Unwanted. A word eighteen-year-old Kaelyn Jefferies knows better than most. Given up at birth, she knows nothing of love. Now she navigates this world blind, worrying only about her present to survive. And sometimes when you’re the only guide you have, you don’t always do what’s best for yourself.

After another confrontation with her bully, Kaelyn flees to her hiding spot to be alone and nurse her wounds. Instead, she finds Julian Ean, the gorgeous twenty-four-year-old calculus teacher the other girls whisper about, nursing a few of his own. Until that moment, Mr. Ean was simply a man she passed in the halls. Afterwards, he is impossible to ignore … to forget.

Mr. Ean only wanted to help Kaelyn. Patch her up and show her she was worth so much more than she was giving herself. He didn’t mean to fall in love with a student. It’s wrong, he knows it, but he can’t help himself around her. Not when her pain feels like his.

Kaelyn didn’t mean to fall in love with a teacher. It’s wrong, she knows it, but after Mr. Ean shows her what a real smile feels like, there’s no going back after that …

Book one in the Teaching Love Series, comes a poignant coming-of-age novel showcasing the beauty of strength and the delicious lure of forbidden love by Shana Vanterpool.

He takes a seat at the bar and stares at me with a myriad of emotions on his face. I can’t place them because I don’t know why they’re there. But I’ve felt a few. Sadness isn’t simply one emotion. It’s too many all at once.

 

“I’m sorry about that. You just got a front row seat to the end of my relationship and you shouldn’t have.”

 

 

I peek at him. “Is she your girlfriend?”

 

 

“Since freshman year of college.” He looks at the worn bar top for an uncomfortable second, and then the words seem to fall out of him in one heartbroken whisper. “I don’t know what to do.”

 

 

I look down too, not knowing what to say. Having no relationship to speak of, I don’t know what he’s going through.

 

 

He exhales deeply and stands. “I’d better get back.” He smiles weakly, leaving me at the bar.

 

 

“Who is that?” Tamryn asks, joining me as I watch him leave.

 

 

“Mr. Ean. He’s a teacher at my school.”

 

 

Her eyes widen. “He’s so young.”

 

 

“He’s twenty-four.”

 

 

“Huh. He’s so hot,” she murmurs, dumbfounded.

 

 

I smile. “He is kind of good-looking.”

 

 

“Kind of?” she scoffs. “Who’s he with?”

 

 

“His girlfriend.”

 

 

“Oh. Of course, he’s taken. Too old for you and taken for me. We can’t catch a break, can we?” She bumps my shoulder. “Get back to work, slacker.”

 

 

He wasn’t that much older than me. I do the math, shocked to find maybe six years is a stretch. Coupled with the fact that he’s a teacher, and the man is completely off-limits.

Romance author, coffee drinker, and bad boy aficionado. Every second not spent breathing is an opportunity to write and read. I live in Northern California with my family and actress dog, Halle Bella. (Just Bella when she decides to cut the crap.) Escaping with a good book is something I live for and I write so others can do the same.