"You're on."

I was momentarily stunned that he had agreed to the bet. Being in such close proximity to his body sure didn't help with the correct functioning of my brain at the moment either. His eyes, still trained on mine in a victorious manner, were what kept me rooted to the spot. It was also that same arrogant stare that brought me to my senses. 

I tore my gaze away and swiftly moved a safe distance away from this man who seemed to think he held all of the cards at that moment.

I arrived at the door that would lead us out into the hall and determine our fate. Before I turned the knob, I glanced over my shoulder at the cocky SOB and my lips found their way to a smirk.

"Ready to lose?" I asked.

He, much to my dismay, smirked right back at me. He walked over to the door and placed his hand on mine that was holding the door knob, his hot flesh meeting mine and causing a jolt of surprise to shoot through my body before he turned the handle. The door effectively swung open and we were greeted by an empty hall, once again reminding me of how late I was.

"Shall we?" He made a grand hand gesture out the door.

"We shall," I said, playing along as I took the lead and made my way out the door with Mr. McCoy close behind.

"You should tell me your name now. I'll eventually find out, you know," he mused with a chuckle.

I brushed the comment off as we walked down the hall. I was far too busy picturing my sister's face when I brought McCoy to the dinner in a few weeks.

I loved her and all and vice versa, but she had always had the wonderfully horrid quality of trying to one up me. Always trying to appear more intelligent, always talking over my success stories at the dinner table to mention something she had done that day, even if she had to conjure up some story in the attempts of being more interesting than me. This also included boys, of course. She always had guys around her. She would even go as far as flirting with my boyfriends at the time, directly in front of me, simply for the fact that my boyfriend was better looking than hers at the time. Real classy, I know. But when I brought home McCoy here for dinner, she wouldn't know what to do with herself. He was multitudes better looking than anyone she or I had ever dated.

I was pulled out of my thoughts when I heard a stifled laugh. I looked over and my steps slightly faltered when I peered directly into two sapphire blue eyes, staring right back at me in amusement.

"What's so funny?" 

"You."

I quirked a questioning eyebrow up at his response.

"You've been quietly laughing to yourself with the most devilish grin I have ever seen a woman wear. You're not envisioning murdering me or something, correct?"

"Maybe, maybe not. Just don't try and embarrass me at my family dinner and you'll never have to find out," I quipped back at him.

"You seem awfully confident that you'll be winning this bet."

"Well, it's pretty obvious that you're not a teacher here. You're far too young." And far too attractive.

"Too attractive? I wasn't aware that there were restrictions on the attractiveness of teachers in this university," he said smugly.

"What? I never said..." Or did I?

Oh crap.

"Did I, per chance, say that last part out loud?" I asked hesitantly.

"Don't worry, I won't tell anyone that you have the hots for me. It'll be our little secret." Mr. McCoy winked at me and I felt my fingers twitch, yearning to curl up into a fist and send it right into his smug face.

We walked in silence for a few hallways lengths. I wasn't particularly up for conversing as I was still brooding over my unfortunate word vomit.

"My classroom is just around this corner," he said, effectively breaking the silence between us that I was quite enjoying. But then a thought struck me. The only classroom around this corner was Mrs. Smiths.

I win!

With that thought, I grabbed his hand tightly, ignoring the shocks that shot up my arm at the contact, and practically dragged him around that final corner. We stopped directly in front of the door that led straight into Mrs. Smith's classroom.

"Is this it?" I asked, barely able to contain my excitement at catching him in his lie so perfectly. The fact that he had chosen one of my professor's classrooms in an attempt to claim as his own, made winning that much better. It also lent to the fact that he was far too incompetent to be a teacher.

He simply nodded with a smile.

I. Was. Gonna. Burst!

"Just for further clarification, this door," I slapped my hand on the frame of the door, just to make the situation more dramatic. "Is the door that leads into your classroom?" I inquired while looking at him expectantly.

McCoy just rolled his eyes and grinned.

"Yep." 

That was all that I needed. I began jumping up and down and fist pumped the air, celebrating my victory.

Next to me, McCoy erupted into laughter, staring at me like I'd lost my mind. Obviously finding humor in my stupidity, but I couldn't care less.

"I'm glad that you take defeat so well! I half expected you to become the Hulk and start smashing things!" I giggled and he feigned a hurt look.

"So should we start going over my family members names?" I asked smugly as I continued to bask in my victory.

"Not so fast, little minx," he tutted.

"Not so fast? I won! This is my teacher's classroom, Mrs. Smith! I'm sorry but if you're going to lie about something of this sort you really should do your research," I said whilst patting his shoulder.

"Rookie mistake." I pouted up at him in mock sympathy.

His eyes wandered to my protruded lip and lingered there for a moment, something I couldn't decipher flickered through them but it was gone before I could question it.

He was going to say something, his mouth opening when the door swung open with a loud creak. Unfortunately, as I was standing right in front of it, I was knocked right off my feet straight into McCoy's broad chest. His arms acted on instinct and wrapped themselves around my waist to steady me. My hands planted themselves on his hard pecks and gripped the fabric underneath to help get my balance back.

I froze.

I felt my heartbeat quicken and I was almost positive he could hear the loud thrumming. I stared straight ahead, not daring to look up into those eyes that I knew would be staring right back at me, preventing me from any fluid or rational thought. His crisp, white, shirt had two buttons undone at the top; just enough so that I could see a small portion of his tanned skin. God, it looked so incredibly inviting.

Without even thinking about it, I slid my hand slowly up to that exposed skin. I brought my finger up to brush across the slight raise of his collar bone.

So soft...

Suddenly, the grip on my waist tightened and I couldn't help to suppress the soft gasp that escaped through my lips. My eyes shot up to his blue ones and I regretted it instantly. McCoy was looking down at me with an intensity that toyed with every hormone held in my body.

My mind was screaming at me to go find the nearest closet and drag this man in and have my wicked way with him. Yet, before my thoughts could go any further, there was a cough.

Oh, shit! I'd completely forgotten that the reason I was in this compromising position with this guy was due to someone opening the door, practically throwing me into him.

Both of our heads whipped around to find Mrs. Smith standing there with a handful of files in her arms and a very confused look upon her face.

We sprung apart rapidly, embarrassed to be caught.

And then she did the strangest thing.

"Oh, there you are Nathan!" She bounced gleefully, her full size belly coming into view as she handed him all of the files that were occupying her hands. Mrs. Smith slumped her body into the door frame.

"I've been waiting for you for almost ten minutes now! A pregnant woman can only wait so long before she starts to pace and the doctor said I shouldn't be on my feet for more than two hours a day with the baby being so close. And you already made me waste ten whole minutes of that time! That is precious time, Nathan!" She ranted to a red-faced Nathan.

Mrs. Smith was normally a very sweet woman but this pregnancy hadn't been easy on her and she could go a little off her rocker every now and again.

"I truly am sorry, Mrs. Smith. I was simply talking to this student here. She needed help with a couple questions she had," he replied politely.

Mrs. Smith glanced at me, slightly calming down in the process.

"This one here will definitely be a challenge for you on your first day here. She certainly was a handful when I first got her in my class." She playfully nudged me.

"Hey, I wasn't that bad! Even so, now you love me!" I smiled back at her and placed my head on her shoulder.

Then it hit me.

My head shot up off of Mrs. Smith's shoulder, and spun around to face her, eyes wide as a chipmunk.

"Did you just say his first day? As in his first day as a teacher?" I asked, petrified of her answer.

Mrs. Smith nodded at me, and then turned her eyes to Mr. McCoy with a sort of proud look.

"Yes! Mr. McCoy here will be taking over my class while I'm on Maternity leave for the next eight weeks," she said, not looking too pleased with that last part.

"Mr. McCoy has proven to be the best candidate for the job and I feel confident that you will benefit from his teachings just as much as you would from mine," she chirped.

"But, but..." I stuttered, utterly horrified by the turn of events.

I felt Mr. McCoy's stare on the side of my face, beckoning me to turn so he could silently mock me.

Well, I simply wouldn't allow that.

I gathered up whatever ounce of dignity I had left, gave Mrs. Smith a hug, and prayed that this baby would come soon.

"Take care of yourself, Smith! I can't wait to see that little adorable baby of yours when he's born," I said with all of the energy that I could muster up at that moment, which wasn't a lot.

"Who knows? Maybe everything will go great and you can come back early!" I encouraged, trying to convey to her with my eyes just how badly I wanted that to happen.

Mrs. Smith waved her hand in front of her dismissively.

"Oh please, I bet Mr. McCoy will be a much cooler teacher than me and you'll try and push me out of the door when I finally do return!" She laughed at her own joke.

Yeah, I highly doubt that.

"On that note, I'll be taking my leave now," Mrs. Smith said with a somber look. "Goodness, eight weeks' is such a long time! This little guy better be worth it!" she joked and then bid us her goodbyes, leaving myself and Mr. McCoy alone.

I wanted the ground below me to open up and just swallow me whole to save me from the embarrassment that was sure to come.

Out of the corner of my eye, Mr. McCoy stared at me with the smuggest smirk on his face possible. I wished I could say that it didn't matter that I was wrong. I wished I could say that I faced him head on, threw a snarky, yet intelligent comment his way and sauntered into the room. I wished that him being completely off limits now didn't affect me. I wished I could say all of those things.

But I couldn't.

Out of everything I could have done, I chose the coward's way out. I never made eye contact with him, never gave him any parting words. I simply turned on my heel and grabbed the door knob, preparing to run into the classroom and duck behind Ben so I would never have to face Mr. McCoy again.

Yet, just as I cracked the door open, I felt hot breath tickle the hairs on the back of my neck. Oh God. His lips brushed the tip of my ear ever so slightly, leaving me breathless and confused. And just as I thought I was going to combust on the spot, he spoke.

"I win."

And with that he swung the door open and brushed right past me, leaving me standing there with my mouth agape and anger welling up in my hazelnut, brown eyes.

Mr. McCoy strolled up to the front of the classroom, setting the files that Mrs. Smith had given him on the desk in the process.

The entire class became silent at the presence of this intruder.

Mr. McCoy cleared his throat and set his stare on the class before him.

"Hello everyone, my name is Mr. McCoy and I'll be your teacher for the next eight weeks."