Adam's POV

I hated my job.

First off, college students were stupid. Every single last one of them. They didn't care about my class, they didn't care about writing, they all probably didn't even know how to do taxes or fix things without duct tape.

Second off, I had to see my ex-husband's hot younger boyfriend literally three days out of seven, which was aggravating and demoralizing. The worst part was that the kid wasn't even bad at writing. Thankfully, finals were in three weeks.

Third off...well, there really wasn't a third off. Most of my hatred and misery stemmed from my ex-husband and his hot boyfriend.

I buried my head against my desk and groaned.

"Are you okay, teach?" Jeremey McQueen drawled. "Sounds like you're trying to pass a kidney stone over there."

Oh yeah. That kid was also a pain in my ass.

The whole class snickered and I glared. "This is supposed to be a writing workshop. Are you writing?"

Jerry rolled his eyes and got back to work.

This was our first class since we'd...had our incident. In my office. On all of my papers. It was a very awkward class and I wanted to die a little bit.

If I were to do some soul searching, yes, it was entirely possible that I'd fucked Jeremy McQueen over my desk because he was a pain in my ass and I wanted to give him a pain in his. I also maybe had some residual feelings about my ex-husband falling in love with a student.

I glared into Finn Evans' soul. Or, rather, at his head of light pink hair. He probably had a light pink soul too, because he was sweet and nice and didn't cheat on people.

I was such a fucking loser.

I stared at my computer and pretended like I was doing something productive. The classroom was awkwardly silent, which was my fault, but I couldn't imagine giving a lesson while knowing that I'd fucked one of them two days ago.

The pink haired girl started to whisper to Jerry and I squeezed my eyes shut. I heard the words "Professor Demos" and "horse dildo" before excusing myself to go to the bathroom and telling them to behave.

I shut the door to my classroom behind me and my heart stuttered in my chest when I saw who it was.

"I don't think this is the greatest idea," my ex-husband, Aidan Demos, drawled. "I'm not a hippie-dippie snowflake like my boyfriend, but I've learned through experience that violence doesn't solve everything."

He was leaning up against the wall, looking hot as ever in a gray t-shirt and jeans. He never dressed up for his job, because he had that whole 'rebel' thing going. ...Which was also apparent from the dog that stood by his heels.

It never felt good to see him again. I'd always feel sick to my stomach, because of guilt, longing, love, or anger...it was confusing.

This time I felt all those things, and then I felt pain as I was being slammed up against a wall.

"Not you again!" It was the psychotic hulk man from before.

I got traumatic flashbacks to the first time this guy had me pinned against a wall. He was the same guy who'd threatened my life after I'd tried to blackmail Aidan.

"Okay, you can leave now, Aidan," the beast of a man said, pressing me to the wall with a grip on the front of my shirt.

"I still want to know why you're doing this..." Aidan grumbled.

"Do you want me to get you a Wendy's 4 for $4 or what?" the asshole snapped.

"I do..."

"Then don't ask questions."

Thanks to their brain-numbing dialogue, I managed to find my voice. "You're seriously putting your attack dog on me again, Aidan?"

Aidan made a pissy face. "You seriously walked out of your classroom with all the students still in there? A little unprofessional."

I pointed at the mutt at his heels. "That is an animal! In a school building! I heard a rumor that you were almost fired for that already!"

"His bandanna says 'service animal' and I will fight anyone who wants to argue otherwise."

"A service for what, your alcoholism?"

"Rude, considering your cheating and our divorce was the beginning to my alcoholism," Aidan snapped.

"Just...fuck off!"

A group of students were standing all the way down the hall, snickering at the situation. Aidan saw them, rolled his eyes, and huffed. "I'm out of here. Wrap this up quick, Robert."

Which left me alone with the psychotic guy. I raised my hands in defeat. "Listen, I don't know what's wrong this time, but I didn't intentionally piss you off."

His eyes narrowed and he put a little more pressure onto my chest. "I'll have you know—" oh shit, even his voice was intimidating, "—I have extensive experience in choking without causing permanent damage. And better yet, your groans of pain will only turn me on."

I tried to ignore the fact that this guy was kind of sexy.

"Okay, okay, I've peed my pants. You did your job. Can we be done?"

His eyes flashed. "Absolutely not. I know what you did and it pisses me off."

"What did I do?!"

Robert growled and pressed even harder. "You need to leave Jerry McQueen alone. I know you've been texting him non-stop these past few days and it needs to come to an end."

I grimaced. Of course I'd been texting the kid, I needed to make sure he was on the same page about keeping quiet. Which was exactly what I'd told him yesterday, when he'd called me a second time to ask me what I wanted with him.

"Look, I don't care why you're doing this," I began. "If you're his lover, not my problem. If you're into him, also not my problem. I just don't want him to spill the fucking beans, that's all."

Robert blinked. His grip loosened. "Oh? What beans?"

The door to the classroom swung open and Jerry's jaw dropped. "Robert?! Are you fucking kidding me!"

The guy released me in an instant and put his hands behind his back. "I didn't hurt him, I promise! I was...introducing myself."

Jerry growled and breezed past me to confront the other guy. It was actually a little annoying how quickly he dismissed me, considering I'd just been getting brutalized by his handsome older friend.

"I had to do it," Robert boasted. "He needs to be put in his place, so he respects you and treats you with kindness."

"You are ridiculous!" Jerry was screaming, fluttering his hands all over the place in frustration. "I told you not to get involved, you absolute psychopath."

"Absolute psychopath, Sir."

"Ughhh." Jerry turned to me and made shooing motions. "Go! Teach, whatever it is that you do. I have to talk to this load of idiocy and explain to him that he can't just go around punishing normal people like they're his submissives!"

"I treat my submissives much better than I just treated that weasel-looking fool, and you could find that out firsthand," Robert said. I clenched my fists. I knew all about what they were talking about, and it was disgusting to me.

"Leave Jerry alone," I said, trying to sound tough to scare away the douchebag.

The douchebag raised his eyebrows and snorted. "Don't you have a class to teach?"

He was kind of right. Even Jerry was looking at me weirdly, sort of half-startled, and a little confused.

"Whatever." I glared at Jerry. "Come back inside with me or you have an absence for the day."

Jerry smiled, flipped me off, and made a shooing motion. I grimaced and walked away from the fucking love birds.