The Marine's Kiss

“Against Dr. Dragon Lady?” he said. “I think you could use all the allies you can get.”

Another teacher came striding down the hall. Jenny lowered her voice. “Nate, don’t come marching in here and try to fix my life like it’s old times. I don’t need you to take charge anymore. I’m a big girl now.”

“I wasn’t trying to do that.”

“Oh, yeah?”

He took a step closer to her, invading her space, putting a chink in the wall of invulnerability she had built up in the years since they’d broken up. “Yeah.”

With that one word, the air between them hushed. For a moment, she was lost in the depths of his eyes, her heart racing like a hummingbird. He grinned at her, the same easy grin that had always made her melt. The smile reached his eyes, softening the hard lines put there by his years in the military. For a moment, he became the Nate she remembered. The Nate she couldn’t say no to.

The Nate she’d—

Jenny heard the click-click of heels against linoleum and looked away. Dr. Davis was coming back around the corner, heading down the hallway toward her classroom.

Oh, no.

She considered grabbing Nate and ducking back into the room before the principal reached them—until she glimpsed a familiar pair of overalls coming toward her from the opposite direction.

Oh, God. The Animals Where You Want ’Em guy. He’d probably come to collect on his payment after all.

But no, he had something with him. Something smaller than a pig. And furrier, too. In fact, it looked a lot like—