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Blurb:
Nikki Marnell is a history teacher enjoying
a great life: she has a job she loves, and two husbands that adore her. A young
student’s obsession with her threatens to destroy everything she’s worked so
hard to build from a life as a teenage runaway.
Excerpt:
She smiled as she
dusted a picture she’d taken of her husbands last summer, when they’d gone
camping. Both were sleeping, Cody’s long, sun-lightened hair mixing with
Ritchie’s longer, darker hair as they cuddled. Cody had been holding Ritchie
close, his face buried in the back of Ritchie’s neck, as Ritchie held Cody’s
hands to his chest. The peacefulness on their faces was something Nikki loved
to watch. She grinned. She wondered if watching your lovers sleep was an actual
fetish, since all three of them did it regularly. There were similar pictures
for them all over the house, some more of Ritchie and Cody, some of her and
Ritchie, and others of her and Cody.
The phone rang, making
her smile, checking the time. Her husbands were eager to talk, it had only been
an hour. She hurried to the phone, but paused when she saw the Caller ID. It
was a local number, not either of her husbands numbers.
“Hello?”
Pat Sloyer answered. “Hello,
Nicole, how are you tonight?”
“Mrs. Marnell, Pat. We’ve
discussed this before.” Nikki kept her voice calm, but a little stern, trying
to make her disapproval clear, without being cruel. Briefly she wondered if
that was what it would take, though. “How did you get this number?”
Pat ignored the
question, asking instead, “How about you meet me for dinner? I’ll take you to a
really nice place, where it can be just us two.” The boy’s voice was excited,
and Nikki recognized that he was trying to be seductive. However, it just
creeped her out.
“No, Pat, I will not
meet you for dinner, it would be highly inappropriate. I am your history
teacher, and you are one of my many students. If you need help with an
assignment, then we will discuss it during class tomorrow, or you can send me
an email,” Nikki paced the living room, agitated. Her students and their
parents had a school email for her, as well as a cell phone number she kept for
her students, but none had her private home number, nor her personal cell
number. Pat was calling the house number.
“Come on Nicole, we have
something more special than that. I can even pick you up from home, take you to
dinner, maybe go to the park and talk for a while,” Pat voice changed to a
wheedling tone, one she’d heard countless times from boys over the years. The
same tone that arrogant boys used whenever they wanted something from a female,
whether it was a better grade or sex, the tone and attitude behind it remained
the same. That tone that said “come on, don’t be difficult, you know you want
what I want and I want you to give it to me. Don’t be a cocktease.”
“No, Pat. Good night.”
She hung the phone up. It immediately rang again, with the same number, but she
ignored it. She called Cody on her cell phone, shaking, moving to check all the
doors and windows, needing to make sure they were locked. She shut the windows
she’d opened to let the nice evening breeze into the house.
“Hey good looking,
what’cha got cooking?” Cody asked, a hokey, teasing lilt in his voice. She
could just see the goofy grin on his face as he spoke, even though he was
halfway across the country from her. Nikki couldn’t help but smile, even as
shook up as she was.
“Pat Sloyer just called
the house line,” Nikki answered.
“That’s it, Nikki,”
Cody replied, sounding angry. “I want you to tell Vincent that Pat needs
removed from your classes.”
Nikki nodded, even
though he couldn’t see. She had resisted that suggestion before when Cody and
Ritchie had suggested it, but now. They were right. This was no longer just a
crush. “I will, this is getting more than a little creepy.”
Cody grunted, but only
added, “And Ritchie wants you to call the police and make a report of it. It
might not be necessary but…”
Nikki sighed. “I will,
but we both know there’s nothing they can do as things are right now.”
Cody echoed her sigh. “I
know baby, but at least there will be a trail outside your reports at school.”
Ritchie’s voice came on
the line. “Maybe you should go stay with Mom and Dad.”
Nikki shook her head. “No,
I’ve closed and locked the windows, and checked the doors and the alarm system.
I’m safe here.”
Ritchie made a
frustrated sound. “Stubborn woman.”
Nikki smiled. “I’m not
letting a little boy scare me out of our home, Ritchie. And he hasn’t been
threatening, just getting obsessed.”
“Obsession gets to
threats way too often, baby, you know that,” Ritchie answered worriedly.
“I know, babe,” Nikki
conceded. “That’s why Vincent, the school counselor and I are going to insist
that the Sloyers get their son some help. None of us want to see that potential
wasted, let alone the damage he could do to someone…”
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