Scarred Knight

The First Kiss

Lake

“This can’t be possible.” I whispered to myself, softly. My mind refused to believe what I was seeing.

But the way his eyes jerked up to meet mine, searing me to the inside, one would think I had shouted those words. I felt the jolt deep into my soul, just like the way I had felt when he had met me months before in a dark alley. Saved me. Insulted me. Kissed me. Humiliated me. And then rejected me like yesterday's trash in the same breath.

I hated him since that encounter, it didn’t matter that he was a stranger— a blessing and a curse, and yet I couldn't help but feel like some part of me needed him. Needed him as much as I needed to remember my past. And just like I was of the darkness, I was scared of going near him. I was afraid of him like I was to tap into the dark past my mind had blocked. But still both of them beckoned me with same fervor. Like the tantalizing burn of a fire in the cold night, you know it could possibly burn you alive but the warmth is so tempting that you take a chance and step closer still.

He stared at me for a moment, and his piercing green eyes felt invading, seeing all that he shouldn’t, that was even hidden from me. His gaze thrilled me and scared me in the same breath. He looked at me as if he knew my secrets. My wishes. My dark desires that had started forming since that night. Since him. A reaction of all the events that took place one after another on that single night, in that dark alleyway where I had come so close to utter destruction and death.

I only managed to take a breath in when his gaze moved to the girl sitting in front of me, Valentina, and just like that I was forgotten. Dismissed. He regarded the rest of the ass with his cold gaze, and I felt the loss of his attention like it was something vital. As the room settled, he turned back around, took the marker from the desk and wrote on the board.

Alex Carter.

Facing the class once again, he said, “That’s my name. I am to teach you English. I won’t. Don’t expect it. If you can’t learn it in all the years you spent in school, you can't learn anything now. I am here only for one reason,” His eyes flickered to me, making my blood run hot and cold at the same time. “And when it's done, I’ll be out of here. Till then you can do whatever the fûck you want, I don't care.” The students started to whisper, only to stop short when he stepped forward and his green eyes flashed like a hunter warning you to be aware of the traps around. “But it doesn’t mean that you won't be getting assignments and other study material to do. Don't come to the class if you haven't completed it. Don’t fûcking disrespect me. And, don’t talk unless asked.” A slow smile spread across his lips and a hint of a dimple flashed on the top of his right cheek. “So then, let's get on with your first assignment..” He turned back to the board and wrote. His movements sure and calm, giving away nothing of the sort of man he was, acting like a teacher.

And I knew he was acting, the man like him couldn’t be a mere teacher. He wasn’t meant to teach a lesson in English class. He was a man that looked like an angel and his aura was one of an angry God, like he graced this Earth to balance the scale. My eyes flickered to the board and my heart stalled. I looked at the three words written there—The First Kiss.

I gulped.

No fûcking way.

His expression was inscrutable, there was nothing on his face that would give me any impression of what he was thinking. He was like a mirror, only my own conflicting emotions reflecting back at me. “Your topic for the week. Come next Monday you’ll be submitting it to me. A journal entry about five hundred words. A short poem. A recollection of the event, how you felt.” I closed my eyes and imagined it. Me pressed against the wall, his body crowding mine. My clothes, askew. My top, half torn. I shivered with the memory and jerked my eyes open, when his next words came. “How you remember it now? How much you liked it? What you felt? You can write it any way you like, just be original.”

The bell rang then and students started to gather their things to get to another class. I watched as the girls quickly slipped their bags on their shoulders and tucked the loose hair behind the ears as they modelled down the rows of chairs and desks. Some of them even went straight to him. I didn't know what they were saying but it was clear in the way they leaned slightly closer to him or coyly smiled that they were trying to impress him. I didn't understand how couldn't they see the menace clear in his moss green eyes. How could they not see that terrifying shadows lurked behind that beautiful godlike façade. But then again, hadn't I lost myself in that gaze too? Hadn't I forgot the most furious of the looks just before he had claimed my lips with his own?

My fingers moved on their own accord to touch the said lips only for me to quickly straighten my hand and fist my fingers when Asher’s voice interrupted. “I’ll see you later.” With that and a soft kiss on my temple he was gone in a flash.

I looked around, shocked at myself that I was the only one standing in the empty class… except, of course, Valentina.

I grabbed my backpack and made my way through the seats, wanting to go straight out of the door. But, it wasn't possible. How could it be when it seemed that the two people who hated me for no reason that I knew of were there waiting for me.

“Here, she is. Lake!” Valentina called, a fake cheer in her voice, making me wince. I wondered if she had ever truly smiled.

As much as I wanted to scurry away and not face the two of them, a part of me that had recently decided that I would be strong in the face of any difficulty that came to me, didn't allow me to make a run for it. So I turned.

“Come on, I was just telling Mr Carter about your disability. I thought it'd be nice if he already knows how much difficult you find to write and read— the simple tasks that we all can do.” I gritted my teeth at the sly jab she took on me as she continued unfazed, “But, it's okay. I don't think he'll hold it against you.” She turned to him, all sweet and syrupy as she asked with her hand slightly touching his arm, “Would you, Mr Carter?”

My eyes met his, wanting to see what he thought of this new information about me. But he was already looking at me, I managed to hide my surprise when our gazes collided and waited for his reply. Finally, he said, “Of course not. It’d be my pleasure to teach her.”

The word pleasure and teach in the same sentence from him painted a dark picture, all the things that had never occurred to me before that faithful night, which I shouldn't even think about as he was my teacher now. My mouth dried as I watched those green eyes and he stared back at me— warning me away and tempting me in the same second. Without blinking and without looking at Tina, he said, “You must be getting late, Miss Sterling.”

Valentina looked startled for a fraction of a second, and I was surprised too because no one dismissed her like that. I watched as she pasted a smile on her perfect face and murmured her goodbye to him and a good luck to me. Bîtch.

I started to follow after her, wanting to make my escape with her, but the strong, rough fingers that clasped around my elbow stopped me. Froze me on the spot. It felt like roots had grown under my feet and even if I tried I won't be able to take a step away from him. I swallowed, took a second longer to lift my eyes to look at him and what I saw made me wince that I couldn't even hide. The pure hatred on his beautiful face and those eyes… I couldn't comprehend why. How could a person hate someone at first glance?

“Why are you here?” I asked, the question escaping without meaning to. But now when it was there, I was genuinely curious to know the answer.

His moss green eyes, like cool glass reflecting but not giving away what was going on behind them, roamed over my face. Cataloguing every small detail and I wondered if he found me lacking. I still have some of the plumpness, the baby fat in my cheeks. My chin wasn’t defined, my jawline not pronounced. Putting my insecurities aside because that's what Mrs Wilson had repeatedly told me to ignore, I knew deep down that I was pretty with my large grey eyes with just a tiny bit of blue ring visible in the left. My hair were long and as Asher called them, as dark as midnight. But all the things I learned in the last months, to accept myself, to be proud of what I am and to be happy with it— I forgot it all when he looked at me like that.

The silence stretched between us, unnerving me, and as I stood there so close to him but yet far away, I remembered the morning scent, like a thick fog during winters. He smelled of winter mornings, the suffocating yet enticing thick fog of the morning. I wanted to inhale more of it, to let my lungs fill with its crispiness and at the same time I was afraid to get a frost bite. I was scared to catch the cold.

“For you.” He said at last.

.

To Be Continued...

I know there must be questions, but they all will get answered, slowly...

Keep reading and be prepared for anything ;) (winky smile)