‘Yeah, that’s right, Private Walker, jog on,’ Xander muttered as he watched Ryan skulk off down the corridor. ‘My school, my rules, my fete. Ha!’
The adrenaline generated by the confrontation was still coursing through his veins. He’d fought for something and, it seemed, he’d won. This was not a thing that happened to him very often.
He felt amazing. He felt like he could do anything. He felt…
He jumped up from his desk, grabbed his coat and left the office.
‘Oh, Alexander, have you got two minutes?’ Mrs Rhodes asked as he strode past her desk.
‘Not now, Janet, I’m being manly.’
‘He’s been inhaling Tippex fumes again,’ she muttered as he flung open the door and walked out.
‘Oh,’ he said, sticking his head back round the door. ‘Do me a favour, will you? Get a message to Jeremy Illingworth. Tell him I’ve thought about it and it’s a yes.’
He didn’t slow down as he marched through the village, striding purposefully towards the track that led up to Humblebee Farm.
‘Hi, Xand,’ Stevie Madeleine said, spotting him as she came out of the post office. ‘Are you OK?’
‘Better than OK, Stevie.’ He stopped to give her a peck on the cheek. ‘I’m a man.’
‘Are you going to see Nell?’ she called as he walked off again.
‘You’re goddamn right I am!’
When he reached the farm, the front door was propped open. He marched straight in without knocking.
‘Not now, Colin!’ he called as a resentful baa sailed after him.
In the living room, Nell was in her baggy denim painting dungarees on a stepladder, giving the upper part of the wall a good rollering. She had her hair tied back in a vintage-style red headscarf, making her look like a cute ginger Rosie the Riveter.
‘Hi Xander,’ she said, glancing down at him. ‘Didn’t hear you knock.’
‘Nell, I’m a man. I wanted you to be the first to know.’
‘OK,’ she said, blinking. ‘Well done.’
‘And you, you are a damsel in distress. Now show me to a toolkit and let me loose on that back door lock.’
She laughed. ‘Macho, I like it. But you’re too late, I’ve arranged for a locksmith to come and do it tomorrow. I decided after thinking about the little visit I got last night that I couldn’t afford to trust this one to the amateurs.’
‘Oh.’
‘What’s brought all this being a man business on then, Xand?’
‘Well, I’ve actually been one for a while.’
‘You seem particularly preoccupied with it this afternoon though.’
‘Yeah. Just had a set-to with Ryan Theakston. Kicked his ass.’
Nell frowned. ‘Not literally?’
‘Don’t be daft, I’m not that much of a man.’
‘What happened?’
Xander snorted. ‘He wanted to shut down our Book Day fete.’
‘What? He can’t do that! The kids’d be devastated.’
‘That’s what I told him.’
‘Why does he want to shut it down now?’ Nell asked. ‘There’s less than three weeks to go.’
‘Because Jeremy Illingworth told him he wants to promote me to deputy head and train me up as his successor,’ Xander said. ‘Ryan’s trying to throw a spanner in the works by undermining my authority in front of the staff and parents.’
‘Bastard!’ Nell stopped rollering and looked down at him. ‘Wait. Jeremy wants you to be the next head of Leyholme Primary?’
‘Yep. He’s retiring next year.’
‘That’s fantastic, Xander! You’d be a brilliant headteacher, didn’t I always say so?’
He smiled. ‘Nell, come down here.’
‘What for?’
‘I’ll show you in a minute.’
‘OK.’ She climbed down from her ladder and put the roller back in its tray. ‘This new you’s a bit different, I must say. So what did you say to Ryan then?’
‘Oh, I was very masterful; you’d have been proud. I said I was the head and he had no authority to challenge my decision on this. Then I told him to toddle along home because some of us had a school to run.’
‘Seriously?’
‘Yep.’
She laughed. ‘Bet he didn’t like that.’
‘You’re right, he didn’t. He said they’d only picked me for the role because they thought I’d be good at following orders.’
‘Like Karl Dönitz.’
‘Yeah, I said that too.’
‘Sounds like you two had a proper cock fight in there.’ She squeezed his elbow. ‘You’re right, I am proud of you. Did Ryan actually get his dick out and ask for a comparison at any point?’
‘No, but it was touch and go.’ He smiled. ‘You know, you’ve got a pretty dirty mouth for a Reception teacher.’
She shrugged. ‘I defy your stereotypes.’
He reached out and drew her to him. ‘I like it.’
She looked down at the arms around her. ‘What’s this, Xand?’
‘I told you, I’m being manly.’ He lowered his voice to a whisper. ‘How am I doing?’
‘It’s working for me.’
‘Come on, give us a kiss then. I’ve been waiting long enough.’
Nell smiled, reaching up to stroke his cheek. ‘Xander Scott, what on earth has got into you?’
‘Something that should’ve got into me long before now.’
He put one finger under her chin and brought his lips to hers. She pressed herself against him as they explored each other and Xander knew, as he’d never quite allowed himself to believe before, that this – that he – had always been what she’d wanted.
His hands slid into the small of her back, moulding her hips to his, and he felt her shudder.
‘Go lock the front door,’ he whispered when he drew back from the kiss.
‘What for?’
‘Because I’m going to make love to you pretty thoroughly now and it’ll put me off if Colin’s there watching.’
She tilted her head to give him better access to the neck he’d started nuzzling. ‘Thoroughly?’
‘Very thoroughly.’
‘I like the sound of that.’
Xander pressed her against an unpainted bit of wall and ran his hands over her body, caressing each delicious curve while he planted hot kisses along her collarbone. His fingers whispered over her breasts and up to her shoulders, where they unhooked the eyelets of her dungarees.
He stripped the dungarees off her, leaving her in just a shirt and her knickers, and slid exploring fingertips up the inside of her bare thigh.
Nell moaned slightly, biting her lip.
‘And I thought you were such a nice boy,’ she whispered.
His hand ventured further, parting her legs a little, his thumb playing with the elastic of her underwear. ‘Mmm. Well we know what it makes when we assume, don’t we, class?’
‘You don’t mess about when you’re being manly, do you?’
‘Door. Then bedroom.’
She saluted. ‘Yes Sir.’
Nell lay on the airbed, Xander’s head snuggled into her chest as she traced shapes on his naked back. Her body ached all over in absolutely the best way possible.
She hadn’t been expecting that.
She hadn’t been expecting to have sex today, although by a stroke of luck she had planned to go for a swim after work – postponed due to her lack of scooter – so she’d shaved her legs. She certainly hadn’t expected Xander Scott to turn up on her doorstep, behaving like an exceptionally polite caveman and insisting with the most immaculate manners that she immediately remove all her clothes for a long and satisfying bout of lovemaking. Not after he’d failed to pick up on what had to be the world’s least subtle signals in bed the night before.
And the biggest surprise of all was that sex with Xander had been far and away the best she’d ever had. Twice.
He’d been… incredible. Tender, daring, and surprisingly knowledgeable about how her body would respond to the nuances of his touch. Not that that should surprise her really – she knew he’d been in at least one long-term relationship. Somehow he just hadn’t seemed the type.
Apparently he was the type. Nice boys could surprise you.
But still so sweet – naughty and nice in the most thrilling way, whispering to her all the while he ran his soft fingers and teasing tongue over every inch of bare skin that she was beautiful, how much he appreciated her, being with her, her body. That night, Nell had made the happy discovery that sex was the one area of his life in which Xander was very confident indeed.
She smiled down at him as he slept, brushing the curls of bed-ruffled hair away from his eyes. It was getting long, but it looked good on him. She’d tell him. Maybe he’d keep it long, if she liked it.
She presumed she wasn’t making any kind of ass out of either of them by assuming they were a couple now. That was what she wanted. It was, she was pretty sure, what he wanted.
What that meant for her other plans in Leyholme, she didn’t know. But now hardly seemed the time to worry about that. Anyway, if everything worked out as she hoped – and why shouldn’t it, when it was all going so well? – then she’d be here for a good long time. Forever, that was the idea.
‘Hey,’ Xander whispered, smiling sleepily at her as he woke up.
God but he looked adorable, with his cheeks flushed and his hair falling into his eyes. Glasses suited him, but Nell loved how natural he looked without them. Those eyes…
‘Hey you,’ she said, leaning down to give him a kiss.
‘Sorry, did I fall asleep on you?’
She smiled. ‘I’d say you earned it.’
‘Happy?’ he asked.
‘Very happy.’
‘Satisfied?’
‘Thoroughly.’
He gave her a tight squeeze. ‘Can’t believe you’re mine finally.’ He looked up. ‘I mean, are you? I was sort of assuming, after I went to all the effort of showing you a good time.’
She twisted a curl of his hair around her little finger. ‘I am.’
‘Then I must have done something right.’ He lifted her hand to kiss the tips of her fingers, one by one.
‘You’re a surprising man, Xander Scott,’ she told him.
‘Am I?’ He turned her hand around and started planting soft kisses across the palm.
‘Yes you are. You know, I think you’ve proven me wrong in every assumption I’ve ever made about you. Except when I told you there was someone pretty impressive inside you trying to get out.’
‘So you’re impressed then, are you? I presume we’re talking about my bedroom performance here.’
She laughed. ‘Not sure I should say. I’d hate for you to get a big head.’
‘Too late. My prowess is godlike, that’s what you said. You said it and now you can never take it back.’
‘That’s what I said, is it?’
‘It’s fundamentally what you said.’
He finished kissing her hand and moved on to her arm.
‘You think anyone will notice?’ she asked, relishing the feel of warm, wet lips on her flesh. ‘Us, I mean?’
‘I don’t care what they notice,’ he whispered against her shoulder.
‘Ah. Because you’re a man.’
‘Damn right I am.’
‘Still, love, we’d better be careful,’ she said, running her fingers through his hair. ‘Keep it quiet at school and around the village, just for the time being. You’re on Ryan Theakston’s naughty list already; you don’t want to give him an excuse to make trouble for you.’
He shuffled up to kiss her on the lips. ‘If that’s what you want. Personally, I feel like right now, I could walk straight up to Ryan and spit in his eye.’
‘Lovely. Don’t though.’
‘OK, for you.’ He kissed her again. ‘Right, staff appraisal time. Miss Shackleton, it’s my solemn duty to inform you that you’re unbelievably sexy and drop-dead gorgeous.’
She ran her hands over his naked body. ‘Not so bad yourself, boss.’
‘Come here.’ Xander pulled her into his arms and rolled her on top of him. He started nibbling her ear, his fingertips trailing lazily over her breasts.
She laughed. ‘Mr Scott, it’s my solemn duty to inform you that you’re sexually insatiable.’
‘Lucky for you, right?’
‘It is now I’m your girlfriend.’
He smiled, stopping the foreplay to trace the shape of her face. ‘Not sure I’ll ever get enough of hearing you call yourself that.’
‘Took us long enough to get here, didn’t it? But we made it in the end.’ She leaned forward and claimed his lips for a kiss.