Updated Apr 8, 2026 • ~4 min read
Chapter 12: Eight Months
Sienna
Two weeks after Back-to-School Night, Sienna sits in her empty classroom after hours, waiting for Jace.
Parent-teacher conference. Required. Professional.
She’s told herself this a hundred times.
Her hands are still shaking.
She hears footsteps in the hallway, and her heart POUNDS. The door opens, and Jace walks in—suit from work, tie loosened, looking as exhausted as she feels.
“Hi,” he says.
“Hi. Thank you for coming.”
“Of course.”
He sits in the small chair across from her desk—the same chair he sat in two weeks ago when their world fell apart. This time, there are no other parents. No interruptions.
Just them.
And the TENSION is suffocating.
“So,” Sienna says, pulling out Harper’s folder with hands that won’t stop trembling. “Harper’s doing well overall. Her reading comprehension has improved significantly—”
“Sienna.”
She stops. Looks up.
His eyes are dark. Intense. Fixed on her like she’s the only thing in the room.
“Don’t,” she whispers. “Please. Let’s just… keep this professional.”
“I can’t stop thinking about you.”
The words land like a bomb.
“Jace—”
“I’ve tried. For two weeks, I’ve tried. But every time I see you at pickup. Every time Harper mentions you. Every NIGHT when I close my eyes—”
“Stop.” Her voice cracks. “You have to stop.”
“Why?”
“Because we CAN’T do this! I could lose my job. You could—Harper needs stability. She needs ME as her teacher. And we can’t give her that if we—”
“If we what? If we’re honest about how we feel?”
“Yes!”
They stare at each other across the desk.
“I should go,” Jace says finally, standing. “This was a mistake.”
Relief and disappointment crash through her simultaneously.
He walks to the door. His hand is on the handle.
And then he stops.
Turns around.
“Fuck it,” he mutters.
He crosses the room in three strides, cups her face, and KISSES her.
And oh god.
OH GOD.
Sienna gasps against his mouth, and he takes advantage—deepening the kiss, pulling her closer, weeks of want and frustration pouring into this ONE moment.
She should push him away. Should stop this. Should think about her JOB and Harper and every reason this is WRONG.
But instead, she fists her hands in his shirt and kisses him BACK.
Desperate. Hungry. FINALLY.
He lifts her onto the desk, steps between her legs, and the kiss turns molten. His hands slide into her hair. Her hands roam his chest, his shoulders, everywhere she can reach.
“God, I’ve missed you,” he breathes against her mouth.
“We can’t—” Kiss. “—do this—” Kiss. “—Jace—”
He pulls back, both of them panting.
“This is wrong,” Sienna whispers.
“I don’t care.”
“I CARE. Harper is my student. She’s TEN YEARS OLD. She needs stability, not her teacher sleeping with her dad—”
“I’m not asking you to sleep with me. I’m asking you to—” He stops. “What AM I asking?”
“I don’t know.”
They’re still standing too close. His hands are still on her waist. Her heart is still racing.
“You’re right,” he says quietly, stepping back. “This won’t happen again. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t apologize.”
“I crossed a line—”
“We BOTH crossed a line.” She slides off the desk, smoothing her skirt with shaking hands. “But it can’t happen again. Not until… not until she’s not my student anymore.”
“That’s eight months away.”
“I know.”
“Sienna—”
“Please. Just go. Before I do something stupid like ask you to stay.”
He looks at her for one long, agonizing moment.
Then he leaves.
And Sienna collapses into her chair and puts her head in her hands.
That kiss.
That PERFECT, devastating, impossible kiss.
She’s ruined. Absolutely ruined.
And she has eight months to survive.
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