Read Online Dear Sir, I'm Yours by Joely Sue Burkhart - Free Book Online Page A

weekly crowd ranging from a handful to sometimes dozens of students showed up.
    Mason looked rather rough this morning with bloodshot eyes and shadowed jaws. Yet he pushed Conn just as hard, and he felt another bead of sweat roll down his face.
    Grunting with effort, Mason caught a solid blow on his sword. “You’re awfully chipper this morning.”
    “I ought to be.” Conn parried again, lunging forward to push his friend to the side to avoid backing him into a pile of horse dung, one of the downsides to practicing here. “I found Rae.”
    Mason whistled. “The student who drove Dr. Perfect to—”

    Grimly, Conn slammed several powerful blows, preventing his friend’s jibe. Breathing hard, Mason finally signaled a pause, with a few cheers from the watching crowd. Dripping sweat, Conn retrieved his water bottle and slugged half of it. “She was married.”
    “Ah. I thought you were rather enthusiastic this morning.”
    “Not only was she married, but I think—” Rage pulsed through Conn as strong as ever.
    It’s a good thing he’d sworn off beating the shit out of people many years ago, because if he ever laid eyes on Rae’s ex-husband, he’d be tempted to put Dick six feet below ground. The hospital was too good for that asshole.
    Not good, not good at all. He couldn’t afford to lose control like this. He’d hoped to burn off some of this tension this morning, but the sword work had hardly put a dent in his rage.
    “He abused her. I don’t know how much or how bad, but it was enough to make her divorce him. For her, I know what a difficult decision that must have been. Rae’s not a quitter and she takes her word seriously. It must have killed her to finally call it quits.”
    “She quit on you.”
    “No, that’s not fair. She had no relationship with me other than as my student, which I violated. She was right to leave. God only knows what I might have done, how I might have hurt her, if I—” Some things he couldn’t even tell his best friend. He turned away, the guilt as fresh and raw as an open wound. “It was my fault, Mason.”
    “And now that she’s back, what are you going to do? She’s already tying you up in a quantum knot.”
    Conn laughed, jagged and harsh but amused, too. His friend didn’t know the half of it.
    “That’s what you’re for. I need to drill hard every single day for the next week or so, if you’re up for it.”
    Groaning, Mason flopped down on a bench. “How early?”
    “Early. Unless you’re too hung-over.”
    “Give me a break, Conn. You know what this weekend is.”
    The three-year anniversary of the death of Mason’s state-patrol wife. “Are you holding up okay?”
    Mason shrugged and didn’t meet his gaze. “Sure. Last night I had mid-terms to grade and so I stayed out a bit longer than usual.”
    “No wonder you needed a few drinks. I never understood calculus unless I was three sheets to the wind.”
    His friend laughed, but it sounded forced to Conn’s ears. “So how’d you find your missing student after all these years?”

    “I didn’t. Miss Belle tracked her down.” And boy would there be hell to pay when Rae found out the extent of how she’d been set up.
    “I never want to end up on that lady’s bad side. So where’s your student been hiding out?”
    Conn stuffed their practice swords in a big duffel bag and slung it over his shoulder.
    Together, they walked out to his car where he stowed the bag in the trunk. “You know, I never found out where she’s been.”
    He’d tried to block out the image of her living with another man, sharing another man’s house and bed. If she’d been living in Springfield all this time with another man, he’d try to gut himself with that dull wooden sword. How many nights had he jerked awake with her name on his lips after dreaming of seeing her on the street, at the grocery store, on campus?
    “Too busy getting into her pants to find out where she lived?”
    Firmly, Conn slammed the door shut