voice sent ripples down his spine. His imagination flashed on a
schoolmarm from the Old West, sweet but stern, reaching for a cane and tapping
it against her palm while she pondered her student's misstep.
Take me, baby. Take me now, his cock screamed, pushing for freedom from its jeans prison.
“I'm pretty lenient as teachers go, but come on...” Leigh
flicked her palms up. “Gum under the desk? Did I blink and we're all back in
junior high?”
A deep flush spread up blondie's throat and covered her
face. She glanced down at the gum stuck between her fingers as if debating what
she'd do with it now. A tissue fluttered over her shoulder from the middle-aged
woman behind her. Blondie took it with a muttered thanks and poked the gum into
it, then stuffed it between her boobs.
Classy all the way.
Dan bit back the urge to utter the sarcastic thought.
Leigh's demeanor shifted back to happy, as if the
confrontation had never happened. The tension in the room faded.
No canings tonight,
people. Dan fought a smile. The schoolmarm and the cane...and the cowboy she
craved would use it on her.
