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She ran a hand back and forth across my smooth, bare desktop suggestively. "A little cold, but I bet we could warm it up."

"Look, I appreciate you're in the mood, but we really shouldn't. How's it going to look if Officer Barbour is standing watch outside my room all the time?"

"She watches the halls, like, constantly. Not as if the woman needs to stand right outside your door. And 'all the time,' really? We have barely twenty-four hours left in the school year. She'd have to stand right outside your room for all of them for it to seem weird to anybody."

"Tabitha..."

"Look. I'm not trying to pressure you, Mr. Canon. You can say no and it won't hurt my feelings." Her button nose wrinkled momentarily. "Not much, anyway. But I'd like to, and I think you would like it, too, if you let yourself."

My star pupil rose from her desk and gracefully spun around the back of it to position herself on the edge of my desk. In doing so, she confirmed that she definitely was not wearing any panti