Thief of Hearts Read Online Free Page A

her things and heading out to the canteen for food.
    “Stu, can I have a word?” I asked as he rose from his seat. He stared me down for a long moment, then nodded.
    “Course you can, Miss Anderson,” he said, the hint of a smirk on his lips. Oh my effing gee. He was doing it again.
    “Thank you,” I responded, closing my laptop as I waited for the last of the students to leave. When they were gone and only Stu and I remained, a quiet descended. My stupid dry mouth got the best of me, and I couldn’t seem to find any words. Stu just stood there staring, waiting for whatever it was I wanted to say to him. His eyes traced my form and I grew stiff, especially when his eyes landed on my ring finger. His attention lingered there for a long moment in something akin to confusion, but I didn’t really understand why. Finally, I broke the quiet.
    “You were twenty minutes late this morning.”
    Stu raked a hand over the light stubble on his jaw. “That a problem?”
    I cleared my throat. “Yes. Please make sure that it doesn’t happen again.”
    “Will do. Is that all?”
    “No,” I blurted.
    His gaze went to my wedding ring again, before moving up to my lips and then my eyes. I rubbed my palms on my trousers. Stu took a step closer, and the fact that he was standing over me while I was still seated made me feel at a disadvantage.
    “What then?”
    “You need to do the work I give you, otherwise there’s no point in you being here.”
    He let out sigh now, like he finally understood my irritation. “You’re pissed that I didn’t read the book.”
    “I’m not pissed . My job is to teach you, Stu. It’s my passion, and if I can’t help a student fulfil all their potential then there’s no sense in either one of us wasting our time. But look, I understand all this must be a big change for you. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, just tell me and we’ll take it slow. However, if you don’t want to learn then I’m not going to force you.”
    Stu stared at me for a long moment before a small smile graced his lips.
    “You know, this is the first time a woman has ever offered to take things slow with me.” He tilted his head, his smile turning flirtatious, and I really didn’t get why he was trying to avoid being serious. I wasn’t there to berate him and I only had his and the other students’ best interests at heart. Like I said before, one bad egg could spoil the lot.
    “You don’t have to deflect. There’s no judgement here.”
    Now he bent to lean his hands on my desk and look me directly in the eye. “I’m not deflecting, Miss Anderson, I’m flirting.”
    His voice was low and purposefully husky. I fought the urge to roll my eyes. It just felt stereotypical for the young worldly male student to use his wiles to flatter the plain, bookish teacher. Little did Stu know, I was impervious to wiles, nor did I have any real interest in the opposite sex. I hadn’t been interested in anyone since Mark, and I couldn’t imagine that changing. He had been my world. Irreplaceable.
    But you did feel attracted to Stu when he first arrived, a little voice in my head piped up.
    And yes, okay, that was technically true, but I put it down to being female, and Stu Cross was the sort of man all women reacted to, whether they were teenage girls or eighty-year-old grandmothers. He had sex appeal; it was as simple as that. Luckily, I was more or less unsusceptible to sex appeal. Sure, he gave me vague stirrings, but I wasn’t the sort of woman who dropped her knickers for vagueness.
    I let out a soft chuckle. “Here’s a life lesson for you, Stu. And I say this with absolutely no malice or hard feelings. The combination of young and female in a teacher does not equal naïve. Pretend flirting with me isn’t going to help you pass. What will help you pass is working with me, participating in class, and arriving on time in the mornings. I’ll always be respectful toward you, and I hope you’ll be respectful to me in