"I know you told Nancy you own the club." Hunter laughed. "Does your dad know that?"

"My dad?" Jaxon's voice rose, and I was sure he was about to punch Hunter, but he surprised me by smiling. "I see," he said finally, and there was a grim smile on his face.

"What do you see?" Hunter asked after a few moments of silence.

Jaxon ignored Hunter and looked over at me. His eyes looked me over slowly, and I felt my blood pressure rising at his intimate gaze. In that moment, all I could think about was him and his touch. I could still feel his tongue on me. I could still feel his hardness beneath me. I could feel his fingertips and the feather running across my skin. My head started feeling hazy as he continued staring at me. My blood was heating up, and I wanted to reach out and touch his chest. All I could think about was him and being consumed by him.

"Don't confuse sex with love, Nancy." Hunter’s voice interrupted the moment and I looked away from Jaxon and stared at Hunter. There was a light in his eyes that I'd never seen before. It made my stomach jump. "There's a stark difference between love and sex. Just as there's a stark difference between good and evil. Remember why you came here." Hunter paused, and I watched as he ran his fingers through his hair. "I'll speak to you later." He nodded at me before walked down the hallway.

"Did you come to meet him on purpose?" Jaxon's voice was angry.

"Wasn't the point of you being my teacher to help me get Hunter? Shouldn't you be happy that it's already working?" I shrugged and saw Jaxon's lips thin as his eyes narrowed.

"Did you want to f**k him?"

"That's none of your business."

"Did you want him to touch you?"

"No!" I exclaimed angrily, and he smiled a slow, wide smile.

"Good." He reached out to touch me, but I took a step back.

"I don't want you to touch me either." My voice rose and I glared at him. "I don't know what game you're playing, Jaxon Cade, but I want to know the truth. I want to know why I'm at the Lovers’ Academy, and don't tell me it's because you want to teach me how to seduce men. We both know that's not true."

"What if it's because I want you to seduce me?" His eyes fell to my breasts.

"Don't play games with me." I stood my ground and tried to ignore the tingling in my nipples.

"I want to do more than play games with you. I want to take you to my room, flip you onto your stomach, and enter you hard and fast." He stared into my eyes unblinking.

"I can't think of anything I want less," I lied and then yawned.

His eyes widened in anger and then he paused. "You want to play this game, Nancy?"

"I just want the truth." I reached out and touched his chest before reaching up and whispering against his lips, "My body is off-limits to you, Jaxon. I want no part of you. All I want is the truth." And with that, I turned around and hurriedly walked back to my room.

This wasn’t the time for me to confront Jaxon about what I’d heard. I was out of sorts and my breathing was fast. My body felt weak and achy, and I knew that it would only take one touch before I was pressed up against him, begging him to give me the orgasm my body desired.

I hurried to my room and fell onto my bed as soon as I entered. I closed my eyes and Hunter’s face entered my mind. His blue eyes were so bright and pure. I was shocked that he now knew who he was. Part of me was excited, but another part of me was distrusting. Something seemed off with him as well, and I didn’t know what. He was as handsome as I remembered, but there was something about his demeanor that was harder than I remembered.

Then my head started ringing.

Hunter had called me Nancy Hastings. I hadn’t been Nancy Hastings at the school. How did he know my name?

Chapter Three

Jaxon

Nancy's trembling lips infuriated me as she told me that she didn't want me. All I wanted to do was touch her and watch her eyes fluttering as I teased her. I was pissed that she would dare to defy me. When I’d seen her with Hunter, I had felt something I'd never felt before and it annoyed me. And now, watching her walking away from me with fire in her step¸ I felt both aggravated me and turned on.

Nancy was a stupid girl with no common sense. I was angry at her. I'd met foolish women before, but she had absolutely no common sense and no protective instincts. The fact that she’d been cozied up with Hunter in the hallway told me that. I had no idea what his game was, but I had a feeling that I knew what was going on. My only decision was whether I was going to let Nancy go down that road.

My number-one rule was to never let a woman affect me in any way. If I thought they were getting too close, I backed away. I wasn't looking for any hassle. I'd never had to worry about getting too close to them. It had never happened. I didn't think it was possible. I'd never been in love.

I also never let a woman get close enough to affect my own decisions. My life would only become complicated if I let a woman in. I didn’t even want to let Nancy in. I didn’t want to care that she was on a path to hell. A path that had been set in motion by me. A path that was to be the ultimate revenge. I didn’t want to feel like this—with this half regret and doubt.

I just needed to f**k her. I needed her to relent to me completely. Once I had her, she’d be out of my system and then I wouldn’t care what happened to her. She was nothing to me, and I wasn’t going to let her big brown eyes make me think anything else.

Chapter Four

Nancy

"I'm here to talk to you." I practiced knocking on his door and walking into his room. "Jaxon, I'm here to talk to you." I stared at myself in the mirror with a stern face. "Don't touch me. I don't want to sleep with you." I stared at my reflection and sighed. Even I wasn't fooling myself. I wasn't sure why I was so attracted to Jaxon, even knowing that he was a shady liar. "I'm here to talk," I started again and frowned. "Tell me the truth." I glared into the mirror.

"Who are you talking to?" Amber walked into my room, with Shannon following close behind her.

“Good morning to you both as well.” I turned around and gave them both a quick smile.

“So, do tell about your hottie of a teacher.” Amber jumped on the bed and grinned at me. “Spill all the details.”

“Amber.” Shannon made a face and rolled her eyes.

“Don’t even pretend like you weren’t just agreeing that he’s hot as fuck.” Amber raised an eyebrow at her. “Shit, he could f**k me and—”

“Amber.” I put my hand up and stopped her. “Really?”

“Really.” She laughed and lay back. “So have you f**ked him yet?”

“Of course not!” I exclaimed in an appalled tone. There was no need for her to know just how close we’d come.

“Waste.” She shook her head. “If he were my teacher, my clothes would have fallen off within five minutes and I would have slipped and fallen on top of his dick.”

“Well, that’s a pity he’s not your teacher then,” I snapped, starting to get annoyed at Amber’s comments. “How is your teacher?”

“Keenan’s a chump.” She made a face.

“Oh?”

“He says I’m too aggressive.” She sat up. “I told him he was lucky that I was willing to suck his c**k when he didn’t manscape.”

“Manscape?”

“His balls are hairy. He needs to shave and make it clean and smooth. I’m not down for the fuzz. I want smooth. I bet Jaxon is hung and smooth.” She sighed and then winked at me.

“I wouldn’t know.” I shrugged.

“Let me know when you find out. I’m thinking he’s about eight inches. Hmm hmm, good.” She wriggled in my bed, and I looked at Shannon, who was standing there, looking embarrassed as hell.

“So how’s it going with, Hunter?” I asked Shannon softly, and she blushed.

“Fine.” She bit her lower lip and looked away from me.

“You can tell me. It’s fine.” I gave her a reassuring smile. Now that I knew Hunter remembered and wanted me, I wasn’t as worried that he was with Shannon.

“Oh. Well, we haven’t done anything. He said he wants to work on my self-confidence first. He said if I don’t have confidence, I can never be a seductress.”

“Oh, sure. That makes sense.” I smiled to myself. I was confident that Hunter was just telling her that because he didn’t want to cheat on me.

I felt my stomach turning slightly as I realized that I’d already cheated on him. But it wasn’t like we were committed. He’d pretended like he didn’t even know me. I froze for a second as I realized that I might still have gone ahead with Jaxon even if Hunter had known me. There was something about Jaxon that was hard to resist. I wasn’t sure what that said about me and my feelings for Hunter.

“He’s cute. I see why you like him,” Shannon spoke softly, and I could see a faint red blush on her face.

“Do you like him?” I leaned forward to more clearly look at her face.

“I don’t know him.” She looked away from me in a telling manner.

I didn’t know what to say. Part of me wanted to tell her that I didn’t mind, but I wasn’t sure where that was coming from. Of course I minded. Hunter was supposed to be mine. I didn’t want anyone else taking him away from me.

Amber spoke up. “Maybe you two can swap teachers. And then I can swap with Shannon. Shit, if I could have Jaxon in my bed, I’d be dropping it like it’s hot.”

“What?” I looked at her, barely able to hide my annoyance.

She jumped up off of the bed and started dancing and bending over to the ground. I watched as she moved her butt up and down and then looked at Shannon.

“Amber thinks she’s a rap video queen.” Shannon gave me a half-smile, and I laughed.

We both watched Amber dancing to the rap song in her head, and I wondered if she wasn’t a bit crazy.

“Guys like it when you drop it like it’s hot.” Amber jumped back up and slapped her ass. “Show’s them what you’re working with.”

“I see.” I gave her a weak smile.

“Don’t you believe me?” Amber looked down at me ass and laughed. “I guess you’ve got a flat ass, so you wouldn’t know.”

“I don’t have a flat ass.” I frowned.

“Well, you’re not accentuating anything else.” She gave me a superior look. “A guy likes to know that you can back that ass up good.”

“Another rap song.” Shannon rolled her eyes.

“Oh.” I grinned. “I guess I need to listen to more rap.”

Amber’s eyes lit up. “We should all go to a club.”

“Why don’t you work on that?” I sighed. “I’ve got something to do.”

All of a sudden, nerves hit me again. I was worried and anxious to go and talk to Jaxon. I wanted to know the truth, but I was scared. I was scared that he wasn’t going to tell me the truth, and I was scared that he was going to tell me. All of a sudden, I wished that I were back home, playing with Harry and talking to Meg and Katie about the wedding.

“Are you kicking us out?” Amber looked annoyed, and I smiled to myself.

I was pretty sure that Amber had thought she was the alpha dog among us girls. And maybe she could boss Shannon around and do what she wanted, but I wasn’t as silent as I looked. And I sure wasn’t a pushover. Not anymore.

“Sorry, girls. Don’t mean to be rude, but we’ll catch up later.”

“Come on, Shannon. Let’s go where we’re wanted.” Amber tossed her hair and headed towards the door. “We’ll see you later, Nancy.”

“See you girls.” I smiled at Shannon as she left the room and grinned at myself in the mirror as soon as they’d exited my room. Score one for me.

I was finally being authoritative and sticking up for myself. I only hoped that I wouldn’t crumble as soon as I came into contact with Jaxon.

***

I quickly walked out of my room and hurried to Jaxon’s room before I could think about what I was doing. I didn’t want to give myself any opportunity to back down or freak out over my confrontation. I didn’t even bother to knock on his door before I entered, though that was based on principle. He never knocked on my door, so why should I knock on his?

"I want to talk to you." I pulled my cardigan across my chest and folded my arms as I walked into his room.

"Talk." He looked at me, unblinking, his face blank.

This wasn't what I'd expected. He wasn't giving me ‘I want to f**k you’ eyes or trying to touch me. He wasn’t asking me why I had just barged into his room without knocking,

"I came back to your room last night," I started, but he didn't say anything. "I saw you and your dad talking." His eyes flashed briefly, but still he didn't say anything. "I heard you as well." I paused and rounded my shoulders. "And I want to know what the f**k is going on?" My voice rose as I grew angry at his lack of response.

His lips twitched then.

I frowned at him."This is no laughing matter."

"What the f**k is going on?" He smirked as he finally spoke and repeated my words.

I got straight to the point. "Did you target me on the train or did you know who I was before the train?"

"Target you for what?" He tilted his head to the side.