Play Dirty (17 page)

Lynn hurried through the crammed house and out into the street, all but running. He never called her. Ever. Making sure no one was around first, she answered the phone, breathy and excited. “Well, hello.”

The line was silent.

“Um.” Lynn pulled it away from her ear to make sure the call was connected. “Hello?”

A heavy sigh answered her. “There’s a problem.”

Immediately, Lynn felt a pain crawl through her chest. She tried to breathe through it, but it settled into her stomach and she felt nauseous. Still, she kept her voice bright and cheery. “What problem.”

Another heavy sigh. She could picture him tugging at his hair.

“What problem?” Lynn asked.

And then realization hit her, hard. “Wait… you can’t be talking about…? How? That’s impossible! Please tell me this is a joke, Matthew. This isn’t funny.”

“I’m not being funny, Lynn.” Another heavy pause. “Someone knows.”

PART THREE

LYNN

Cloudless skies, no homework, parents out of town for two whole days. The Strokes were playing for a local radio benefit and Dana’s brothers were definitely bringing beer to the bonfire that evening. It was Lynn’s perfect weekend.

Perfect aside from the emotional blackmail that had the potential to ruin her whole world, all because she fucked her teacher. Matthew could lose his license and never work again, while her parents would bury her alive until she rose from the dead as a Staten Island zombie. She had zero interest in taking an extended stay at a “spa.”

Lynn cranked up the volume on her headphones and kicked back harder on her foot bike to drown out the sound of her beating heart and throbbing anxiety. Opening night of
Romeo and Juliet
had gone from the best night of her life to the worst in the space of a two-minute phone call. This was not how her senior year—or final play season—was supposed to be.

It all traced back to that afternoon in NYC, trembling over a stapled stack of papers on a massive stage, making out with a ruggedly hot older actor. Her intentions, while blatantly against Daddy Warbucks’ wishes, were entirely pure. All she wanted, all she dreamt of, was to set foot on a professional stage.

Lynn claimed the stage. And then she went back to a stranger’s apartment and experienced the cataclysmic eruption of her sexual awakening.

She let her guard and panties down around a bearded sex god who spoke foreign languages on her clit and taught her the real meaning of being intimate with someone. Not just someone, a
man
. She had always lusted after the older boys, dating two or three years older, and had always walked away unsatisfied. Her Tumblr feeds weren’t full of Glee stars, but of Chris Pine, Chris Evans, the Hemsworths, even the slinky style of Tom Hiddleston. Her tastes were more mature because she had always felt more mature. Dana could bring out her playful style, but Lynn had career aspirations, a life to start, and a lusty thirst for a man securely on the other side of puberty.

Dana’s older brother and his friends always called her a tease, willing to flirt and maybe hike up her skirt or wear low-cut shirts, but never to follow through. Except that one time. Well, she didn’t want or need a penis to interfere with her dreams. Her mother let a dick, in all connotations of the word, ruin her life. Lynn wasn’t about to fall down the same rabbit hole, because Wonderland wasn’t exactly a fabulous place, no matter how goddamn big your house was.

Her entire adolescence was a green-room wait before curtain. It made sense, then, that the bed she finally fell into belonged to someone eleven years her senior. He was more mature, he had aspirations and a career, a bank account in his own name. A dick he actually knew how to use.

Fuck, did he ever know how to use it.

With a simple note, someone came along to fuck it all up. Her gut instinct said Aria, with the way she fawned all over Matthew, or one of Aria’s asshole friends. It was hard to believe they’d actually been caught. Matthew always kept a respectable distance at school and they clung to the shadows backstage. Unless someone had caught him between her legs while she rehearsed the balcony scene…

It would have been a janitor or another teacher. No one else would be there that late. But a teacher or staff member would go straight to the administration, wouldn’t they? Blackmailing a broke actor-turned-teacher wasn’t exactly the most effective way to get money.

Lynn kicked harder. She just needed to meet him, get answers, and put the whole goddamn thing behind them, while taking his whole goddamn cock from behind. An afternoon of forgetting her name and the past three days was exactly what Dr. Lynn ordered.

Dr. Lynn also, upon further consideration, decided it couldn’t be a staff member. She would be expelled by now if that were the case, and there was no rational explanation for them to keep this information quiet. Two years ago, the volleyball coach was ousted for sleeping with the team’s middle blocker only two days after the first time they fucked on campus. No one had seen her since. Lynn’s ass would be buried under her mother’s begonias right now if it was a staff member.

Which meant it had to be another student.

Lynn skid to a halt at the designated meeting place—a cozy outcropping of rocks in a relatively secluded area of a park long forgotten by everyone around it. She wanted to meet at his place, to make the fucking half of her plan more accessible, but he was worried someone might be watching him in Manhattan. A tingle slow-crawled up her spine. Lynn spun around to look over her shoulder. Empty.

“Don’t be a fucking moron,” she muttered to herself.

“You’re hardly a moron.”

Lynn yelped and jumped right into Matthew. “Don’t do that!”

“I’m sorry.” There were exactly zero apologies in his too-perfect grin. “I thought you saw me.”

“Nope. I was too busy making sure no one stalked me to our meeting place so they can end our lives. You know, just the usual.”

Matthew pulled her in for a tight hug and rested his chin in her hair. “If someone wanted to do that, they would have done it when my head was buried under your skirt. Or after that time I made you cry out, ‘O Matthew’ instead of ‘O Romeo’ while you were still wearing Juliet’s bedclothes.” He growled lightly.

A twinge between her legs made her huff. “Yeah, yeah.”

“Does this mean you won’t kiss me hello?”

“Oh, I know a few places where you can kiss…”

“That’s very naughty, Miss Viggiani.” Matthew squeezed her ass and nibbled her ear. “And in public!”

She collapsed against his chest. “We’re so fucked, aren’t we?”

“Well, no. Maybe. It’s a possibility.”

“So. What happened?”

“I found this in a bouquet of flowers while closing up the theater after you left. At first, I thought it was a joke, because the flowers were made out to me, and you know, who buys a guy flowers? But then I read the note.” He pulled a folded piece of paper from his shirt pocket and handed it to her. In neat print, it read:

I know everything.

Every curse word Lynn knew, heard, or thought, was a curse word poured out of her mouth. She swallowed hard and traced the letters with her finger. They were too curly to be a teacher’s writing. Or a guy’s handwriting. Fucking Aria.

“Maybe it was a prank, since it was opening night?” She bit her lip and held her breath, begging the universe to just let it be a fucking prank. But he shook his head.

“Those were not there before we, um, christened Juliet’s bed. I snuck a bouquet for you into the mix while the crew was organizing everything and wanted to surprise you with them later that night. I got a little … distracted … and forgot all about it until then.”

“You got me flowers?” Lynn’s cheeks warmed. Her parents gave her flowers, and so did Dana, but this was her ... well, whatever he was. Matthew wasn’t her boyfriend, but he wasn’t just the guy she was fucking, either. Whatever his title or lack thereof might be, he meant the most to her, and no one who meant that much to her had ever bought her flowers. “I never got them.”

He nodded. “They’re at my place. I didn’t want to draw attention on my way here. I was pretty proud of them, too. Huge. You’ll love them.” His smile was captivating. He had so many beautifully white, straight teeth, but they didn’t look predatory. They were perfectly squared in his beautiful face. “When I ran back to get them for you, I noticed an extra bouquet lying around with my name on it. It definitely wasn’t there before.”

“Well, shit.”

“Yeah.”

Lynn leaned against a rock. Matthew joined her and she rested her head against his shoulder. “You are absolutely certain it can’t be anything else?”

He ran a hand through his hair. “I really don’t think so. My life revolves around work right now because of rehearsals. My neighbor sent me a text this morning to ask if I’d died, because he hasn’t seen me in two weeks. I avoid all the bars in the area, so a parent or an asshole with a fake ID—“

Lynn coughed lightly. Matthew cocked an eyebrow, but said nothing.

“—doesn’t see me and report me for something dumb or taken out of context. As shitty as it is, this teaching gig is my life right now, Lynn. My savings are toast from this summer’s lack of work. Every penny I can save, I do. If I had a cat, he’d probably have pissed all over my bed and found a new home by now. That doesn’t exactly leave a lot of room for me to fuck anything up.”

This was not the reassuring meeting Lynn hoped it would be. She knew Matthew hadn’t done anything terrible. Really, neither of them had done anything terrible. Lynn was now a legal, consenting adult. No one could press charges against Matthew except her, and she would absolutely never. His orgasms gave her life. She wanted to run away with him, not ship him off to prison. The only reason it mattered then, was because he was her “teacher” and she was his “student.” And that was just … invasive.

“I don’t understand. We’ve been so careful!” Lynn chewed on a fingernail. “I mean, shit, we only barely got back to … you know. We’ve spent weeks barely looking at one another. How is it that someone happened across us the exact moment we started touching again?”

“That’s a really good question that I have zero answer for. I did my damndest to stay straight.” Matthew let out a long, slow sigh. “Fuck.”

“You can’t get arrested.” Lynn nudged him with a hopeful grin, trying to lift the mood. It was only after she said it that she realized how terrible it was. “Sorry.”

He laughed, once. It was a little bitter. “I know. But I can get fired and chased out of town. You can get expelled or ruined forever. I can’t stand to have that happen to you.”

“This is such bullshit.”

They stood for a moment in silence. Lynn found herself scanning the park for someone with a camera or binoculars. Someone snooping around the trees. They were the only ones there, but the tingle between her shoulders didn’t quit.

Matthew broke the quiet. “I hate to ask this.”

Her stomach did that thing where it drops just before a big fall, like the body knows it’s about to endure something terrible and is trying to minimize the damage.

“I need to know, for certain, that you didn’t do this. Or have a hand in it. Or tell anyone, for that matter, about us.” Matthew turned to look her straight in the eye.

She hated that he even had to ask. She understood, but that didn’t make his knife any less pointy. Lynn shook her head vehemently. “I would never. You have to know that, right? This is just as much my life as it is yours.”

“I know.” He was gentle, but firm. “I know. But I need to hear you say it. Maybe you accidentally said something. If you did, that’s okay. Shit happens. But I need to know who or what we are dealing with.”

“I swear on my life, Matthew. Dana knows about this summer, but nothing since. This is all so new and I didn’t want you to ignore me again, so I haven’t told a soul.”

“No angsty Instagram picture with eighty-seven hashtags about your love life?” The corner of his mouth tugged upward. “No ambiguous post on Facebook about the person you love forever and ever?”

Her breath caught and the drop in her stomach left her feeling fuzzy. “The person I love, hmm?”

It was his turn to look disheveled. “Well, I mean … I thought … um.” He cleared his throat awkwardly. “Yes?”

He’d actually meant it? She wanted to kick herself. This man, this wonderful, amazing, sexy man, had confessed his love. And she’d said it back as she shook on his cock? It was the most intense, perfect moment of her life, but it seemed to good to be true. And now this—he really, really loved her..

Lynn threw herself at him and kissed him so hard it hurt. Her fingers grasped his beard, his hands pressed her to him so they were only separated by two layers of fabric and a dose of modesty. She kissed him until those feelings returned and left her dizzy, until her body remembered she didn’t give a shit about who saw them or what people thought.

Lynn Viggiani was in love with this man. And, more astoundingly, he was in love with her. He didn’t view her as a child or a pretty plaything. He saw her as a woman. He viewed her as his equal. And he loved her.

Matthew Flint fucking loved her.

“Does the lure of prison turn you on, baby?” Matthew impersonated Austin Powers and it made her laugh.

Lynn studied him for a moment, unable to stop smiling as she memorized all his features illuminated in the brilliant sun. “You love me.”

He grew brighter and his voice was soft. “I do. Did you forget?”

“No, I just … this had me so freaked out. But you told me you loved me.”

“More than a man should love a woman.”

Lynn touched his hair, his cheeks, ran her hands down his broad shoulders. His hair was getting long. “Tell me.”

She watched his teasing nature blossom across his face. “Tell you what?”

“That you love me.” She couldn’t break the smile, or raise her voice to anything above a whisper. It was like they were in their own private moment, something worthy of a grand score with lots of violin action. “I want to hear you say it again.”

Matthew pressed her up against the rocks and ran two fingers down the side of her face. His gaze was so intense she could feel her soul alight. His lips trailed behind his fingers, leaving kisses soft as butterfly wings on her skin. Lynn’s heartbeat drowned out the hum of the park, the birds and the flies zipping around, and she swore she could hear his heart pounding through the graphic T-shirt that smothered his strong arms.