Page 2 of Desire

Chapter One

EMMA

Why does it take one asshole to bring you back to high school and the most embarrassing moment of your life?

Emma fixed a pleasant expression on her face and unfocused her eyes just in case tears started. Kiki Pretty—no shit, that was really her name—was doing her best mean girl impersonation. Emma was trying to remember that she was twenty-four and not fourteen.

“Do you know who I am?”

Yes, an entitled bitch.

“Yes, I loved your Vogue cover last summer,” Emma said instead. She hoped that a little flattery would go a long way.

“Then you know that I don’t need an appointment to see Colleen.”

So much for that idea.

Emma hated confrontations. She hated to fight. Right now, she just wanted to crawl under her desk and hide. She was such a fucking coward, but this isn’t what she signed up for when she took the nanny job at Couture.

Being able to help Tee with Ezina fulfilled the part of her that had wanted to be a kindergarten teacher. Emma had started college for early childhood development, but decided to work a little bit before getting her master’s degree.

That had been a big mistake.

With all the gun violence in the schools, she didn’t have the courage to experience that firsthand. While she knew she didn’t want to live in fear, it had grown more and more apparent to her that she couldn’t handle an emergency situation like that. It broke her heart every time a school shooting was splashed across the front pages. And while it was painful to give up her dream of working with children in an educational setting, Emma knew it was the right thing to do for her sanity and wellbeing.

But that still didn’t change the pangs of disappointment she felt when she realized she had wasted four years of her life pursuing a course of study that she didn’t have the guts to see through. Maybe someday she would find the inner strength to try again, but for right now, it left her in limbo.

“I’m going to march right in there,” Kiki said, and stomped over to Colleen’s closed door.

“She’s in a meeting,” Emma said desperately, but didn’t get up from her desk.

Flashback to high school: The queen bee of the school—Amber was her name—was also a pushy bitch. Emma hadn’t been a gatekeeper or a secretary back then. But she had been a lowly freshman in front of Amber in line. Amber had shoulder checked her out of the way. Emma had stumbled into one of the lacrosse players...and accidentally farted.

Emma’s nickname had been Toots after that.

“You’ll laugh about it someday,” her mother had said.

No. It had been ten years, and Emma still wished the ground would swallow her up sometimes because of it. There were other incidents in high school, too many to remember for her sanity. Suffice it to say, she learned to stay hidden and quiet. And while things got better in the few years she had attended college, the damage had been done. And now that she was technically a real adult in the real world, Emma still felt like it was safest to hide where no one could hurt you.

Kiki jiggled the handle, but the door was locked. “Colleen!” Kiki banged on the door.

“Please, don’t,” Emma said. But her voice was whispery soft.