On his back for a third time, his arms extended, he looked into her shining face. She was perspiring heavily, but proud of her handiwork. He had to admit to himself that Victoria was much stronger and craftier than he could have bargained for. John told himself to remember this moment for the future. She’d have him in a similar position, with her body or her words, and he’d need to remember that she was not a delicate flower. Victoria could handle a little rough and tumble. As unorthodox as it was, this was her version of dropping her mask.

“Have you had enough?” she asked.

Never.

From this position, his only option was to cheat his way out of the arm bar. While his hand was trapped in her grasp, he unclenched his fist and gently squeezed her breast. The gasp that escape from her lips was one of shock. She loosened her grip just enough for him to wrench his arm away and shift his torso from her reach.

Victoria scrambled for her next move as John’s wrestling training kicked in. He flipped over and took her by the back of the neck, forcing her against his chest in a rear naked choke. With his long legs wrapped across her hips, Victoria’s arms flailed outward. She was a trapped turtle on her back with no hope of escape. John took care not to apply pressure to her throat, but his bicep wasn’t going to leave her upper chest. He’d learned his lesson three times already.

“You’re a cheat,” she said. “And dare I say, a deviant.”

“I’m a pragmatist,” John breathed in her ear. “I’m a lot better on the ground than I am on my feet.”

She squirmed in his grasp, testing the weaknesses of his hold, and found nothing. “After two arm bars, I’m glad to see it.”

The pleasant pressure of her ass against his groin wasn’t a normal part of his grappling sessions. He’d rolled around the ground with Chris for years without any underlying eroticism. Now that he had the professor on her back, in a public place, the fear of growing hard was real. “Ready to talk?”

With nowhere to go, she sagged against him. “My boss confronted me about you today.”

“Ahh, I see,” John said through the curtain of her braids. He shook one out of his mouth and took a breath. “What did he say?”

Victoria wiggled her shoulder against his chest, still looking for a way to get out. “He basically accused me of sleeping my way to the top,” she sighed. “I mean he didn’t say it like that, but he suggested that I’d embarrass the department with shoddy work.”

“Victoria Reese doesn’t do shoddy work,” he grunted. “Besides, our relationship is none of his business. The fact that he even brought it up was inappropriate.”

“He’ll try to sabotage me.”