If I Belong With You (Seriously Sweet St Louis #1) - Cindy Kirk

Chapter One

Angel Morelli chewed on her yellow number-two pencil and paid rapt attention to the man at the front of the room.

You have beautiful eyes.

She offered up the compliment, sending it silently across the space between them, smiling with satisfaction when his gaze met hers and he faltered over his words.

His eyes were extraordinary—an intriguing shade that hovered between gray and green. Occasionally when he hit a favorite topic, his eyes would glow and the green would turn to a bright emerald. But now, at the end of the day, they’d dulled to a lifeless putty color.

Abandoning her notepad, Angel rested her chin against her palm and studied the young history teacher. He was as blond as she was dark. Tall and muscular, he always dressed professionally. Today he’d worn her favorite combination: a denim shirt and khaki pants. A brightly colored cartoon tie hung loosely around his neck, secured with a once-crisp knot. He looked, she thought idly, just like she liked her men to look.

Immediately the sheer absurdity of the thought struck her and she laughed out loud.

“Angel, perhaps you’d like to share with the class what you find so amusing about nerve gas usage during the Vietnam War.” Jake Weston quirked his eyebrow questioningly.

She groaned to herself. Even though she was twenty-six and not eighteen, she still refused to look foolish in the suddenly sharp and assessing eyes of what were supposed to be her peers. Angel thought quickly. “That they had the nerve to use it?”

Laughter filled the classroom. She stifled an impulse to smile and instead smirked.

The teacher’s lips twitched but his expression was stern. “That will—”

A bell rang and the sounds of conversation and chairs scraping the floor drowned out his words. He halted, as if knowing it would be futile to talk above the clatter that accompanied the end of each school day.

Angel quickly shoved her books into her backpack. She’d promised to meet Crow at three-thirty, and if she hurried she’d have just enough time to grab a candy bar.

Shrugging on her leather jacket, she made her way down the crowded aisle, her thoughts already jumping ahead to her rendezvous in the park.

“Not so fast, Angel.” A familiar deep voice stopped her just before she reached the door. “I need you to stick around for a few minutes. We need to talk.”

She turned slowly and tried to hide her irritation. Normally she’d give anything to spend some time with Jake Weston, but today her meeting with Crow took priority. “I’m in kind of a hurry.”

“This won’t take long.”

“Yeah, right.”

“Five minutes max.” He flashed her an engaging smile. “Guaranteed.”

Angel heaved a resigned sigh. The super-size Milky Way would have to wait. Goodness knows, Crow wouldn’t.

She flipped her hair back from her face and swaggered to the front of the room, not an easy task when her off the shoulder oversized top threatened to fall from her shoulders and her cheetah print leggings felt a size too small.

With each step, his classically handsome features grew more pronounced. Her heart rate increased and the hungry growl in her stomach no longer mattered.

“I knew you couldn’t resist me forever.” Her flippant words ran far too close to the truth to be a joke, yet a boy heading out the door snickered.

Jake shot him a quelling glance before his gaze shifted to the last of the students exiting the room. “Marylou, will you leave the door open as you leave?”

“Sure, Mr. Weston.” The plump blonde gave him an adoring look.

Angel stifled a groan. She hoped she’d never been that obvious when she’d been a senior.

Jake Weston’s gaze shifted to the stack of papers on his desk and he gestured to a nearby chair. “Have a seat.”

Angel ignored the offer. Instead she braced a hand against the side of his heavy wooden desk and leaned over the cluttered surface. She inhaled the spicy scent of his cologne and waited for him to look up.

After what seemed an eternity, his gaze rose. “Angel—”

Their eyes locked. Their breathing came in unison. Her legs turned to jelly. Never in all her twenty-six years had she felt more like a school-girl.

She ignored the unfamiliar butterflies and flashed him her most engaging smile. “Are you sure we should be meeting like this?”

A startled expression crossed his face.

He laughed finally, a self-deprecating grin twisting his mouth. “You really had me going. Believe it or not, for a second I thought you were serious.”

Angel shrugged, her smile lingering an instant longer. She shoved the hard wood