Free The Teacher and the Soldier by RJ Scott

at him. There was intensity in his green gaze. Gone was the understanding guy and here was the soldier that Luke had known was in there. He swallowed at the challenge in Daniel’s eyes. “I don’t care if you meet up with him. Just don’t hurt him by getting too involved then leaving. He’s a good man.”
    “It’s dinner,” Luke protested.
    “You don’t believe that any more than I do. It’s sex plain and simple.”
    “Okay, so what if it is? Maybe it’s just what I need, have you thought about that?”
    With his free hand Daniel twisted his fingers into Luke’s shirt and tugged him closer until there were inches between them and all Luke needed to do to kiss this infuriating man was to close that short distance.
    “If you need that then you don’t use Liam to get me worked up so I do something stupid.” Daniel ground out the words.
    “Wait, what?”
    Daniel released his hold then stalked away. Luke didn’t have the presence of mind to do anything except watch Daniel leave and will away the lust that swam through his system. Jeez. He was standing on Main, in full view of everyone, with a hard-on and more likely than not a slack-jawed expression of need.
    “I didn’t recognise you straight away.” The voice belonged to Monique. Luke forced back his instinctive need to run. “Sorry about your dad.” Groaning inwardly he turned to face her with his best patented smile.
    “Thank you,” he said. “I can’t stop.” He walked away directly to the retreating Daniel just as he got in his truck. Knocking on the window he waited until Daniel rolled it down.
    “What? I’ve said my piece.”
    “Give me a ride up to the cabins?” Luke glanced back at Monique who was watching the exchange from outside the diner. “Please?” he added. Daniel followed his gaze then with a curt nod indicated Luke could climb in. Luke scrambled round and sketched a wave at Monique. Door shut, he exhaled noisily.
    “Don’t want to talk to Monique?” Daniel asked and started the engine.
    “Don’t want to talk at all,” Luke replied honestly. “Not about dad, or what happened, or any of it.”
    Daniel considered him thoughtfully for a short while then put the truck in gear to leave the town in the mirror. He didn’t call Luke on his avoidance tactic, but he also didn’t say much of anything until they were nearly at the cabins.
    “I know you’re a teacher,” Daniel said. “Back in Richmond right?”
    And there went the can of worms with the lid well and truly prised off. Best stick to answering the question in a very general way and not go into specifics. “I teach mainly Senior English and some art history.”
    “Is it a big school you teach at?”
    Luke sighed. “It was a big school.”
    “Was?” Daniel glanced at him with raised eyebrows then returned his attention to the three way junction, pausing to check for approaching traffic.
    “It was a big school with budget issues. They had to cut funding for several departments and they were a business academy, so they decided the art history side of my teaching wasn’t a priority against things like computer studies. This left my position vulnerable and because I was last into the school I was first out. “
    “Oh. So you lost your job? Then you came here to confront ghosts? No wonder you had a panic attack.”
    Luke leaned his head back on the headrest. Daniel had in many ways summed up exactly what was going through his head at the moment. Not being able to work at what he loved doing was one hell of a trigger in any person—add in coming home, and a meltdown was inevitable. It was just shit that it had to happen when someone was near him.
    “This is where you tell me that I’ll find another job just like that and everything will be fine.”
    Daniel shrugged. “The economy is stretched and even teaching jobs are sparse and hard to come by. I’m not going to lie to you, Luke. I know Weston High School always has vacancies, but you know it’s a small high