Playing For Keeps (29 page)

After mentally promising herself
aspirin for the headache that was already forming she pasted a huge
smile on her face and yanked open the door in time to see the
couple and realtor stumbling out of Jason's house with their ears
covered.

When they glared in her direction she
held up her beer and said, "Who's thirsty?"

***********

"If anyone has a problem with the new
computer system, please let my office know immediately," Headmaster
Jenkins said, reaching for his briefcase. "Have a good first day,
everyone."

Jason grabbed the pile of handouts
Jenkins had swamped him with and headed for the door. He wasn't too
surprised when Haley jumped in front of him. She was a persistent
little thing.

For two weeks she'd been hounding all
of his friends and parents, looking for him. Nobody would tell her
where he was, not because they were on his side, oh hell no. They
were all on team Hayley and they made damn sure he knew that when
they managed to get him on the phone. A week ago he finally had
enough and threw his phone out his driver's side window somewhere
in New Jersey.

When he left Hayley two weeks ago he'd
been on the verge of a nervous breakdown. He knew if he'd stayed he
would go back to Haley on his hands and knees, begging her to give
him a chance, and he almost had. The only thing that stopped him
was knowing that Hayley would never want him the way he wanted
her.

"You've put your house up for sale,"
she said accusingly, pushing her glasses back up her nose as she
glared at him.

He simply stepped around her and
walked out of the teacher's lounge. Of course that didn't stop
Hayley. In seconds she was walking beside him.

"Jason, we need to talk."

"I think we said everything we had to
say two weeks ago, Haley."

"No, we didn't, Jason. You left before
I could talk to you. Look, would you slow down?" she asked,
doubling her efforts to keep up with him.

"No."

He didn't want to talk. Hell, he
didn't even want to look at her, but he had no choice in the
matter. Until his house sold he was stuck working here and seeing
her every day.

"Jason, we really need to
talk."

"No."

She somehow managed to catch up with
him and jump in front of him just as he reached his
classroom.

He pinched the bridge of his nose and
sighed. "Move."

"No," she said stubbornly.

He didn't have the patience for this
shit. "Move out of the way, Haley."

She shook her head.

"Fine," he said, stepping away from
her and heading for her classroom, intending on cutting through her
room.

"Fifteen people have looked at your
house and not one offer. That's kind of funny, isn't it?" Haley
asked in an offhand tone, stopping him dead in his tracks. It was
the gist of what his realtor had told him last night over the phone
when he got in.

"What the hell are you talking about?"
he demanded, turning around to glare at her.

Haley made a show of examining her
fingernails. "Just that it's kind of funny that no one has made an
offer on your house, especially after all the work you've put into
it over the past few months." She looked up from her nails, giving
him a smug little smile.

"And how exactly do you know that no
one has made me an offer?" he asked, narrowing his eyes on her as
he took several steps towards her.

Her brows arched up adorably. "A
little birdie told me?"

"Uh huh," he said, tilting his head to
the side to study her. "And what else did this little birdie tell
you?'

"That you won't get one offer on your
house until you give me what I want," she said firmly. There was no
doubt in his mind what she wanted.

Friendship.

As much as he would love to
be able to stay in Haley's life and make sure that whatever lucky
bastard ended up with her took care of her, he couldn't. Not when
he knew he should be the lucky bastard who was allowed to hold her,
love her and be there for her. She was
his
little grasshopper.

"I can't give that to you, Haley," he
said hoarsely. "I wish I could, but....but I just can't. I'm
sorry."

"Then you're not going to sell your
house," she simply said, shrugging.

"I'm sorry, Haley," he said, walking
back to his now unguarded door.

***************

"Last chance, Jason!" Haley yelled
through the front door.

Great, he thought, sitting back on the
kitchen chair. This was just what he needed. It was bad enough that
he was forced to cut Haley out of his life, something that was
going to take him a long ass time to get over, but he didn't need
her going psycho on him.

Haley was smart and level headed. He
never really expected her to land on his doorstep at eleven o'clock
at night, demanding to talk to him like so many women before her.
At least she didn't sound drunk and wasn't screaming a bunch of
bullshit for his neighbors.

"About time," he mumbled, rubbing his
hands down his face when he didn't hear anything for five minutes.
Although he was glad that Haley had given up, he couldn't help but
feel a little insulted. Women he'd only fucked once or twice were a
lot more persistent and demanding than a woman who claimed she
loved him.

Then again she only loved him as a
good friend, one that she'd apparently wanted to screw around with
for a little while, but a friend nonetheless. He'd known the entire
time they were together that he wasn't good enough for her, he just
never expected Haley to so readily agree with that
assumption.

It figures, he thought acidly, tossing
his red pen down on the stack of essays he was grading, that the
one woman he wanted only wanted him as a fuck buddy. A year ago he
probably would have been flattered that his shy little neighbor saw
him as a stud. Now he just wanted to put his fist through the
wall.

He fought back a yawn as he picked his
pen back up and started going through the essays again, wondering
what the hell had possessed him to assign an essay quiz on the
first day of school. The answer was easy of course. Haley and of
course the new biology teacher, Mark Armstrong who wouldn't leave
her alone all day were responsible for this simple act of
stupidity.

Jason had been forced to
watch as Mark flirted with
his
little grasshopper. When Haley had dropped her
notebook in the hallway before first period and bent over to pick
it up, it had taken every last ounce of control to stop himself
from ripping apart the bastard who licked his lips while he watched
Haley's pert little bottom wiggle. Since Jason needed the job and a
good reference he refrained from killing the bastard and took it
out on his students, who now hated him.

He didn't give a shit.

The only thing he cared about was
getting the hell out of here with his sanity intact and he doubted
that was going to happen if he was forced to see Haley everyday and
watch as other men drooled after her. He'd have to find out from
his realtor tomorrow what the hell Haley was doing to scare people
away.

Right now he was too damn tired to
think of the possibilities. He hadn't been able to sleep much over
the past couple of weeks, another thing he was going to have to
fix. He felt himself start to doze off as his head dropped forward.
This time he didn't fight it.

*************

"Wake up, Jason," Haley's sweet voice
had him groaning as his eyes slowly opened. "Good boy," she said,
pressing a kiss to his forehead.

"Haley?" Jason asked groggily as his
eyes slowly focused on her cute little smiling face.

"Mmmhmm," Haley answered absently as
she slowly walked around him, letting her finger glide over his
shoulders.

He went to cover a yawn with his hand
only to frown when he realized his hands were pulled back behind
him and.....yup, cuffed. He moved his feet and sighed when he
realized his legs were also bound to the chair. Great. She really
had gone off the deep end.

"Untie me," he said,
sighing.

"Nope," Haley said, making the word
pop.

"Haley," he warned through clenched
teeth. "Untie me right now."

"Sorry, I just can't do that," she
said, stopping in front of him and leaned back against the table,
smiling sweetly at him.

Jason tried to yank his arms and legs
out of their bonds with no luck.

"Unfucking tie me! Now!" he
roared.

"Sorry. I can't do that," she simply
said, pushing her glasses back up her nose.

"Haley, I swear to god if you don't
untie me-"

"Why don't we get started?" she asked
brightly, cutting him off.

He closed his eyes, praying
for patience he sure as hell didn't have. "Haley, it's over. You
need to accept it and let me go.
Please
," he all but begged. She was
killing him. Losing her was the hardest thing he'd ever
experienced. He needed her to let go so he could find some way to
cope with loss without losing it.

"No, it's not."

"Yes, it is," Jason said, opening his
eyes to find Haley studying him with her head tilted to the
side.

"You know," she said, pushing away
from the table, "you don't look very comfortable."
"That's because I'm not. Untie me, Haley," he snapped, yanking on
his handcuffs again to no avail.

She kneeled in front of him, ignoring
the glare he was sending her way and laid her hands on his knees.
Jason watched as she licked her little pouty lips and smiled
sweetly up at him.

"Did you miss me?" she asked as she
gently caressed his knees.

"No," he lied. He'd missed her so
goddamn much. Those two weeks from her had been a living hell and
one he knew he'd be reliving again soon.

"Well, I missed you," she mumbled
softly, running her hands over his thighs slowly, almost
distractedly.

Jason shook his head in regret.
"Haley, we can't be friends."

She shrugged delicately. "I know." She
ran her hands down the inside of his thighs, letting her nails
lightly scratch him. He sucked in a breath as she ran her nails all
the way back to his knees and then back up his thighs.

"I don't want to be friends," she
said, running her hands up and over his shirt covered stomach and
chest. He had to force himself to focus on their conversation and
not on how good her hands felt on him.

"I'm not going to be your fuck buddy,"
he bit out angrily. Even though he knew he should happily accept
anything she was willing to give him, he couldn't. He wanted all of
her.

"That's not going to work for me
either," she said, slowly loosening his tie and pulling it away
from him. She met his eyes as her nibble little fingers unbuttoned
his shirt.

"Then what the hell do you want?" he
asked, trying not to lick his lips in pleasure as she ran her nails
teasingly down his chest and stomach. When she reached his navel
she flattened her hands against him and slid them up until she was
pushing his shirt away, exposing his chest to her greedy
eyes.

She ignored his question, instead
tracing her fingers softly over his muscles and chest. When she ran
her thumbs over his hard flat nipples he had to bite back a hiss.
Haley gave him a knowing smile as she leaned forward.

"Have I ever told you how much I love
your body?" she asked softly against his stomach as she pressed a
kiss against his skin. He watched in shock and pleasure as she
licked a trail from his navel to his left peck. He hissed as she
ran her warm wet tongue over his nipple.

His head dropped back with a loud
groan as she licked her way to the right and teased his other
nipple. When she flicked her wicked little tongue over the flat
nipple his dick went from half mast to steel in seconds.

He licked his lips as he shifted to
make some room in his suddenly tight pants. Haley's hands slid back
to his thighs as she kissed and licked her way to his neck. When
she pulled his earlobe between her teeth he couldn't help but
moan.

"Did you miss me?" Haley asked as she
suckled his ear. "Even a little?"

Christ, he couldn't think never mind
answer her.

"Hmm, why don't we see what else we
can do to make you....more comfortable, shall we?" she asked,
smiling against his neck.

He raised his head when he felt her
move away from him. Panting, he watched her sit back on her
haunches as she ran her hands over his inner thighs. Every time she
ran her hands mere centimeters away from where he needed her he
groaned in frustration.

"Fuck!" he gasped when Haley leaned
forward and pressed a kiss against the bulge in his
pants.

"Tell me you missed me," Haley said
quietly as she leaned back slightly and ran her hand over the
bulge, lightly gripping it before reaching for his belt.