That sneaky little… I gave him a look of reluctant admiration. “Nicely played, D’Alessandro. Nicely played.”

For the last few weeks, I’d taken to waking just before Marco’s alarm was set to go off. Mostly, I would just cuddle in closer to him and close my eyes again.

However, that morning I woke up to discover that we were tangled in each other as we lay on our sides, my outer thigh resting over his, my lower body pressed into him.

Marco might be asleep, but his body was aware of the close proximity of its manly bits to my womanly bits. With his hard-on pushing against my belly, I felt a delicious tingle between my legs that woke me up entirely.

Trailing my hands up his naked back, I delighted in the feel of him. I lowered my head and started kissing my way down his chest.

Suddenly his arms tightened around me and he pushed us until I was flat on my back and he was braced over me.

He looked down at me through sleepy eyes. “First your snoring keeps me awake and now you’re trying to make me late?” His voice was even more gravelly than usual. So unbelievably sexy I wanted to touch myself as I listened to him talk.

I squirmed under him until I had my legs wrapped lightly around his hips. “I’m trying to make up for the snoring with sex, but if you’re not interested…,” I teased, moving to drop my legs.

“That’s not a gun pressing against you, babe.”

I grinned cheekily and shook my head. “No, that’s your cock.”

Marco grinned back. “You just like saying that word, don’t you?”

I nodded as he lowered his head to press kisses to my neck. “Cock.” His kisses turned to love bites and I giggled. “Cock, cock, cock.”

Growling, Marco rolled us so he was on his back and I was astride him. He looked up at me, his beautiful blue-green eyes as awake as his hard-on now. His hands flexed on my hips as the sexual heat in his eyes ignited. “Ride my cock, Hannah,” he ordered gruffly.

I purred, lifting myself over him until I felt the tip of him at my entrance. I grew wet at just the promise of him. “Just because you asked so nicely…”

I was in a great mood. My day had started with earth-shattering sex and now it was ending with one of my favorite lesson plans. I had my fourth-year class and we were discussing villains. In order to illustrate the use of character development and the need for layers in creating a good villain in literature, I was using clips from the film The Dark Knight Rises.

Having the visual and something the kids enjoyed as the source actually really helped in getting them to understand the use of history, circumstance, and motivation in creating a villain. The students were really into it. It was probably the most animated I’d ever seen them, and I was in a great mood, enjoying it right along with them.

“Whit’s up wi’ you?” Jack Ryan, the thorn in my side, sneered and effectively ruined the positive atmosphere. “Someone finally givin’ it tae you?”

My blood boiled and while I counted to ten in order to answer the little shit calmly, Jarrod let his eraser fly. It was some throw.

It hit Jack’s cheek. Hard.

“Whit the f**k!” He slapped a hand to his cheek and glared in Jarrod’s direction. He moved as if he was going to get up, but I was already marching over to him with determination.

“Sit down,” I demanded with a chilling calm. The whole class tensed at the anger in my voice.

Surprised by my tone, Jack lowered himself back into his seat.

Reaching his table, I put my palms on it and leaned down so he had nowhere to look but at my face.

My voice quiet and taut, I laid it out for him. “If you ever speak to me like that again, you are out of here. Do you understand me?”

He shrugged.

I narrowed my eyes. “Let me make myself perfectly clear, then. I am not impressed by you. I am certainly not intimidated by you, and, frankly, I am sick of your continuous interruptions in my class. One more inappropriate word from you and you’re gone, and I’ll keep putting you out of this class every time you do it. Because do you know what? It’s no skin off my nose if you don’t pass this class. I’d rather everyone else gets the attention they need from me, because they deserve it. If you want to walk out into the real world without even a basic education and then spend your life struggling to make ends meet, then go ahead – say something that will really, really annoy me.”

Jack’s answer was to stare at me sullenly.

But he didn’t open his mouth. I took that as progress.

Shooting him one last warning look, I bent down and picked up Jarrod’s eraser. I walked over to his table. “I think you dropped this.”

Smirking, he reached up to take it back, but I held it out of his reach for a moment.

“I’m asking you not to drop it again.”

Jarrod’s expression changed, the smirk disappearing, a serious note in his eyes. He nodded carefully and I handed the eraser back to him.

We finished up the class but Jack had officially ruined the mood. I gave him another stern look as he left my classroom at the sound of the bell. The kids were filtering out when Jarrod came over to my desk, waiting for his classmates to leave.

As soon as the last one was out the door, he grinned at me. “You do seem really happy, Miss.” That grin turned knowing. “Anything to do with that big guy that came to see you a while back?”

“Jarrod,” I said crisply, “it’s none of your business.”

“Right.” He grinned. “Just saying. Nice to know a big guy like that’s watching your back.”

That was kind of sweet, but I didn’t let him know I thought that. Instead I said, “As much as I appreciate the sentiment behind you throwing the eraser at Jack today, I need you to start thinking before you act. You’ve got a short fuse, Jarrod. That short fuse could get you into situations that you might not work your way out of easily and I want more for you than that. So when someone says something you don’t like or tries to get a reaction out of you, stop, think, and remember that you’re a smart kid with a bright future and a little brother who thinks the world of you.”

He stared at me a moment, seeming to process my words.

To my relief he didn’t give me a smart-arse retort. He just nodded.

CHAPTER 17

I was coasting along, almost a little smug not only in my present contentment, but in the fact that I’d beaten my issues with the past.