Free The Headmaster by Tiffany Reisz Page B

table. “I’m not sorry. That’s worthy of an f-bomb.”
    “Thank God the children aren’t here.”
    “They aren’t children. They’re teenagers. I’m sure they’ve heard and said worse. Now tell me you’re joking.”
    “I wouldn’t joke about such a thing. Ever. But I wish I could say I was. Samuel wrote the school last year asking if he’d be welcome here. His IQ is off the charts and he was having trouble at his high school in Alabama. Not enough stimulation. Too much tormenting. I sent him an entrance exam. He passed with the highest scored in the history of the school. I offered him a full scholarship. He arrived and…”
    “I can’t believe this. I know North Carolina isn’t a mecca of liberalism, but I didn’t think it was stuck in the 1950s.”
    “Samuel offered to leave. I told him I would shut the school down before I would allow that. He stayed. Thirty students left. In the end, perhaps it was for the best…”
    His voice trailed off and he glanced away once more.
    Gwen sat in silence and let the reality of what Edwin had done sink in. Half the student body gone in one stroke. And he was right, he’d made the only choice he could especially for a man with his inherent sense of fairness and integrity. He’d done the only thing he could do. And now she would do the only thing she could do in response.
    Gwen stood up, walked around the table, bent over and kissed him quick on the mouth.
    Again.
    She stood up straight and waited for a response.
    “That was a shameful display,” Edwin said, throwing his napkin down on the table.
    “Was it?” she asked, suddenly nervous.
    “Worst kiss in the history of kisses.”
    “What? You think you can do better?”
    “With my eyes closed.”
    “Isn’t that how everybody—”
    Edwin rose, cupped the back of her neck, and kissed her right into the history books.
    It was a deep kiss, a hard kiss, a strong kiss that made her weak. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and pressed her breasts to his chest, a move that sent a soft moan escaping his lips. Or hers. She couldn’t tell and certainly didn’t care. How could she care now that Edwin was pushing her back against the wall. A man so reserved, so buttoned-up and aloof, had to have a breaking point. Thank God she’d finally found it.
    “Edwin,” she whispered against his mouth, feeling a jolt of pleasure into her stomach at merely saying his name. He said nothing in response. Nothing would distract his lips from hers. She raised her head to give him better access to her neck. He took it, dropping a line of kisses that left her shivering from her jaw to her ear. He nipped at her neck and she gasped from the pleasure of his teeth against her skin. “More,” she begged.
    He pulled away a few inches and grasped her waist with both of his large hands. She arched her back and he kissed her across her chest under her collarbone. She wanted him to strip her naked, put her on the table, send the dishes flying and bury himself inside her. How desperately she wanted him inside her…but Edwin held back and merely teased her with his hands over her dress and not under it where she wanted them.
    She gasped as he pulled her sweater down her left arm and kissed her bare shoulder. But it wasn’t enough to let him kiss her. She dug her fingers into the knot of his tie and loosened it. If she didn’t get to his neck soon she would die. With a fierce pull his tie was off his neck and on the floor where it belonged. She unbuttoned the top two buttons of his shirt and buried her lips in the hollow of his throat. Her pulse beat hard and fast. She felt his incredible hardness pressing against the center of her stomach as she kissed his neck and chest. Gwen pushed her hips into his and Edwin grunted softly in her ear. She’d never heard a more erotic sound than that tiny, uncontrolled release of pleasure. His finger tightened with bruising force on her back. How could mere kissing feel this good, this powerful?