“The head teacher’s right,” Skylar confirms.
“Please, call me Jordan.”
“Soshe’sallowed to call you Jordan, and I’m not?” Niall whines.
“Fine,” I sigh, “you can call me Jordan, too. Happy? But only outside school. That goes for both of you.”
Skylar shrugs as if she couldn’t care less, while Niall leans closer to my ear.
“I think I’ll keep calling you Headmistress.”
I glance quizzically at him.
“Headmistress Jordan.”
“That’s not the correct form…”
“I don’t give a damn about whether it’s correct…come on,headmistress.It’s so sexy.”
I bring my hand up to my neck instinctively, feigning nonchalance. There’s a teenager sitting with us – and it’s his daughter.
“That goes against every single rule, Niall.”
“Didn’t we say that rules don’t count tonight?”
“Yes, we did. But don’t take it too far.”
“Whatever you say,” he says, smiling mischievously. “I’ve already told you that you’ll be eating every single word in that agreement very soon.”
He rests his hand on the back of my seat, his thumb gently tickling the exposed part of my back. Goosebumps start to spread from my toes to my fingers.
“That’s not going to happen.”
“Are you two finished?” Skylar asks, pulling our attention away from each other. “It’s getting embarrassing. You know I can hear you, right?”
“Sorry, you’re right. That was rude and unprofessional, and it won’t happen again,” I say, apologising right away. Niall laughs.
He slowly pulls his hand away from my back, trailing his fingers across my skin. An embarrassing heat starts to burst through my cheeks.
“Sorry,” he says to Skylar. “I’ll only make my moves on the headmistress when we’re alone.”
“What?” I raise my voice suddenly, flinging around to face him.
“You wish,” Skylar shoots back, before stuffing three chips into her mouth.
I study Niall. He seems so comfortable.
“Having fun?”
“A little.”
“We’re doing everything all wrong.”
He smiles, his hand sliding slowly up my thigh underneath the table. I should move away from him, or tell him to go and sit somewhere else; but his hand is so warm, so huge. No one has touched me like this in such a long time – after all, Steven preferred to touch someone else – apart from our brief yet red-hot encounter a few nights ago.
“Relax, okay? We’re not doing anything wrong.”
“That’s not what it looks like to me.”
