Free Mr Malloy: A BWWM Teacher-Student Romance by Cherry Kay Page A

or Sam at the ice-cream stand watching them from the corner of his eye.
    "They're relentless." Amara said. "That younger one has followed me to all my classes this week."
    "The older one has followed me everywhere else." Jason half laughed. "I don't know what they think they're going to see. Maybe you slapping me for trying to kiss you or me sneaking lunch with my other woman."
    Amara smiled at the thought. "Have there been many women before me?" She asked him with sudden curiosity and a small smile.
    "No, not really. Nothing serious anyway." Jason confessed. "I've had brief romances and short affairs, but nothing has ever really stuck. I generally find it difficult to talk to women."
    "Really?" Amara asked with surprise. "I usually find it difficult to talk to men, but you're different. I could talk to you about anything!"
    "I suppose it's because when we first began I was the professor and you were the student, and we were talking about something we both loved." Jason thought aloud. "If I had been looking at you as a girl that I wanted to date, I would have been a mess." He laughed out loud and Amara laughed with him.
    "It's a good thing I'm so incredibly off-putting, then!" She teased him.
    Jason smiled and reached out to squeeze her hand affectionately. "You're a very beautiful woman, Amara." He told her honestly. "I've just never looked at my students with romantic intention. Ironically, I happen to believe it's inappropriate."
    She raised her eyebrows and smiled. "Doesn't this whole thing seem strange to you now?"
    "Actually, it's a whole lot less strange than I imagined." Jason said. "I feel like I've known you for a very long time. I'm comfortable with you, more comfortable than I am with most of my friends and colleagues, to be honest."
    "Me too." Amara smiled.
    Jason dug around in their picnic basket. "Sandwich?" he asked, handing one to her.
    The rest of the picnic passed without another mention of their sham of a marriage. It was enjoyed with easy conversation and genuine laughter, just as if they were on a real date, and the dates continued. Together, they went on bike rides, out to the movies, they shared meals at restaurants. Amara and Jason played their parts well, but as the days rolled by and Amara lay beside Jason in his bed night after night, the whole thing begin to feel less and less like a deception and more and more like love.
    Still, Amara refused to confess those feelings to herself. This situation was already messy and complex enough without real emotions finding their way into the balance. Jason too, couldn't help but notice that his heart lifted every time that Amara looked at him, and that he felt butterflies every time she walked in the room.
    He found it easy to confide in her and he appreciated all the qualities in her, which he sought so desperately to protect: her strength, independence, intelligence and her good heart. All these things found him genuinely falling for her, but he couldn't admit that. After all, he was the older American professor who had offered marriage to a young and vulnerable girl in a difficult situation. Jason did not want his noble intentions to be misconstrued because he'd started to feel very deeply for the girl.
    So Amara and Jason went on, trying to make a true love that they were both pretending was false seem true again on the surface for the benefit of the agents who trailed them everywhere they went. Being Jason's wife came easily to Amara. She looked forward to opportunities to hold his hand and walk together with him or tell him about her day and their intellectual discussions had not ceased. She liked the way that he appreciated all of her, not just her beauty and her youth, but her mind as well, while Jason found it easy to be Amara's husband because she was an easy woman to love.
    It would have been difficult for the agents watching to find any falseness in their romance, but things became much more complicated the day that Matthieu showed up at the