Art teacher Stone Larrabee dreads parent/teacher conferences. One following Christmas break becomes especially awkward, when a man with whom he shared a hot anonymous hookup and a nasty argument afterward walks in. Edison Watts.<br><br>The moment they’re reunited, sexual sparks reignite. Too many conflicts force Stone to decree there can never be anything between them but the one night, though, even as fate keeps throwing them together throughout the school year, and developing feelings become hard to ignore.<br><br>Some problems are easily solved while others, including the reason for Edison’s initial attraction to Stone and the chip on Edison’s shoulder bigger than the high school’s football field, prove more difficult. Stone can teach, but he decides must also be willing to learn and grow. When Edison promises to do the same, can they find a way to make one and one equal two?

Substitute Teacher

“I also thank God Sonny has great teachers, teachers like you.” Edison hopped up suddenly. “I want to do something.”


“A lot of things, but I’ll settle for this. Take your shirt off.”


“Come on.” Edison was rooting through his bag. “Get up and do it,” he added, when he’d found what he was after.


“For?” Stone rose, but the shirt stayed on.


“I want to paint on you.” A tube of toothpaste, apparently, was to be the paint. “Look. Green.”


“And hopeful. Take your shirt off.” Edison started to do it. “Be my canvas.”


“If I’m lucky, you won’t…not anymore.”


The finished product was 1+1=Us, much easier to read in the bathroom mirror than it was looking down, even if it did show up backwards.


“That’s what I want,” Edison said. His arms wrapped around Stone’s bare middle from behind, he still had Stone’s shirt. “That’s what I hope.”


Chapter 29