He sneered when he took in the other faces. Jason could be cocky, but he knew his place and Sam was as quiet as a mouse. No problems there. Corey Reed, however, was a pain in the ass. Carter glared and smiled when he slumped down into his seat. An annoyed feminine cough pulled him from his visual tormenting of the little bastard.
He turned toward the origin of the noise, finding the delectable Miss Lane, arms crossed over her ample chest, eyeing him in a way that made his hackles rise. She, like every other person not in coveralls, thought she was better than he was. He didn’t have to be a mind reader to know it. She may have hidden it well behind her sexy blouse and heels, but she was just like them. They were all the fucking same.
He shifted his weight casually onto his right foot and stared right back at her.
“Carter, this is Miss Lane. Miss Lane, this is Wes Carter,” Ward explained.
“Just Carter,” he spat, keeping his glare firmly on his new tutor. Ward knew better than to use his first name, for Christ’s sake.
“Well, it’s nice to meet you, Carter,” Miss Lane offered.
He rolled his eyes. “Yeah, whatever.”
“You can take a seat.” She gestured to a desk and chair behind him.
Carter ignored her, surveying his surroundings.
“Take a seat, Carter,” she ordered.
His stare snapped to her. Her mouth was pressed into a hard line, almost daring him to defy her. Game on. His eyes wandered lazily down her body. Hot. Curvy in all the right places, with an ass that would look spectacular with his hands all over it. He smirked at that particular image.
Carter was tall, at least six-two, and broad-chested. He towered a good nine inches over her and carried at least seventy pounds more than was on her feminine frame, yet the feisty redhead stood firm, not moving an inch, meeting him glower to glare. If her stick-up-the-ass, bitchy attitude hadn’t riled him so much, he might have stopped to consider how turned on he was by it.
Damn.
“Here, Carter.” It was Rachel’s voice, which broke the strange electric mood enveloping the room. She motioned to the seat closest to him.
Carter, as loath as he was to break his gaze with his tutor, took a deep breath, and moved toward the seat. The air shuddered out of him when his blue irises dropped from Miss Lane’s wide green ones, which flickered with fire.
“Well,” Ward murmured, “any problems … you know where I am.”
He gave a tight-lipped smile and, after they uncuffed Carter, left the room with the two officers.
*
Kat was unable to tear her eyes from the new addition to her class. He was fine to look at with his buzz cut; wide, strong shoulders; two days’ worth of stubble; and long legs that stuck out from underneath the desk, but his attitude made him sharp around the edges. There was a dangerous aura around him that screamed No entry. She noted a lick of black ink poking out from the collar of his coveralls, curving up his neck.
How very badass.
She’d seen the way he’d taken in the other students in her class—conceited and arrogant—and she didn’t like it. He was obviously an egotistical jerk who saw himself as above everyone in her class, including her, which irritated her beyond distraction. Despite his ability to shut everyone up with his dark scowl and brooding hostility, it was her classroom. Not his.
Kat’s aggression was surprising and uncharacteristic, but the adrenaline still pumped through her body after the almost-fight, and the last thing she needed was a cocky jerk like Carter adding to it.
Kat took a second to compose herself and then started the activity, explaining it quickly and clearly, and within five minutes, they were on task. It appeared the altercation had been forgotten, or, knowing Jason, been left for another time.
She walked with purpose toward Carter’s desk and placed an A4 book in front of him. He never moved to acknowledge her request for him to place his name on the front of it.
“Carter,” she said again, annoyance creeping up her spine. “Could you please write your name on the front of this booklet?” She noticed the corners of his mouth twitch. “Is something funny?”
His eyes met hers, crystal blue, fiery, and furious, but he never said a word.
She pulled a pen from her pocket. “Is this what you need?”
She could have sworn his eyes softened, but it was a change so minute and fleeting, she shook the thought away. He raised his hand and took the pen from her, allowing the tip of his finger to catch the side of her knuckle. The contact was like bare skin to a naked flame. The burning jolt of heat shot from the tip of her finger deep into the pit of her stomach.
Bewildered, Kat watched Carter write his name across the top of the booklet, before throwing the pen down and sighing sarcastically. He sat back in his seat, looking like he owned the place. Kat had no doubt in her mind he thought exactly that.
“I know you’re behind, having just joined us today, but I’m sure you’ll catch up.”
His face showed no emotion or thought, so she continued regardless, explaining the word association task the class had done twenty-four hours before in preparation for their creative writing assessment. “So, you can start with that,” she said. “Write a word that means something to you and then all the words associated with that.”