The minute I saw You | Teacher-Student romance | BWWM

Chapter Nine | Talia

Magnificent. That was the first word to come to mind as Nick pulls to a stop in front of the most beautiful house I'd ever seen. It's a white two story beach house with a wrap around porch.

I shut the door behind me as I step out of Nick's car, making sure to keep my eyes on the house, almost afraid that if I looked away it would disappear.

"Nick, where are we?" I ask again, since the first few times I asked him in the car he ignored me.

"You like it?" He responds instead.

"Of course. It's stunning."

Nick smiles. "You should see the inside." He starts towards the steps.

I don't move. "I'm not going inside until you tell me who's house this is."

"It's uh... it's mine. Well one of them at least." Nick admits sheepishly.

"You own two houses?" I stare at him agape.

"Yeah..."

"Well that's the richest thing I've ever heard you say." I tease.

"Can I show you inside? I promise it's just as beautiful as the outside." Nick encourages.

I realize that I may never see a house as beautiful as this ever again and honestly I was curious to see what the inside looks like, so I followed Nick without any more argument.

The inside is easily just as stunning as the outside. The interior is fully furnished with a white, teal, and tan color scheme. There's a fireplace and stairs that lead to the second floor. It's everything I would imagine a beach house would look like.

"It's beautiful Nick." I say in awe, running my fingers across the egg white couch.

"Thank you," Nick smiles. But as much as I would like to take credit for all of this, I can't. Caitlin actually helped decorate the place." Nick admits.

"So your sister has great taste in more than just clothes." I say.

"I'll tell her you said that." Nick chuckles.

As gorgeous as this place is, it doesn't explain why we're here.

"What are we doing here Nick?"

"Well there's no way in hell I'm letting you go back to your apartment and I know you don't have anywhere else to stay, so I thought it would be a good idea if you stayed here." Nick tells me.

"You want me to stay here? As in your house?" I ask, needing to make sure I'm hearing him correctly.

"I know it's crazy-" Nick starts to say but I don't let him finish.

"It's more than crazy, Nick. It's insane. I can't stay here." I shake my head.

"Yes you can. No one else knows about this place except my family, it's not too far away from the school and you'd have this place all to yourself until graduation." Nick explains.

"You want to give me your house?"

"You can think of it as subletting if it makes you feel better." Nick says.

"And what do you get out of this?" I ask him.

"What do you mean? Other than a peace of mind knowing that you're safe and far away from that hellhole you called home? Nothing. Why is it so hard to believe that I want to do something nice for you?"

"Because where I come from people don't do anything nice for anyone without strings attached."

"There are no strings attached, I promise." Nick tells me. "This is big, I know that. Not to mention I can get into all kinds of trouble, but I need you to be safe Talia. Can you please let me keep you safe?"