callan
I paced around my classroom the next morning with a whiteboard marker in my hand and Sakura on my mind. Last night, I hadn’t been able to think. Even after I had my hands covered in blood from working with the mob, I couldn’t get her out of my fucking head.
She’d better show up today.
While she had promised not to miss class, I wasn’t so sure what she’d do after spotting that gun in my glove box.
Students for the third period began flooding into the classroom. Every time the door opened, I glanced over and hoped it was Sakura. But the desks began filling with uninterested kids until there was only a minute before class.
Growling to myself, I uncapped the marker and began writing today’s lesson.
Sakura was never late.
After glancing over my shoulder again at the unoccupied desks, I gritted my teeth. And she wasn’t the only one missing from class today.
Surprise, surprise, Gunther wasn’t here either.
Fucking punk.
Fifteen seconds before the late bell rang, Sakura rushed into the room, wearing a pair of reading glasses, with her hands clasped around her backpack straps. “Sorry I was almost late,” she said, trying to catch her breath.
Gunther walked in after her.
I clenched my jaw and held myself together. They hadn’t been doing anything together. Sakura must’ve been talking with a teacher or had a class in another building on campus, or maybe she had been in the restroom. With him.
As if that kid knew what he was doing, he smirked at me.
Averting my gaze, I glared at the whiteboard and continued writing today’s lesson. Gunther was screwing around, trying to piss me off, wanting to get under my skin. That fucking brat never liked me.
“Did you find what you were looking for last night?” Gunther asked Sakura.
With the marker in my hand, I froze halfway through writing notes on the whiteboard and tensed. Where the fuck did he see Sakura last night? She had been with me for hours after school ended. What have they fucking been doing together?
“Um … yeah, I did,” Sakura responded.
After forcing myself to finish the notes, I set the marker down and walked back to my desk with my hands balled into fists by my sides. Sitting down, I cut my gaze to him and Sakura, who sat next to each other.
On the outside, I was calm. I was so fucking calm.
But inside … I wanted to bash that kid’s brains out.
Tonight, I’d find that punk kid after school and make sure he didn’t lay a hand on Sakura. Fuck getting Blaise to do it. If Gunther wanted to taunt me in class, then I would be the one to warn him to stay away.
“Good,” he said to her, leaning forward.
And I couldn’t fucking handle it anymore.
“We’re changing seats today,” I said through gritted teeth. “Stand up.”
Murmurs erupted throughout the class. We had just started the year a bit over a month ago. There was no obvious reason to switch seats, and I’d had no plans to, but I couldn’t handle them together anymore.
Everyone grabbed their belongings and hurried to the walls to make space in the center. I didn’t know who the fuck I would place where, but Sakura would be as far away from Gunther as I could get her.
“Sakura,” I announced, knocking my knuckles against the desk closest to mine. “Here.”
I walked diagonally across the room to the back and tapped the desk. “Gunther.”
Gunther walked over to me and clenched his jaw. “What are you doing?”
“Sit,” I growled quietly.
It was childish to be fighting with a fucking eighteen-year-old, but he needed to learn his place. This was my classroom, and he didn’t get to flirt with her in front of me. He didn’t even get to look at her from now on.
Sakura watched me closely as I assigned everyone a new seat, making sure she was surrounded by girls and not a guy even two seats near her. Something deep inside me wouldn’t allow it.
Never again. Never fucking again.
Once I approved of the new seats, I walked back to my desk and opened my Literature book. “You should’ve read the chapters assigned last night. We’ll begin on the next chapter. Sakura, why don’t you start reading?”
After gazing at me for another second, Sakura readjusted her reading glasses, straightened herself out, and flipped to the next chapter, beginning the section. As she read, she crossed her legs, her skirt riding up.
My gaze traveled from her knee to the hem of her skirt, and I cursed.
She was fucking killing me with these outfits too.
When the bell rang through the class, all the students—who had packed up fifteen minutes ago—jumped up from their seats and hurried out of the room. I glared at Gunther lingering in the back, but he quickly disappeared out the door too.
Sakura grabbed her backpack and walked up to me.
“Whatever you’re going to do to Gunther …” Sakura started, chewing on the inside of her cheek with her brows pulled together. She peeked over her shoulder at the last few students exiting the room. “Please don’t hurt him.”
“Why not?”
“Because,” she whispered.
“Where were you last night with him?”
Her eyes widened. “What?”
“Where. Were. You. Last night? With him?”
Never in my forty fucking years had I ever been this possessive, this controlling, this toxic with Georgina. I didn’t give a fuck about what she did or who she was out with, but with Sakura … I didn’t want another man laying a finger on her.
Nobody would touch her.
Sakura crossed her arms. “Why do you need to know? You have a wife.”
I gritted my teeth, attempting to keep my cool. “Don’t play with me right now.”
“Well, if you can’t tell me why, then I can’t tell you where we were or what we were doing.”
A low snarl escaped my throat. I drew my tongue across my bottom teeth. “Sakura.”
“What I do with Gunther is none of your—”
Before I could stop myself, I shot up from my desk, wrapped my hand around her fragile throat, causing her to suck in a surprised breath, and pinned her to the whiteboard. “It is my fucking business, Sakura, because you’re mine.”