Falling From Grace: Student-Teacher Forbidden Romance

Chapter 51

[RECAP: The stolen love letter has finally been retrieved, the play was a huge success, it's the holidays, and Leonie is about to stay with Gabriel...]

Leonie was increasingly nervous as the train approached her destination. The morning had gone to plan so far, with Figgy's parents kindly dropping her off at the station. Figgy's Uncle Hugh hadn't stayed the night. "He had to get back to London last night," Figgy's mother explained.

Leonie was privately disappointed by this. She had enjoyed a long conversation with Hugh, who appeared to be very knowledgeable about the theatre, including in the US. Figgy's parents were more music fans, and conversation focused on a recent concert they had been to, and a charity gala that Figgy's mother was organising in the New Year. Several fairly famous people were attending, even a couple of names that Leonie had heard of.

"It's during term time, I'm afraid, or it would be lovely if you could all come," Figgy's mother told them.

Leonie's own family weren't the kind of people who attended celebrity galas, let alone sat on organising committees. Figgy and Harry in particular were both so well-connected. Neither of them had to worry about their futures very much because their families knew so many people.

It shouldn't matter, Leonie supposed, but she knew that in so many spheres of life, it was all about contacts. Who you knew, and who they knew. This was certainly the case in the acting world. Once again she felt a pang of sadness about having to withdraw from the RADA scholarship.

But as the train rumbled along, past green fields and villages and churches that reminded her of an old movie, her excitement and anticipation at seeing Gabriel grew.

The girls were required to leave school still in uniform, which seemed a completely stupid rule. Leonie had changed into jeans as soon as she got on the train, which wasn't easy as the bathroom cubicles were very small. She wished she had sexier clothes but she supposed if Gabriel had been attracted to her in St Winifred's ugly school uniform, it couldn't be too much of an issue.

The train finally pulled up at her destination and Leonie went to try and haul her trunk out of the luggage car. Fortunately there was a porter who was able to help her. She would eventually be leaving her trunk at her grandmother's as it was too heavy to fly back with. If only it were a suitcase filled with sexy lingerie rather than woollen socks and sensible underwear.

She could always wear no underwear. It might be interesting to find out how Gabriel would react if he discovered this.

There he was, on the station, and her heart stopped. He wore jeans, like the first time she had seen him, and a dark coat since the day was freezing. He didn't look like a priest, just a regular guy.

Not really regular, given how stunningly attractive he was. Leonie saw a couple of women notice him and nudge one another, and felt a mixture of pride and panic at being the one he had come for.

If only they knew that he was a priest. How scandalised they would be.

But there was no one to stop them as Gabriel put his arms around her and brought her lips to his before even speaking to her. His lips were warm despite the cold and his embrace was urgent, quenching a thirst for both of them, while inflaming desire for even more.

He broke off. "I need to get you home," he told her. "I don't think adding a public indecency charge is going to help my resumé." His gaze softened as he looked at her. "I'm so glad you're here. I know this was a huge thing to ask of you."

"I'm very glad you asked me," Leonie told him.

Gabriel asked her if she had had any problems getting away. "No issues before you left?"

"If you mean Suki Laverne-shaped, then no. I got your letter back though."

He was surprised. "Did she return it to you?"

"No. Harry managed to sneak into her room during the play," Leonie said. She hoped that Gabriel wouldn't mind too much about her friends knowing, but he seemed fine about it.

He drove them down some country lanes and pulled up at a pub. "We need to get lunch, and I want to talk to you. The way I feel right now I think I'd find it hard to concentrate if we were alone."

Leonie, despite being hungry, was disappointed. She had been looking forward to Gabriel losing his concentration.

It was cool that she could simply walk into a bar here and not have to worry about fake ID. At eighteen, she could legally drink in the UK and Europe. This might be a completely regular date were it not for the fact that the guy she was with was supposed to be celibate. And also her teacher.

The bar menu seemed really English. Shepherd's pie, bangers and mash, fish and chips, Cumberland sausage, toad-in-the-hole, something called a Ploughman's. Leonie had to ask Gabriel what half of the items were. She hoped it would at least be more edible than the stuff served at St Winifred's.

Gabriel ordered fish and chips so Leonie had the same. She had been in England long enough to know that chips were French fries, and crisps were chips. Gabriel didn't drink because he was driving, so Leonie just ordered a coke.

Instead of starting a conversation with her he was gazing at her over the table. "I dreamt about you last night," he told her.

"Did you? I dreamt about you too."

"What happened?"

Leonie felt embarrassed to explain. "I was wearing nun's robes."

"Not like Sister Benedict, I hope?"

She blushed. "They were kind of see through. You weren't very pleased about them."

Gabriel gave her a searing look. "Trust me, if you were wearing anything see-through, I would be more than pleased."

They were interrupted then by the waitress putting their meals on the table, along with cutlery and condiments. Leonie's stomach was such a pit of nerves that she wasn't sure she could manage any of it.

"So what did you dream about me?" she asked.

"Something I've been vowing not to do, and it's going to take all my strength to avoid doing."

He was looking at her so intensely that Leonie felt a throb in her lower belly. Nervously she ran her tongue over her lips, which felt dry.

His gaze narrowed. "Look at me like that and I will lose all resolve and drag you out to the car park. I'm determined we're both going to manage some self-control and actually eat something."

Following his lead, Leonie stabbed a fry - or chip - and managed to swallow it. She took a big gulp of coke. It got easier to eat once she relaxed and the sexual tension wasn't about to boil over. She had no idea how either of them were going to manage when he got her back to the cottage.

There was no way she could resist him. She didn't even want to.

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Okay... time to hold onto your hats...