[PREVIEW] Protecting Her: A Student/Teacher Romance

Chapter One

Hi everyone! This is my debut novel, available on Amazon! The link is in the description and the external link. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Chapter One

Truth or Dare was never a good idea. We'd avoided playing after Marla had been dared to run down the street naked and run straight into a police officer, aged fourteen. Now in our final year of school and, supposedly, more mature, we were giving it another shot. I'd hoped doing it drunk would numb the embarrassment, but Sophie's scarlet cheeks didn't inspire much confidence.

"Your go." They turned on me, grins toothy.

I downed the remainder of my wine and tried not to look terrified. "Dare." Truth was the coward's way out.

They didn't take long deliberating and it wasn't a good sign. "We dare you to go and flirt with Mr. Brennan."

I turned around, noticing for the first time that the brooding man sitting at the bar was my Geography teacher. My stomach sank. My geography teacher. "Are you joking?" I leant forwards and tried to keep my gaze away from his tall figure, which was nursing a drink at the bar. His brown hair sat in curls on top of his head and he scratched the same piece of stubble over and over again. He didn't look like he wanted to be disturbed at all, never mind by a drunk student.

My friends snorted. "Truth or Dare never jokes."

"Come on, guys, this is ridiculous. Couldn't he lose his job or something?"

"He's not going to lose his job for turning down your slurred flirting. We just want the embarrassment, that's all. He'll tell you to piss off and you'll come back shame-faced. It'll be hilarious." Marla dissolved into fits of laughter just at the thought of it.

Neither of my friends were taking Geography this year; they didn't have to see him at school, ever. In just two days I would be sitting his classroom, and I could handle the thought of hiding behind my Geography textbook for the rest of the year.

But, there was no other choice. "You guys are dicks." I stood up and a wave of dizziness hit me. I hadn't stood during the last two glasses and now I realised my mistake. I was even drunker than I'd thought. "He might be hot, but he's still my teacher. This isn't okay."

"Neither was forcing me to piss in a urinal, but I still did it. Two middle-aged men have just seen my vagina thanks to you guys." Sophie downed her drink.

My mouth twitched despite my upcoming mortification. I couldn't really complain.

Steadying myself, I grabbed my empty wine glass with the pretence of going to order another drink. I couldn't stomach another drop of the cheap rosé, but just going and outright hitting on Mr. Brennan would be too far.

He hadn't noticed we were here yet. Either that or he was ignoring us.

His gaze stayed firmly away from me when I sidled up to him at the bar, steadying myself on the rail. I didn't want to know how much of a state I looked. My brown hair had started in tight curls, but now it had fallen into a disarray of waves and my lipstick was faded. My top had a stain on the stomach where Marla had spilt her drink and I attempted to cover it now by crossing my arms.

"Oh, hey Mr. Brennan." He sent me a flat look. Apparently my feigned shock wasn't as believable as I'd thought. "How are you?"

He turned his green eyes on me, eyebrows furrowed. "Hello, Violet." He couldn't have sounded more unimpressed that I was talking to him if he'd tried. If I hadn't been so wasted, I would have given up, dare or not. "Are you even eighteen?"

I flashed him my ID. I looked like a ghost in the photo; all sunken eyes and my mouth in a thin line. At least it might make me look a bit better in real time by comparison. I didn't let him get too good a look at it. "Yes." It wasn't a fake. My birthday was in November. My friends, however, were still very seventeen. We came to this seedy pub because they never checked our ID. We'd been regulars for a couple of years now.

I had no idea what Mr. Brennan was doing here alone on a Saturday night, though. He had to be waiting for someone. He was still dressed in his normal teaching gear – a tight shirt that stretched around his arm muscles and plain black trousers.

He didn't respond to my statement, and I was forced to swallow my pride. "I'm perfectly legal."

His eyes hardened even further and I shifted my weight, willing down the urge to flee. Mr. Brennan was gorgeous and staring up at that sculpted face made me feel like a silly little girl. I didn't doubt that was how he viewed me, either. I was sure people in their thirties did this kind of thing, though. If the hen parties I'd seen on TV were anything to go by, they were plenty immature.

We were just having some fun on our last night out of the Christmas holidays.

"I really think you should go and sit down." The Irish lilt to his voice was stronger thanks to his irritation. I was tempted to provoke him more, just to keep him speaking.

"We're not student and teacher right now, you know. School doesn't start until Monday." I leant towards him, desire coiling in my stomach at being this close to him. He took a step backward and his jaw tightened.

"You're drunk. I'm going to stand over there if you don't go and sit down."

That had to satisfy the dare. I'd sufficiently frustrated myself by being this close to him. My mind was hazy from the drink and his aftershave. When I glanced towards Sophie and Marla they were bent double laughing at me. Their sounds were only just muffled enough to keep the noise from travelling to the bar.

As I was about to attempt the walk of shame back to my seat, Mr. Brennan and I were interrupted by, presumably, the person he'd been waiting for. A chubby hand slammed onto the bar between us signalling the bartender. The newcomer turned towards Mr. Brennan and nodded. My teacher didn't move a muscle.

The man stepped back with his fresh tumbler of whisky and what I assumed was an attempt at sophistication fell short; the leather jacket he wore was obviously expensive, but the grubby t-shirt underneath ruined the look. His face was never going to be attractive – he had a badly misshapen nose and his lips twisted into a sneer that made me want to step backwards.

"I see you're with a friend, I'm sorry to have interrupted." He extended his hand to me and I was forced to shake it. Even through my alcohol addled daze, I knew this guy wasn't someone I wanted to get involved with.

Mr. Brennan's teeth were practically grinding and his fingers were white on his glass. His reaction told me everything I needed to know about the guy. "Let's get out of here, Barry. I'd rather talk in the car."

Barry nodded, to Mr. Brennan and then to me. "It was nice to meet you."

They left me standing at the bar, dumbfounded. Barry turned around to look at me once more, his lips twisted into a sneer. Mr. Brennan didn't.

I returned to my friends with a forced smile. They hadn't noticed the hostility in the interaction and I tried to forget it. Mr. Brennan's problems weren't my problems. Hopefully this would mean he'd forget about our awkward encounter. "He looked like he wanted to shoot me," I told them with a whine. "I was really enjoying his class this year as well."

Sophie and Marla just patted me on a shoulder each. "It was worth it. We've never laughed so hard. Besides, he's hot. It can't have been that traumatic."

"He thought I was trash, I could read it all over his face. If I wasn't so slaughtered maybe I could have made a decent go at it, but I just look like a little girl," I moaned. "I was quite happy with sitting in class and thinking he was sexy and that being that."

"He's not going to hate you now," Marla rolled her eyes and downed her drink. "It was just you being drunk on a weekend. You've never even had a real conversation with him, there's no reason anything at all will change. You'll just be embarrassed for a while."

We all stood up, Marla somehow getting away with not having to complete a dare. "Let's get gone. I'm going to need tomorrow to recover, for sure."

Sophie and I groaned. Going back to school for grades I didn't really want was bad enough, but now I had to deal with the embarrassment of facing Mr. Brennan again.