Chapter 1

One

F ord's dick was getting harder with every stride Professor Angelina Dawn took. Her black stilettos would be the perfect accessory to a night in his bed. She could lose the skirt, though. It was slim to her knees and showed off her curvy calves, sure, but he couldn't fuck her in it.

She did one of her little spinning motions as if to surprise her class awake. It wasn't working. Most of them attending college courses had been up all night at a training exercise. The guy next to Ford had nodded off twice, and Angelina had stood over his desk busting his balls.

Maybe I should nod off. I'd like to see what she can do with MY balls.

She waved a hand over the group of them. "Does anybody know the answer?"

He let his gaze roam over all her delicious curves. Tall and ample hips with a knot of dark blonde hair on her nape. Her hair never wanted to be tamed into the order she wanted it to—it always tumbled out by the end of her lessons. Maybe because she was always on the move, prowling the classroom as she spoke.

A restless woman—one who needed to be kissed and licked and sucked until she lost all her tension. Then while she was vulnerable, Ford would fuck her until she wasn't so uptight.

"Corporal Ford, do you know?"

He flicked his gaze away from the luscious hips and to her face. A glint of amusement in her eyes, but her lips were firm.

"If you're finished looking at my legs, of course."

A ripple of laughter tore through the class. There were only ten of them, but they all knew Ford. He'd served in Afghanistan with several of them, and the others he'd bonded with through midnight runs and such. They'd seen him going home with a lady or two he'd met down at Walker's after a couple of beers. And he'd been known to have more than one female private in love with him.

The corner of his lips quirked up as Professor Dawn came to stand in front of his table. With the guys as big and muscled as they were, desks didn't work in most military classes.

He gave her a lazy smile. "I wasn't finished, but the answer is galvanic action."

The light in her hazel eyes seemed to spark with surprise. "So you were listening, Ford. What a surprise."

His grin broadened.

She stood there for another heartbeat before spinning away in her trademark fashion. Was it his imagination or was there an extra swing in her sweet hips to reward him for answering correctly?

The engineering degree he was after wouldn't interest him half as much without Angelina. He'd had two classes with her so far. She was a strictly by-the-rules kind of woman. If she'd been in the Army, she'd climb the ranks to Master Sergeant in no time—she was a natural ball-buster.

But she knew how to get what she wanted out of her students.

Too bad she didn't know what Ford wanted out of her.

As she revolved through the classroom talking about electrons and ions, he let his imagination roam to the filthy side. He hadn't had a conquest in a while. Actually, the past two months could be called a dry spell, at least for him. It wasn't that women weren't willing, or hell, draped all over him when he went to the bar or parties. But lately, none had appealed to him.

Some of his buddies said he was getting pickier. Maybe he was.

One thing was certain—he wanted to pick apart Ms. Dawn piece by delicious edible piece. Starting with that tightly-wound bun and ending with the tips of her toes.

F ord was undressing her with his eyes again, the cocky bastard. Angelina had dealt with a lot of asshole soldiers in her time teaching here at the university. She was used to men ogling her wherever she went, but she didn't do soldiers.

Ever.

No matter how hot they looked decked out in their uniforms.

The last guy she'd been seeing was a physics professor here—in the same department as her. They'd hit it off instantly after his transfer from a college in Vermont. In the first few months, he'd fulfilled her completely.

And then one morning he'd gone into the bathroom and his phone had vibrated with a text. Not thinking about privacy and half-awake, she'd rolled over, grabbed the phone and read it.

When you come to Vermont, we need to pick out tuxedo styles. Dum-dum-dum-dummm! Our big day is coming faster than you think! Can you believe it? Husband and wife!

That sinking feeling in Angelina's stomach had left her gun-shy of men. They were animals—rutting into anybody they crossed paths with just because they could. If a scholar from Vermont could cheat on his fiancée, a soldier had to be a hundred times worse.

She paced back and forth before the class, stopping only to point at an equation she'd drawn on the whiteboard. She loved her job, adored teaching the next group of men and women dreaming of becoming engineers. Most of her students were older military men returning to school and taking their given opportunity to continue their educations for free or damn near close to free.

Ten students in total, all men, each one as rugged as the next. She scanned the group, her gaze smearing over the broad chests with green cotton stretching over muscle. One chest made her pause and her hormones do backflips, though.

Ford.

Damn his cute sexy-as-hell ass. The fucker was a god of a man, and he knew it. He worked that bad-boy smile like a stripper did an audience. He went after what he wanted and he got it, she knew by his file. Most things were classified and since she wasn't privy to know, she could only dig so far. But she knew enough.

Angelina liked to know who she was dealing with. Did the soldiers have PTSD or any disabilities caused by being in battle? She wanted to know how to treat each as an individual. In a small class like this, she could tailor her instruction to each, and she did.

In action, Ford was a ruthless son-of-a-bitch. He was at the top of his game in weapons, but he was known for taking a few odds and ends and making something out of them.

Like one of the bombs that had successfully ended a standoff in Afghanistan. He was a modern day roughed up Army version of MacGyver.

A fucking genius, that's what he was. If she'd looked at the items he'd used, she never would have come up with a way to make what he had.

And he was a treat to look at.

Her soaked panties could attest to that.

His arms were like trunks bulging the sleeves of his shirt. He sat most of the time she saw him, but when he got up, his trim waist and hips and his powerful thighs were as pretty as his top half.

His hair was military-short but tended to get longer as the semesters went on. At least until some commanding officer probably gave him the order to get it cut. It was midway through the term now, so it was beginning to get fuller and starting to wave in places.

She could only imagine how it would feel to plow her hands into it...

She jerked back to attention and took a minute to get her bearings. What had she been talking about? Oh yes.

"Ashwood, can you tell me what you think about the HMS Alarm in the Royal Navy and the problems they encountered with galvanic corrosion?"

Ashwood sat up straighter, his lips twisted. "We're Army, Professor, not Navy."

Her pulse rate flicked up a notch. Ashwood was one of the biggest asses on her roster, and he needed a set-down regularly. She enjoyed personally making him realize his place not only in room classroom but in the whole world. Despite his high opinions of himself, he wasn't a master engineer yet, and it was unlikely he ever would be because he wouldn't shut up and listen long enough. According to him, he knew it all already.

"Part of not making the same mistakes is learning history and how it pertains to us presently."

Ashwood snorted. He might be hot as hell, but his personality made him the ugliest in the room. He folded his arms over his chest and gave her an up-down look. Coming from Ford, it had heated her blood. From Ashwood, it was an infraction.

"Watch yourself, Corporal."

"You don't have authority over me."

"I can easily kick you out of my class and you'll lose credit toward your degree. I thought you were planning to graduate next spring?" Here was another reason it was a good idea for her to know her students so well.

"Oh, I'll graduate no matter what. I don't need to know crap about the Navy to do it, either."

"You will if you want to pass my final."

"I'd like to pass something. " He stared at her breasts with a leering smile that made her remember all the self-defense moves she'd learned in her life. Not that one of these soldiers would attack her, or it was unlikely anyway. But if she had to put him in his place, she could do it with a chokehold that would make him rethink his statements to her and see stars while indoors.

"Gather your things and leave my class, Ashwood."

He stayed put. "Or what? I have the right to stay here, same as the others."

Ford slowly pushed away from the desk, his chair scraping the floor. He unfolded himself and stood to his full height of well over six feet.

"Listen to the professor and get out, Ashwood."

In a flash, Ashwood shot to his feet too. The two soldiers glared at each other across a room full of tables and she could practically feel the heat from where she stood several feet away. Panic didn't have a place in Angelina's vocabulary. She raised her hands and calmly lifted her voice to be understood clearly.

"There will be no trouble or fighting in my classroom or you'll both be expelled from my class. No second chances, no arguments. Now, Ford, sit down, and, Ashwood, I told you to go."

Ashwood pushed out an ugly snort and with an angry swipe of his arm, gathered his books and strutted out. The door slammed behind him, leaving a deafening silence.

Angelina drew in a deep breath, referred to her whiteboard to remember her place in this lesson, and continued as if there hadn't been an interruption and Ford's big, angry stance wasn't imprinted in her mind as he'd come to her defense.