Chapter 4 Student Vs Tutor

~Nicole~

"How nice to meet you again"... Miss Nicole Winter," he said.

His legs were spread, that damn hoodie still on like he hadn't just threatened to lick me clean twenty minutes ago.

The smirk on his face?

Cocky. Wicked.

He was enjoying this.

Too much.

My jaw twitched.

"So... so when you said I had to tutor a student in order to guarantee my stay here..." I turned to the Vice Principal, eyes wide, voice rising.

"You were talking about him?"

She didn't even flinch. Just sat there sipping from a cup like she hadn't just set me on fire and walked away.

"Oh, you've met. That's great." She snapped the folder shut and smiled, completely fake.

"No need for any more formalities then."

My eyes shot back to him.

Landon.

Smiling like the devil just handed him a plaything.

"Any objection with your tutor, Mr. Landon?" she asked, adjusting her glasses.

He leaned back, spreading those damn legs wider like he owned the room.

"Not at all, Vice Principal." He looked me over slowly, deliberately. "Miss Winter's just the right person."

My body betrayed me again, legs tight, skin hot.

I hated him.

But my traitor thighs disagreed.

"Great. Now out of my office," She said, waving me off like a bad perfume. "Lesson hour starts at four."

My brain screamed.

Four?!

I checked the clock on her wall.

3:50.

Did she do this on purpose?

I turned back, heat crawling up my neck.

"I don't accept this student."

Her eyes snapped up..She tilted her glasses with one finger. "And who said you had an option?"

I opened my mouth.

She cut me off. "You're lucky he accepts you. Unless you'd rather go back to..."

"No," I said quickly, cutting her off before she could finish the sentence.

No way in hell was I going back to Weakers Academy.

I didn't just get a scholarship out of that hellhole to land back there because of some...jerk-faced, cocky, over-inked, smug-ass male demon in human skin.

Landon was standing now. Tall. Broad.

Leaning into my space like gravity worked differently for him.

His voice dropped low near my ear. "You could've said no, sweetheart," he murmured, lips way too close.

"But I'm glad you didn't."

My stomach flipped.

I hated that his breath made my knees warm. And the fact that I could still smell the Coke from earlier on his shirt... and somehow, it was still sexy.

"Four p.m.," Vice Principal Harper said behind us. "My office better not hear a single noise that isn't academic. Got it?"

Landon chuckled, dark and quiet.

"No promises," he said without looking back.

She glared at him.

He winked.

And me?

I stepped out of the Vice Principal's office, already bracing myself for tutoring hell.

I could feel him behind me..

His presence clung to me like heat. Like trouble.

I walked fast.

Too fast.

And that's when it happened.

I brushed past someone. Just a shoulder.

A second.

But it hit me like a jolt to the chest.

Pain.

Deep. Strange.

Like something pulling tight inside.

I gasped quietly, hand hovering over my heart. I turned around quickly.

But the guy was already walking off.

Tall. Blue jacket. Hands in his pockets. Gone.

The ache faded just as fast as it came.

Weird.

My thoughts scrambled.

And then..

"Really?"

That voice.

I didn't have to look to know it was Landon.

He was right beside me now, walking too close.

"You planning to faint next? Or just being dramatic to get out of tutoring me?"

I glared at him, heart still thudding.

"I wasn't.."

He stepped in front of me, cutting me off. That lazy smirk back on his face.

"Because if brushing past a random guy makes your chest ache..." He leaned in, voice dropping.

"What's it gonna feel like when I've got my hands on you again?"

My knees wobbled. Damn him.

"You're disgusting."

He grinned wider. "And yet... here you are. Still stuck with me."

I moved to walk past him.

He didn't let me.

"Don't make me chase you, sweetheart," he said.

"I might enjoy it too much."

My breath hitched.

He knew exactly what he was doing.

And at 3:59, I was already burning.

Three minutes later, I was already regretting every life choice that led me to Room 3B.

It was dead silent when I walked in.

One desk. Two chairs. A whiteboard that hadn't seen use since God knows when.

And him.

Sitting at the back. Legs spread. Hoodie still on like it was part of his personality.

He didn't look up when I entered.

Didn't have to.

He felt me.

I swear he smirked without even moving.

I closed the door.

It clicked shut like a warning.

One hour. That's all I had to survive.

I took the chair across from him, dropping my bag louder than I needed to.

Still, he didn't say a word. Just tilted his head, eyes dragging up my body like a slow lick.

"You're late."

I glanced at the clock. "By one minute."

His tongue ran across his bottom lip.

"That's sixty seconds I could've had your mouth doing something better."

My jaw dropped.

"Excuse me?"

He leaned in just a little. Voice low.

"Tutoring. I meant tutoring, Miss Winter."

Cocky bastard.

I opened my folder, flipping pages too fast to read.

"Are you actually failing or do you just enjoy ruining people's lives?" I muttered.

He hummed. Low. Deep.

"You're not people."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Landon leaned back, arms crossed. Watching me. Studying me.

"It means you've been in this school less than 24 hours, and I already know what you sound like when you moan."

My legs locked under the desk.

He grinned. Slowly.

"You think I'm easy to forget, Nicole?"

"That mouth of yours said no, but your thighs said 'God, yes.'"

I swallowed hard.

"You're so annoying."

"Are you being honest?." He reached forward, pulling a pen from my hand without asking. His fingers brushed mine.

Intentional.

"Let's begin the lesson," he said, voice almost mocking.

He opened a notebook.

Blank.

Of course.

He shoved it toward me. "Teach me something, genius."