A Forbidden Relationship

By Melissa Castello

She became his obsession from the first day he saw her.
He became her forbidden temptation from the first time he kissed her.

Melody is a twenty-three-year-old girl who has just graduated with top marks and dreams of becoming a high school teacher. However, she is opposed by her own parents who see her as too frail, petite and with a face so angelic that she looks more like a doll than a hound capable of gaining respect from students a few years younger than her. After constant fights with her father, Melody finally gets a teaching job at a high school quite different from the prestigious and respectable schools she is used to. The situation in front of her would be difficult to deal with and the only support she seemed to have found in a colleague, Shane Mallory, would eventually turn out to be a big mistake because that young man is none other than one of the worst students in the school. Embarrassed by that misunderstanding, she finds herself overwhelmed by the interest of the young man, who immediately nurtures a real obsession for her, so much so that he behaves in a compromising manner for Melody and ruins all the young girl's good intentions. Between stolen kisses, unconfessed declarations of love and secret late-night meetings, will Melody succeed in putting a barrier between them? Or will Shane succeed in making Melody his own?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tektime
• Release date: Dec 12, 2023
• ISBN: 9788835459491

Book preview

Table of Contents

A FORBIDDEN RELATIONSHIP

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

Epilogue

A FORBIDDEN RELATIONSHIP

Melissa Castello

She became his obsession

from the first day he saw her.

He became her forbidden temptation

from the first time he kissed her.

©2023 Melissa Castello

Publisher: Tektime

Translator (ita > eng): LRizzi-Erneste

Cover: Graphic design by Elisa Zurzolo | Stock: Adobe.com

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or disseminated by any means, photocopying, microfilming or otherwise, without permission of the author. This book is a work of fiction. Characters and places mentioned are inventions of the author and are intended to lend veracity to the narrative. Any analogies with facts, places and persons, living or dead, are entirely coincidental.

1

«Melody, don't you realise what you're saying!» exploded my father as was customary whenever my future professional plans were discussed.

«Dad, please. Try to understand me! I want to be a teacher. I have wanted to teach since my first day at school. I love teaching! I just wish I could do what I feel in my heart and have your support» I pleaded with him, trying to curb the anger that clouded my mind every time I faced his wall of disapproval.

«Yes, but not a high school teacher! Melody, you are too young and inexperienced for the adolescent world of high schoolers.»

«I may be young, but I'm certainly not inexperienced since I've always been top of the class. I graduated from Cornell University on scholarship, in just four years and coming out with a Summa Cum Laude.»

«Honey, your father doesn't question your scholastic achievement. You have always given us great satisfaction and since your father is the headmaster of the most prestigious high school in New York, the very one you attended, we are obviously extremely proud of you. However...» my mother intervened with her usual peacemaker attitude. «Melody, you remain a very sweet and talented girl but not very suitable for such a role.»

«Why?» I blurted out offended.

«And do you even have to ask?» my enraged father interjected again. «Melody, look at you! You are the picture of the helpless maiden. Certainly not of a hound ready to be respected by boys with raging hormones and capable of physically overpowering you without the slightest difficulty.»

«I am capable of defending myself!»

«We don't question that, darling, but you must recognise that your angelic face would be better suited in a kindergarten. Even your meagre height doesn't help you. Not to mention that you're only twenty-three years old... not much more than a high school senior» my mother joined in cautiously, trying to hint a good-natured smile to calm me down.

I bit my lower lip in nervousness. My mother was right, unfortunately. My one hundred and fifty-five centimetres of height had made me pass several times for a girl from the middle school where I had done an internship the previous year.

That is why I always tried to wear high-heeled shoes when I worked, even though doing so raised some controversy and accusations of exhibitionism and narcissism against me.

Unfortunately, in my case, a twelve inch heel was not enough to make me look older, as I looked a bit too youthful with my wavy, long, brown hair that was always tousled, my big green eyes, and finally the sprinkling of freckles on my upturned nose that made me look like a porcelain doll.

Moreover, my slim and petite appearance certainly did not inspire fear or awe. Not to mention my name... Melody! Couldn't they have called me Olga, Hadmunt or some German name with a hard assonance?

It hadn’t been easy to gain respect from the teenagers I had taught and in the end I felt that I had always been more of a friend to them than a teacher. However, I had managed to get the right respect from my pupils and I was convinced that in a high school there would be no difference.

«You are just a poor deluded girl, Melody! High school students are fifteen to twenty years old. You are a few years older. How do you expect to get respect from your almost peers. Some of them even look older than you physically,» continued my father who knew exactly what I was getting at, having been headmaster of the illustrious NY High School for almost twenty years.

«With a little make-up and a more professional and serious attire, no one will ever mistake me for a student,» I retorted earning only his sardonic laughter. How I hated it when he did that!

Why couldn't he just back me up?

«Alright!» he sighed after a long moment of silence.

«Alright what?» I asked suspiciously.

«I'll find you a place as a trainee or intern in a high school, if that's what you want.»

«Really?» I exclaimed with bashful surprise.

«You have my word, but be warned, this will be your first and last chance to prove to me that you are made for this job. If you fail, you must swear to me that you will stop insisting on this madness of yours.»

«OK. Will you have me working in your high school?»

«Absolutely not. I do not intend to facilitate you in any way. My presence has made your school experience easy and protected. Now, however, I realise that I must throw you into the arena without support if I am to make you understand your choice.»

I had difficulty swallowing. I knew that the fact that my father was the school headmaster had been a deterrent to any spite or malice towards me. Moreover, my high school was a public school of the highest standing, where only highly recommended students who could pass the entrance test my father had designed to select the best intellects could enter.

In short, I had lived in a gilded cage and knew that not all school realities were like that. The idea of being put in a den full of lions didn't make me feel comfortable even though I felt prepared to face any reality.

«Alright.» I sighed.

A week later, my father informed me that I was expected at Denton High School in Cookeville, Tennessee, the only high school in a valley large enough to accommodate students who lived far away and for whom a small dormitory had been built adjacent to the cafeteria.

2

I couldn't believe it!

On the very day that would kick-start my professional career, I was experiencing delays upon delays.

First the alarm clock that hadn't gone off, which forced me to rush to get to the airport on time with no small extra charge imposed by the taxi driver who had exceeded the speed limit so I wouldn't miss my plane. Then the warning that the New York-Nashville flight would be delayed by about three quarters of an hour. And finally, after a terrible journey because of the turbulence and storm that ravaged all of Pennsylvania and half of Virginia, here I was stuck in Tennessee traffic, from Nashville to remote little Cookeville.

Delays accumulated: three hours. Just the time I had set aside to settle in, change my clothes, psych myself up for the most important interview of my life, and... eat the breakfast I had skipped because of my desperate morning rush.

I looked at the time. It was almost three in the