Prodigal Son (Jensen Family #1) (12 page)

“If he could do a couple of
hours one evening a week or something, my window frames
are
badly in need of painting and I would rather pay Paul than someone I don’t
know.” Edwina pressed her case.

“I’m sure he will be
delighted” Monica agreed.

“For Gods’ sake Monica, when
will you stop being so polite?” Kay asked “We all know Edwina’s preference for
young men, this coupled with the fact that Paul is an incorrigible flirt should
have alarm bells ringing in your head and would make him working for her
disastrous as well as scandalous if either of them lose what little sense 
they have and heaven forbid start something.” She finished.

“Kay! You are awful.” Monica
giggled at her forthright friend.

“He is rather eye catching.”
Edwina admitted “And yes, I can’t deny that I will flirt with him but he’s your
boy Monica, it would never go any further.”

“I have your word on that?”
Monica asked.

“Absolutely.
I promise.” Edwina made the motion of crossing her
heart.

And so it began. Paul would
work for Kay at the weekends and every other night after school he would be at
Edwina’s house painting her windows and flirting with the attractive forty-
something woman as he did so, thoroughly enjoying Edwina’s sense of humour and
her tainted view on life.

Word of mouth soon spread and
Paul found he had a healthy list of clients requiring his skills and the
quality work he provided.

Working hard between rigorous
work out sessions at the gym left him more often than not, over tired and his
school work began to suffer mainly because his attention span had shrunk to
that of a gnat and he would occasionally nod off in lessons bringing him to the
attention of his teachers and subsequently Michael who wasted no time in
dishing out a suitable punishment.

During the six months since
his fifteenth birthday Paul had had several liaisons with girls in the year
above him most memorably getting caught in the act one Sunday afternoon when
his parents unexpectedly returned from visiting friends resulting in Paul being
dragged from his bed by his hair by a furious Michael. He acted as if the blow
to his abdomen that Michael delivered had hurt him but in reality the hours he
spent in the gym had honed his stomach muscles and he barely felt it.

During science Matt and Paul
shared a bench and had proved themselves to be efficient lab partners among a
class of reprobates who had caused their lab assistant to walk out of her job
within six weeks of the new term starting.

Matt glanced across at his
brother. Paul was slumped over leaning on his arms exhausted from working the
previous evening after school and a very late but rewarding night with one of
his girlfriends. For the time being he had escaped the teachers notice as she
was currently shouting at a bunch of girls at the back of the room.

A knock at the door made Matt
look away from his slumbering sibling but he reached over to nudge him awake as
the new teaching assistant walked into the room.

At Matt’s persistent nudging
Paul dragged himself from sleep, ran his hands over his face and through his
hair and sat up looking straight into the eyes of the most beautiful woman he
had ever seen. He straightened his now crumpled shirt and sat up straighter
taking a deep breath as she glided by, breathing in her scent, his eyes
followed her as she passed and placed the armful of folders she was carrying on
her new desk and then reached for her lab coat.

Matt recognised his brothers’
attraction to the newcomer, he was well tuned in to Paul’s subtle movements and
posture when he was in the presence of an attractive female, he shook his head
half in sorrow and half in begrudging admiration of his brothers’ aspirations.

Paul caught Matt’s slight
shake of the head and frowned at his twin asking “What?” Matt leant closer to
him.

“She’s way out of your league
dude.”

“Didn’t you say that about
Suzanne? Haven’t I been banging her for the last year? You’ve just made this a
challenge.” Paul whispered.

“If you don’t start improving
your grades you are going to get kicked out of school which is going to put a
definite kink in your style.” Matt warned.

Both boys turned to the front
of the class as their teacher cleared her throat and introduced the new
teaching assistant.

“Class, this is my new
assistant Miss Scott, let’s treat her a little better than her predecessor.”

That was
it,
Paul knew he had to have her. He cut back on his work load and got some more
sleep in order to be more alert at school much to the pleasure of his teachers.

Normally a vocally inspiring
student, Paul became dumbstruck in the presence of the teaching assistant and
only verbally contributed in class when she wasn’t there. Matt took to teasing
his brother about his lack of action and his inability to speak when the woman
of his dreams was in the same room.

Galvanised into action by his
brothers’ cruel jokes, Paul remained behind after several classes asking for
help on the current subject.

Carmen Scott had been at the
school for three weeks. Originally from Gloucester, she had moved to London
five years ago with her boyfriend. The relationship had deteriorated rapidly
after the move and the couple had gone their separate ways but both remained in
London. She had noticed Paul’s silence every time she was in the room and the
way he would remain after class and realised the teenager had a huge crush on
her and that she would have to handle him carefully.

Turning from her work station
to begin tidying up the lab, she was wholly unsurprised to find Paul sitting at
his bench.

“This is becoming a habit.”
she said as she sat beside him “What’s the problem now?”

Paul smiled, he knew he’d
been rumbled “No problem other than the fact that you can’t see past my age.”
He told her.

“You are my student, even if
I was attracted to you, this would never happen.”

“Yeah, I thought about that,
technically as you aren’t a teacher, I’m not your student” his smile widened.

“You think you have it all
worked out don’t you?” She couldn’t help but smile “However, besides the fact
that technically you
are
my student you are also legally underage and I
do have to say, you are certainly not my type, sorry.”

Paul looked down at his hands
momentarily then he turned back to her “Normally a comment such as that would
wound me deeply but in your case I’m prepared to forgive you and continue to be
impossibly persistent.” He grinned.

“You can be as persistent as
you like young man, it is never going to happen.” she warned.

Paul rose from his seat
grabbing his bag and heaving it up on to his shoulder before facing her again
“You keep telling yourself that Miss Scott, you will change your mind
eventually, I can wait, after all it’s not like I don’t have other things to
keep me distracted while I work on you.” He smiled “See you tomorrow”
,
he left the room without a backwards glance and walked
straight into the arms of an attractive red headed sixth former.

Carmen had been in this
situation before where students had expressed feelings for her and she had
managed to extract herself from their affections with a few choice phrases,
this boy however was different. Mature for his age, charming,
funny
and incredibly good looking, she had the feeling that
he was used to getting his own way and believed him when he said he would be
persistent. She tried to tell herself that she wasn’t flattered by his
attention or that she wasn’t just the slightest bit attracted to him to no
avail even though her morals screamed at her that her feelings were wrong and
the more attention he paid her the more she felt the fringes of jealousy
tugging at her when she saw him with one of the many girls that flocked around
him. He obviously preferred older girls but she still considered herself way
beyond his reach.

Paul continued to worm his
way into her affections, he was always polite and smelled so good each and
every time he stood that little too close to her when returning books and
equipment to her work station.

School ended at three thirty
five each day with the sound of pounding feet and the loud chatter of relieved
students. Carmen usually waited until the students had left before venturing
out to her car, this particular day she had to leave shortly after the final
bell for a doctors’ appointment.

There were still students
milling around when she reached her car. She saw Paul wearing jeans, trainers
and his white school shirt standing in the staff car park, he had obviously
changed before leaving the building. She took her time loading the students’
exercise books into the boot of her car, keeping an eye on him, wondering what
he was up to. A white Volkswagen Beetle pulled into the car park and pulled
haphazardly into a space. Tessa Jensen got out of the drivers’ side and
approached her brother, a t-shirt in her hand.

“Thanks for this.” Carmen
heard Paul greet his sister.

“That’s
ok,
I’m going into town to pick up Suzanne anyway so I had to pass here.”

Paul unbuttoned his shirt and
handed it to Tessa. Carmen gulped, the boy had a body to die for; smooth olive
skin covered toned muscles. She closed the boot on her car as Paul reached for
his t-shirt, he heard the noise and turned to face her a smile spreading across
his face as he noticed her flush at getting caught gawping at him, pausing
before sliding the shirt over his head, he called to her;

“Hi Miss, you’re leaving
early.”

“Er yeah, must dash.” She
jumped into her car, not daring to look in his direction as she drove by “Shit”
she
cursed,
he had caught her looking at him, now he
would double his efforts to get her attention.

“You are such a show off.”
Tessa admonished.

“What? She looked at me,
can’t say I blame her though, I do look good.” he laughed, he’d won, he had her
attention now, time to back off and let her come to him.

“Huh” Tessa gruffed “Do you
want a lift?”

“Nah, I’m heading in the
opposite direction to you, you could take my bag home though.” He dropped his
bag into the back seat of her car said his goodbyes and headed off to Edwina’s
house as he was now working inside repairing her banisters amidst much laughter
as she told him the tale of how they had managed to get broken in the first
place.

Edwina was cooking dinner for
them when Paul arrived. She was an excellent cook and also loved to bake,
something she had little reason to do since her children had gone to
university. Paul had a very healthy appetite and his presence in her house had
given her the opportunity to break out her cake tins once again.

Edwina thoroughly enjoyed
Paul’s visits, she paid him well and was more than pleased with his work,
noticing that he was a perfectionist and wouldn’t be happy with his work until
it was spot on.

They had many long and
involved conversations about Paul’s relationship with his father. Edwina
wholeheartedly disapproved of Michael and his treatment of this charming boy
but couldn’t deny that he provided well for his family and for all Paul’s
gripes, he rarely went without. She found herself living vicariously through
Paul’s many conquests and he had actually had her crying with laughter at the
description of exactly what he had been doing when Michael had grasped a
handful of his hair and pulled him not only out of his bed but also out of the
girl he had been buried inside of at the time.

“Michael must have been
furious.” Edwina laughed.

“Understatement.”
Paul replied “He almost had steam coming out of his
ears.”

“You really are a bit of a
whore aren’t you?”

“Hey, if girls want to
prostrate themselves in front of me, I’m going to take advantage, I’m only
human, I have needs and desires.” He protested.

“Lucky
girls.”
Edwina commented.

“You know I think you and I
would have loads of fun together Edwina but I honestly think Mum would castrate
me and I’m far more afraid of her than I am Dad.”

“Sweet little Monica would
never do anything to you.”

“She doesn’t have to, it’s
the way she looks at me when I do something wrong, it kills me to know I’ve
hurt her or done something she disapproves of.” He answered.

“I know what you mean, my
mother had one of those looks” she chuckled “And as much as I’d like to mess
around with you, my friendship with Monica is far more important to me.”

“And as I’m finding out, the
fantasy is often better than the reality anyway” he added.

“How very true” she agreed
“You are wise beyond your years.”