Well then…
“Oh,” Melissa squeaks, clearly as shocked as I am. “Well, that is fantastic. I’m glad you’ve been able to focus.”
He grins at her. It’s so fucking innocent—a look I never would have said he was capable of if I hadn’t seen it with my own two eyes—that I have to question if I’m actually looking at the brutal, corrupt man I’ve come to know and hate.
Walking over, Melissa picks up the stack of paper ready to flick through, while everyone in the room waits for her to continue with her lesson.
“Miss Andrews, perhaps you could catch Nico up on what he’s missed,” she suggests, glancing over her shoulder at me.
Forcing a polite and professional smile onto my face, I rise from my seat and walk out from around the teacher’s desk.
The second I emerge, Nico’s eyes drop from holding mine in favour of the navy dress that hugs my curves. Not in the sexy kind of way that I’m sure he’s used to from me, but in what I hope is a professional, I-own-this-teaching-elite-kids-shit, kind of way.
But I soon realise that I could be walking toward him wearing a fucking bin bag and it wouldn’t matter. The way his eyes eat me up as if he’s remembering every single second we’ve spent together without any clothes on, ensures my entire body is burning up with a mixture of hate, frustration and need by the time I get to his chosen desk at the back of the room.
“Miss Andrews,” he drawls, leaning back in his chair and linking his fingers behind his head like the pretentious dickhead that he is.
My foot twitches with my need to kick his chair leg to send him flying toward the floor. I only just about manage to restrain myself. It’s fucking hard, though.
My entire body trembles as I reach for the chair sitting unused at the desk beside him, and I pray to anyone who might be listening that he doesn’t see it.
“Okay, so,” I start after attempting to swallow down my unease.
The second mirth begins dancing in Nico’s eyes, I know he isn’t going to make this easy on me.
“Nice dress,” he quips, cutting my explanation of what Melissa is going over. “Looks expensive.”
My lips part but no words come out.
“Must have a nice sugar daddy who bought that for you. Or…” he quickly adds, “is it stolen?” My heart rate is so fucking fast I’m not sure how I don’t pass out right here. The only reason I don’t is because I know just how much he would love to know that I have such a visceral reaction to him.
“Screw you, Nico. We’re not doing this now.”
“Oh, so when do you propose we do? Lunchtime? I know a storage cupboard that’s lockable from the inside that’s perfect for—”
“Stop. Just stop,” I beg.
His brow quirks but he doesn’t say a thing for long, painful seconds. But when he does, predictably, it’s enough to knock me on my arse—should I not be sitting, of course.
“Fucking love it when you beg for it, Siren.”
My teeth grind, my fists curling on my lap as I continue to restrain myself from physically hurting him.
“Now, I came here to learn…” He sits forward, resting his corded forearms on the desk—because unlike what the uniform rules state, of course he’s got his sleeves rolled to his elbows—and dips his head low, staring at me from beneath his lashes. “So tell me, Miss Andrews, when exactly did you steal my credit card?”
Tension crackles between us as I keep my mouth firmly shut on the subject.
A shadow falls over us, and I’m finally able to rip my eyes from his dark ones in favour of Melissa’s most concerned ones.
Fuck.
“Is everything okay here?”
“Fantastic, Mrs. Hendrix,” Nico says in a very uncharacteristically butter-wouldn’t-melt voice. “Miss Andrews was doing a wonderful job of catching me up on everything I seem to have missed.”
Melissa looks between the two of us suspiciously before she finally smiles.
“Okay, that’s great. You’re up to date to continue with today’s task then?” she asks before giving me a look that says,Shall we?and nods toward the teacher’s desk.