Page 1 of The Cheerleader is Off Limits

RIVER

Unlike my more responsible and settled older brother, I’ve always been considered the life of the party.

Of course, women have used other words to describe me.

Player. Womanizer. Heartbreaker.

But I’m ready for a change.

I’m ready to settle down.

I want more than the random nights with faceless women who are too young for me.

That is until I meet the charming, gorgeous twenty-one year old woman on my flight home.

Our connection is instant.

The tension is undeniable.

And I find myself ignoring all of my prior convictions for a few weeks of fun before she heads off for college.

Sure, I want to settle down, but nothing is wrong with some harmless fun in the meantime, right?

SLOANE

Okay, so I lied to the hot guy from the airport about my age.

I’m nineteen, not twenty-one.

And about what I’m doing here in the States after traveling with my family for the past decade.

So, essentially everything.

But he’ll never know.

It’ll just be a fun fling before I start my senior year of high school.

And sure, he’s a high school teacher, but that would be a ridiculous coincidence… right?

PROLOGUE

RIVER

I am so FUCKED.

I close the door of my office that I share with the two other biology teachers that thankfully are both in class with more force than I intend. I feel myself brimming with anger, fear, and anxiety, my hands shaking as I make my way to my desk.

Is this a panic attack?

An anxiety attack?

Are those the same things?

I get up from my desk and begin to pace the length of the office in an attempt to calm my racing heart. I try to take deep breaths between steps, but with every step comes feelings of dread that I’m either about to lose my job or end up in jail.

Or both.

No, I can’t go to jail. I didn’t know she’d be a student.