The Storm Series, page 27
“I could have retrieved your bags for you,” Phineas repeated, forcing me to have to address him or else look like a total asshole.
Steeling myself against that piercing green gaze of his, I turned to look up at him. “And deprive Roark from his need to take care of all the women in the world?” I said it teasingly, lest my apprehension show. “No way.”
Phineas’ eyes narrowed a bit. “I could have retrieved your bags for you,” he said again, giving me pause. “All you’d had to do was inform me that you were ready to depart.”
It was on the tip of my tongue to point out that he hadn’t been in bed this morning for me to ask for his help, but I wisely kept my mouth shut. Any reference to waking up alone this morning would make me seem like a groupie, and for all that Phineas Moore was gorgeous and great in bed, I wasn’t a groupie. I’d never be any man’s groupie.
So, instead, I just said, “Regardless of what Roark Storm likes to think, I can carry my own bags, Mr. Moore.” I grinned to keep up the pretense that this goodbye wasn’t bothering me. “In fact, most women can, though don’t let Roark know that.”
Phineas straightened to his full height, and it really was an impressive six-foot-three. It was crazy how agile he was on the snow when he was so big. “I told you to quit calling me that.”
My grin widened. “I know.”
Studying my face, almost as if he were trying to memorize it, he asked, “So, is that it? You’re leaving now?”
I nodded. “I’ve got a lot of stuff I need to do before the school year begins,” I answered evenly. “I need to get an early start.”
“Were you even going to say goodbye?” he asked, his voice a little darker than normal.
I arched a brow. “Because that’s something that you do regularly, Mr. Moore?”
“I suppose not,” he replied coolly before turning to rejoin Ripley and Junie in the kitchen, leaving me to add another mistake on the list of many, many, many mistakes that I’d made in my life.
Chapter 1
Sheridan – (Two Years Later)~
Unfortunately, it was a constant thing to remind myself of my paycheck. Teaching at a prestigious prep school paid incredibly well, so it was do this and bask in the life that it afforded me or go work in a public school district and be poor on top of annoyed all damn day long.
Now, that wasn’t to say that all the children that attended Seeland Prep Academy were spoiled, entitled, clueless, arrogant twits, because they weren’t. However, a good majority of the kids that attended the prestigious school had been born to assholes, and those assholes were raising more assholes, and it was a vicious cycle that really needed to end.
Still, it was the kids that weren’t complete degenerates that made my job feel rewarding at the end of it all. I taught freshman science, and some students were actually interested in what made lots of things possible in this world. While teaching really was a thankless job, I hadn’t gotten into this profession for pats on the back; I’d done it to make a difference.
Growing up in my household, my older sister and I had both been taught the importance of education. My father, Dennis Gates, was a college professor, and my mother, Naima Gates, was a biological engineer. Both of my parents were incredibly smart and driven, and their appreciation for educational challenges had only fed into the stereotypes of Asians and their assumed intelligence. Now, while my father was of Caucasian descent, my mother was of Japanese descent, making my sister, Darin, and I mixed, though that wasn’t a complaint in the least.
At any rate, education had always been a huge part of our household, and it showed. Darin was a twenty-nine-year-old college professor, and she was one of the most sought-after experts in Asian Studies. That incredible brain of hers had published its first book at the young age of twenty-two, and since then, four more books had been published. She was also single with no kids or pets to speak of, so all of her free time was spent filling her brain up with more and more stuff. Every time that Darin set her mind to do something, it was like watching a horse take off at the races, and she didn’t stop until she crossed the finish line.
Now, while I had a healthy appreciation for ambition, I hadn’t been bitten by that particular bug like the rest of my family. Even though I had always enjoyed school, I had no desire to be anything more than a simple teacher that worked at a regular school. Granted, I had lucked out when I’d gotten hired at Seeland, but I was pretty sure that I’d only gotten hired because of my last name and the academic reputation of my family. Nevertheless, I’d taken the job, and I was happy with my decision most days. It was only the start of the school year and the end of the school year that were hard to deal with at times. The kids always got excited or antsy, and with no real repercussions for their behavior, they usually acted like monsters.
Rich, privileged, entitled, smug, arrogant, condescending monsters.
Every year, I did my best to be positive, but I’d been doing this for three years already, and it was the same thing at the beginning of each school year. You had incoming freshman brats and outgoing senior bullies. Money really did corrupt, and the proof littered the hallways of Seeland Prep.
“Gotta love it when they’re hot.”
I turned to see two boys walking into my classroom, surprisingly early. With the exception of the few kids that cared about their education, most of the kids came running into class late during the first week of school. They were usually too busy catching up with their friends to make it to class on time. Still, with social media being what it was, what in the hell did they have to catch up on? With all the oversharing that was done on the internet, they should be all caught up with everything.
“Excuse me?” I replied primly, setting the tone for my class.
One of the boys shrugged. “Most of the teachers here are old and…well, old,” he said rudely. “It’s nice to see at least one hot teacher in the place.”
The boys were twins, and it was clear as day that they were going to be trouble. They were also both good-looking kids, and I’d bet my paycheck that they knew it. Plus, twins always seemed to be a weakness for teenage girls. Hell, if I were being honest, grown women also got weak in the knees for a set of good-looking twins. The one that had spoken also had a bit of an accent that I couldn’t quite place.
I stood up from my desk, trying to make my five-foot-one height as intimidating as possible. “Regardless of appearances or opinions, you will show every teacher here the respect that they deserve,” I insisted. “Believe me when I tell you that I do not care who your parents are, either.”
“And she’s spunky,” the second twin said, a dimple popping out with his grin.
Giving them a stern look, I asked, “What are your names?”
“I’m Cutter Moore,” the first twin answered. “He’s Cotter.”
While their first names were unusual, I couldn’t stop my heart from skipping a beat at hearing their last name. While there were thousands of Moores in the world, there was only one Phineas Moore, and I was still trying to forget how awkward things had been at the cabin this year. Luckily, the news of Bruce and Démon’s engagement had been enough to distract everyone from the obvious tension that’d been going on between me, Phineas, and my made-up boyfriend.
Getting back to the subject at hand, I eyed the twins to see if there was anything that could tell them apart, and there was a small scar on the apple of Cotter’s cheek that gave me the advantage. Regular twins had a tendency to be mischievous, so I could only imagine how out of control rich twins could be, and if these boys went to this school, then there was no doubt that they were rich.
“Well, young men, I expect you to behave in my class at all times,” I informed them. “If I hear you being rude or disrespecting any of the teachers here, I will hold you accountable.”
Cutter rolled his eyes. “We were just joking,” he harrumphed. “Relax.”
“Did you just not hear me?”
Cotter placed a hand on his brother’s shoulder. “C’mon,” he said. “It’s obvious that she doesn’t have a sense of humor.”
“At school, no, I don’t,” I agreed. “I’m not here to be your friend, gentlemen. I’m here as your teacher, and it’s my job to make sure that you don’t advance to your sophomore year more stupid than when you began your freshman year here.”
Cutter let out a laugh. “Damn, now who’s being rude?”
“You are officially my favorite teacher,” Cotter announced.
“And do not curse,” I added.
“What? Damn?” Cutter asked incredulously. “I’m I supposed to say darn?”
“You’re not supposed to say anything unless I call on you to speak,” I pointed out. “I run this classroom, and the sooner that you accept that, the easier things will be.”
“Yeah, you’re definitely my favorite teacher,” Cotter said, sending me a wink, making me wonder if Taco Bell was hiring.
Just then, other students started coming into the classroom, so I put this little showdown on pause to finally begin the school year. Unfortunately, I knew enough to know that Cutter and Cotter Moore weren’t going to be the worst of the lot this year. The sad fact was that the guys at Seeland Prep weren’t as bad as the girls. Take the snootiest girl that you’d ever met, then times her by a thousand, and that made up the majority of females that went to this school.
Surprisingly, the Moore twins ended up sitting in the front row, and I could only imagine why. They were also wrong about me not having a sense of humor, because I did have one. A good one, in fact. However, if I didn’t set boundaries and define roles immediately, then they’d let their lack of respect run rampant, and I wasn’t about to let that happen. Other teachers could run their classrooms however they wanted to, but in my classroom, I demanded respect from every single one of my students.
My phone chimed as my students got situated, and I quickly grabbed it before putting it away for the next forty minutes. Regardless of society’s accepted addiction to cellphones, my classroom had a ‘no phones’ policy, and it was non-negotiable. Being on the phone when another person was speaking was rude as hell, and no one could ever convince me otherwise.
Junie: Good luck on ur first day of school!
I smiled as I looked at the text before slipping it into my purse. I’d met Junie Storm in college, and she was still one of my closest friends. She had to be one of the most thoughtful people on the planet, and it was just like her to send me such a sweet text.
Once the bell rang, I stepped in front of my desk to introduce myself to my new class. “Hello, everyone,” I greeted. “I’m Ms. Gates, your homeroom science teacher.”
“Uhm, like how can your last name be Gates when your Asian or whatever,” a girl in the back drawled out in a bored tone, causing some snickers. “I know these things because our housekeeper is Asian, and her last name is Whu.”
She’s only fourteen, Sheridan.
I looked at the girl, really, really, really wondering if Taco Bell was hiring.
Chapter 2
Phineas~
I listened to my father’s voicemail, then quickly deleted it. He still liked to believe that he could tell me what to do because his last name was so powerful, but I stopped letting the man tell me what to do when I cashed my first check from snowboarding.
Phineas Moore the Second owned Moore Industries, and he had enough money to be golfing buddies with kings and diplomats all around the world. My father dealt in renewable resources, but he’d never been in it to change the world. Phineas Moore was as ruthless as they came, and I couldn’t recall a time when he’d ever apologized for it, not even when my mother had passed on.
Much to my father’s dismay, my mother, Rita Moore, hadn’t fallen into the role of trophy wife quite like he would have liked. Though my memories of her were few, what I could remember was that of a loving, kind, attentive mother. Every picture that I had of her or of us together, she’d been just as happy or as dirty as I’d been. Beautiful in every way, I could remember feeling safe with her. I could also remember being a devastated six-year-old when she’d been taken from me. A drunk driver had run a stop sign and had changed my life forever.
Now, while I’d been trying to understand it all, trying to understand why my mother was never coming back, my father had already been scouting for his next wife, and he’d found her. Not a year later, my father had married Candy Swartzman, and I’d been left to the housekeepers, maids, cooks, and gardeners to raise. Then, at the ripe old age of thirteen, Candy had gotten pregnant, and I’d been sent off to boarding school, my father pretty much washing his hands of me.
Now the upside to being raised by the help was that I’d learned quite a bit of life lessons from them. I had also learned how to speak German, Spanish, Japanese, and Italian, giving me a weird kind of accent that didn’t really exist anywhere else in the world. Though I sounded fluent when speaking any of those languages, my English had been bastardized, but I didn’t mind. Growing up the way that I’d had, I liked having something that was all mine, and my dialect was definitely something that was all mine. Well, that along with any mental or emotional issues that Phineas had plagued me with.
In hindsight, him shipping me off to boarding school had ended up being the best thing to ever happen to me. He’d sent me to Candlestone Preparatory Academy in Maine, and that’s when I had fallen in love with snowboarding. It had started out as just something to do, but then had quickly turned into my only passion in life. Well, apart from the female species. My teenage years had been eventful ones, considering that Candlestone had been co-ed and there’d been lots of girls that had been mad at their parents for shipping them off to the middle of nowhere. Nothing was wilder than a teenage girl pissed off at her parents, and my teenage dick had never been so grateful.
At any rate, my teenage hormones aside, snowboarding had ended up taking over my life, and my natural skill had turned me into one of the best around. Of course, my father hadn’t wanted to hear any of it, so I’d done the whole college thing, though I’d done it as more of a backup plan for my life than to satisfy my father. After all, Candy had given him two additional sons to take over the family business one day, so he hadn’t needed my compliance as much as he’d had before.
“You better make this right, Phineas.”
Despite him being an awful parent, and his current wife being a gold-digging nincompoop, I liked my younger brothers. After all, it wasn’t their fault that Phineas had left me with the hired help while they’d been half-assed raised by the mother that they still had. Yeah, if given the choice, Candy would rather be shopping than raising my brothers, but she was still around, and that was more than I could say for my father. It was also no secret that he cheated on her like STDs didn’t exist, but as long as Candy had access to his bank accounts, she really didn’t seem to care, and for the most part, neither did I.
However, Candy and Phineas had chosen not to send their sons off to boarding school, so they were subjected to any gossip that went around about their parents, and I hated that for them. I also didn’t want them thinking that cheating on your wife was the acceptable thing to do. As far as I knew, Phineas had been faithful to my mother, but I’d been six when she had passed, so what could I really know about their marriage?
Now, while I had no problem with spreading the love around if you were single, I believed in loyalty if you weren’t. Granted, with my track record and reputation, no one would believe that I felt that way, but I did. Despite my father’s marriage, I believed in commitment. Or maybe it was in spite of it. I just knew that I’d never want a marriage like my father’s, and I definitely had no desire to follow in his footsteps, business or otherwise.
So, regardless of how I’d been not raised, I didn’t resent my younger siblings or have a strained relationship with them. Like most teenagers, they thought it was cool that I was a professional snowboarder, and they bragged about that fact every chance that they got. There was only one thing that annoyed me about them, and that was their names. Candy, being the flighty bimbo that she was, she’d chosen to name them Cotter and Cutter, and my father hadn’t cared since he’d already gotten his Phineas Moore the Third with me.
“You better make this right, Phineas.”
The twins went to Seeland Prep Academy in Quince, Virginia, and I’d always done my best to see them before the new school year started. However, this year, instead of making time for them like a good older brother, I’d gone to Ripley’s cabin for Roark’s annual friendship reunion, and I seriously would have been better off visiting my brothers.
Two years ago, Ripley had gotten himself into a fine bit of a pickle with Junie Baylor, and as his best friend, I’d gone to give him some moral support. Though Roark had been there, Roark was a bit of an enigma with his views on women, so it hadn’t been shocking to anyone that he’d been on Junie’s side. So, in an attempt to keep Ripley from screwing the pooch, I’d gone to offer my help like the good man and friend that I was.
However, my good intentions had definitely paved the road to Hell when I’d met Sheridan Gates that weekend. Used to beautiful women, it hadn’t been her stunning looks that had rendered me stupid upon meeting her, it’d been all that attitude that’d been packed inside her tiny five-foot-one frame.
At any rate, we’d ended up in bed together, and while I’d been falling in love, she’d been just using me for a good time, and karma really was an unfeeling bitch when she finally made an appearance. I’d spent all of my life insisting on one-night stands only, not eager to settle down or have random children scattered about, and the one time that I’d wanted more, Sheridan had gone about her business on our last day at the cabin, not even asking for my number. She’d given me the cold shoulder on our final morning together, and short of causing a scene, I’d had no choice but to let her go.
The following year, I hadn’t been able to invite myself because Candy and my father had chosen to attend some foreign diplomat’s daughter’s wedding, instead of getting my brothers ready for school, leaving me to take care of all their parental obligations. At the time, I hadn’t minded much. That year had been a brutal one with all the up-and-coming snowboarding talent, so I had entered more competitions than I normally did. As a result, I hadn’t seen my brothers much that year, so it’d been easy to choose them over visiting the cabin, though I’d made it up for the day to see Ripley finally propose to Junie.
