Instant Regret by Hazel Parker

Chapter 6

Luke

Those baby blues and full red lips could do a thing or two to a man, and as I sat across the table from Carly Williams, it took everything I had to keep my head on straight. Her body was curvy in all the right places, and she took great care in styling her blonde hair in perfect waves. Not to mention, she pulled a bit of her bottom lip into her mouth every so often, and the seductive gleam in her eyes tempted me. Carly was like a goddess...

Or a siren.

But whatever she was, she was the most gorgeous woman I had seen in years—maybe in my entire life. That, along with the innocent cover she put up was catty and sexy...

And I wanted to peel away that layer to the bad girl underneath.

Except I will not do that.

I cleared my throat and downed the rest of my beer. “I think it's about time for me to head home.”

Carly’s brow furrowed as I reached into my back pocket for my wallet. “Have you been here long?”

“Long enough,” I grumbled, pulling out a fifty-dollar bill. I knew that it was going to be overkill, but Paige could just have a hell of a tip—anything to pull me away from the temptation sitting across from me. 

“Oh, well,” she glanced down at her phone. “I honestly should probably get home and study, anyway.”

Great. Now I’m risking being seen walking out with her.

“Not gonna stay and hang out with your waitress friend?” I tried to sound as nonchalant as possible. I didn’t want to hurt her feelings any more than I wanted anyone to see us leaving at the same time.

“Nah,” Carly gave a wave of dismissal. “She’s going to be really busy, it looks like.” She gestured to the thickening crowd—another reason to leave the bar.

“It appears to be that way, yes,” I said, keeping my eyes on the bridge of her nose. It had a cute little protrusion right in the middle of it, making me wonder if at some point she had broken it.

But I wasn’t going to ask her.

I sat the bill on the table and slipped out of the chair and let out a sigh as she followed suit—she was not going to make this easy.

“I set up an appointment for next Wednesday,” she said as we squeezed through the crowd. Her voice was slightly raised over the noise of the crowd, which reiterated the concern of someone I know seeing us.

“Perfect,” I grunted as I held open the door for her. Despite the bar being crowded, the parking lot was rather empty, and the fresh air was relieving. “I’ll see you in class. Have a good weekend.” I kept my eyes focused on my Mercedes just a few rows back, and my irritation grew as Carly continued to walk beside me.

“I hope you have a great weekend, too,” she said, her voice a little quiet. “I’ll come up with some solid interview questions before our meeting on Wednesday.”

I nodded my head, my frustration coming to a boiling point as she was still walking right beside me. “I can’t be seen walking out of a bar with a student,” I snapped, stopping to spin and look at her. “Like whatever happened in my office is done—and whatever this tension is between us—”

“My car is right there,” Carly cut me off, gesturing to the car parked right beside mine.

Fuck.

My mouth went dry as we stood there, a few feet from both of our vehicles. Her whole demeanor was daring, and I wasn’t sure if it was the few beers that had heightened the chemistry growing between us—or if it was lust rearing its head.

But damn, I wanted her.

“You know we’re both grown adults, right?” Carly remarked, raising a single eyebrow at me as the heat began to build in my lower body. Her perky tits were nearly falling out of the lowcut shirt she had on—and by the sounds of the rasp in her tone, she knew the effect she was having on me at the moment.

“We are both adults,” I said slowly, keeping my gaze on hers. “But that doesn’t change the fact that you are a student in my class. It’s against the school's policy for me to have a relationship with a student that’s enrolled in the class.”

“And you’ve never broken those rules?”

“No,” I answered honestly, narrowing my eyes at her. “I’ve never even come close, actually. I have plenty of self-control.”

She nodded. “Well, good to know that you always play by the rules.”

“From what I hear, you always do, too,” I retorted, shaking my head and finally moving in the direction of my car again. “Maybe you should stick to that narrative, and I’ll stick to mine.”

“Then why did you kiss me back?” Carly was suddenly reaching for my arm, wrapping her dainty little fingers around my write. The touch sent the warmth in my abdomen blazing, and I pulled her right into my chest before gently pinning her against the driver’s side door of my car. Her breath hitched, as her eyes went wide, and her lips parted. “Why did you kiss me back?” she repeated herself, her voice oozing with lust the second go round.

“You could get me fired,” I said in a low voice, my irritation mixed with arousal. “I’m not going to play into whatever fucking game you’re trying to play with me. I don’t sleep with students—and even if you weren’t a student, you’re too young for me.”

“I’m almost twenty-three,” she responded. “I’m late graduating. I took a year break after I turned eighteen to figure my shit out. There’s something between us. You can’t just pretend like there isn’t.”

“It doesn’t matter,” I muttered through gritted teeth—though it did send a surprising little jolt of relief through my body. She wasn’t wrong, there was something between us.

And it was tempting me—no, torturing me.

A few tense moments passed as I waited for her to relax the grip she had on my wrist, but she didn’t, her eyes still daring me. My heart was pounding in my ears as I leaned forward, my nose brushing hers...

“No,” I whispered just before my lips brushed hers, using the sex-driven moment as a means to torture her in the same way she had done to me. “I’ll see you in class.”

“Wow,” she said to me, shaking her head. “I thought you said you didn’t want to play any games?”

“I don’t,” I smirked, opening the car door and sliding into the driver’s seat. “I just thought you might like to have a taste of your own medicine.”

A smile broke out across her face, and she shook her head at me as I started the engine. Before I drove off, she walked around to her own car and got in. Part of me wanted to just send her my address and ask her back to my place for drinks—that’s what I normally would’ve done with a woman that made me feel like that...

But she’s my student.

“Fuck me,” I groaned out, running my hands down my face as I watched her car pull away. What the hell was I supposed to do about this? I’d never had this kind of tension with anyone before...

But maybe it was just because she was off-limits.

There’s nothing worse than wanting something you can’t have... right?

Maybe I should just get her out of my system.

“But how the hell do I do that?” I mumbled to myself as I pulled out of the parking lot. I didn’t have a list of booty calls in my phone anymore—that wasn’t the kind of life that I led anymore. In fact, I was about as clean as clean could be. The only thing that would make me any better is if I joined a church choir or something.

And that obviously wasn’t going to happen.

I had played the field and taken on the bad boy persona when I had landed the job at Georgia Tech, and while it had been a ton of fun, it was the most stressful time of my life.

And I blame it on trying to juggle all those women.

My phone lit up in the cupholder, and I stopped at the end of the bar's driveway, picking it up. My heart jumped at the thought of it being Carly, but it was quickly replaced by dread as I saw it was Carson.

How was the rest of the night, bud?

Oof. How was I supposed to tell him about it? It was true when I said I had bought students a drink before—but it was never female students. I usually steered clear of them, solely because I never wanted to give off the wrong impression. I had watched it happen a time or two since I had started my job, and there was no way I was going to let it happen to me.

But she’s almost twenty-three.

My inner voice was not being helpful with the whole situation. I had tried to tell myself that she was too young—but if she wasn’t my student, would I have actually thought that about her?

Absolutely not. I would’ve taken that woman straight home.

Or maybe on a date.

My phone buzzed again, only this time the whole car lit up. Carson was calling me.

Damnit.

“Hello?” I answered, pushing the thoughts of Carly out of my mind.

“I was just calling to check on you,” Carson chuckled, his voice sounding purely amused. “You always usually give me a status report of how shitty everything is whenever you get home. You didn’t say anything, so I thought you might be so drunk you needed a ride.”

“Yeah, no,” I shot back, rolling my eyes. “The place got so crowded that it ruined the ambiance. It felt more like a college bar than a dive bar.”

“Damn, I guess the college kids do travel to the other side of town then. Any awkward run-ins with students—other than the waitress?”

My heart dropped. “Uh...” my voice trailed off as I came to a stop at the red light not far from my house. “I did.”

Better to just admit to being seen with her just in case someone saw us.

“Oh boy,” Carson burst into laughter. “That tone tells me there’s a story that you’re holding back from me. Let’s hear it. What’d they do this time? Ask for a pass on homework? Try to buy a drink for you in exchange for extra credit?”

“Nah,” I forced out. “It wasn’t anything like that. Carly Williams showed up to see her friend, Paige—the one who was waiting on our table.”

“Oh?” was all Carson said on the other end of the line.

“Yeah, we had a nice chat, and that was about the extent of the night. It was too crowded for me, so I called it a night.”

“I thought you were gonna tell me something with some sustenance,” Carson said, his voice sounding a little disappointed. “She’s a smart girl, though, so I’m sure it was a great conversation. I wish I ran into more students like that than the usual knob-heads who just want to turn the run-in into a huge deal.”

“Yeah, no kidding,” I replied, my mind filling with the image of the beautiful blonde sitting across the table from me all evening. “She’s something else.”

“Oh yeah, for sure,” he agreed. “I wish all my students were as driven as she is. She’ll go far in her career, that’s for sure.”

“Yeah,” I said, turning into the driveway of my house.

Now if only I could get her out of my head.