The Teacher: A shocking and compelling new crime thriller – NOT for the faint-hearted! - Katerina Diamond

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ambled through the large double doors. Parker smiled, more comfortable with Abbey’s awkward stare than he had been with Gemma’s overfamiliarity, he could sense Gemma sneering as he walked over and took Abbey’s heavy bag before following her in silence through the unlit passageway to the area they needed to be in for today. As he walked beside her he watched her face. She was focused.

      ‘If you start in that corner then I can get on with these guys today,’ she said, he felt like she was fobbing him off.

      ‘Can I ask you for a small favour?’

      ‘OK.’ She turned and faced him with a no-nonsense stance. Abbey was a no-nonsense girl, he wondered what she considered fun.

      ‘It’s a strange request, considering we’ve not known each other very long, but I need to ask you if you could look after Sally next weekend. I have a family thing to take care of and I don’t like putting her in kennels. The address is on the key fob, you may as well take it now while I remember.’ He handed her a key to his place. She just stared at his hand but he continued to hold the key out, unwavering. ‘Just put some food in her bowl and take her for a walk, if you don’t mind.’

      ‘Oh …’

      ‘I wouldn’t ask but I don’t know anyone else around here any more, and Sally really likes you … I like you … I mean, I trust you with Sally.’ He felt stupid saying it, knowing also that now was not the right time to attempt one of his disingenuous smiles, he knew she could see through all of that. Abbey blushed again and took the key from him. Her hand brushed against his and he was surprised at how warm her skin was. She snatched it away self-consciously as he kept his eyes on her. Parker didn’t feel the same need to be normal with her as he did with everyone else, he didn’t feel the need for fake smiles and he didn’t feel the need to speak when she was silent. He had noticed it more and more since they had first met; his ever decreasing need to be false with her. In fact, anything other than honesty was becoming hard. In all the scenarios he had imagined when he returned to this city, a genuine connection wasn’t in one of them. He hadn’t planned for this.

      ‘We had better get on with it, they want this room cleared in a couple of weeks ready to redecorate it for the centenary celebrations,’ she interrupted his thoughts.

      She scuttled off to her corner of the room, stuffing his keys into her back pocket. He took that to mean she accepted his request.

      Parker could make women fall for him, it was possibly because he was clever, women like that, but he was also good-looking in an awkward way. He had no interest in relationships. He was often more comfortable spending time with women because he was not the average man. Comfortable was maybe the wrong word, a little strong for the way anyone made him feel. The only time Parker couldn’t get a woman to fall for him was when he actually liked the girl in question, not a situation that arose often. He had the gift of manipulation, something he had watched people around him possess as he had grown up. He had made a promise to himself, though, that he would only use it when he absolutely had to, he didn’t want to become like the people who had influenced him the most. He had seen those people lie and lie again to get what they wanted, no matter who they hurt. No, he wouldn’t indulge the part of him that wanted to deceive, manipulate and corrupt; he wanted to be better than that, he wanted to be good. He seemed to repel the women that fascinated him, maybe because he was trying to flirt, not something he was good at. He knew his ham-fisted attempts at light humour were never received in the spirit he intended them to be. The girls he had known before had all wanted to fix him and so he pushed them away, knowing full well that he was unfixable. Also he noticed something all the girls he liked had in common: they were good, too good for him. He always thought too much of them to inflict himself on them. That was his ‘type’, a girl he could never allow himself to be with. He put it down to his innate desperation to sabotage any chance for happiness he might be able to grab on to in the future. His past had been so dark, so unthinkably bleak that sometimes he thought he felt more comfortable in situations where there was absolutely no hope.

       Chapter 8

       The Host

       Then

      The door was already open when their cab pulled up to the house. A girl Abbey recognised was puking in the shrubbery of the house next door and she could see a couple of other people from her course fumbling with each other in the side alley, so undignified. Abbey imagined herself and Christian locked in the same embrace and suddenly it took on a whole new appeal.

      She could feel the pit of her stomach humming with excitement as they walked in. The vibrations of the music thumped through her lower body and added to the rising anticipation. She scanned every corner of every room as they walked through. Everyone greeting Dani as they went by and she got sucked into conversation with some other girls, and Abbey continued through alone. For the first time she noticed eyes on her, not mocking or derisive but hungry and lustful. So this is what it feels like. It wasn’t long before a drink was planted in Abbey’s hand. She drank it with the confidence of someone who could handle alcohol far better than she could. Tonight was not the night to be Abbey, where was the fun in that? Tonight she was going to be better. Stop holding yourself back and enjoy it! She had always been well aware that her self-esteem issues were of her own creation. Being raised by a single father, she was never quite sure of the social etiquettes a girl should adhere to, just mostly guessing and copying had got her through this far.

      She walked out into the garden to the sound of Katy Perry’s ‘Firework’, fairy lights hung from the trees and willow fences, twinkling, magical. Her butterflies were worse than ever and as a small crowd parted she caught sight of Christian. She felt like she was in a movie. She took a deep breath and made her way towards him, praying he would see her before he saw Danielle. Jamie actually saw her first and whispered something to Christian who turned around. She could feel his eyes moving up and down her body as she pretended not to have seen them yet.

      ‘Glad you could make it’ He smiled as she approached and she saw something she hadn’t ever seen before, excitement, lust. He had finally noticed her as a woman, she felt his gaze lingering on her breasts as she smiled at Jamie who seemed to be smiling back. It occurred to Abbey that she had never seen Jamie smile before and she was glad for that fact because it wasn’t a comfortable smile, it was awkward and forced. She shook off the creepy feeling he gave her and turned her attention back to Christian, who was still trying to look like he wasn’t checking her out. He was waiting for her to turn her back to him, she could feel it, he must have seen Dani in this dress before so he knew what to expect. Who knew a plunging backline could cause as much trouble as a low-cut top? She wickedly bit her lip as she walked to the punch bowl, feeling his eyes on her for the duration, her skin prickled and tingled at the idea of what he might be thinking about her right now. She thought about his lips on the small of her back and blushed to herself as she quickly necked another drink.

      Four glasses of punch later and she was laughing freely. Why had she hidden in the background for all those years? The attention she was getting felt deserved. Tonight she was pretty. She could almost smell the hunger on the boys who were chatting to her, flattery in spades. Tonight everyone wanted what she had. Before long she was sitting on the sofa huddled between three boys from the cricket team, downing shots of tequila, she didn’t much care for it but she was enjoying the party too much to suddenly be the sensible one again. Dani sat across from her, clearly happy with the reception her protégée was receiving.

      ‘Come on, Abs, let’s do it another way,’ Dani called as she saw Abbey screw her face up at the offer of another tequila. The boys watched eagerly as Dani swept her hair to one side exposing her neck, she licked the palm of her hand and dragged it down leaving it glistening wet, and then she poured the salt on to herself. She was poised as though she were ready to be taken by a vampire. Abbey leaned over the table, only slightly concerned that her dress was far too short for this position and glad that she hadn’t taken Dani’s advice of wearing a thong. With one knee on the coffee table Abbey pressed her tongue against Dani’s neck sweeping

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